Letter 5003: KING THEODERIC TO HONORATUS, ILLUSTRIOUS QUAESTOR

III. King Theodoric to Honoratus, Vir Illustris [Most Distinguished], Quaestor. [1] It comes about by custom that the well-deserving receive our gifts; but you have claimed for yourself the prince's benefactions by right of inheritance. You obtain your brother's honor, because you are his kinsman in wisdom as well. We do not bar from those same goods one whom we judge to be his equal. Let parents and children now go forward, and let the pursuits of the liberal arts vie with one another, spurred on by such likeness. We have made in your case a new law, that parents should succeed in administration. This advancement is not taken away or transferred; for although the person be substituted, yet what a most welcome kinsman acquires does not fail to the family. [2] O you who are truly chosen by your own merits, and honored by the auspice of your very name! Parents foresee certain things by the names they bestow upon their offspring, and just as the course of things to come proceeds from the lofty command of divinity, so the thought of the one prophesying is instructed: it is granted to speak what we know not we have perceived, but after the event we recall that, all unknowing, we had spoken truly. [3] Under such an omen, then, Decoratus flourished: he flourished, I say, and, commended by our judgment, mingled himself among the offices of the palace, taking up the dignity which we are accustomed to give to the prudent, and plainly attaining this beyond the rest, that he was able to rise after men already chosen. Beneath the light of our majesty he stood fearless indeed, yet reverently, fittingly silent, copious when need required, an outstanding relief of our cares; and although he was enriched by the favor of our power, content rather with the praise of his character, he set himself on a level with men of middling rank. The memory of his good qualities lives among us, for a man's faithfulness knows not how to fail with death. Our secrets he kept hidden, as though he had forgotten them; our commands he retained, as though he wrote them down in order, serving without avarice and seeking our favor with the utmost eagerness. [4] We have turned aside, indeed, to the praises of the well-deserving man, but, with the brevity of the discourse we have undertaken, when we speak of him, we instruct you. He was assuredly pleasing, since with us he does not cease to be so even after death: we sorrowfully seek the one whom we grieve to have lost. But it softens the bitter blow that you succeed him with a substitute excellence; for no one feels that he has lost what he recognizes he has found again in another. Do not pursue foreign examples, you to whom such great praises are available at home. You are Decoratus [the adorned] from him; he is Honoratus [the honored] from you. Let your merits be joined together, since your names have so joined themselves. [5] For of you we more justly believe better things, you who follow after, because the imitator of one who went before is always more careful, since you may choose the good things of your predecessor and heap up new ones. And therefore, from the third indiction, we raise you up with the dignity of the quaestorship, and we make Honoratus live by the renown of our council, so that you may now begin to be what you were called before. Come now, by cleaving to justice, so that we, who gave the honor to one untried, may confer better things upon you when you are most fully approved.

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.