From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: Beatus, Chancellor [a provincial financial official]
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: Cassiodorus orders travel provisions for a sick servant sent to the healing mountain of Lactarius — and writes a lyrical medical digression on the therapeutic powers of its milk.
When our sovereign lords' clemency turned its thoughts to the health of their servant Danus — for it is their desire to rejoice in everyone's wellbeing — they ordered him to seek the remedies of Mount Lactarius [near modern Gragnano, south of Vesuvius], so that where human medicine had failed, the place's celebrated healing properties might help. Wracked by constant coughing, his chest heaving, his body wasting away — the natural functions of his body, debilitated by the violent shaking, can no longer work toward his recovery. The food provided for the sustenance of the human body becomes useless when it cannot be properly digested. For such patients, it makes no difference whether they eat or fast. Day by day the living substance dwindles, spent like a leaky barrel slowly draining until it is empty.
Against this most savage affliction, divine providence has granted the blessing of that mountain. There, the healthfulness of the air, combined with the fertility of the rich soil, produces grasses seasoned with the sweetest qualities. The herds of cows fattened on this pasture produce milk of such healing power that what the prescriptions of countless doctors cannot accomplish, that one drink alone seems to provide — restoring to its proper order the force of nature that illness had dissolved. It fills wasted limbs, rebuilds exhausted strength, and with a kind of restorative nourishment aids the sick just as sleep aids those fatigued by labor.
It is remarkable to see these cattle appear gaunt despite such abundant pasture — as though that milky fluid gives nothing back to the animals that produce it, even while it demonstrably restores damaged human bodies. By a strange reversal, the herbs do not benefit the animals, yet from them human limbs grow strong. The cows run lean through the mountain thickets, looking thin and almost suffering from the very condition they cure. But the milk is so rich it clings to your fingers when squeezed into vessels.
For this reason, provide the prescribed rations and necessary transport for the traveler, so that at the aforementioned place, healthfully fed on this pastoral elixir, his youth may be restored by the same nourishment that sustains infancy. Take heart, all of you who suffer from this affliction: no longer will you recoil from life-giving treatment because of a bitter antidote. Drink with pleasure what you will find most health-giving. It is a form of happiness to be cured by something that a willing patient can actually enjoy.
X.
BEATO V. C. CANCELLARIO SENATOR PPO.
[1] Cum rerum domini clementia de famuli sui Dani salute cogitaret, cuius votum est de cunctorum sospitate laetari, remedia Lactarii montis eum iussit expetere, ut cui medella humana nil profuit, vulgatum loci beneficium subveniret: qui crebra tussi retonans anhelo pectore membra tenuavit, dum ministeria naturae nimia concussione debilitata virtutes suas explicare nequeunt ad salutem. escas enim in auxilium humani corporis contributas, dum apte non transigit, reddit inutiles. nec interest talibus an sumere cibum an sustinere ieiunium. in dies singulos substantia viva deficit et velut rimosum dolium paulatim defluens donec evacuetur, expenditur. [2] Huic igitur ferocissimae passioni beneficium montis illius divina tribuerunt, ubi aeris salubritas cum pinguis arvi fecunditate consentiens herbas producit dulcissima qualitate conditas, quarum pastu vaccarum turba saginata lac tanta salubritate conficit, ut quibus medicorum tot consilia nesciunt prodesse, solus videatur potus ille praestare, reddens pristino ordini resolutam passionibus vim naturae. replet membra vacuata, vires effetas instaurat et fomento quodam reparabili aegris ita subvenit quemadmodum somnus labore fatigatis. [3] Haec itaque armenta in tam abundanti pabulo exhausta videre miraculum est, ut umor ille lacteus non praestet origini suae, qui corpora mortalium probatur laesa reficere, miroque modo herbis animalia non proficiunt, unde hominum membra pinguescunt. exiles per dumeta discurrunt montium, tenues videntur et instar eius cui medentur sustinent passionis. lac autem tam pingue, ut haereat digitis, cum exprimatur in vasis. [4] Qua de re anonas deputatas subvectionemque necessariam praebete venienti, ut in supra dicto loco armentali suco salubriter pastus eodem alimento reparetur eius iuventus, quo nutritur infantia. consurgite, animi tali passione laborantium: iam non amaro antidoto horrebitis dulcissimam vitam. voluptuose bibite quae saluberrima sentiatis. felicitatis genus est inde curari, unde libens animo aeger possit expleri.
Context:Cassiodorus orders travel provisions for a sick servant sent to the healing mountain of Lactarius — and writes a lyrical medical digression on the therapeutic powers of its milk.
When our sovereign lords' clemency turned its thoughts to the health of their servant Danus — for it is their desire to rejoice in everyone's wellbeing — they ordered him to seek the remedies of Mount Lactarius [near modern Gragnano, south of Vesuvius], so that where human medicine had failed, the place's celebrated healing properties might help. Wracked by constant coughing, his chest heaving, his body wasting away — the natural functions of his body, debilitated by the violent shaking, can no longer work toward his recovery. The food provided for the sustenance of the human body becomes useless when it cannot be properly digested. For such patients, it makes no difference whether they eat or fast. Day by day the living substance dwindles, spent like a leaky barrel slowly draining until it is empty.
Against this most savage affliction, divine providence has granted the blessing of that mountain. There, the healthfulness of the air, combined with the fertility of the rich soil, produces grasses seasoned with the sweetest qualities. The herds of cows fattened on this pasture produce milk of such healing power that what the prescriptions of countless doctors cannot accomplish, that one drink alone seems to provide — restoring to its proper order the force of nature that illness had dissolved. It fills wasted limbs, rebuilds exhausted strength, and with a kind of restorative nourishment aids the sick just as sleep aids those fatigued by labor.
It is remarkable to see these cattle appear gaunt despite such abundant pasture — as though that milky fluid gives nothing back to the animals that produce it, even while it demonstrably restores damaged human bodies. By a strange reversal, the herbs do not benefit the animals, yet from them human limbs grow strong. The cows run lean through the mountain thickets, looking thin and almost suffering from the very condition they cure. But the milk is so rich it clings to your fingers when squeezed into vessels.
For this reason, provide the prescribed rations and necessary transport for the traveler, so that at the aforementioned place, healthfully fed on this pastoral elixir, his youth may be restored by the same nourishment that sustains infancy. Take heart, all of you who suffer from this affliction: no longer will you recoil from life-giving treatment because of a bitter antidote. Drink with pleasure what you will find most health-giving. It is a form of happiness to be cured by something that a willing patient can actually enjoy.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.