Cassiodorus→Wilitancus, Military Commander|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
barbarian invasionfriendshipwomen
VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 33
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: Wilitancus, Military Commander
Date: ~522 AD
Context: A Gothic soldier's wife committed adultery while he was fighting in Gaul; Theoderic demands a full investigation and punishment under law, invoking the faithfulness of turtledoves by contrast.
[1] The complaint brought before our clemency by Patzenis is a serious one. He testifies that while he was on campaign in Gaul, Brandila committed such an outrage against him as to take his wife Regina for his own, disguising adultery under the pretense of a lawful marriage -- an insult to the standards of our times. We will not allow such acts, if true, to pass unpunished. When can a man's affections be safe if crime is committed against him while he fights for the common good? [2] Consider, you shameless ones, the utterly chaste nature of the grieving turtledove: when separated from its mate by some mischance, it binds itself to perpetual abstinence. It does not seek a new bond to replace the one it lost. It keeps faith without even understanding the virtue of modesty, and is found to pursue through instinct what no widow boasts of achieving through self-control. [3] Women's desires, alas, cannot contain themselves -- women for whom reason urges chastity, the threat of law enforces it, and the terror of a husband compels it. Morality has truly perished if women cannot even be compared to creatures that lack reason yet show restraint. Therefore, your Sublimity is to summon the accused to your tribunal, and after investigating the truth, punish the adulterers as our laws command, in favor of the wronged husband -- for the defenders of the state refused to return, having joined themselves in criminal presumption. [4] Those who attempted what the laws forbid clearly wished to overturn all order. But it is better that the malice of a few be corrected by their punishment, since every marriage -- God forbid -- would be left in doubt if such offenses under so solemn an institution went without any deterrent.
XXXIII.
VVILITANCO DUCI THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Gravis est Patzenis clementiae nostrae sensibus intimata conquestio. qui se in expeditione Gallica constituto in eum Brandilam prosiluisse testatur excessum, ut uxorem eius Reginam proprio sociandam duceret esse coniugio et in iniuriam nostrorum temporum adulterium simulata matrimonii fuerit lege commissum. haec nos, si vera sunt, transire nequaquam patimur impunita. nam quando affectus tutos quis habeat, si tunc sceleri subiacebit, cum pro omnium salute pugnaverit? [2] Respicite, impudicae, gementium turturum castissimum genus: quod, si a copula sua fuerit casu intercedente divisum, perpetua se abstinentiae lege constringit: gratiam coniunctionis non repetit, quam reliquit: fidem servat, dum laudem pudoris ignoret, et moribus studere deprehenditur, quod nulla viduitatis gloriatur conversatione. [3] Mulierum se, pro dolor! vota continere nequeunt, quibus castitatem ratio persuadet, poena legis imponit, terror maritalis extorquet. perierunt profecto mores, si nec illis comparari possunt, quae ratione carentia temperantur. et ideo sublimitas tua impetitos ad suum faciat examen occurrere et rerum veritate discussa, sicut iura nostra praecipiunt, in adulteros maritorum favore resecetur, quia defensorem rei publicae redire noluerunt qui scelerata praesumptione coniuncti sunt. [4] Confundi sine dubio desideraverunt omnia, qui temptaverunt legibus inimica. sed melius est paucorum damno malorum corrigatur intentio, quia omne matrimonium, quod absit, incertum relinquitur, si in tanta reverentia sine aliquo terrore peccetur.
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VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 33
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: Wilitancus, Military Commander Date: ~522 AD Context: A Gothic soldier's wife committed adultery while he was fighting in Gaul; Theoderic demands a full investigation and punishment under law, invoking the faithfulness of turtledoves by contrast.
[1] The complaint brought before our clemency by Patzenis is a serious one. He testifies that while he was on campaign in Gaul, Brandila committed such an outrage against him as to take his wife Regina for his own, disguising adultery under the pretense of a lawful marriage -- an insult to the standards of our times. We will not allow such acts, if true, to pass unpunished. When can a man's affections be safe if crime is committed against him while he fights for the common good? [2] Consider, you shameless ones, the utterly chaste nature of the grieving turtledove: when separated from its mate by some mischance, it binds itself to perpetual abstinence. It does not seek a new bond to replace the one it lost. It keeps faith without even understanding the virtue of modesty, and is found to pursue through instinct what no widow boasts of achieving through self-control. [3] Women's desires, alas, cannot contain themselves -- women for whom reason urges chastity, the threat of law enforces it, and the terror of a husband compels it. Morality has truly perished if women cannot even be compared to creatures that lack reason yet show restraint. Therefore, your Sublimity is to summon the accused to your tribunal, and after investigating the truth, punish the adulterers as our laws command, in favor of the wronged husband -- for the defenders of the state refused to return, having joined themselves in criminal presumption. [4] Those who attempted what the laws forbid clearly wished to overturn all order. But it is better that the malice of a few be corrected by their punishment, since every marriage -- God forbid -- would be left in doubt if such offenses under so solemn an institution went without any deterrent.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.