Letter 4021: King Theodoric to Gemellus, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable].
King Theodoric to Gemellus, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable].
Although we trust in your diligence in carrying out your duties and in your care to avoid whatever you know displeases us, our reminder does not neglect even a conscientious man -- you will be better informed by receiving the specific instructions laid out below. Our orders should seem burdensome to no one, since the necessities of the time excuse the weight of what is commanded.
Be attentive, then, to what has been assigned to you. Vigilance is always necessary, but it is most valuable in times of necessity. Obey these reminders and conduct yourself with the provincials in the same spirit you see us wishing to show them -- so that, secure in our favor, you may gain everything that a conscientious man deserves by refusing the temptations of corruption.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XXI. GEMELLO V. S. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Quamvis efficaciam tuam insistere credamus iniunctis et studiose deflectere quae nobis cognoveris displicere, tamen sollicitum ammonitio nostra non deserit, ut instructior reddaris, dum infra scriptis brevibus definita susceperis. proinde ordinatio nostra nulli videri debet ingrata, cum necessitas temporis excuset onera iussionis. [2] Esto itaque ad iniuncta sollicitus, quia licet sit semper adhibenda, maxima tamen utilis est in necessitate custodia. parebis ergo commonitus, ut sic possis cum provincialibus agere, quemadmodum nos eis respicis velle praestare, quatenus securus de nostra gratia consequaris, quicquid sollicitus de pravo studio habere contempseris.
Related Letters
A judgment backed by precedent is solid, and there is no room for doubt where proven experience speaks in one's favor.
Those who chose our clemency deserve good things, so that we may prove through their advancement that their decision...
The letters from Your Beatitude, which the passage of time had made all the more desirable, arrived and were made...
Any burden becomes tolerable when it is distributed fairly, because a shared load is certain not to crush those...
King Theodoric to Gemellus, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable].