Cassiodorus→Honorati, landowners, defenders, and curials of city of Tridentum (Trento)|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
barbarian invasion
VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 38
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: All Landowners
Date: ~522 AD
Context: An order to clear vegetation growing on the aqueducts of Ravenna, with a practical argument about maintenance: saplings that are easy to pull now will become trees that resist axes later.
[1] The urgent care of our aqueducts warns us that harmful growth must be cut away promptly, so that the structural integrity of the waterworks may, with God's help, be preserved intact, and the work will remain light for you while the trees are still young. What are saplings now will become hardwood if neglected. What can be easily uprooted today will barely yield to axes later. You should therefore work together with shared urgency, so that present diligence spares you future hardship. Overgrowth is the silent siege engine of buildings -- destruction without an assault, a battering ram, so to speak, against our infrastructure. [2] Therefore we order all vegetation that threatens the walls of the Ravenna aqueduct to be torn out by the roots, so that the repaired channel, lined with waterproof cement, may deliver water as pure as when it was drawn from the springs. Then the baths will make a fine showing; then the pools will shimmer with crystalline fountains; then the water will cleanse rather than pollute, and there will be no need to wash again after washing. Consider also that if sweet drinking water flows in, everything we consume becomes more pleasant, since no food is truly enjoyable for human life without clear, fresh water. If we desire the purest water for bathing, how much more eagerly should we seek it for drinking? If these future benefits are considered now, no one will find the work burdensome when it is undertaken for the delight of all.
XXXVIII.
UNIVERSIS POSSESSORIBUS THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Ammonet nos formarum cura praecipua, ut quae possunt noxie crescere, debeamus celerius amputare, quatenus et soliditas aquaeductus deo auxiliante incorrupta servetur et vobis leve sit opus, quod in teneris arboribus adhibetur. nam quae nunc virgulta sunt, erunt, si neglegantur, et robora. ista enim quae modo facili avulsione dirimuntur, postea vix securibus icta succumbunt. atque ideo sociata debetis properatione contendere, ut praesenti diligentia futuri laboris evadatis incommoda. haec est enim civilis eversio, sine oppugnatione discidium, aries, ut ita dixerim, fabricarum. [2] Quapropter omnem silvam, quae parietibus inimica consurgit, de Ravennati forma iubemus radicitus amputari, ut signini alvei reparata constructio talem nobis deducat liquorem, qualem potuit a fontibus suscipere puritatem. tunc erit exhibitio decora thermarum, tunc piscinae vitreis fontibus fluctuabunt: tunc erit quae diluat aqua, non inquinet, post quam lavari continuo non sit necesse. additur etiam quod, si ad potandum unda suavis influxerit, omnia nostro victui redduntur accepta, quando humanae vitae nullus cibus gratus efficitur, ubi aquarum dulcium perspicuitas non habetur. nam si lavari cupimus purissimis liquoribus, quanto magis satiari talibus festinamus? quae si nunc futura tractentur, nulli labor facit taedium, qui sumitur pro delectatione cunctorum.
◆
VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 38
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: All Landowners Date: ~522 AD Context: An order to clear vegetation growing on the aqueducts of Ravenna, with a practical argument about maintenance: saplings that are easy to pull now will become trees that resist axes later.
[1] The urgent care of our aqueducts warns us that harmful growth must be cut away promptly, so that the structural integrity of the waterworks may, with God's help, be preserved intact, and the work will remain light for you while the trees are still young. What are saplings now will become hardwood if neglected. What can be easily uprooted today will barely yield to axes later. You should therefore work together with shared urgency, so that present diligence spares you future hardship. Overgrowth is the silent siege engine of buildings -- destruction without an assault, a battering ram, so to speak, against our infrastructure. [2] Therefore we order all vegetation that threatens the walls of the Ravenna aqueduct to be torn out by the roots, so that the repaired channel, lined with waterproof cement, may deliver water as pure as when it was drawn from the springs. Then the baths will make a fine showing; then the pools will shimmer with crystalline fountains; then the water will cleanse rather than pollute, and there will be no need to wash again after washing. Consider also that if sweet drinking water flows in, everything we consume becomes more pleasant, since no food is truly enjoyable for human life without clear, fresh water. If we desire the purest water for bathing, how much more eagerly should we seek it for drinking? If these future benefits are considered now, no one will find the work burdensome when it is undertaken for the delight of all.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.