Letter 4051: [Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus was the leading Roman senator of his generation, father-in-law of Boethius, and a...

King Theodoric to Symmachus, Patrician. [Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus was the leading Roman senator of his generation, father-in-law of Boethius, and a devoted antiquarian. This extraordinary letter, commissioning repairs to the Theatre of Pompey, is one of Cassiodorus's most famous compositions -- a learned essay on the history of theatre embedded in an official order.] Since you have devoted such effort to private building that you seem to have created a virtual city within your own estates, it is fitting that you should be known as the guardian of Rome's marvels as well -- an outstanding founder of buildings and an exceptional restorer of the old, since both skills come from wisdom: to design well and to ornament what already stands. It is well known how admirably you have drawn Rome itself into your suburban estates, so that anyone entering those buildings would not realize they were outside the city, were it not for the added pleasure of the countryside. You are a most diligent imitator of the ancients and a most distinguished innovator among the moderns. Your buildings speak of your character, for no one is recognized as careful in architecture unless he is also refined in his own mind. We therefore entrust to your judgment the task of reinforcing the fabric of the Theatre [the Theatre of Pompey, Rome's first permanent stone theatre, dedicated in 55 BC], which is threatening to collapse under its own great weight. What was granted by your ancestors for the adornment of the homeland should not be seen to diminish under their worthy successors. What will you not dissolve, old age, when you have shaken something so solid? One might sooner expect mountains to give way than that structure to be damaged. The mass itself was so entirely composed of quarried stone that, apart from the added artistry, even the raw material seemed a natural formation. We might have been able to overlook this, had we never seen the place. But those caverns -- vaulted with suspended stones, so artfully joined that the seams were hidden, and rising into the most beautiful forms -- you would think them the caves of a great mountain rather than anything built by human hands. The ancients built a place equal to such crowds, so that the masters of the world might have a spectacle to match their dominion. Since we are speaking to a learned man, let us trace why primitive antiquity is said to have founded these structures. When farmers celebrated sacred rites to various gods in groves and villages during their holidays, the Athenians were the first to bring this rustic beginning into an urban spectacle, calling the structure theatrum -- a Greek word meaning "viewing place" -- since the gathered crowd could be seen from a distance without any obstruction. The front of the theatre is called the scaena, from the dense shade, where in the early spring shepherds first sang songs with various melodies. There the art of music flourished, and the sayings of a most learned age blossomed. But gradually the most respectable disciplines, shunning the company of the disreputable, withdrew themselves out of modesty. Tragedy takes its name from the vastness of the voice, which, amplified by the hollow resonances of the structure, produces a sound so great it hardly seems to come from a human being. The performer stands on goat-skin stilts [cothurni], because any shepherd who pleased the audience with such a voice was rewarded with a goat. Comedy is named from the villages -- comus meaning "village" -- where rustics delighted in mocking human behavior in the happiest songs. To these were added the most eloquent hands of the dancers: speaking fingers, a clamorous silence, an exposition without words -- which the Muse Polyhymnia is said to have invented, demonstrating that people can declare their will without the use of speech. The Muses, in the Eastern tongue, are called "homousae" [of one substance] because, like virtues, they are seen to be mutually necessary to one another. They are depicted with light wing-tips on their brows because their perceptions, carried aloft by swift thought, contemplate the highest things. When the pantomime -- whose name means "imitator of all things" -- first enters the stage to applause, he is attended by choruses trained in various instruments. Then that hand of meaning sets before the spectators' eyes a melodious song through gestures, and through composed signs, as though through letters, instructs the gaze of the audience. In that art, the symbols of things are read, and without writing, the performer achieves what writing declares. The same body represents Hercules and Venus, presents a woman in a man, makes a king and a soldier, renders an old man and a youth -- so that you would believe many persons inhabit one body, so various is the imitation that distinguishes them. The mime also, which today is considered merely an object of mockery, was devised by Philistion with such care that his performances were recorded in writing -- so that the world, boiling with consuming cares, might be tempered by the most cheerful maxims. What shall I say of the tinkling of cups, the varied rhythms struck from the sweetest-sounding instruments? The pleasure they give is so great that people believe, among all their senses, hearing was granted to them as the supreme gift. Later ages, mixing the dissolute with the inventions of their predecessors, dragged what had been devised for honest pleasure into bodily indulgence, and with fallen minds drove matters toward fleshly vice. The Romans, drawing these customs -- like everything else -- to their own state (not always profitably), conceived the building with lofty vision and raised it with extraordinary ambition. It is not without reason that Pompey is believed to have been called "the Great" chiefly on this account. Therefore, whether the building can be held together with masonry pins or the structure renewed by some effort of restoration, we have arranged to send you funds from our private treasury -- so that you may gain the fame of so fine a work, and our times may be seen to have renewed antiquity with fitting honor.

LI. SYMMACHO PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Cum privatis fabricis ita studueris, ut in laribus propriis quaedam moenia fecisse videaris, dignum est, ut Romam, quam domuum pulchritudine decorasti, in suis miraculis continere noscaris, fundator egregius fabricarum earumque comptor eximius, quia utrumque de prudentia venit, et apte disponere et extantia competenter ornare. [2] Notum est enim, quanta laude in suburbanis suis Romam traxeris, ut, quem illas fabricas intrare contigerit, aspectum suum extra urbem esse non sentiat, nisi cum se et agrorum amoenitatibus interesse cognoscat: antiquorum diligentissimus imitator, modernorum nobilissimus institutor. mores tuos fabricae loquuntur, quia nemo in illis diligens agnoscitur, nisi qui et in suis sensibus ornatissimus invenitur. [3] Et ideo theatri fabricam magna se mole solventem consilio vestro credimus esse roborandam, ut quod ab auctoribus vestris in ornatum patriae constat esse concessum, non videatur sub melioribus posteris imminutum. quid non solvas, senectus, quae tam robusta quassasti? montes facilius cedere putarentur, quam soliditas illa quateretur: quando et moles ipsa sic tota de cautibus fuit, ut praeter artem additam et ipsa quoque naturalis esse crederetur. [4] Haec potuissemus forte neglegere, si nos contigisset talia non videre: caveas illas saxis pendentibus apsidatas ita iuncturis absconditis in formas pulcherrimas convenisse, ut cryptas magis excelsi montis crederes quam aliquid fabricatum esse iudicares. fecerunt antiqui locum tantis populis parem, ut haberent singulare spectaculum, qui mundi videbantur obtinere dominatum. [5] Sed quia nobis sermo probatur esse cum docto, libet repetere, cur antiquitas rudis legatur haec moenia condidisse. cum agri cultores feriatis diebus sacra diversis numinibus per lucos vicosque celebrarent, Athenienses primum agreste principium in urbanum spectaculum collegerunt, theatrum Graeco vocabulo visorium nominantes, quod eminus astantibus turba conveniens sine aliquo impedimento videatur. [6] Frons autem theatri scaena dicitur ab umbra luci densissima, ubi a pastoribus inchoante verno diversis sonis carmina cantabantur. ibi actus musicus et prudentissimi saeculi dicta floruerunt. sed paulatim factum est, ut honestissimae disciplinae improborum consortia fugientes verecunda se exinde consideratione subtraherent. [7] Tragoedia ex vocis vastitate nominatur, quae concavis repercussionibus roborata talem sonum videtur efficere, ut paene ab homine non credatur exire. erigitur autem in hircinos pedes, quia si quis inter pastores tali voce placuisset, capri munere donabatur. comoedia a pagis dicta est: comus enim pagus vocatur, ubi rustici gestientes humanos actus laetissimis carminibus irridebant. [8] His sunt additae orchestarum loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, expositio tacita, quam musa Polymnia repperisse narratur, ostendens hominos posse et sine oris affatu suum velle declarare. Musae vero Eoa lingua quasi homousae dicuntur, quod invicem sicut virtutes necessariae sibi esse videantur. his levium pinnarum acumina ideo in fronte pinguntur, quoniam earum sensus celeri cogitatione subvectus res altissimas intuetur. [9] Pantomimo igitur, cui a multifaria imitatione nomen est, cum primum in scaenam plausibus invitatus advenerit, assistunt consoni chori diversis organis eruditi. tunc illa sensuum manus oculis canorum carmen exponit et per signa composita quasi quibusdam litteris edocet intuentis aspectum, in illaque leguntur apices rerum et non scribendo facit quod scriptura declaravit. idem corpus Herculem designat et Venerem, feminam praesentat in mare, regem facit et militem, senem reddit et iuvenem, ut in uno credas esse multos tam varia imitatione discretos. [10] Mimus etiam, qui nunc tantummodo derisui habetur, tanta Philistionis cautela repertus est, ut eius actus poneretur in litteris, quatenus mundum curis edacibus aestuantem laetissimis sententiis temperaret. [11] Quid acetabulorum tinnitus? quid dulcissimi soni referam varia percussione modulamen? quod tanta gratia iucunditatis accipitur, ut inter reliquos sensus auditum sibi ad munus summum tunc homines aestiment fuisse collatum. ubi aetas subsequens miscens lubrica priscorum inventa traxit ad vitia et quod honestae causa delectationis repertum est, ad voluptates corporeas praecipitatis mentibus impulerunt. [12] Hos ritus Romani sicut ceteras culturas ad suam rem publicam inutiliter trahentes aedificium alta cogitatione conceptum magnanimitate mirabili condiderunt. unde non inmerito creditur Pompeius hinc potius Magnus fuisse vocitatus. et ideo sive masculis pilis contineri sive talis fabrica refectionis studio potuerit innovari, expensas vobis de nostro cubiculo curavimus destinare, ut et vobis adquiratur tam boni operis fama et nostris temporibus videatur antiquitas decentius innovata. Cassiodorus