Letter 8020: It is an endorsement of one's merits to be chosen after a corrupt predecessor has been removed, since the excesses...

20. KING ATHALARIC TO AVIENUS, MAN OF INLUSTRIS RANK, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. [1] It is itself a proof of one's merits to have been able to be chosen after the wickedness of a judge who has been accused, since the misdeeds of predecessors are not set right except when a better successor is found. For the most part a remedy comes by way of contrary things, for, when vital heat has been applied, the pestilent cold then withdraws. The very clouds are wiped away by the breathing of the winds, and the north wind renders calm again the face of the sky which the southern breeze had troubled. So we have removed your predecessor, out of love for the general public, in order that you, a most wholesome man, might arrive. [2] Imitate the things contrary to your predecessors, and you will have accomplished what deserves praise. He was hateful for his false accusations: do you take pains to make yourself acceptable by your justice. He was rapacious: do you be restrained. For all good men the definition is brief: to avoid the things he did, since those things are truly worthy of praise which by his own judgment he did not approve. Look, finally, upon the public hatred directed at him, and do you aim at the love of all. Let men give thanks for your character in the same measure as they accuse the bitterness of his conduct. Be encouraged, therefore, by the disgrace of your predecessor, since after that man of avowed malice you are to be praised even for having abstained from evils. For what will it be like, if you grant to the provinces benefits which up to now they did not have? An unaccustomed good is loved the more, and sorrow that has gone before lends sweetness to the times by the joy that follows. [3] And therefore, with God's help, we confer upon you the fasces of the prefecture, auspiciously, for the sixth indiction; and however terrible that office has been up to now in the injury it caused, it now ought to possess equal benefits of gentleness, since the things wounded by your charge are to be restored. Let no one be burdened either by your hands or by the hands of others. For it is beyond all impieties to harm the injured, when one is believed to heal the wounded. Let that prefecture, praiseworthy throughout the whole world, return to its ancient name: for if we seek its origin, it took its beginning from Joseph as a giver of benefits. And not undeservedly is it proclaimed by our laws the father of the provinces, the father even of the empire, because they wished it to be administered so justly, so providently, that they applied to it not the stern title of a judge, but the appellation of fatherly devotion. [4] Let our treasury grow through you by just and lawful profits. We reject the gains which the cautious provisions of the laws make unholy: we want those moneys by which the balance of justice is supported. We do not allow wickedness to enter our house, since we cannot even in private admit what with public voice we condemn. [5] Hear, you judges, what we love; do not suspect anything else to the public harm. For to whom do you believe you will be pleasing through unjust provisions, when you know that we love only those things which can accord with the admonitions of justice? You sin now against your own character, if after these things you transgress. But perhaps those men did such things who attained to dignities unknown to their parents: do you, after your father's praiseworthy prefecture, add something which may be proclaimed better, since he who follows ought always to be the more diligent, while we desire fittingly to imitate the good deeds of our parents and hasten to surpass them. [6] It adds also to your praises that you are proved to be steeped in the sayings of the wise. It is a grave thing for a wise man to give offense, where he finds that another has fallen. The law may perhaps pass by him who knew not the laws: from you everything lawful is demanded, since your origin is not known to have been unlearned. The books of the ancients and the deeds of your parents are equal to you. Live up to your reputation, live up to our judgment, that you may not be unequal to the merits of those whose dignities you have equaled through our benefits.

XX. AVIENO V. I. PPO ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Assertio meritorum est potuisse eligi post improbitatem iudicis accusati, quando excessus praecendentium non corrigitur, nisi cum successor optimus invenitur. contrariis rebus plerumque medicina succedit, nam, dum calor vitalis adhibitus fuerit, frigus pestiferum tunc recedit. nubila ipsa ventorum spiratione terguntur et aquilo faciem caeli tranquillam reddit, quam australis aura turbavit. sic nos decessorem tuum summovimus amore generalitatis, ut tu saluberrimus advenires. [2] Contraria prioribus imitare et laudanda peregisti. ille calumniis odiosus: tu stude, ut iustitia reddaris acceptus. rapax ille: tu continens. bonorum omnium brevis est definitio vitare quae fecit, quando illa vere laudanda sunt, quae suo iudicio non probavit. respice denique in illo odium publicum, et tu amorem affectare cunctorum. tanti tuis moribus gratias agant, quanti illius acerbitatem actionis accusant. animare igitur dedecore praecedentis, quando post illum professae malitiae virum vel a malis abstinuisse laudandus es. nam quale erit, si beneficia provinciis tribuas quae hactenus non habebant? bonum insolitum plus amatur et sequenti gaudio confert dulcedinem temporum praemissa tristitia. [3] Atque ideo praefecturae tibi fasces per sextam feliciter indictionem deo auxiliante conferimus, quae quanto fuit hactenus laesione terribilis, tanta nunc habere debet beneficia lenitatis, siquidem sauciata cura tua refovenda sunt. non tuis, non alienis manibus quisquam gravetur. nam ultra omnes impietates est nocere laesos, qui sanare creditur vulneratos. redeat ad nomen antiquum praefectura illa praetorii toto orbe laudabilis: cuius si principium quaeramus, per Ioseph a beneficiis inchoavit. nec inmerito a legibus nostris pater provinciarum, pater etiam praedicatur imperii, quia sic iuste, sic provide agi voluerunt, ut non districtum iudicis nomen, sed vocabulum illi pietatis imponerent. [4] Iustis ac debitis compendiis nostrum per te crescat aerarium. lucra rennuimus, quae legum cauta profanant: pecunias illas volumus, quibus libra iustitiae suffragatur. aedes nostras nequitiam non patimur introire, quia nec privatim intromittere possumus quam publica voce damnamus. [5] Audite, iudices, quid amemus, nolite aliud in malum publicum suspicari. nam cui vos per iniquas provisiones creditis esse placituros, cum nos cognoscatis sola illa diligere, quae possunt iustitiae monitis convenire? vestris iam moribus peccatis, si post ista delinquitis. sed illi forte talia gesserint, qui ad dignitates suis parentibus incognitas pervenerunt: tu post patris praefecturam laudabilem aliquid quod melius praedicetur adiunge, quia diligentior semper debet esse qui sequitur, dum bona parentum probabiliter et imitari cupimus et vincere festinamus. [6] Accedit etiam tuis laudibus, quod dictis prudentum probaris imbutus. grave est sapienti offendere, ubi alterum reperit incidisse. ius forte praetereat, qui iura nescivit: totum a te legitimum quaeritur, cuius origo indocta fuisse nescitur. aequales tibi sunt libri veterum et actiones parentum. praesta opinioni tuae, praesta nostro iudicio, ut impar non sis meritis quorum aequasti per nostra beneficia dignitates.