XII. KING THEODERIC TO EUGENITUS, A MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK AND MASTER OF OFFICES.
[1] The judgment of a king is the crowning glory of merits, because we know not how to bestow these things except upon the deserving. And although, by God's favor, everything we will lies within our power, we nonetheless take the measure of our will from reason -- so that we may be reckoned to have chosen what all men must approve as worthy. [2] Hence it is that we formerly elevated you, who were laudably pursuing the studies of literary learning, to the eminence of the quaestorship, so that the dignity of letters might become the reward of your honest labor. For what is more honorable than the office of advocacy, if purely discharged -- which draws another's business into its own troubles in order to relieve the burdens of strangers? In that arena, trained by the course of your merits, you arrived at the palm of our judgment. [3] Nor was our benevolence content with a single reward: it doubles the honor, procures advancement, and renews its gifts with such zeal as if it owed everything it bestows. Take then the insignia of the dignity of the Mastership, and enjoy all the privileges that your predecessors are known to have held. Therefore rejoice in so weighty a judgment, you who for the labor of one honor have merited receiving another. For what we thought of the first reward, we declare by the increase of a second dignity. Offices have been born from offices, and, retaining the nature of an arboreal growth, they have sprouted again beautifully from what was cut. [4] But let this reward not sate you with contentment, nor let the praise our judgment has discovered grant a holiday to your labors. Let integrity rather become more desirable when it arrives at its reward, and let it then become more pleasing to have endured anxious toils when you perceive that you have found their fruit. The honors, then, that you receive from official letters -- repay them from your merits. You know well what manner of service pleases us, you who come from the innermost chambers of our counsel. You remember how often in our presence the innocent have been praised, how often we have requited upright deeds. Our judgments were spoken through your mouth: let such examples spur you on. Be a temple of integrity, a shrine of temperance, an altar of justice. Let nothing profane touch judicial minds. Let a pious prince be served as under a kind of priesthood.
XII. EUGENITI V. I. MAGISTRO OFFICIORUM THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Pompa meritorum est regale iudicium, quia nescimus ista nisi dignis impendere. et quamquam potestati nostrae deo favente subiaceat omne quod volumus, voluntatem tamen nostram de ratione metimur, ut illud magis aestimemur elegisse, quod cunctos dignum est approbare. [2] Hinc est quod te litterati dogmatis studia laudabiliter exsequentem pridem ad quaesturae culmen elegimus, ut honesti laboris tui fieret praemium dignitas litterarum. quid enim advocationis officio, si pure impendatur, ornatius, quod peregrinum negotium ad suas molestias trahit, ut laboribus subveniat alienis? in hoc campo exercitatus cursu meritorum ad palmam nostri iudicii pervenisti. [3] Nec tamen benignitas nostra una remuneratione contenta honorem geminat, augmenta procurat et eo studio dona reparat, quasi debeat omne quod praestat. sume igitur magisteriae infulas dignitatis, usurus omnibus privilegiis quae tuos habuisse constiterit decessores. atque ideo tanto iudicio laetare suscepto, qui pro labore honoris tui honorem alterum accipere meruisti. quid enim de priore senserimus praemio, secundae dignitatis declaramus augmento. nati sunt fasces ex fascibus et naturam retinentes fetus arborei pullulaverunt iterum decenter abscisi. [4] Verum te haec remuneratio satietate non expleat nec det laboribus tuis ferias nostri laus inventa iudicii. desiderabilior quin immo sit honestas, cum pervenit ad praemium, et tunc fiat gratius labores anxios fuisse perpessum, cum te fructum eorum intellegis invenisse. honores ergo quos sumis ex chartis, redde de meritis. nosti bene, quo nobis studio placeatur, qui ab ipsius consilii penetralibus venis. meministi, quotiens apud nos laudati sint innocentes, quotiens bonis actibus reddidimus vicem. ore tuo iudicia nostra loquebamur: exemplis talibus incitare. esto innocentiae templum, temperantiae sacrum, ara iustitiae. absit a iudiciariis mentibus aliquid profanum. pio principi sub quodam sacerdotio serviatur.
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XII. KING THEODERIC TO EUGENITUS, A MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK AND MASTER OF OFFICES.
[1] The judgment of a king is the crowning glory of merits, because we know not how to bestow these things except upon the deserving. And although, by God's favor, everything we will lies within our power, we nonetheless take the measure of our will from reason -- so that we may be reckoned to have chosen what all men must approve as worthy. [2] Hence it is that we formerly elevated you, who were laudably pursuing the studies of literary learning, to the eminence of the quaestorship, so that the dignity of letters might become the reward of your honest labor. For what is more honorable than the office of advocacy, if purely discharged -- which draws another's business into its own troubles in order to relieve the burdens of strangers? In that arena, trained by the course of your merits, you arrived at the palm of our judgment. [3] Nor was our benevolence content with a single reward: it doubles the honor, procures advancement, and renews its gifts with such zeal as if it owed everything it bestows. Take then the insignia of the dignity of the Mastership, and enjoy all the privileges that your predecessors are known to have held. Therefore rejoice in so weighty a judgment, you who for the labor of one honor have merited receiving another. For what we thought of the first reward, we declare by the increase of a second dignity. Offices have been born from offices, and, retaining the nature of an arboreal growth, they have sprouted again beautifully from what was cut. [4] But let this reward not sate you with contentment, nor let the praise our judgment has discovered grant a holiday to your labors. Let integrity rather become more desirable when it arrives at its reward, and let it then become more pleasing to have endured anxious toils when you perceive that you have found their fruit. The honors, then, that you receive from official letters -- repay them from your merits. You know well what manner of service pleases us, you who come from the innermost chambers of our counsel. You remember how often in our presence the innocent have been praised, how often we have requited upright deeds. Our judgments were spoken through your mouth: let such examples spur you on. Be a temple of integrity, a shrine of temperance, an altar of justice. Let nothing profane touch judicial minds. Let a pious prince be served as under a kind of priesthood.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.