Letter 4029: King Theodoric to Argolicus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
Cassiodorus→Argolicus, of City of Rome|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
imperial politics
King Theodoric to Argolicus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
If you had considered the authority of your office and the respect due to Rome, you ought to have pursued on your own initiative the very matter in which you now stand accused. What could have been more appropriate for the presiding officer of the city than to foster the growth of the Senate, when a prefect's own reputation benefits from what the sacred order gains?
But according to the petition submitted by the distinguished Armentarius, you have -- with deplorable ambition -- been seeking advantages from the very delays you should have been working to end. What could be more inappropriate than to hold up petitioners' hopes after our orders have been fulfilled, and after the sacred command has been issued -- if one may say it -- to have effectively suspended the royal decision?
We -- who believe in admonition before punishment after a first offense -- choose to turn our commands toward warning rather than severity, so that our strictness may not seem excessive when it has not been preceded by patience. We therefore decree by this present authority that no more cunning delays be applied to our orders. The man who offends after being warned has no claim to pardon.
XXVIIII. ARGOLICO V. I. P. U. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Si loci vestri cogitaretur auctoritas, si reverentiae cura Romanae, ultro debueratis expetere, in quibus arguimini. quid enim praesenti tempore potuistis culmini urbano tam proprium quam senatus crementa cogitare, quando famae praesulis proficit, quod ordo sacer adquirit? [2] Sed quantum viri clarissimi Armentarii testatur missa suggestio, in contrarium foedo ambitu de mora quaeritis commoda, cuius vos optare debuisse constat augmenta. quid enim amplius esse possit incongruum, quam nostris iussionibus expeditis supplicantium vota suspendere et post sacrae praeceptionis affatum, si dici fas est, adhuc regium suspendisse iudicium? [3] Sed nos, quibus cordi est post primam culpam non statim desiderare vindictam, ad ammonitionem potius iussa convertimus, ne sit nostra districtio nimia, quam lenis patientia non praecedat. ideoque praesenti auctoritate decernimus, ut iussionibus nostris nulla dilationis calliditas afferatur, quia non habet veniae locum, qui delinquit ammonitus.
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King Theodoric to Argolicus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
If you had considered the authority of your office and the respect due to Rome, you ought to have pursued on your own initiative the very matter in which you now stand accused. What could have been more appropriate for the presiding officer of the city than to foster the growth of the Senate, when a prefect's own reputation benefits from what the sacred order gains?
But according to the petition submitted by the distinguished Armentarius, you have -- with deplorable ambition -- been seeking advantages from the very delays you should have been working to end. What could be more inappropriate than to hold up petitioners' hopes after our orders have been fulfilled, and after the sacred command has been issued -- if one may say it -- to have effectively suspended the royal decision?
We -- who believe in admonition before punishment after a first offense -- choose to turn our commands toward warning rather than severity, so that our strictness may not seem excessive when it has not been preceded by patience. We therefore decree by this present authority that no more cunning delays be applied to our orders. The man who offends after being warned has no claim to pardon.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.