Cassiodorus→Senate of City of Rome|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
friendship
VARIAE, BOOK 10, LETTER 13
From: King Theodahad, writing through Cassiodorus
To: The Senate of the City of Rome
Date: ~534-536 AD
Context: Theodahad addresses Roman anxieties about his new reign, urging the Senate to lead by example and stop the city's restless populace from causing trouble through baseless suspicions.
[1] After we dismissed the venerable bishops from their embassy and did not oppose your petitions — even though some were open to criticism — certain people came to us and reported that the city of Rome is still troubled by pointless anxiety, and is acting in ways that, unless our forbearance intervened, would create real dangers from mere suspicions. Consider, then, to whom the foolish restlessness of the populace should be attributed if not to your order, by whom everything ought to have been properly settled.
[2] Through your wisdom, the provinces everywhere should have been advised to adopt conduct that would adorn the beginning of a new reign. But what city can be excused if Rome offends? A lesser community runs to the example of the greater, and the city that sets the precedent for sin rightly bears the blame for everyone else's. But we give thanks to God, who has adorned His gifts all the more through your missteps.
[3] We forgive your faults before we have even felt your devotion. We owe nothing, yet we pay. We are beneficent first, so that afterward we may find you truly grateful. But while we wish our restraint to be acknowledged, we do not want only our own praise — we want the goodwill of Roman devotion to be displayed as well. We take more nourishment from your good reputation than from any praise of our own tranquility.
[4] Remove suspicions that have always been foreign to your order. It does not befit the Senate to be corrected — it should be the one correcting others through paternal encouragement. For from where will morals draw their character, if the public parents are found wanting?
[5] These words should suffice for the noble and the modest, so that we may spur to perfect devotion those we have gently rebuked for misplaced suspicion. When we requested your presence, we were not planning to inflict the injury of harassment, but considering with deep thought what was truly in your interest — so that you should have done willingly what we knew would benefit you.
[6] Return, then, to your former devotion. Let my cares, which I bear for the common good, be aided by your wisdom. It has always been your custom to offer your rulers the gift of pure loyalty — to obey not from the compulsion of fear, but from love of your sovereign.
XIII.
SENATUI URBIS ROMAE THEODAHADUS REX.
[1] Postquam venerabiles viros episcopos agnita legatione remisimus nec petitionibus vestris, quamvis essent quaedam reprehensibilia, noster animus obviasset, venientes ad nos aliqui retulerunt civitatem Romanam adhuc inepta sollicitudine laborare et id agere, ut, nisi nostrae mansuetudinis interesset, pericula sibi potius certa ex dubiis suspicionibus concitaret. unde aestimate, cui debeat populorum inanis levitas imputari nisi vestro ordini, a quo decuerant cuncta componi. [2] Per vestram siquidem sapientiam ammoneri provincias oportuit universas, ut talia probarentur assumere, quae principis primordia viderentur ornare. verum quae civitas non fiat excusabilis, si Roma deliquerit? res minor ad potioris currit exemplum et alieni facti iure invidiam sustinet, quae peccatis praestat exemplum. sed gratias divinitati referimus, quae dona sua vestris potius ornavit excessibus. [3] Ecce prius culpas ignoscimus quam devotiones aliquas sentiamus. nil debemus et solvimus: ante benefici sumus, ut postea gratissimos invenire possimus. sed licet in hac parte nostrae modestiae gravitas asseratur, nolumus tamen nos tantum praedicari, nisi ut et devotionis Romanae benignitas possit ostendi. plus enim vestra opinione pascimur, quam si de nostra semper tranquillitate laudemur. [4] Amovete suspiciones ab ordine vestro semper extraneas. non decet senatum corrigi, qui debet alios paterna exhortatione moderari. nam ex quibus habebunt genium mores, si parentes publicos minores contigerit inveniri? sufficiunt haec nobilibus, sufficiunt ista verecundis, ut ad studium perfectae devotionis incitemus quos paululum de prava suspicione culpavimus. nos enim quod praesentiam vestram expetivimus, non vexationis iniuriam, sed utilitatis vestrae causas profunda cogitatione tractavimus, ut illud magis debuissetis efficere, quod vobis cognovimus expedire. [5] Certe munus est videre principem. hoc a vobis pro rei publicae utilitate volumus fieri, quod praemiis solebat optari. sed ne ipsa remedia in aliqua parte viderentur austera, cum res poposcerit aliquos ad nos praecipimus evocari, ut nec Roma suis civibus enudetur et nostra consilia viris prudentibus adiuventur. [6] Redite ergo in pristinam devotionem, et sollicitudines meae, quas pro generalitate sustineo, vestro potius adiuventur ingenio, quia hoc vobis semper insitum fuit principibus vestris votum puritatis offerre nec parere necessitate terroris, sed potius amore dominantis. reliqua per harum portitorem illum verbo dicenda commisimus, ut summotis cogitationibus ambiguis nostris ammonitionibus credere debeatis.
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VARIAE, BOOK 10, LETTER 13
From: King Theodahad, writing through Cassiodorus To: The Senate of the City of Rome Date: ~534-536 AD Context: Theodahad addresses Roman anxieties about his new reign, urging the Senate to lead by example and stop the city's restless populace from causing trouble through baseless suspicions.
[1] After we dismissed the venerable bishops from their embassy and did not oppose your petitions — even though some were open to criticism — certain people came to us and reported that the city of Rome is still troubled by pointless anxiety, and is acting in ways that, unless our forbearance intervened, would create real dangers from mere suspicions. Consider, then, to whom the foolish restlessness of the populace should be attributed if not to your order, by whom everything ought to have been properly settled.
[2] Through your wisdom, the provinces everywhere should have been advised to adopt conduct that would adorn the beginning of a new reign. But what city can be excused if Rome offends? A lesser community runs to the example of the greater, and the city that sets the precedent for sin rightly bears the blame for everyone else's. But we give thanks to God, who has adorned His gifts all the more through your missteps.
[3] We forgive your faults before we have even felt your devotion. We owe nothing, yet we pay. We are beneficent first, so that afterward we may find you truly grateful. But while we wish our restraint to be acknowledged, we do not want only our own praise — we want the goodwill of Roman devotion to be displayed as well. We take more nourishment from your good reputation than from any praise of our own tranquility.
[4] Remove suspicions that have always been foreign to your order. It does not befit the Senate to be corrected — it should be the one correcting others through paternal encouragement. For from where will morals draw their character, if the public parents are found wanting?
[5] These words should suffice for the noble and the modest, so that we may spur to perfect devotion those we have gently rebuked for misplaced suspicion. When we requested your presence, we were not planning to inflict the injury of harassment, but considering with deep thought what was truly in your interest — so that you should have done willingly what we knew would benefit you.
[6] Return, then, to your former devotion. Let my cares, which I bear for the common good, be aided by your wisdom. It has always been your custom to offer your rulers the gift of pure loyalty — to obey not from the compulsion of fear, but from love of your sovereign.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.