Letter 10032: Most merciful Emperor, how deeply I desire the sweetness of your favor can be understood from this alone: that after...

32. KING WITIGIS TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. [1] How great, most merciful Emperor, is the longed-for sweetness of your favor to us may be understood entirely from this: that after so many most grievous injuries and after such a shedding of blood has been carried out, we are seen to seek your peace as though none of your people were thought to have injured us beforehand. We have endured such things as can offend even those very men who did them: persecutions without any charge, hatred without any fault, losses without any debts. And lest it could be neglected on account of its smallness, it is proved to have been inflicted not in the provinces only, but upon the very head of affairs itself. Consider what griefs we cast aside, that we may be able to find your justice. Such a matter has come about as the world may speak of: one that so deserves to be settled by you, that the whole world ought to admire your equity. [2] For if vengeance for King Theodahad is sought, I deserve to be esteemed; if the commendation of Queen Amalasuintha of divine memory is held before the eyes, her daughter ought to be considered, whom the effort of you all ought fittingly to have led to the kingship, so that all nations might have been able to recognize that you had rendered a return of favor to so great a pledge of affection. [3] For this too ought to have moved you, that by a wonderful arrangement, before the heights of kingship, divinity made us have knowledge of one another mutually, so that it might grant a cause for love to those upon whom the sight of one another had conferred favor. For with what reverence was I able to honor a prince [emperor] whom, still placed in that former fortune, I looked up to? But even now you can restore again all the things that have been done, since it is not difficult to retain in affection one who is known to seek favor with longing. [4] And therefore, saluting your clemency with fitting honor, we make known that we have dispatched as our envoys such-and-such a man and such-and-such a man to the wisdom of your serenity, so that you may consider all things after your manner, to the end that both commonwealths may persevere in restored concord, and that what was established in the times of former princes with praiseworthy reputation may, under your rule rather, be increased by divine aids. The rest, indeed, we have committed to be conveyed to your serenity by word through the aforesaid envoys, so that some brevity of the letter might compress it, and that, in setting forth our causes, they might more fully make them known.

XXXII. IUSTINIANO IMPERATORI VVITIGIS REX. [1] Quanta sit nobis, clementissime imperator, gratiae vestrae votiva suavitas, hinc omnino datur intellegi, ut post tot gravissimas laesiones et tanta effusione sanguinis perpetrata sic videamur pacem vestram quaerere, tamquam nos nemo vestrorum putetur ante laesisse. pertulimus talia, qualia et ipsos possunt offendere qui fecerunt, insecutiones sine reatu, odium sine culpa, damna sine debitis. et ne pro parvitate sui neglegi potuisset, non in provinciis tantum, sed in ipso rerum capite probatur inflictum. aestimate, quos dolores abicimus, ut vestram iustitiam reperire possimus. talis res effecta est, quam mundus loquatur: quae sic a vobis meretur componi, ut aequitatem vestram generalitas debeat ammirari. [2] Nam si vindicta regis Theodahadi quaeritur, mereor diligi: si commendatio divae memoriae Amalasuinthae reginae prae oculis habetur, eius debet filia cogitari, quam nisus vestrorum omnium perducere decuisset ad regnum, ut cunctae gentes potuissent agnoscere vicissitudinem vos gratiae tanto pignori reddidisse. [3] Illud etenim vos debuit permovere, quod distributione mirabili ante regni fastigia invicem vos divinitas nostram fecit habere notitiam, ut amoris causam tribueret, quibus aspectus gratiam contulisset. quali enim reverentia principem colere potui, quem adhuc in illa positus fortuna suspexi? sed potestis et nunc omnia redintegrare quae facta sunt, quando non est difficile illum in affectum retinere, qui gratiam constat desideranter expetere. [4] Et ideo salutantes clementiam vestram honorificentia competenti indicamus nos legatos nostros illum atque illum ad serenitatis vestrae sapientiam destinasse, ut omnia more vestro cogitetis, quatinus utraeque res publicae restaurata concordia perseverent et quod temporibus retro principum laudabili opinione fundatum est, sub vestro magis imperio divinis auxiliis augeatur. reliqua vero per legatos praedictos serenitati vestrae verbo insinuanda commisimus, ut et aliqua epistularis brevitas perstringeret et causas nostras suggerentes plenius intimarent.