Letter 11018: The welcome ceremony of promotions should be embraced, for it releases those who have earned their rest through long...
Cassiodorus→Unknown|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
barbarian invasion
From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: [Announcement]
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: A brief formal document retiring a long-serving official — a rare glimpse of routine bureaucratic ceremony in Ostrogothic Italy.
The welcome ceremony of promotions should be embraced, for it releases those who have earned their rest through long service — and in doing so, it grants new recruits the hope of future reward, since the cycle of advancement is renewed when veterans receive their due. Therefore, let Anthianus — who is reported to have served blamelessly in the praetorian administration — proceed among the tribunes and notaries to pay reverence before the royal presence, so that, having been formally presented in the customary manner, he may be adorned with the insignia of the rank of spectabilis [a high honorific rank].
XVIII.
DE CORNICULARIO QUI EGREDITUR.
[1] Amplectenda est promotionum grata sollemnitas, quae bene meritorum solvit excubias, quia tironibus conceditur spes laboris, dum vicissitudo fuerit reddita veteranis. et ideo Anthianum, qui praetorianis inculpabiliter paruisse perhibetur obsequiis, inter tribunos et notarios ad adorandos aspectus properet principales, ut iuxta consuetudinem praesentatus spectabilitatis decoretur insignibus.
◆
From:Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To:[Announcement]
Date:~533-537 AD
Context:A brief formal document retiring a long-serving official — a rare glimpse of routine bureaucratic ceremony in Ostrogothic Italy.
The welcome ceremony of promotions should be embraced, for it releases those who have earned their rest through long service — and in doing so, it grants new recruits the hope of future reward, since the cycle of advancement is renewed when veterans receive their due. Therefore, let Anthianus — who is reported to have served blamelessly in the praetorian administration — proceed among the tribunes and notaries to pay reverence before the royal presence, so that, having been formally presented in the customary manner, he may be adorned with the insignia of the rank of spectabilis [a high honorific rank].
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.