Letter 4042: King Theodoric to Argolicus, Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
Cassiodorus→Argolicus, of City of Rome|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
grief deathimperial politics
King Theodoric to Argolicus, Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
A prince's clemency rightly takes in those whom a father's love has left behind, since under a public parent the loss of one's own father should scarcely be felt. Destitute youth rightly turns to us, for the growth of all our people is our concern.
The complaint of the distinguished young men Marcianus and Maximus has reached us. During the Easter season, while they were wounded by the grief of losing their father -- forced to bear sorrow at the very time of joy -- they neglected their own interests with the pious indifference of mourning, since even for a man of mature years, attending to business in the midst of tears would seem a kind of madness. The desire for gain falls silent when one is given over to grief, and the mind has room for nothing else when it is filled with the obligations of love.
Taking advantage of this cruel opportunity, they report that someone, with detestable ambition, petitioned your office for a tower in the Circus and a section of the Amphitheatre that had belonged to their father of illustrious memory. This predator was not restrained by any human feeling, nor deterred by the thought that a similar fate might befall him. He burdened orphans at the very moment when failing to help them ought to have been considered a stain on one's honor.
We -- who preserve the principles of the ancients and the claims of filial duty -- decree by wholesome order that if the late Volusianus, patrician and magnificent, the father of these petitioners, held the said properties by common right, they must not be taken from his sons. We especially wish to nurture senatorial families with new benefits, not to crush the hopes of a rising generation with injury at its very start. Therefore, Your Illustrious Greatness, if you recall any such action, know that it is to be corrected at once, lest the venerable dignity of the senatorial order be dishonored by unscrupulous presumption.
XLII. ARGOLICO P. U. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Bene principalis clementia suscipit quos pietas paterna destituit, quia sub parente publico genitoris minime sentiri debet amissio. ad nos siquidem iure recurrit infantia destituta, quibus universorum hominum proficiunt incrementa. [2] Clarissimorum igitur adultorum Marciani atque Maximi nos querela pulsavit, cum paschalibus diebus paterni luctus essent vulnere sauciati et in ipso laetitiae tempore soli cogerentur tristitiam sustinere, utilitatem suam pio neglexisse contemptu, cum vel firmae aetati inter lacrimas ista cogitare genus videretur insaniae. cessat enim lucri ambitus, cum vacatur ad planctus, nec mens quodlibet aliud capit, cum eam qualitas pietatis impleverit. [3] Hac crudeli subreptione captata turrem circi atque locum amphitheatri illustris recordationis patris eorum detestabili ambitu a vestris suggerunt fascibus expetitum. quorum insidiatorem non humanitatis ullus revocavit affectus, non similis terruit casus: gravavit infantiam, cui non subvenire merito pudoris aestimatur esse iactura. [4] Sed nos, qui regulas veterum, qui servamus momenta pietatis, salubri ordinatione censemus, ut, si quondam patricius atque magnificus vir Volusianus pater supplicum supra memorata loca communi iure possedit, filiis perire non debeant, praesertim cum germen senatorium novis cupiamus beneficiis enutrire quam inter ipsa initia spem adultae aetatis aliqua laesione comprimere. atque ideo illustris magnitudo vestra, si quid tale factum esse meminit, ilico noverit corrigendum, ne venerandum examen senatorii ordinis iniqua praesumptione temeretur.
◆
King Theodoric to Argolicus, Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City].
A prince's clemency rightly takes in those whom a father's love has left behind, since under a public parent the loss of one's own father should scarcely be felt. Destitute youth rightly turns to us, for the growth of all our people is our concern.
The complaint of the distinguished young men Marcianus and Maximus has reached us. During the Easter season, while they were wounded by the grief of losing their father -- forced to bear sorrow at the very time of joy -- they neglected their own interests with the pious indifference of mourning, since even for a man of mature years, attending to business in the midst of tears would seem a kind of madness. The desire for gain falls silent when one is given over to grief, and the mind has room for nothing else when it is filled with the obligations of love.
Taking advantage of this cruel opportunity, they report that someone, with detestable ambition, petitioned your office for a tower in the Circus and a section of the Amphitheatre that had belonged to their father of illustrious memory. This predator was not restrained by any human feeling, nor deterred by the thought that a similar fate might befall him. He burdened orphans at the very moment when failing to help them ought to have been considered a stain on one's honor.
We -- who preserve the principles of the ancients and the claims of filial duty -- decree by wholesome order that if the late Volusianus, patrician and magnificent, the father of these petitioners, held the said properties by common right, they must not be taken from his sons. We especially wish to nurture senatorial families with new benefits, not to crush the hopes of a rising generation with injury at its very start. Therefore, Your Illustrious Greatness, if you recall any such action, know that it is to be corrected at once, lest the venerable dignity of the senatorial order be dishonored by unscrupulous presumption.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.