Letter 2022: It is right that royal devotion should accommodate itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, because those whom...
Cassiodorus→Festus, Patrician, a Man|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
grief death
From: Cassiodorus, on behalf of King Theoderic
To: Festus, Patrician
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Theoderic orders the return of the sons of the deceased Ecdicius to their homeland with their father's body, a poignant letter about grief, duty, and royal compassion.
It is right that royal devotion should accommodate itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, because those whom the adversity of their lot has crushed deserve all the more to be lifted up. We therefore declare to your magnificence by the present authority that you are to allow the sons of Ecdicius -- whom we had previously ordered to reside in the city [Rome] -- to return to their homeland with their father's body. It is a wished-for homecoming, though a bitter occasion. We must not deny their longing lest the wound of the afflicted be doubled, and -- unspeakable thought -- we who always dispel the clouds of grief with our serenity should now seem to deny the afflicted their rightful tears. Insatiable...
XXII. FESTO V. I. PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Aequum est ut se commodet pietas regalis fati vulnere sauciatis, quia erigi plus merentur, quos sortis suae adversa presserunt. atque ideo magnificentiae tuae praesenti auctoritate declaramus, ut Ecdicii filios, quos in urbe primitus residere censuimus, ad patriam cum genitoris sui funere, votivo quidem reditu, sed acerbo casu, remeare iubeatis, ne eorum desideriis abnegatis vulnus geminetur afflictis et, quod nefas dictu est, qui dolorum nubila nostra semper serenitate detergimus, nunc miseris pias lacrimas denegare videamur. [2] Insatiabilis quippe fletus est, qui humandis non sinitur corporibus interesse, dum semper se reum iudicat, qui cineribus iusta non praestat. Priamus quanto pretio sepeliendum Hectorem redemit? rogavit furentem, supplicavit armato vitamque suam exponere maluit, ut cadaveri debita non negaret. et quoniam in his personis mutua sunt officia pietatis, iniquum est filium genitori gratuito non impendere, quod patrem magnis talentis constitit effecisse. XXIII.
AMPELIO DESPOTIO ET THEODULO VVV. SSS. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Decet nostri temporis disciplinam, ut, qui publicis utilitatibus serviunt, superfluis oneribus non graventur. nec dignum est, ut cuiusquam laedat invidia nostris motibus ordinata. quapropter figulinis regia vobis auctoritate concessis operam navanter impendite, nec vereamini ad alias actiones posse traduci, a quibus iniuncta praesentia vix credimus explicari. cessabit ergo circa vos improborum nefanda praesumptio et obscuris dolis effectum nostra tollit auctoritas. in cassum enim odit, cui se clementia principalis obiecerit.
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From:Cassiodorus, on behalf of King Theoderic
To:Festus, Patrician
Date:~522 AD
Context:Theoderic orders the return of the sons of the deceased Ecdicius to their homeland with their father's body, a poignant letter about grief, duty, and royal compassion.
It is right that royal devotion should accommodate itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, because those whom the adversity of their lot has crushed deserve all the more to be lifted up. We therefore declare to your magnificence by the present authority that you are to allow the sons of Ecdicius -- whom we had previously ordered to reside in the city [Rome] -- to return to their homeland with their father's body. It is a wished-for homecoming, though a bitter occasion. We must not deny their longing lest the wound of the afflicted be doubled, and -- unspeakable thought -- we who always dispel the clouds of grief with our serenity should now seem to deny the afflicted their rightful tears. Insatiable...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.