Letter 7029: There can be no doubt about the loyalty of one chosen to guard a city, because what is entrusted for the security of...
Cassiodorus→Unknown|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
friendship
From: Cassiodorus (formula template)
To: [Guardian of the City Gates]
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Template for appointing a gatekeeper of a city, an essential security role.
There can be no doubt about the loyalty of one chosen to guard a city, because what is entrusted for the security of many must be given to a man of proven conscience. Therefore, we grant you by our authority the care of such-and-such gate of such-and-such city, so that it neither lies open to the approach of the wicked nor delays the access of the good. If a gate is always barred, it becomes a prison; if it is always open, the city's walls provide no protection at all.
Let both be moderated: satisfy the needs of the nighttime guard without closing the gate improperly. You will be the pathway of citizens and the entrance for every kind of merchandise -- a friend, in other words, of the abundance you hope to see enter. Strive to welcome arrivals with their provisions. What has been entrusted to you is not to be despised: you are placed at a kind of throat of the city, presiding over the entry of the food supply. Carry this out without complaint, so that in small things we may learn to whom we should entrust greater ones.
XXVIIII.
FORMULA DE CUSTODIENDIS PORTIS CIVITATUM.
[1] Nullatenus de eius fide dubitatur qui ad custodiam civitatis eligitur, quia probatae conscientiae constat esse credendum quod fuerit pro securitate multorum. atque ideo curam portae illius civitatis nostra tibi auctoritate concedimus, ut et improborum non pateat adventibus et bonorum non retardet accessus. nam si porta semper obserata sit, instar est carceris: si iterum iugiter pandatur, murorum nil proderit habere munimina. [2] Sit ergo utrumque moderatum, ut et custodiae nocturnae satisfacias et incompetenter eam claudere non praesumas. eris nimirum via civium et ingressus mercium singularum, amicus scilicet copiae quam optas intrare. stude ergo cum alimoniis invitare venientes. non tibi quod despiciatur est creditum. quibusdam faucibus civitatis praeponeris, qui ingredientibus victualibus praeesse monstraris. quod te oportet sine querela perficere, ut in parvis agnoscere possimus, cui maiora credere debeamus.
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From:Cassiodorus (formula template)
To:[Guardian of the City Gates]
Date:~522 AD
Context:Template for appointing a gatekeeper of a city, an essential security role.
There can be no doubt about the loyalty of one chosen to guard a city, because what is entrusted for the security of many must be given to a man of proven conscience. Therefore, we grant you by our authority the care of such-and-such gate of such-and-such city, so that it neither lies open to the approach of the wicked nor delays the access of the good. If a gate is always barred, it becomes a prison; if it is always open, the city's walls provide no protection at all.
Let both be moderated: satisfy the needs of the nighttime guard without closing the gate improperly. You will be the pathway of citizens and the entrance for every kind of merchandise -- a friend, in other words, of the abundance you hope to see enter. Strive to welcome arrivals with their provisions. What has been entrusted to you is not to be despised: you are placed at a kind of throat of the city, presiding over the entry of the food supply. Carry this out without complaint, so that in small things we may learn to whom we should entrust greater ones.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.