KING THEODERIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME
[1] Rejoice, Conscript Fathers, that the salaries of dignities have returned to you; rejoice that provinces long unaccustomed to it are now paying consular men to your honor, and from such an auspice promise yourselves still greater things. Beginnings customarily portend better things when they start from modest foundations and go on to raise themselves to greatness through what follows, commanding admiration. [2] A noble lineage lay suppressed under the Gallic moratorium and, deprived of its honors, wandered as a stranger in its own homeland. At last divine power lifted the oppressed: they were received back into Rome with glory and gathered the ancient laurels of their ancestors from the honored grove of the Curia. For who could deny a gift to a family whose merit you hold deposited, as it were, in your citadel? It is on the lips of common report that the consulship of the elder Felix is still alive: because good things know how to outlast the man, and what is carried out in glory is not held by the limits of time. [3] But to pass over, satisfied by the wealth of earlier examples, this man's ancient lineage — his most noble father is still before the eyes of all, who so illuminated the Curia with the torches of his wisdom that he was deservedly numbered among so many lights of dignity. Wholly dedicated to literary studies, he consecrated a full lifetime to the most learned of disciplines. He did not, as the saying goes, merely wet his lips with eloquence but drank his fill from the whole fountain of the Muses. [4] A vigorous debater in books, a charming speaker in conversation, a fresh coiner of words, he had fully equaled in merit the very authors he had read. He commended the goods of his learning also through the marks of his generosity, knowing that inexperience is more often puffed up by the breeze of pride — which is exposed to every light gust of wind because it is not held by the roots of virtue. He was a Cato of our own times, who by abstaining from vice formed others by his example. He also investigated the causes of natural phenomena with the utmost subtlety and fed himself on Cecropian doctrine with Attic honey. A discipline truly worthy for a most upright mind to rest in — one which always embraces something wholesome for the soul, to which nothing unwelcome can happen, since it alone commends all things to itself and is not subject to slippery fortune. The rest of it suffices for you to remember, since there is no leisure, busy as we are, for unfolding the virtues of so great a man. [5] Now turn your gaze to the candidate, that you may recognize in him the footprint of his father's praises, and judge that his father has transmitted to him not merely the image of his body but also the marks of his virtue. He has lived among you, as you know, not in the foreign manner but with Roman gravity. Added to the honors of his family from his earliest beginnings, he in his boyhood — which is the surest sign of true worth — associated himself always with the most glorious men in an emulous gravity, so that he might take from public authority the constancy that he had received from domestic virtue by example. And though he had sought the goodwill of all without distinction, since it is rare to have a special relationship with the great, yet he adorned himself with the friendship of the Patrician Paulinus, giving in this a sign of a remarkable conscience — that he was seen to hasten toward a man of the first distinction. [6] For the friendship of those who are greater, which a fellowship of good character knows how to infuse, confers distinction, since it endeavors in harmonious affection to make its object equal to itself. To this man, therefore, Conscript Fathers, who shines with his ancestral goods combined with his own merits...
III. SENATUI URBIS ROMAE THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Gaudete, patres conscripti, redisse vobis stipendia dignitatum: gaudete provincias longa aetate desuetas viros vobis pendere consulares et de tali auspicio maiora promittite. solent initia portendere meliora, dum a parvis inchoant, quae in sequentibus magna se ammiratione sublimant. [2] Iacebat nobilis origo sub Gallicano iustitio et honoribus suis privata peregrinabatur in patria. tandem pressos divina levaverunt: Romam recepere cum gloria et avorum antiquas laurus ab honorata curiae silva legerunt. nam quis possit negare generi munus, cuius habetis velut in arce depositum? in ore quippe rumoris est quondam Felicis adhuc vivere consulatum: quia bona norunt durare post hominem et quod gloriose geritur, fine temporis non tenetur. [3] Cuius ut antiquam prosapiem, satiati veterum copia, transeamus, est adhuc in oculis omnium candidati nobilissimus pater, qui prudentiae facibus ita praeluxit in curia, ut haberetur merito clarus inter tot lumina dignitatum. litterarum quippe studiis dedicatus perpetuam doctissimis disciplinis mancipavit aetatem. non primis, ut aiunt, labris eloquentiam consecutus toto Aonii se fonte satiavit. [4] Vehemens disputator in libris, amoenus declamator in fabulis, verborem novellus sator aequiperaverat prorsus meritis quos lectitarat auctoros. commendavit etiam studiorum bona per benignitatis insignia: sciens imperitiam magis inflari aura superbiae, quae levibus flabris exponitur, quia virtutum radicibus non tenetur. fuit quidam nostrorum temporum Cato, qui abstinendo vitiis alios formaret exemplis. rerum quoque naturalium causas subtilissime perscrutatus Cecropii dogmatis Attico se melle saginavit. digna plane scientia, in qua mens honestissima conquiescat, quae animo semper aliquid salutare complectitur: cui accidere nulla possunt ingrata, dum sibi commendat omnia mundanarum rerum sola, cui labilis fortuna non imperat. cetera de illo meminisse vos sufficit, quando bona explicare tanti viri non vacat occupatis. [5] Nunc ad candidatum ora convertite, ut paternarum laudum in hunc recognoscatis esse vestigium, nec tantum pater imaginem dedisse corporis quam signa iudicetur transfudisse virtutis. vixit enim inter vos, ut scitis, non consuetudine peregrina, sed gravitate Romana. ab ipsis quippe primordiis honoribus aggregatus pueritiam suam, quod est certissimae probitatis indicium, gloriosissimis viris aemula semper gravitate sociavit, ut post domesticae virtutis exempla sumeret de publica auctoritate constantiam. et quamquam omnium gratiam indiscreta fuerit electione sectatus quia de magnis raro eligi potest, tamen patricii Paulini se ornavit affectu, ut hinc daret mirabilis conscientiae signum, quod ad virum visus est festinare praecipuum. [6] Praestat enim decus amicitia desiderata potiorum, quam societas bonorum morum callet infundere, dum affectione concordi parem sibi studet esse quem diligit. huic igitur, patres conscripti, avitis bonis cum suis meritis relucenti vestrae gratiae praestate fulgorem. non impar ad curialium insignia venit, qui de speciosa stirpe descendit. [7] Legit enim frequenter Roma fasces de moenibus Gallicanis, ne aut in damno suo praecipua contemneret aut probata virtus inhonora cessaret. impleatur ergo nobilis curia provincialibus bonis, cuius est proprium quodcumque videtur esse praecipuum. ipse quoque annus temporum pater quadrifaria se diversitate componit, nec desiderium caperet, si novitatis gratiam non haberet. favete ergo, patres conscripti, augmento vestro, nostro iudicio. nam si candidatus ornabitur, iam vobis proficit quod meretur.
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KING THEODERIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME
[1] Rejoice, Conscript Fathers, that the salaries of dignities have returned to you; rejoice that provinces long unaccustomed to it are now paying consular men to your honor, and from such an auspice promise yourselves still greater things. Beginnings customarily portend better things when they start from modest foundations and go on to raise themselves to greatness through what follows, commanding admiration. [2] A noble lineage lay suppressed under the Gallic moratorium and, deprived of its honors, wandered as a stranger in its own homeland. At last divine power lifted the oppressed: they were received back into Rome with glory and gathered the ancient laurels of their ancestors from the honored grove of the Curia. For who could deny a gift to a family whose merit you hold deposited, as it were, in your citadel? It is on the lips of common report that the consulship of the elder Felix is still alive: because good things know how to outlast the man, and what is carried out in glory is not held by the limits of time. [3] But to pass over, satisfied by the wealth of earlier examples, this man's ancient lineage — his most noble father is still before the eyes of all, who so illuminated the Curia with the torches of his wisdom that he was deservedly numbered among so many lights of dignity. Wholly dedicated to literary studies, he consecrated a full lifetime to the most learned of disciplines. He did not, as the saying goes, merely wet his lips with eloquence but drank his fill from the whole fountain of the Muses. [4] A vigorous debater in books, a charming speaker in conversation, a fresh coiner of words, he had fully equaled in merit the very authors he had read. He commended the goods of his learning also through the marks of his generosity, knowing that inexperience is more often puffed up by the breeze of pride — which is exposed to every light gust of wind because it is not held by the roots of virtue. He was a Cato of our own times, who by abstaining from vice formed others by his example. He also investigated the causes of natural phenomena with the utmost subtlety and fed himself on Cecropian doctrine with Attic honey. A discipline truly worthy for a most upright mind to rest in — one which always embraces something wholesome for the soul, to which nothing unwelcome can happen, since it alone commends all things to itself and is not subject to slippery fortune. The rest of it suffices for you to remember, since there is no leisure, busy as we are, for unfolding the virtues of so great a man. [5] Now turn your gaze to the candidate, that you may recognize in him the footprint of his father's praises, and judge that his father has transmitted to him not merely the image of his body but also the marks of his virtue. He has lived among you, as you know, not in the foreign manner but with Roman gravity. Added to the honors of his family from his earliest beginnings, he in his boyhood — which is the surest sign of true worth — associated himself always with the most glorious men in an emulous gravity, so that he might take from public authority the constancy that he had received from domestic virtue by example. And though he had sought the goodwill of all without distinction, since it is rare to have a special relationship with the great, yet he adorned himself with the friendship of the Patrician Paulinus, giving in this a sign of a remarkable conscience — that he was seen to hasten toward a man of the first distinction. [6] For the friendship of those who are greater, which a fellowship of good character knows how to infuse, confers distinction, since it endeavors in harmonious affection to make its object equal to itself. To this man, therefore, Conscript Fathers, who shines with his ancestral goods combined with his own merits...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.