Letter 5002: King Theodoric to the Haesti [a Baltic people].

King Theodoric to the Haesti [a Baltic people]. Through the arrival of your envoys, we learned that you have gone to great lengths to make our acquaintance — you who dwell on the shores of the Ocean [the Baltic Sea] yet seek to join your minds with ours. A welcome and pleasing request indeed: that our fame should reach you, a people to whom we could never send direct orders. Love the man you now know, whom you so eagerly sought out when he was a stranger to you. To have ventured a path through so many nations is no small undertaking. And so, greeting you with warm regard, we acknowledge that the amber sent by you through the bearers of this letter has been received with gratitude. This lightest of substances, as your own envoys confirmed, is washed up to you by the waves of the Ocean. But they said you do not know where it comes from — though you receive it before all other peoples, since your homeland offers it directly. According to a certain Cornelius [Tacitus, the Roman historian], amber is said to flow as sap from trees on the interior islands of the Ocean — and this is why it is called sucinum ["amber," from sucus, "sap"]. It gradually hardens in the heat of the sun. It becomes a sweating mineral, a translucent softness — sometimes blushing with a saffron color, sometimes fattening into a flamelike brightness. When it has slipped down to the edge of the sea, the alternating tides polish it and wash it up, exposed, upon your shores. We thought it right to point this out, so that you do not imagine our knowledge fails to extend to what you believe is hidden from us. Seek us out more often by the roads that your affection has opened, because the friendship of wealthy kings, once won, always pays. They are pleased by even a small gift and always look to repay it with something greater. We have also entrusted certain matters to your envoys to convey verbally — through whom we make clear that we have sent what we trust will be welcome.

II. HESTIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Illo et illo legatis vestris venientibus grande vos studium notitiae nostrae habuisse cognovimus, ut in Oceani litoribus constituti cum nostra mente iungamini: suavis nobis admodum et grata petitio, ut ad vos perveniret fama nostra, ad quos nulla potuimus destinare mandata. amate iam cognitum, quem requisistis ambienter ignotum. nam inter tot gentes viam praesumere non est aliquid facile concupisse. [2] Et ideo salutatione vos affectuosa requirentes indicamus sucina, quae a vobis per harum portitores directa sunt, grato animo fuisse suscepta. quae ad vos Oceani unda descendens hanc levissimam substantiam, sicut et vestrorum relatio continebat, exportat: sed unde veniat, incognitum vos habere dixerunt, quam ante omnes homines patria vestra offerente suscipitis. haec quodam Cornelio describente legitur in interioribus insulis Oceani ex arboris suco defluens, unde et sucinum dicitur, paulatim solis ardore coalescere. [3] Fit enim sudatile metallum, teneritudo perspicua, modo croceo colore rubens, modo flammea claritate pinguescens, ut, cum in maris fuerit delapsa confinio, aestu alternante purata vestris litoribus tradatur exposita. quod ideo iudicavimus indicandum, ne omnino putetis notitiam nostram fugere, quod occultum creditis vos habere. proinde requirite nos saepius per vias, quas amor vester aperuit, quia semper prodest divitum regum adquisita concordia, qui, dum parvo munere leniuntur, maiore semper compensatione prospiciunt. aliqua vobis etiam per legatos vestros verbo mandavimus, per quos, quae grata esse debeant, nos destinasse declaramus.