Cassiodorus→Gundobad of Burgundians|c. 522 AD|cassiodorus
barbarian invasion
VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 46
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: King Gundobad of the Burgundians
Date: ~507-511 AD
Context: The diplomatic letter accompanying the water clock and sundial sent to the Burgundian court -- Theoderic suggests that living by clock time rather than by the stomach separates civilized men from beasts.
[1] Gifts that are known to have been eagerly sought deserve to be embraced, since nothing is lowly that can satisfy desire. Through any number of precious things, we aim only at fulfilling the wish of the one who wants them. Therefore, with the customary greeting, through the bearers of this letter -- our envoys so-and-so -- we have decided to send the delights your wisdom requested: clocks, together with their operators. One displays the human ingenuity that seems to encompass what is known to range across the entire sky; the other tells the course of the sun without the sun, its dripping waters marking the intervals of the hours. [2] Have in your own country what you once saw in the city of Rome. It is fitting that you should enjoy our fine things, since you are even joined to us by marriage alliance. Let Burgundy learn under your rule to examine the most subtle inventions and to praise the achievements of the ancients. Through you, let it shed its ancestral simplicity, and while it contemplates the wisdom of its king, let it rightly desire the works of the wise. Let it mark the spaces of the day by its activities and fix the moments of the hours with the utmost precision. [3] The ordering of life is conducted in confusion if such distinctions are not truly understood. It is the way of beasts, after all, to tell the hours by the hunger of their bellies -- and to lack certainty about what has been granted for the use of civilized humanity.
XLVI. GUNDIBADO REGI BURGUNDIONUM THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Amplectenda sunt munera quae probantur omnimodis expetita: quando non est abiectum, quod potest explere desiderium. nam per quaslibet pretiosas res ad illud tantum tenditur, ut cupientis animus expleatur. quapropter salutantes gratia consueta per harum portitores illum et illum oblectamenta prudentiae vestrae, horologia cum suis dispositoribus credidimus destinanda: unum, in quo humana sollertia videtur colligi, quod totius caeli noscitur spatia pervagari: aliud, ubi solis meatus sine sole cognoscitur et aquis guttantibus horarum spatia terminantur. [2] Habetote in vestra patria, quod aliquando vidistis in civitate Romana. dignum est, ut bonis nostris vestra gratia perfruatur, quae nobis etiam affinitate coniungitur. discat sub vobis Burgundia res subtilissimas inspicere et antiquorum inventa laudare: per vos propositum gentile deponit et dum prudentiam regis sui respicit, iure facta sapientium concupiscit. distinguat spatia diei actibus suis, horarum aptissime momenta constituat. [3] Ordo vitae confusus agitur, si talis discretio sub veritate nescitur. beluarum quippe ritus est ex ventris esurie horas sentire et non habere certum, quod constat humanis usibus contributum.
Cassiodorus
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VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 46
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: King Gundobad of the Burgundians Date: ~507-511 AD Context: The diplomatic letter accompanying the water clock and sundial sent to the Burgundian court -- Theoderic suggests that living by clock time rather than by the stomach separates civilized men from beasts.
[1] Gifts that are known to have been eagerly sought deserve to be embraced, since nothing is lowly that can satisfy desire. Through any number of precious things, we aim only at fulfilling the wish of the one who wants them. Therefore, with the customary greeting, through the bearers of this letter -- our envoys so-and-so -- we have decided to send the delights your wisdom requested: clocks, together with their operators. One displays the human ingenuity that seems to encompass what is known to range across the entire sky; the other tells the course of the sun without the sun, its dripping waters marking the intervals of the hours. [2] Have in your own country what you once saw in the city of Rome. It is fitting that you should enjoy our fine things, since you are even joined to us by marriage alliance. Let Burgundy learn under your rule to examine the most subtle inventions and to praise the achievements of the ancients. Through you, let it shed its ancestral simplicity, and while it contemplates the wisdom of its king, let it rightly desire the works of the wise. Let it mark the spaces of the day by its activities and fix the moments of the hours with the utmost precision. [3] The ordering of life is conducted in confusion if such distinctions are not truly understood. It is the way of beasts, after all, to tell the hours by the hunger of their bellies -- and to lack certainty about what has been granted for the use of civilized humanity.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.