Although the innumerable multitude of your kinsmen lends confidence to your fortitude, although you remember that the mighty Attila was brought low by the strength of the Visigoths, nevertheless, because the hearts of fierce peoples grow soft with long peace, beware of suddenly casting upon the hazard of the die those who, it is established, have for so long a time had no exercises of war. Conflict is terrible to men, if it be not constant; and unless it be undertaken by practice, confidence in fighting is not suddenly had. Far be it that blind indignation should snatch anything from you. It is provident moderation that preserves nations: but fury for the most part hurls headlong into pressing danger, and then alone is it useful to rush to arms, when justice cannot find a place with the adversary.
Wherefore hold back, until we ought to direct our legates to the king of the Franks, that the judgments of friends may cut off your dispute. For between two who are joined to us by kinship we do not wish anything such to happen, whereby it might chance that one be found the lesser. The shed blood of kinsmen does not inflame you, no occupied province grievously burns you: as yet it is a small contention about words: you will settle it most easily, if you do not provoke your spirits through arms. Let us set against him, kinsman though he be, together with our confederates, distinguished nations and justice, which makes kings the stronger: quickly does he change his mind who perceives such men armed against him.
And therefore, having first uttered the honor of greeting, we have believed that our legates, such-and-such, ought to be directed to you, who may both sufficiently make known to you our commands, and may hasten, with your consent, even as far as our brother Gundobad and the other kings, lest you should seem to labor through the instigation of those who malignantly rejoice in another's strife. For may the divine powers avert that that iniquity should prevail over you. We judge your common evil to be our enemy. For he will rightly endure me as his adversary, who strives to be against you. It is a grievous evil to see, among dear and royal persons, wills opposed to one another, and by dissembling to look on while from one of them something to be lamented may arise.
It is not carried on without envy of us, if, while we look on patiently, war is waged with the slaughter of kinsmen. You all have, through me, the pledges of great grace: no one is set apart from another: if you offend in anything among yourselves, you sin grievously to my sorrow. It is ours to govern the royal youths by setting reason before them, because they, if they truly perceive that what they wrongly desire displeases us, cannot retain the audacity of their own will. The young men show reverence, although they are fervid with the flower of their age. Let them know that we are adversaries to their oppositions, and wish to pursue this end—that neither side may be allowed to go to excess. For it befits us to speak harsh words, lest our kinsmen should be brought to the uttermost.
And therefore we have believed that such-and-such legates ought to be sent to your fraternity, so that, if it should seem good to our son Alaric, we ought to direct them to the king of the Franks together with the nations confederate with us, in order that the cause which is being disputed between them may be reasonably cut off by intermediary friends. For it befits such and so great kings not to seek lamentable brawls among themselves, so as to be able to wound even us by their misfortunes. Wherefore let your fraternity, with zeal joined to mine, strive to restore their concord: because no one can believe that they have come to these battles without our wish, unless it be made wholly clear that, lest they come to conflict, the contests are rather ours.
Certain things, indeed, we have entrusted to be intimated to you in speech by the bearers of the present letters, so that your prudence may compose all things in such a way as it has been accustomed, with God's help, to accomplish, on which it is wont most diligently to deliberate. The assent of the general body ought to pursue pride, ever hateful to the Godhead. For he who wishes to overthrow a noted nation by voluntary iniquity does not purpose to keep what is just toward others. It is a most wicked custom to despise the truth. He believes that all things yield to him, if it chance that, puffed up, he should prevail in an abominable contest.
And therefore you, whom conscious valor exalts and consideration of a detestable presumption inflames, send your legates together with mine and those of our brother King Gundobad to Lludwin (Clovis), king of the Franks, so that either he may, with equity considered, refrain from conflict with the Visigoths and seek the laws of nations, or else he may suffer the assault of all who judge that the arbitration of so great kings is to be scorned. What more does he seek, to whom absolute justice is offered? I shall say plainly what I feel: he who wishes to act without law purposes to shatter the realms of all. But better let the pernicious assumption be checked at its beginnings, so that what might have been the struggle of single persons may be accomplished, without labor, by all.
Call to mind, indeed, the affection of the elder Euric, with how many gifts he often aided you, how often he held off from you the impending wars of neighboring nations. Render to his son the thanks which you nevertheless acknowledge to have been bestowed for your own advantages. For if anything should prevail against so great a kingdom, he will without doubt presume to attack you. Wherefore, greeting your excellency with an epistolary discourse, we have entrusted, through our legates such-and-such, the bearers of the present letters, certain things to be told to you by word, so that you, who follow our arrangement with God's help, may be embraced by one assent, and may do this abroad, lest you should be able to fight within your own provinces.
Therefore the divine powers willed that among kings the rights of kinship should grow together, so that through their placable spirit the longed-for repose of peoples might come about. For this is a sacred thing, which is suffered to be violated by no disturbance. For by what hostages should faith be held, if it be not trusted to affections? Lords are united by nearness, so that divided nations ought to glory in like will, and, as it were through certain channels of concord, the united desires of the nations might be able to join themselves together. Since these things are so, we marvel that your minds are thus stirred up by middling causes, so that you should wish to undergo a most hard conflict with our son King Alaric, so that many who fear you may rejoice at your contention. You are both kings of the greatest nations, both flourishing in age.
You do not lightly shake your kingdoms, if, liberty being granted to the parties, you contend. Let not your valor become an unforeseen calamity to your fatherland, because it is a great cause for envy that, in light causes, there should be a grave ruin of peoples through kings. I shall speak freely, I shall speak affectionately what I feel: it is an impatient disposition to set arms in motion at once at the first embassy. What is sought from kinsmen, let it be sought with chosen judges. For among such men it is agreeable even to them to make concessions, whom you shall have wished to make intermediaries. What can you yourselves estimate concerning us, if you learn that we have abandoned your interests? Far be that conflict, where one of you can grieve, brought low. Cast away the sword, you who wish to fight to my reproach.
By the right of a father and of one who loves, I admonish you. He will find us and our friends opposed to him, who shall have believed—what we do not suppose—that such warnings are to be scorned. Wherefore we have believed that such-and-such, our legates, ought greatly to be directed to your excellency, through whom also we have sent our writings to your brother, our son King Alaric, so that no foreign malignity may sow discords among you: but, persevering in peace, you ought to bring to a placable end, through intermediary friends, the things that are in dispute. Through them also we command certain things to be told to you by word, so that the nations which have flourished under your fathers in long peace ought not to be laid waste by a sudden shock.
For you ought to believe him whom you know to smile upon your advantages, since he who wishes to send another into headlong falls, it is certain, does not faithfully warn him. If either nobility alone adorned you, or you were strong only in the praise of merits, perhaps we should weigh out the dignities to be conferred with a probable delay, lest great things grow cheap, when all were poured forth at once. But now, since all things attend you in serried array, and there is lacking to one man no quality that is proclaimed in many, it befits our justice that, when you have brought forth copious goods, princely munificence should most richly repay you. For there is not for you that order of advancement which belongs to many:
to be advanced little by little is proved to be of middling virtue, while what is prepared under gentleness is recognized too tardily. By a certain leap your prosperity extends itself, and from you perfection alone is sought, since many things are born along with you. For the dignities of your line have been wrought out over long ages, which have set their household gods, as it were in a most well-known dwelling, within your family. For, to pass over the ancient ages—which seemed abundantly to bring forth distinguished men—you shine conspicuous with the twin glory of father and uncle: who not only furnished an ornament to their own family, but bestowed honor on the senate itself: in modern times they were adorned with ancient morals: endowed with goodness, glorious in constancy, prone to friendship, slow to take up hatreds.
Thus—what is the greatest kind of felicity—when many powers were proved to be theirs, it befell them not to have the envy of those who persecute. Nay rather, around them hung the anxious prayers of the city, public love growing beyond that for private men. The senate followed their spirit, the throng followed their purpose: and it was necessary that Rome should will what all seemed to desire; and, by a marvelous outcome of prosperity, the wandering will of the peoples kept a firm judgment around them—which, among the other dignities, we judge to be the most excellent gift. For if the love of a few is now justly glory, what acclaim can the affection of so great a city possess? Accordingly, just as all unwelcome things seem obscure, so things generally beloved are illustrious.
Adorned, therefore, with the praise of so many forebears, and yourself conspicuous with the light of your character, take up, after the consular fasces honorably discharged, the insignia of the patriciate, the full reward of your dignities, and gird your matured locks with the fillets of hoary honor—you who by the praise of your merits have surpassed the prejudgments of age. For why should rewards come tardily to him for whom so many examples of his line cast their votes? Indeed in you is chosen the praise of birth, the glory of living: and though you draw much from the ancients, you have deserved to please by your own qualities. For from the very beginning of life, which among the herds of flatterers is wont to be rare, you have striven to display fidelity to noble virtues.
And therefore make firm the footprint of your purpose, so that you who in early youth obtained glory may, in your flourishing years, be increased with glorious honors. Look, in fine, with how great and special a praise of your forebears you are adorned. It is a kind of fault not to have done what is highest. For from your maturity much better things ought indeed to come, you whom in tender age we have known to do things worthy of proclaiming. For we are confident that neither the institution of your line nor our judgment concerning you can err. It is pleasing to us indeed, conscript fathers, to lead new persons to the heights of honors. It delights us to insert men of foreign stock into the bosom of Liberty, so that the hall of the senate may grow leafy with varied virtues.
For such a multitude adorns the assembly and renders the public face joyful by its honored throng. But it is proved much more acceptable to us, as often as we restore to dignities those who are born of the very brightness of the curia, because our scrutinies are not anxious about you, while you transmit pre-judged goods, you who bestow merits together with light. The very origin is already glory: praise is born together with nobility. The beginning of dignity is for you the same as that of life. For the most ample honor of the senate is begotten along with you, to which scarcely by mature years is one able to arrive.
Although we judge these things truly concerning you all, so that the grace of the senators may embrace the spirit of the order, yet most of all does the blood of the Decii irradiate the luminaries of our serenity, which for so many continuous years shines with a like splendor of virtue: and although glory be rare, it is not recognized as varied in so long a lineage. To its own ages the noble vein produces foremost men: it knows not that anything mediocre is born thence: as many approved as begotten, and—what comes about with difficulty—a choice multitude. Behold, from one seed there springs a fourfold honor: the honor of the citizens, the glory of the line, the increase of the senate; who, although they shine by the sharing of merits, you will nevertheless find one whom you can praise for his own.
Look, surely, upon the young man, more pleasing through the grace of his form, by the beauty of his mind. His face reflects the glory of his blood, the nature of his soul is betrayed through his countenance, and by the serenity of his body he wipes away even the clouds of the mind. But these goods of nature he has adorned with the insignia of letters, so that, polished on the whetstone of the great arts, he might shine the more in the inmost recesses of the mind. In the books of the ancients he came to know the ancient Decii, and a noble progeny living by the benefit of a glorious death. Most happy indeed is the labor of studies, to whom it has fallen to learn the song of the ancients through his parents, and to school the first beginnings of his tender breast in ancestral praise. It pleases me to relate with how great a spectacle the gaze of the whole school was then turned upon him:
As though she were listening to a parent, she soon, seeking an heir, fixed her attention, so that what she had known her ancestor to say she might confirm through his very likenesses. For just as an unworthy posterity disowns the praises of an ancient lineage, so a distinguished one confirms the noble sayings handed down from the fathers. All that is read of these men was believed, since the present vein of virtues taught the heraldings of the ancients, while in the workshop of the lecture-hall the flame of talents glowed anew. By such examples indeed was she shaped, but more happily was she advanced by domestic governance. For with the comfort of her husband withdrawn, the glorious mother took up the burden of ruling, whom neither the vast care of the patrimony nor the guardianship of so many sons could disturb.
She nourished them with sustenance, increased them with patrimonies, adorned them with honours; and as many youths as she brought forth for the family, so many men of consular rank she rendered back to the senate. This therefore our discernment, the searcher of characters, has inspected, which seeks out even the good of domestic virtue, so that amid private merits it ought to bestow public ornaments upon the praiseworthy. And therefore, conscript fathers, upon the illustrious and magnificent man Importunus we have granted the summit of the patriciate, so that your assembly, as it sprouts forth by the lot of birth, may likewise be increased by the fasces. Bestow your favour upon his parent, unite your votes: it is your own stock that we approve.
You surely have that for which you may ascribe to yourselves an ingenious praise, if out of love of kinship you make the judgement public, and what is paid out for the affection of nature is reckoned as conferred at our commands. We indeed enjoin all to cherish and observe justice, but most of all those who are raised to divine honours, that they may become near to the grace from above, when they are far removed from earthly cupidity. John therefore has appealed to us with a tearful plea that your holiness received from him sixty jars of oil for the filling of the lamps, the price of which he asks ought to be restored to him. A good vow indeed, provided that nothing adverse be mingled there.
For although it is fitting everywhere that justice be kept, it is most necessary in those things which are offered to the divine sight, lest we think that God is ignorant whence He receives, if He should acquiesce in defrauded offerings. And therefore, if you recognize that the complaint of the suppliant is true, by that regard for justice which you proclaim by the holy law, cause what is owed by right to be restored without delay: so that no one may groan that losses were inflicted upon him through you, whom it rather befits to furnish aid. Wherefore take care that you, who are not wont to transgress in great matters, may not now seem—God forbid—to sin in a small one.
The principle of justice persuades that there be demanded from each man what is established as enjoined upon him, and that public moneys be sought with insistence, lest neglect should burden the debtor. For if remissness creep into the admonitions, contempt must needs envelop all. And in a certain way cruelty is born of pity, if you neglect to admonish anyone, and afterwards are compelled to exact. A useful care therefore it is to give warning beforehand, since thereby both occasion is withdrawn from offences and place is cleansed of unlawful deeds. Wherefore from the suggestion of the illustrious man, the count of the sacred largesses, we have learned that long ago, according to ancient custom, the collection of the two-per-cent and three-per-cent levies was delegated to you.
Wherefore by these present words we admonish you, that according to the trust of the canonical collector you ought to fulfil the appointed terms, lest, whatever loss the public treasury sustain, you be compelled to pay it from your own property—you by whom neither reverence was shown to so great a command nor the faith of your own promise fulfilled. It is indeed of our purpose to construct new things, but more to preserve the old, since we can acquire no less praise from things discovered than from things kept safe. Accordingly we desire to raise up modern works without diminishment of the former: for whatever comes through another's harm is not approved as acceptable to our justice. In your municipality therefore we have learned that columns and stones lie unused, demolished by the envy of antiquity:
And since to preserve things lying about unbecomingly profits nothing, they ought to rise again to a renewed adornment rather than display grief out of the memory of preceding ages. And therefore by the present authority we decree that, if the report of those who suggest this is true and nothing is now found suitable for public adornment, the aforesaid slabs or columns be handed over by all means to be conveyed to the city of Ravenna: so that, the fallen marbles being recast, a face obliterated may again be restored out of a most beautiful art, and the things that had been darkened by neglect may recover the quality of their ancient brilliance.
It befits your prudence to comply with what is appointed for the increase of the royal buildings, since it is the mark of a most noble citizen to consider the enlargements of his fatherland, especially since it is of our zeal to decree those things which all know they may obey without their own loss. And therefore to your magnitude we declare by the present admonition that the marbles which are established to have been deposited from the Pincian house be directed by your ordinance to the city of Ravenna through the carters. We have moreover provided the transport from the present, lest either delay should arise to our ordinances or the labourers should feel any losses. We wish that the whole day may run its course full of our benefits:
We wish that our bestowals may shine forth everywhere, since that lives unto the ages which princely munificence has granted. For what is so kingly as to have made a man fortunate, and to bestow even to that point at which, raised up, he is amazed to have attained? Benefits indeed are the things that exalt kingdoms, and the lord of liberty can continually grow, if he be zealous to enlarge those subject to him. By this glorious purpose of our clemency, since we cherish the whole community with a fatherly affection, through the fourth indiction we bestow upon you the insignia of the urban prefecture with copious liberality, so that an illustrious succession may rejoice in paternal honours, and that under us whatever has deserved to reach our age may be able to advance.
Consider therefore how great a thing it is that hoary Rome could be entrusted to your beginnings, so that in that most ample assembly you may be seen to stand eminent on the judge's tribunal, where it is hard even to obtain membership of the body itself. Strive therefore that you may be able to demand from your own merits what you know we have bestowed. Flee greedy things, follow just ones, love modest ones, despise wrathful ones. What will be sweeter than to have pronounced a noble judgement amid that throng of the highest men, where the hearts of so many patricians are roused to favour, where a good deed is celebrated by the mouth of the wise? Nowhere is virtue exercised with greater praise than if Rome be rightly governed.
What riches would you reckon more fitting than to bear a precious purity of conscience in the eyes of the senate, and to be captive to no vices before the very bosom of Liberty herself? Let us consider with what glory the remaining fasces may be esteemed: the urban prefect is the dignity of dignities. That renown does not suffer one to commit what the noble crowd might come to know. Placed in the midst of all, he draws the gaze of all toward himself, and the fame of peoples proclaims the judgement of his whole life. That you may both conceive these things in mind and unfold them in evident deeds is made credible with us by your studies of letters, where you have learned all that is becoming, and have shaped your mind to the use of a glorious life, doubtless by the instruction of the learned. Let learning therefore flee from offence. It belongs to an untaught mind to be drawn to vices:
a man built up by books leaves no place for wrongdoings, when in tender years there is acquired what may be preserved in mature age. Let the deeds of your elders exhort you to the path of rectitude, let the authority of reading admonish you, and then the glorious choice of our judgement, so that you may be able to take greater things from us, when you shall have known yourself to fulfil those things we have committed to you. We love, conscript fathers, exalted dignities arising from our benignity. For the mind of the ruler is the mother of public splendour, and such as the will of the one who governs shall have been, such a face of liberty does it bring forth. For it is easier, if it be lawful to say so, for nature to err than for a prince to be able to form a commonwealth unlike himself.
Hence it is that we desire you to shine with perpetual honours, since whatever fame speaks of you is applied to our institutions. For since you deserve all lofty things, our envy is touched if perchance anything be lacking to you. Accordingly—and may it be sanctioned under happy auspices—we promote the illustrious Argolicus to the dignity of the urban prefecture, so that both he may be increased by the fasces and the ornament of so great a judge may by no means be withdrawn from you. For you know that from this family eminent men have often shone forth. Recall that the grandfather of the man advanced was enriched with the honour of the magisterial office, whose harmless eloquence the courts admired. Indeed he strove, although he abounded in eloquence, knowing that a man skilled in speaking ought to be conspicuous for purity.
Led by these merits to the heights of honours, he protected the sacred largesses with faithful guardianship, fulfilling also by his learning the magisterial dignity which he had undertaken, so praised in both that in each he was believed to be foremost. There is added moreover the most noble father of the one advanced, who profaned the insignia of the count of private affairs with the bitterness of no calumny, who, aiming at the advantages of fame, neglected the increase of money, and—a rare example of virtue—practised self-restraint in those times in which avarice was held no crime. For the purpose of the prince makes judges either to neglect or to love virtues. Sending before us therefore so many proofs of his origin, let us believe good things of the nobly-born:
since a praiseworthy vein preserves its origin and faithfully transmits to posterity what it has earned in itself by a glorious transmission. Favour therefore, conscript fathers, one consecrated to your own dignities, so that you may incite to greater longings for virtues those whom we summon forth by the examples of our gifts. The long services of your labours and the many proofs of your tried fidelity hand to us this judgement: that you, who have governed your own spirits, may now be set before the characters of others and may furnish discipline to a province—you who as a private man loved self-restraint. For he is able to govern others well who has striven to handle himself with decorum.
Moved therefore by the supplication of the Samnites, we have believed that we might come to the aid of those in distress by this remedy, if we should order your worship to set out for the ending of their disputes. Whence now exert yourself, that you may answer so good a judgement with praiseworthy conduct, and show yourself apt for our mandates, you who hitherto have been pleasing of your own accord. Within the province of Samnium therefore, if any business has arisen between a Roman and the Goths, or any matter has emerged of a Goth with Romans, you shall settle it by the consideration of the laws, nor do we permit those to live under a divided law whom we wish to protect with one regard. You shall therefore decide in common those things which are friendly to justice, since he who ponders pure equity knows not how to regard persons.
Although we believe that all crimes are displeasing to your judgement, we are most confident that there ought to be execrated by you that which assails the affection of conjugal wedlock. For with what feelings is that received by the continent which is condemned even by the detestation of the laity? Julianus therefore has complained to us by a lamentable petition that his wife and his property were seized by an unjust usurpation by your men. Whence if you recognize the petition of the suppliant to be true, and he who is challenged does not reasonably acquit himself, cut down the author of the deed without any delay. For an evil, when it persists, is increased, and a remedial good is a correction hastened against sin. Indeed it is our own injury when justice is harmed, since we rightly draw to ourselves the violations of those things which we love.
Whence we especially do not suffer that to go unavenged which is established to have been committed in contempt of our command. For what presumption would not dare a deed deserving punishment, if it should despise the reverence of a sacred command? And therefore him whom we lately decreed should appear at the judgement of the illustrious man Sona, and who withdrew himself by inveterate cunning, we commit to your examination to be heard, that you may put an end to a dispute prolonged by punishable contrivance. Furnish therefore care for the hearing, that the reputation of justice may grow for you, since for the remedy of litigants the ambiguities of disputes are committed to you. Firm is the judgement whose precedent is held, nor is place left for ambiguity where probable proofs lend support.
We have tested your efficacy through diverse degrees of industry, but in each alike you have merited equal favour, being approved equally in your various functions. Hence it is that at the present time our authority sends you as vicar of the prefects to the Gauls, made subject to us by God's help. Whence weigh what kind of judgements we seem to hold concerning you, when you are sent to those peoples to be corrected, whom we believe to have been specially acquired by our praises. Glory is dear to a prince, and it is necessary that he be the more solicitous concerning those from whom he perceives the increase of his triumphs to have come. Act therefore upon our mandates, if you desire that our judgements may prosper in you. Love not turbulent things: