Letter 8016: It is customary for those approaching court offices to be weighed by long examination, lest the royal judgment seem...

From: Cassiodorus, on behalf of King Athalaric To: Opilio, Count of the Sacred Largesses Date: ~522 AD Context: Athalaric appoints Opilio to one of the highest financial offices in the kingdom, praising his distinguished family's long record of service and recalling how Opilio and his brother served together in a touching display of fraternal devotion. It is customary for those approaching court offices to be weighed by long examination, lest the royal judgment seem to approve anything doubtful -- since the glory of a reign lies in selecting distinguished judges. But the fortunate record of advancement in your family is so frequent, and the wisdom displayed by so many of its members so well attested, that even if someone chose you on the spur of the moment, the decision would not seem uncertain. A blessed lineage preserves family likeness, and those who cannot find examples of wrongdoing in their own kin feel ashamed to commit it. This is why it is better recognized as having chosen a nobleman than as having made a lucky pick -- because the nobleman, instructed by the deeds of his forebears, guards his own conduct, while the self-made man has no example except what he himself creates. We therefore entrust to you with confidence what we are glad to have entrusted so often to your family. Your father held these very fasces [the symbols of office]; your brother likewise shone with the same distinction. The office itself has, in a manner of speaking, set up its household shrine in your home, and a public honor has become a family tradition. You learned the routine of this office under your brother's distinguished tenure: bound to him by mutual affection, you shared his labors as a partner and his deliberations as a brother, judging what he had received to belong more to you than to him. He leaned on this support all the more happily, sometimes deliberately overlooking details in his confidence in you, because he saw that everything was being accomplished through your efforts. What a sweet bond between brothers -- an ancient harmony in modern times! It is right to entrust judgment to men who are naturally inclined to preserve good character. Even when the pleasures of country retreat and provincial leisure might have tempted you, crowds of litigants and the anxious hopes of the wronged came running to you. You took on the office of a good judge among them, as if by some premonition of the future -- performing through the assumption of merit what you could have received from us by appointment. We also remember with what devotion you served us at the beginning of our reign, when the loyalty of the faithful was most sorely needed. For after the passing of our grandfather of divine memory, when the anxious hopes of the people trembled and hearts were flooded with uncertainty about the still-undecided heir of so great a kingdom...

XVI. OPILIONI COMITI SACRARUM ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Solent quidem venientes ad aulicas dignitates diutina exploratione trutinari, ne imperiale iudicium aliquid probare videatur ambiguum, quando gloria regni est reperisse iudices exquisitos. sed tam frequens est familiae vestrae felicissimus provectus, tam in multis personis declarata prudentia, ut licet aliquis vos eligat ad subitum, nihil fecisse videatur incertum. similitudinem suorum felix vena custodit, quando pudet delinquere, qui similia nequeunt in sui genere reperire. [2] Hinc est, quod melius agnoscitur elegisse nobilem quam fecisse felicem: quia iste commonitus per veterum se facta custodit, ille exemplum non habet nisi quod fecerit. quapropter secure tibi credimus, quod totiens tuo generi commissum fuisse gaudemus. pater his fascibus praefuit: sed et frater eadem resplenduit claritate. ipsa quodammodo dignitas in penatibus vestris larem posuit et domesticum factum est publicum decus. [3] Nam militiae ordinem sub fraterna laude didicisti, cui mutuo conexus affectu implebas laboribus socium et consiliorum participatione germanum, ad te potius pertinere diiudicans quod frater acceperat. hoc baculo reclinabatur ille felicior, astu quaedam neglegens praesumptione tui, quia per te omnia cernebat impleri. [4] En dulce fratrum obsequium et praesentium temporum antiqua concordia. bene talibus sensibus iudicium creditur, qui servare mores naturaliter sentiuntur. quod si amoeni recessus et provinciale otium forte libuissent, ad te catervae causantium et anxia currebant vota laesorum. boni iudicis inter eos assumebas officium ut futurorum quodam urgente praesagio, quod a nobis accipere poteras, meritorum assumptione peragebas. [5] Meminimus etiam, qua nobis in primordiis regni nostri devotione servieris, quando maxime necessarium fidelium habetur obsequium. nam cum post transitum divae memoriae domni avi nostri anxia populorum vota trepidarent et de tanti regni adhuc incerto herede subiectorum se corda perfunderent, auspicia nostra Liguribus felix portitor nuntiasti et sapientiae tuae allocutione firmati maerorem, quem de occasu conceperant, ortu nostri imperii in gaudia commutabant. innovatio regis sine aliqua confusione transivit et sollicitudo tua praestitit, quod nos nullus offendit. [6] Atque ideo probato talibus institutis ab indictione feliciter sexta sacrarum largitionum comitivam propitia tibi divinitate concedimus. usurus es omnibus privilegiis atque emolumentis, quae ad tuos decessores pertinuisse noscuntur: absit enim, ut aliqua calumniae machinatione quatiantur qui actionis suae firmitate consistunt. fuit enim tempus, cum per delatores vexarentur et iudices. deponite iam formidinem, qui non habetis errorem: fructibus vestrarum utimini dignitatum: nam quod vobis per decessores prodecessoresque vestros temporibus domni avi nostri consuetudo longa dedit, indulgentia quoque nostra custodit. [7] Conferimus tibi honorem germani: sed tu fidem eius imitare servitii. nam si illum sequeris, multos laude praecedis, virum auctoritatis maximae, probatae constantiae, qui sub tanto principe et sine culpa paruit et iudicia laudatus exercuit. promptum est enim aestimare quid egerit, quando sub ingrato successore palatinum officium praeconia eius tacere non potuit. difficile non est itaque moribus sequi posse germanum, quia et in conversationis fructu plerumque consentiunt, qui unius semine procreantur.