Letter 4001: KING THEODERIC TO HERMINFRID, KING OF THE THURINGIANS
Cassiodorus→Herminfrid|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
barbarian invasiondiplomaticfriendshipwomen
KING THEODERIC TO HERMINFRID, KING OF THE THURINGIANS
[1] Since you desire to join yourselves to our family by marriage, we unite with you, by divine favor, the dear pledge of our niece, so that you who are already descended from a royal line may now shine yet more brightly with the distinction of Amal blood. We send to you the adornment of a noble household, the enhancement of your lineage, the consolation of faithful counsel, the sweetest delight of a conjugal bond — one who will share your dominion with you by right, and will organize your people with better instruction. [2] Fortunate Thuringia will have what Italy nurtured: a woman learned in letters, cultivated in character, distinguished not only by birth but also in feminine dignity, so that your homeland may shine no less by her character than by its own triumphs. [3] Therefore, greeting you with fitting good will, we announce that we have received from your arriving ambassadors the tokens sent for an invaluable gift but after the custom of the nations: horses adorned with silver trappings, such as befitted a royal marriage. Their chests and legs are handsomely ornamented with burnished bosses; their flanks extend to a certain breadth; their belly is compactly drawn in; their head gives the appearance of a deer, imitating the swiftness whose likeness they seem to bear. These are docile despite their great strength, extremely swift despite their great bulk, pleasing to the eye, and all the more welcome in use: for they move smoothly and do not exhaust their riders with frenzied galloping. One rests upon them rather than labors, and, well schooled in delightful moderation, they know how to sustain a continuous agility. [4] But this noble herd and these tractable beasts, and the other excellent gifts you sent — all of this, you will acknowledge, has been surpassed, when everything is rightly excelled by what adorns the glory of royal power. We too have sent what the order of princes required; but we have paid no greater gift than this — that we have joined you to a woman of such greatness. May the divine powers attend your union, so that just as the bond of affection has joined us, so the grace of kinship may bind our descendants as well.
I. HERMINAFRIDO REGI THORINGORUM THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Desiderantes vos nostris aggregare parentibus neptis caro pignori propitia divinitate sociamus, ut qui de regia stirpe descenditis, nunc etiam longius claritate Hamali sanguinis fulgeatis. mittimus ad vos ornatum aulicae domus, augmenta generis, solacia fidelis consilii, dulcedinem suavissimam coniugalem: quae et dominatum vobiscum iure compleat et nationem vestram meliore institutione componat. [2] Habebit felix Thoringia quod nutrivit Italia, litteris doctam, moribus eruditam, decoram non solum genere, quantum et feminea dignitate, ut non minus patria vestra istius splendeat moribus quam suis triumphis. [3] Quapropter salutantes gratia competenti indicamus nos venientibus legatis vestris inpretiabilis quidem rei, sed more gentium suscepisse pretia destinata, equos argenteo colore vestitos, quales decuit esse nuptiales. quorum pectora vel crura sphaeris carneis decenter ornantur: costae in quandam latitudinem porriguntur: alvus in brevitate constringitur: caput cervinam reddit effigiem, imitantes velocitatem cuius videntur habere similitudinem. hi sunt sub pinguedine nimia mansueti, magna mole celerrimi, aspectibus iucundi, usibus gratiores: incedunt enim molliter, sessores insanis festinationibus non fatigant: quiescitur in ipsis potius quam laboretur et compositi delectabili moderatione agilitate norunt continua perdurare. [4] Verum hunc quamvis nobilissimum gregem beluasque morigeras vel alia quae direxistis eximia victa cognoscitis, quando omnia iure superat, quae decus regiae potestatis exornat. destinavimus et nos quidem, quae principalis ordo poscebat: sed nihil maius persolvimus, quam quod vos tantae feminae decore copulavimus. assint vestro divina coniugio, ut sicut nos causa iunxit affectionis, ita et posteros nostros obliget gratia parentalis.
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KING THEODERIC TO HERMINFRID, KING OF THE THURINGIANS
[1] Since you desire to join yourselves to our family by marriage, we unite with you, by divine favor, the dear pledge of our niece, so that you who are already descended from a royal line may now shine yet more brightly with the distinction of Amal blood. We send to you the adornment of a noble household, the enhancement of your lineage, the consolation of faithful counsel, the sweetest delight of a conjugal bond — one who will share your dominion with you by right, and will organize your people with better instruction. [2] Fortunate Thuringia will have what Italy nurtured: a woman learned in letters, cultivated in character, distinguished not only by birth but also in feminine dignity, so that your homeland may shine no less by her character than by its own triumphs. [3] Therefore, greeting you with fitting good will, we announce that we have received from your arriving ambassadors the tokens sent for an invaluable gift but after the custom of the nations: horses adorned with silver trappings, such as befitted a royal marriage. Their chests and legs are handsomely ornamented with burnished bosses; their flanks extend to a certain breadth; their belly is compactly drawn in; their head gives the appearance of a deer, imitating the swiftness whose likeness they seem to bear. These are docile despite their great strength, extremely swift despite their great bulk, pleasing to the eye, and all the more welcome in use: for they move smoothly and do not exhaust their riders with frenzied galloping. One rests upon them rather than labors, and, well schooled in delightful moderation, they know how to sustain a continuous agility. [4] But this noble herd and these tractable beasts, and the other excellent gifts you sent — all of this, you will acknowledge, has been surpassed, when everything is rightly excelled by what adorns the glory of royal power. We too have sent what the order of princes required; but we have paid no greater gift than this — that we have joined you to a woman of such greatness. May the divine powers attend your union, so that just as the bond of affection has joined us, so the grace of kinship may bind our descendants as well.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.