Letter 5001: KING THEODERIC TO THE KING OF THE WARNI
Cassiodorus→Of Warni|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
barbarian invasiondiplomatic
KING THEODERIC TO THE KING OF THE WARNI
[1] Your brotherhood has sent us pitch-black swords gleaming with the natural brightness of their metal, and youths shining in the fair color of your people — weapons that surpass in value the price of gold itself. There, a polished clarity shines so that the blades give back the faces of those who look upon them in faithful purity, and their edges descend to a sharpness with such evenness that they seem not to have been shaped by files but to have been poured from fiery furnaces. The center of these blades, hollowed into beautiful channels, appears to ripple with a kind of curving grain: there plays such a shadow of variety that you would believe the shining metal to have been woven with different colors. [2] Your whetstone diligently polishes this, and your most brilliant powder scours it so industriously that it makes the iron light into a kind of mirror for men — which is granted by the nature of your homeland, so that it might give you a singular reputation for such work. These are swords that, by their beauty, are thought to be the work of Vulcan, who is reputed to have practiced the smith's arts with such elegance that what was shaped by his hands was believed to be not the work of mortals but divine. [3] Therefore, through your ambassadors this man and that man, expressing the feeling of our due salutation, we declare that we have received your arms with pleasure, sent as they were by the devotion of a good peace. Returning the reciprocity of a gift in proportion to your outlays, we render back to you as acceptable as was your gift most pleasing to us. May the divine powers bestow harmony, so that in doing these things with a grateful spirit between us we may join together the will of our peoples and, solicitous of one another in turn, may be bound together by mutual advantages.
I.
REGI VVARNORUM THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Cum piceis timbribus et pueros gentili candore relucentes, spathas nobis etiam arma desecantes vestra fraternitas destinavit, ferro magis quam auri pretio ditiores. splendet illic claritas expolita ut intuentium facies fideli puritate restituant, quarum margines in acutum tali aequalitate descendunt, ut non limis compositae, sed igneis fornacibus credantur effusae. harum media pulchris alveis excavata quibusdam videntur crispari posse vermiculis: ubi tanta varietatis umbra conludit, ut intextum magis credas variis coloribus lucidum metallum. [2] Hoc vestra cotis diligenter emundat, hoc vester splendidissimus pulvis ita industriose detergit, ut speculum quoddam virorum faciat ferream lucem, qui ideo patriae vestrae natura largiente concessus est, ut huius rei opinionem vobis faceret singularem: enses, qui pulchritudine sui putentur esse Vulcani, qui tanta elegantia fabrilia visus est excolere, ut quod eius manibus formabatur, non opus mortalium, sed crederetur esse divinum. [3] Proinde per illum et illum legatos vestros solventes debitae salutationis affectum arma vestra libenter nos accepisse declaramus, quae bonae pacis studia transmiserunt: vicissitudinem muneris pro expensarum vestrarum consideratione tribuentes, quae tantum vobis reddantur accepta, quantum nobis vestra fuere gratissima. praestent divina concordiam, ut haec inter nos grata mente facientes gentium nostrarum velle iungamus et invicem solliciti mutuis possimus utilitatibus obligari.
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KING THEODERIC TO THE KING OF THE WARNI
[1] Your brotherhood has sent us pitch-black swords gleaming with the natural brightness of their metal, and youths shining in the fair color of your people — weapons that surpass in value the price of gold itself. There, a polished clarity shines so that the blades give back the faces of those who look upon them in faithful purity, and their edges descend to a sharpness with such evenness that they seem not to have been shaped by files but to have been poured from fiery furnaces. The center of these blades, hollowed into beautiful channels, appears to ripple with a kind of curving grain: there plays such a shadow of variety that you would believe the shining metal to have been woven with different colors. [2] Your whetstone diligently polishes this, and your most brilliant powder scours it so industriously that it makes the iron light into a kind of mirror for men — which is granted by the nature of your homeland, so that it might give you a singular reputation for such work. These are swords that, by their beauty, are thought to be the work of Vulcan, who is reputed to have practiced the smith's arts with such elegance that what was shaped by his hands was believed to be not the work of mortals but divine. [3] Therefore, through your ambassadors this man and that man, expressing the feeling of our due salutation, we declare that we have received your arms with pleasure, sent as they were by the devotion of a good peace. Returning the reciprocity of a gift in proportion to your outlays, we render back to you as acceptable as was your gift most pleasing to us. May the divine powers bestow harmony, so that in doing these things with a grateful spirit between us we may join together the will of our peoples and, solicitous of one another in turn, may be bound together by mutual advantages.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.