Letter 5003: KING THEODERIC TO HONORATUS, ILLUSTRIOUS QUAESTOR

KING THEODERIC TO HONORATUS, ILLUSTRIOUS QUAESTOR [1] It does in the ordinary way come to pass that those who have deserved well receive our gifts; but you have claimed the prince's benefits for yourself by right of inheritance. You obtain your brother's honor, because you are his brother in wisdom as well. We do not drive away from the same goods the man we prove to be the same in merit. Let parents and children now go forth and vie in emulation of similar virtues through the incentive of likeness. We have made a new precedent in you — that parents be succeeded in office. This advancement is not taken away and replaced, for though the person substituted may be different, what a most beloved brother gains does not fail the family. [2] O men truly chosen for your merits and honored by the omen of your name! Parents divine something when they give names to their children; and as the course of future events proceeds from the high command of the divine, the thought of the one who forebodes is instructed in advance: one is given to speak what one does not know one has perceived, but afterward one recalls the truth of what one spoke in ignorance. [3] Under such an omen, then, Decoratus flourished — flourished, I say, and mingled with the palace honors to our praise; he took up a dignity which we are accustomed to give to the wise, excelling others in this above all, that he was able to rise after the elect had been chosen. In the light of our favor he stood unafraid, yet with reverence; silent at the right moment, copious when necessary; the outstanding relief of our cares; and though enriched by the grace of our authority, he was more satisfied with the praise of his character and placed himself on a level with those of middling rank. The memory of good men lives on with us, because a man's good faith does not know how to die. He concealed our secrets as if he had forgotten them; he retained our orders as if he were writing them down in sequence; he served without greed and pursued our favor with the utmost desire. [4] We have strayed indeed to the praises of a man who has deserved well, but in briefly recalling him we are instructing you. For he was pleasing — so pleasing that even after his death he has not ceased to be so with us. We seek with sadness the one whose loss we grieve. But the bitter stroke is softened by the fact that you succeed him with a corresponding virtue, since no man feels that he has lost what he has found again in another. Do not seek examples elsewhere, you who have such great renown at hand in your own family. You are Decoratus from him; he is Honoratus from you. May their merits be united, since their names have thus been joined. [5] For we believe better things of you with greater justice, because you come after, since the one who follows is always more attentive than the one before, when you are permitted to choose the good of your predecessor and add new achievements of your own. And therefore from the third indiction we raise you to the dignity of the quaestorship, and we make Honoratus live in the glory of our counsel — so that you may now begin to be what you were formerly called. Act, then, adhering to justice, so that to one proved most worthy we may confer still better things, as we gave honor to you when still untested.

III. HONORATO V. I. QUAESTORI THEODERICUS REX. [1] Usu quidem provenit bene meritos dona nostra suscipere: sed tu iure hereditatis principis tibi beneficia vindicasti. honorem fratris adipisceris, quia sapientia quoque germanus es. ab eisdem bonis non repellimus quem similem comprobamus. eant nunc parentes ac liberi et bonarum artium studia incitamento similitudinis aemulentur. novam in te fecimus legem parentes in amministratione succedere. hic provectus non adimitur et mutatur: quia licet persona subrogata sit, familiae tamen non deficit quod gratissimus germanus adquirit. [2] O vere vestris meritis electi at auspicio nominis honorati! praesentiunt quaedam parentes positis in prole vocabulis et ut venturarum rerum cursus ex alto est imperio divinitatis, cogitatio praesagantis instruitur: loqui datur, quod nos sensisse nescimus, sed post casum reminiscimur quod ignorantes veraciter dixeramus. [3] Tali igitur omine Decoratus evaluit: evaluit, inquam, ac se honoribus palatinis iudicio nostro laudatus immiscuit, dignitatem sumens quam solemus dare prudentibus, hoc plane supra ceteros adipiscens, quod potuit emergere post electos. sub genii nostri luce intrepidus quidem, sed reverenter astabat, opportune tacitus, necessarie copiosus, curarum nostrarum eximium levamen, et cum potestatis nostrae gratia ditaretur, morum magis laude contentus mediocribus se potius exaequabat. vivit apud nos recordatio bonorum, quia fides hominis nescit cum morte deficere. secreta nostra, quasi oblivisceretur, occuluit: iussa, quasi scriberet per ordinem, retinuit, sine avaritia serviens et gratiam nostram summa cupiditate perquirens. [4] Divertimus quidem ad bene meriti laudes, sed compendio sermonis assumpti, cum illum referimus, te docemus. fuit nimirum gratus, quod apud nos et post fata esse non desinit: tristes quaerimus quem nos amisisse dolemus. sed acerbum casum mitigat, quod ei vicaria virtute succedis, quia nemo perdidisse se sentit quod in alterum invenisse cognoscit. non extranea secteris exempla, cui domestica suppetunt tam magna praeconia. tu Decoratus ex illo es, ille Honoratus ex te est. adunent se merita, quando se iunxere sic nomina. [5] Nam de te iustius credimus meliora, qui sequeris, quia semper est diligentior imitator prioris, quando te praecedentis bona licet eligere et nova cumulare. atque ideo ab indictione tertia quaesturae te dignitate subvehimus facimusque nostri consilii claritate vivere Honoratum, ut esse nunc incipias, quod ante vocabaris. age nunc inhaerendo iustitiae, ut, qui inexperto honorem dedimus, meliora tibi probatissimo conferamus.