Letter 3005: King Theodoric to Importunus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Patrician.

King Theoderic to Inportunus, Patrician and Most Illustrious Man. [1] If nobility alone adorned you, or if you were powerful only in the praise of your merits, we might perhaps with reasonable delay weigh out the dignities to be conferred, lest great things become cheap when all are poured out at once. But now, when all things attend you in a marshalled host, and there is lacking to you, a single man, nothing of what is proclaimed in many, it befits our justice that, since you have brought forth abundant good qualities, the munificence of the prince should most richly fill you in return. [2] For yours is not that order of advancement which belongs to the many: to be promoted little by little is proved to be the mark of a middling worth, while what is prepared under a gentle slowness is more tardily recognized. Your prosperity stretches itself forward by a kind of leap, and from you only perfection is sought, since many things are born together with you. For the dignities of your race have been wrought out over a long age, dignities which have set up their household gods in your family as in some most renowned dwelling. [3] For, to pass over the ancient ages, which seem to have brought forth distinguished men in abundance, you shine conspicuous with the twin glory of your father and your uncle: men who furnished not only an ornament to their own family, but a distinction to the senate itself. In modern times they were adorned with ancient manners: endowed with goodness, glorious in constancy, inclined toward friendship, slow to take up hatreds. Thus, what is the greatest kind of good fortune, although they were proved to be of much power, it fell to them not to have the envy of those who persecute. [4] Nay rather, the anxious prayers of the city hung about them, a public love growing beyond the measure due to private men. The senate followed their mind, the crowd followed their purpose: and Rome was bound to wish what all seemed to desire, and by a marvelous outcome of prosperity the wandering will of the peoples kept a firm judgment about them, which among the other dignities we judge to be the chief gift. For if the love of a few is now justly glory, what proclamation can the affection of so great a city possess? Accordingly, just as all obscure things seem unwelcome, so things generally beloved are illustrious. [5] Adorned therefore with the praise of so many forebears, and yourself also conspicuous with the light of your character, receive, after the completed fasces of the consulship, the insignia of the patriciate that you have earned, the full gift of your dignities, and gird with the fillets of hoary honor a head of hair grown to maturity, you who by the praise of your merits have surpassed the presumptions of age. For why should the rewards come late to him for whom so many examples of his race were casting their vote? Indeed in you there is chosen the praise of birth and the glory of living: and although you draw much from the ancients, you have deserved to please by your own qualities. [6] For from the very beginning of life, which is wont to be rare among the herds of flatterers, you took pains to show fidelity to noble virtues. And therefore the footprint of your training is firm, so that you who in earliest youth attained glory may, in your flourishing years, be increased with glorious honors. Consider, finally, with how great a distinguished praise of your own kin you are adorned. It is a kind of fault not to have done what is highest. From your maturity indeed far better things ought to come, you whom we have known to have done praiseworthy deeds in tender age. For we trust that neither the training of your race nor our judgment concerning you can err.

V. INPORTUNO V. I. PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Si te aut nobilitas sola decoraret aut meritorum tantum laude polleres, conferendas forsitan dignitates dilatione probabili libraremus, ne magna vilescerent, cum simul omnia funderentur. nunc autem cum te universa facto agmine comitentur nec desit uni quod praedicatur in plurimis, convenit iustitiae nostrae, ut, cum tu copiosa bona protuleris, uberrime te repleat munificentia principalis. [2] Non enim crescendi vobis hic ordo qui multis est: paulatim provehi mediocris probatur esse virtutis, dum morosius agnoscitur quod sub lenitate praeparatur. saltu quodam se tendit vestra prosperitas solaque a vobis perfectio quaeritur, cum vobiscum multa nascantur. elaboratae sunt enim longa aetate vestri generis dignitates, quae notissimo quodam habitaculo lares in vestra posuere familia. [3] Nam, ut prisca saecula transeamus, quae affatim viros visa sunt proferre praecipuos, gemino radias patris ac patrui decore conspicuus: qui non solum ornamentum familiae suae, sed ipsi decus senatui praestitere: modernis saeculis moribus ornabantur antiquis: bonitate praediti, constantia gloriosi, in amicitiam proni, ad odia sumenda difficiles. ita, quod maximum felicitatis genus est, cum multae probarentur esse potentiae, invidiam illos persequentium contigit non habere. [4] Pendebant quin immo circa eos anxia vota civitatis, crescens supra privatos publicus amor. eorum senatus animum, eorum sequebatur turba propositum: et necesse erat Romam velle quod cuncti videbantur optare, miroque prosperitatis eventu firmum circa eos custodiebat arbitrium voluntas vaga populorum, quod inter ceteras dignitates munus iudicamus esse praecipuum. nam si paucorum amor iuste iam gloria est, tantae civitatis affectus quod potest habere praeconium? proinde sicut omnia ingrata videntur obscura, sic generaliter dilecta praeclara sunt. [5] Tot igitur parentum laude decoratus tu etiam morum luce conspicuus sume post consulares fasces emeritos patriciatus insignia, tuarum munus plenarium dignitatum et cani honoris infulis adultam cinge caesariem, qui meritorum laude aetatis praeiudicia superasti. cur enim tardo evenirent praemia, cui tot generis suffragabantur exempla? eligitur quippe in te nascendi laus, vivendi gloria: et cum multa trahas ab antiquis, meruisti placere de propriis. [6] Ab ipso quippe vitae principio, quod inter adulantium greges rarum solet esse, nobilibus studuisti fidem virtutibus exhibere. atque ideo instituti tui firma vestigium, ut qui primaevus gloriam consecutus es, florentibus annis gloriosis honoribus augearis. inspice denique, quanta tuorum praecipua laude decoreris. culpae genus est non te fecisse quod summum est. de maturitate quippe tua multo debent venire meliora, qui in aetate tenera te novimus fecisse praedicanda. confidimus enim nec tui generis institutum nec nostrum circa te errare posse iudicium.