Variae & Works 3 part 1/3

The solemn custom admonishes us to give a name to the calendar—Rome's own adornment, the earthly glory of the curia—so that through the number of the years the grace of dignities may run its course, and the memory of the ages may be consecrated by the benefits of princes. Let the happy year take its auspice from a consul, and let the time, dedicated by such a name, enter the gate of days, and let the fortune of the beginning favour the remaining part. For what can be believed more desirable to you than that Rome should gather her own nurslings back to her breasts, and number a Gallic senate in the assembly of a venerable name? The curia recognizes the glory of Transalpine blood, which more than once has clothed her crown with the flower of its nobility. She has known how to take consular men thence among the rest of the fasces.

He who, by a long lineage drawn through the robes of office, is by the law of the times a native-born heir of honours. For who would not know that Felix is of good natural disposition, who from his first auspices made known his merit from this, that he was seen to hasten toward the homeland of the virtues? Prosperity has followed a good judgement: he grew in advancements together with liberty; nor did we suffer him to be left inglorious, who has deserved to attain to the honour of the commonwealth. Plainly worthy of our bounties, who in the very flower of boyhood reined in his slippery age with mature morals, and—what is a rare good of self-restraint—being deprived of a father, became the son of gravity: he subjugated cupidity, the enemy of wisdom, despised the blandishments of vices, trod underfoot the vanities of pride.

Thus, having overcome excesses, he was seen to give a consulship of morals beforehand. We, however, who are bound by good institutions, whom proven probity conciliates, have granted the curule insignia to the candidate, that we may be able to provoke the desires of virtues by gifts: since zeal does not fail for that thing which has the more generous reward. And therefore you who can be delighted by the goods of both commonwealths with undivided favour, join your favour, unite your judgement: by the judgement of both he is worthy to be chosen, who deserves to be exalted with such great fasces. We love to double our benefits, nor does bounty once bestowed bring disdain, and they the more provoke us to frequent reward who have deserved to receive the beginnings of our grace.

For to new men judgement is accorded, but favour is exhibited to those approved. For it is becoming that a prince's decisions should not waver, since former gifts are commended by later ones, and every sentence is made undoubted by repetition. Long ago we granted you a degree of honours; now we concede the summit of dignities: that we may both seem to have deservedly conferred the former, and that our benignity may be esteemed to keep constancy in what follows. For we do not suffer those to be left inglorious who are extolled by the glory of their lineage. Nay rather let the grace of honours run through the parents; under the rule of a good prince let the fortune of all advance. For who would despair of increase, where there is a gift in love and a purpose to bestow?

You retain the proofs of this clemency that you have approved, when, the fortune of your native soil being abandoned, you returned as it were by a kind of right of return into your ancient homeland. Our affection received you, filled you with benefits, enriched you, and made it your prayer that you had sought our rule. For thus it befitted him to grow, who was seen to have chosen the better things. For fortune is changed with masters: and in the praise of one who reigns, that profits which a subject acquires. But you have shown yourself equal to this indulgence. For, enriched with illustrious honour, you bore yourself with such maturity that you suffered your light years to be under a burden—you whom in your first age the strongest force of nature could not conquer.

For enriched with your paternal substance, which always exalts new heirs, you preserved your riches, though you had come to them apart from the pursuits of labour. For that is wont easily to slip away which could be found without difficulties. You increased your patrimony by the diligence of your liveliness. For what greater sign of good management could be sought, where a consulship is the witness? In so great a substance you have deserved that to which men scarcely attain with their patrimonies overturned. Private thrift nourished public liberalities. You have surpassed your father's glory by laudable disposition: and what he could not undertake, you accomplished out of his resources. None but great confidence seeks the lofty chariots, since it is the mark of a generous mind to desire what is highest.

Confidence in oneself makes men daring, since it does not suffer him to be hidden whom nature bids to come forth. Through you the consulship has returned to the Transalpine family, and you have renewed the withered laurels with green shoots. Behold the sacred city made candidate by your prayers. Direct, then, your steps toward the heights of praises, that you may surpass in virtue your forebears, whom you restore in honour. Take, therefore, by the fourth indiction the insignia of the consulship, and prove yourself worthy of the desires of so many by your present liberality. This indeed is the place where lavishness deserves acclamation, and it is a kind of virtue not to love one's own substance, where as much of reputation is acquired as is taken away from resources.

Behold yourself flitting above the shoulders and lips of all, and show yourself such that you may be esteemed worthy of your lineage, worthy of the city, worthy of our judgement, worthy of the robes. Rejoice, conscript fathers, that the stipends of dignities have returned to you; rejoice that provinces long disused are paying you consular men, and from such an auspice promise yourselves greater things. Beginnings are wont to portend better things, since those things begin from small ones which in what follows exalt themselves with great admiration. The noble lineage lay prostrate under the Gallic suspension of justice, and, deprived of its honours, wandered as an exile in its own homeland. At length divine power has lifted the oppressed: it has received them at Rome with glory, and they have gathered the ancient laurels of their ancestors from the honoured grove of the curia.

For who could deny a gift to a lineage of which you hold, as it were, a deposit in its citadel? For it is in the mouth of rumour that the consulship of Felix of old still lives: since good things know how to endure after a man, and what is gloriously performed is not held by the end of time. And, that we may pass over his ancient stock, satiated with the abundance of the old, there is still before the eyes of all the most noble father of the candidate, who so shone forth in the curia with the torches of prudence that he was deservedly held illustrious among so many lights of dignities. Dedicated indeed to the studies of letters, he devoted his whole life to the most learned disciplines. Having attained eloquence not, as they say, with the first lips, he satiated himself from the whole Aonian fountain.

A vehement disputant in books, a charming declaimer in tales, a fresh sower of words, he had altogether equalled in merits the authors whom he had read again and again. He commended also the goods of his studies by the marks of his benignity: knowing that ignorance is the more puffed up by the breeze of pride, which is exposed to light gusts, since it is not held by the roots of virtues. He was a certain Cato of our times, who by abstaining from vices might form others by examples. Having also most subtly searched out the causes of natural things, he saturated himself with the Attic honey of the Cecropian doctrine. Plainly worthy knowledge, in which a most honourable mind may find rest, which ever embraces something salutary for the soul:

To him nothing unwelcome can befall, since he alone commends to himself all worldly things, and over him slippery fortune holds no command. As for the rest concerning him, it is enough that you remember it, since there is no leisure for busy men to set forth the merits of so great a man. Now turn your gaze upon the candidate, that in him you may recognize the trace of his father's praises, and that the father may be judged to have handed down not so much the likeness of his body as the marks of his virtue. For he has lived among you, as you know, not after the fashion of a foreigner, but with Roman gravity.

For from his very earliest years, while still admitted to honours, he—which is the surest token of unblemished probity—in his boyhood ever joined himself in emulous gravity to the most glorious men, so that after the examples of domestic virtue he might draw constancy from public authority. And although he pursued the goodwill of all with no partial choice—for from among the great one can rarely be chosen—yet he adorned himself with affection for the patrician Paulinus, that thence he might give a sign of his admirable judgement, in that he was seen to hasten toward an outstanding man. For a longed-for friendship with one's betters confers distinction, which the fellowship of good morals knows how to instil, since with concordant affection one strives to make him whom he loves an equal to himself.

To this man, therefore, conscript fathers, shining with his ancestral goods together with his own merits, bestow the splendour of your favour. He comes not unworthy to the insignia of the curials, who descends from a noble stock. For Rome has often chosen her fasces from the walls of Gaul, lest she either despise what is excellent to her own loss, or proven virtue should lie idle without honour. Let the noble curia therefore be filled with the goods of the provincials, to whom belongs whatever seems to be most excellent. The year itself, the father of the seasons, composes itself in a fourfold diversity, nor would it stir desire if it did not possess the grace of novelty. Favour, therefore, conscript fathers, your own increase by our judgement. For if the candidate is honoured, what he merits already profits you.

We delight in the discoveries of antiquity and gladly embrace the following of established rules, since no room is left for fraudulent encroachments whenever things reasonably ordained are observed. And therefore, the tenor of your supplications having been learned, by the present authority we determine that whatever pertained by our command to Antiochus, who held the titles of the siliquaticum and the monopoly, shall be transferred to you by like reasoning, you being protected by the present authority against the snares of all calumniators, with equity preserved; you shall also have the support of the saio, which our authority has solemnly assigned to you for vindicating the aforesaid titles—yet in such wise that your office of defence be in no way mingled with private affairs.

For what we have given as a support, let it in no way be felt as contrary to justice, since reasonably another's fault concerns you, if he whom you ask to be benefited should perceive that through you another has been harmed. Since our humanity seems to seek out an occasion for munificence, and at times out of love of clemency bestows its desires upon persons less in need, how much more does it delight to spend upon the advantage of the commonwealth, where whatever is granted, the giver's own advantage is doubled!

Wherefore we command your illustrious magnificence by the present authority to furnish without any hesitation the rations to the sixty soldiers continually stationed in the Augustan defiles, just as they have been decreed for others also, so that the advantage of the commonwealth may be fulfilled with a grateful spirit—the commonwealth which is aided by the conveniences of profits. For it is fitting to think of the soldier's dealings, who is known to sweat in the frontier places for the general peace, and who is proved, as if from a certain gate of the province, to shut out the inroads of the heathen. He will ever be ready for battle who strives to keep off the barbarians, since fear alone restrains those whom a promise given does not hold back.

The counsel of our deliberation requires the service of prudent men, that the design of the public advantage may be fulfilled by the ministry of the wise. And therefore let your illustrious greatness know, with God's help, that we have resolved to send an embassy to the East: judging you fit for it, we summon you by the present command, so that both your distinction may grow from our esteem, and the effect of our commands may be procured through you.

But though every embassy requires a wise man, to whom is committed the advantage of the provinces and the welfare of the whole realm to be defended, now nevertheless it is necessary to choose the most prudent, who can dispute against the most subtle and so act in the assembly of the learned that so many erudite minds cannot overcome the cause undertaken. It is a great art to speak against craftsmen and to accomplish something among those who think they foresee all things. Rejoice, then, in so great a judgement, since you receive the gift of election before you could have proved your own genius. It is not fitting that what can grow to the adornment of the state should lie unused, since to despise things destined to profit belongs not to wisdom.

And therefore let your illustrious sublimity have the squared marble blocks, which lie everywhere ruined and neglected, and to which this work seems to be enjoined, assigned to the building of the walls, so that the ancient construction may return to public adornment and the fallen stones may grace something after their ruin: yet in such wise that it be shown to you by manifest reasoning that these very stones have collapsed from public places, since just as we do not wish the adornment of the city to be violated by anyone's presumption, so we detest that calumny be inflicted for private gains. Who is better chosen for the laws of equity than he who is adorned with the priesthood, who out of love of justice knows not to judge from personal motives, and who, caring for all in common, leaves no place to envy?

Accordingly, considering an action suited to your merits, we signify that we have, through Montanarius, destined to your sanctity one thousand five hundred solidi, which you shall distribute to the provincials—an estimate of the injury having been made—according as you shall learn that each has suffered loss in this present year by the passage of our army, so that no one whom his damages have burdened may be left a stranger to our munificence. For we do not wish to bestow in confusion what ought to be distributed with reason: lest what we are known to have necessarily sent to the afflicted be granted superfluously to the unharmed. Our humanity knows how to be swayed by prayers, yet for the sake of affection of piety it cannot fail to keep the bounds of justice.

For it belongs to a kindly prince to overstep the bounds of equity for the sake of clemency's advantage: since mercy alone is that to which all the virtues honourably do not refuse to yield. Some time ago, indeed, having weighed his merits, we had made for Sabinus the charioteer one solidus monthly: but now, though an actor, he has moved us by an honourable supplication, asserting that one who stands as a minister of public gladness ought not to be weighed down by the most wretched beggary. And therefore by the present command we decree that the aforesaid driver of horses receive another solidus per month, which is to be charged to the public accounts.

For we rejoice as often as the pages of expenditures are laden with such items, since it is a great advantage to us whenever we bestow somewhat upon the poor in whatever manner of life. It is a royal purpose to come to the aid of those burdened by injury, so that the chastisement of the wicked may make justice the more loved. Nor can it be dissembled, the common life by which we live being kept safe, that the reverend society of the marriage-bed should have public solicitors, and that the procreative sacrament of the human race be profaned by criminal rashness.

Moved therefore by the supplication of Agapita, a woman of distinction, who asserts that her chamber was assailed by all manner of men, so that they even promised to bring about the death of her husband—by whom they rather justly deserve to be destroyed—we decree by the present command that, from the time when she, corrupted in mind, abandoned the conjugal bond, every contract (which, by the error of her levity, cannot be firm) being annulled by reason of the laws, whatever shall be found to be possessed by those withholding it shall without any delay be restored, nor shall the criminals, to the mockery of justice, be able to claim the profits of their frauds. For it is too absurd that those whom punishment has merited to consume should also be able to claim gains for themselves.

Among the other burdens of the human race, conjugal affection has claimed for itself a special care: and not without reason, since it deserves to be held in honour, from which the restoration of posterity is acquired. Every crime pursues only its authors: the mother's error passes to her children, and by a new mischance of misfortune another's wickedness becomes one's own disgrace. For this reason the laws, whether divine or public, command that the bond of marriage be guarded with such great caution, so that it is a great crime of conscience not to hold another's affections in reverence. For Basilius, a man of distinction, has by petitions given intimated that Agapita his wife was led away from his own household by certain men through the vice of solicitation, while that female sex lies open to the vices of mutability:

which he confirmed also by the petition presented to us of his aforesaid wife: adding that she, when she had fled into the precincts of the most holy church, without her husband's knowledge and setting reason aside, conferred the farmstead of Arcinatum upon your greatness. Whence now, coming to her senses, she bewails the most grievous destitution she has brought upon herself, condemning her own deed, in that, like a poor woman to a rich man, a wanton to a chaste, a foolish to a prudent man, she gave a gift. Now cast off the gains which seem not to commend an honourable person, since it rather befits you to acquire that which can also increase your good fame. Wherefore we had earlier given precepts on this matter, and now by a repeated command we reiterate, that you restore the above-written property without any hesitation.

For the alienation of property requires that one have sound judgement, and certainly she who has dealt in these matters is shown to have lost firm counsel. For what upright thing could she do, who, with no faults existing, left her husband? If foreign commerce serves our desires, if by gold brought forth external devotion is acquired, how much more ought Italy to abound in its own goods, since it is proved to feel no losses in obeying? And therefore we by no means command that any portion of bacon be transported to foreign parts, but that, by favourable divinity, it be reserved for our own uses, lest what is produced in our regions should, by harmful negligence, seem to be lacking.

Beware therefore lest, however small, an occasion be given to faults, knowing that the gravest peril will arise if you should endeavour, even lightly, to transgress in matters commanded. The sin lies in the quality, not in the quantity: for indeed injury does not seek a measure. Authority, if it is despised in a small thing, is violated in every part. We are moved indeed by zeal for piety at the complaint of suppliants, but most of all by that which is concerned with the losses of the innocent, so that those who had no gains in the exacting should undergo a grievous loss in the repaying. And it is manifest that this does not befit the justice of our times, that the slighting of one should burden another, and that there should be guilt for the harmless arising from the contempts of others.

For Ulpianus has in a tearful petition suggested that, in the time of his administration, a public debtor, at the demand of Venantius, bound himself by the chain of suretyship for four hundred solidi. When the demander, despising his pledge through the presumption of savage rustics, failed to fulfil it, the aforesaid sum of solidi burdened the suppliant. And therefore the aforesaid Venantius, whom the ill-will of many crimes frequently assails, known only by constant complaints, we decree to be summoned in the present matter, so that, being lawfully convicted, he may without any delay of tergiversation fulfil what he is suggested to have promised, since audacity is always better cured when pressed by the weight of the laws, and, while fear is imposed upon such men, licence for sinning is not afforded.

Who could accuse the rest, if the names of piety are proved to be cruel? A light guilt is neglected when the tragedy of a great crime has thundered, nor does anyone strive to avenge what is small, if the gravest offences are seen to escape. The very reason of his profession shows him a savage enemy: an angry colleague you may often find: but humanity does not permit a disobedient son to escape his punishment. Where is that force of nature, which by the embrace of union is destined for posterity? The cubs of wild beasts follow their parents: the shoots do not differ from their own turf: the offspring of the vine serves its own origin: and does man disagree with his own beginning from which he sprang? What shall we say of those benefits which can bind even a stranger?

They are nourished from their infancy, for them men labour, for them riches are sought: and although each one believes that what he possesses abounds to himself, while it is still sought from the fathers, the sin is rather committed on behalf of the other generation. Alas the grief! Shall we not deserve the affection of those for whom we refuse not to undergo death? Mary herself, stirred by savage tempests, does not shun a parent's care, so that by foreign wares she may acquire what she may leave to her own offspring. The very birds, whose life is ever in seeking food, do not stain their nature with foreign filth. The stork, the perpetual herald of the returning year, casting out the sadness of winter, ushering in the gladness of springtime, hands down a great example of piety.

For when their parents have loosened their feathers as old age consumes them, and they cannot be found fit to seek their own food, the young, warming the cold limbs of their begetters with their own plumage, refresh the weary bodies with food: and until the aged bird returns to its former vigour, the young repay with a dutiful exchange what as nestlings they received from their parents. And therefore not undeservedly are they preserved with long life, who do not abandon the offices of piety. The partridges too have the custom of repairing their lost eggs by the loss of another mother, so that by the adoption of another's offspring they may repair the misfortunes of their own bereavement: but as soon as the chicks have begun to have confidence in walking, they go out to the fields with their nurse:

who, as soon as they have been admonished by their mother's voice, rather seek out the mother of their own eggs, although they are reared by other furtive broods. What then ought men to do, when they recognize that this piety exists even in birds? Bring therefore Romulus, who, polluted by the bitterness of his deed, defiles the Roman name, to your judgement: and if it shall be established that he laid hands upon his own father Martinus, let him forthwith feel lawful vengeance: for we have chosen your customs for this reason, because you cannot spare the cruel, since it is a kind of piety to be severe against those who are taught to have mingled themselves in criminal deeds against the order of nature.

It is the rule of our providence to consider future merits in tender age, and to judge the success of the offspring from the virtues of the parents: since those goods are certain which draw their assurance from the beginning, while the origin knows not to fail which is wont to sprout from the root. The vital vein of springs is borne along too in a perennial course, and all flowing things sustain this condition, that the savour which has been granted to the source, unless perchance it be vitiated by accidents, knows not to be denied to its streamlets. Hence it is that, esteeming you by the merits of your magnificent father, we advance you to the honour of the vacant count of the domestics, so that you who are illustrious in lineage may shine in dignity. For who would not hold in you things that, though future, are yet certain, while he recalls the dutiful labours of your glorious father?

He, kindled by the reasoning of prudence, was so attentive to sudden emergencies, as if he were thought to be prepared through delay. For the prefecture, the noblest burden of all cares, which even alone it would have been praiseworthy to discharge, he ordered together with the joined care of our army, so that neither did ordinance fail the provinces nor did provident solicitude withdraw itself from the army. His indefatigable and ready prudence overcame all: he drew the barbarian customs to peace: he moderated all things according to our wish, so that he satisfied those receiving in such a way that the givers found no occasion for complaints. But that few things may suffice out of many, he proved so much concerning himself that his unexamined posterity was chosen.

Among these ornaments of lineage, however, which is the greatest glory of the fairest nobility, you do not lack the support of your own merits either. For the studies of letters, which are worthy of their own suffrage among all honours, you pursue as a diligent investigator, adding to the brightness of lineage the genius of sweet eloquence. Apply yourself therefore to such studies, love those things which you know are rewarded in you, so that you may direct our judgements also along with your advancements. For you demand as much from us as you know yourself to press toward by good deeds. It is our zeal, conscript fathers, to confer reward upon right purpose, and to kindle men of good character toward better institutions by the fruit of bestowed benignity.

For the examples of rewards nourish virtues, nor is there anyone who does not strive to ascend to the heights of morals, when that is not left unrewarded which is praised with conscience as witness. Hence it is that we have advanced the illustrious Venantius, shining both by his own and his paternal merits, to the dignity of the vacant count of the domestics, so that the implanted splendour of his birth might be rendered more adorned by the honours conferred. For you remember, conscript fathers, that the patrician Liberius was praiseworthy even in our adversity, who obeyed Odovacar with the most upright services in such a way that he was afterward most worthy of our affection, though he had seemed to do many things as an enemy against us.

For he did not come over to us in the most base condition of a deserter, nor did he feign hatred of his own lord in order to procure for himself another's affection: as a man of integrity he awaited the divine judgements, nor did he suffer himself to seek a king, unless he had first lost his ruler. Whence it came about that we gladly gave him a reward, because he had faithfully aided our enemy. He, by the patronage of contrary fortune, was rendered as acceptable to us as he could then be known to be undevoted. With his lord now almost overthrown, he was bent by no terrors: he steadfastly endured the ruin of his prince: nor could the novelty disturb him, which even heathen ferocity dreaded.

He prudently followed the common turns of fortune, so that, while he steadfastly endured the divine judgements, he might find human favour the more commended. We have proved the man's fidelity: sad, he crossed over to our jurisdiction, who, being overcome, converted his mind, but did not bring it about that he should be conquered. To whom, as soon as we granted the dignity of the praetorian prefecture, he so administered the great trust committed to him with such integrity that anyone might marvel that one was so simply devoted whom he had known to have been so cunningly an adversary. He therefore, with indefatigable care—which is the most difficult kind of virtue—is seen, under the grace of generality, to have procured public profits, extending the revenue not by adding but by conserving, while he well collected, by providing industry, those things which had been wont to be ill-scattered.