Letter 9021: We have rightly referred cases concerning your children to yourselves, since you who have an interest in the...

21. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME. [1] We are known to have rightly referred the affairs of sons to the persons of the fathers, so that those very men ought to take thought for the advancement of those by whose interest it is that Roman studies should flourish. For it is not to be believed that you can on that account be the less concerned, seeing that from this both adornment grows for your order and counsel comes to your assembly through constant reading. For lately, since our care is anxious on your behalf, we have learned through the whispering of certain persons that the teachers of Roman eloquence do not possess the fixed rewards of their labor, and that, through the trafficking of certain men, it comes about that the sum assigned to the masters of the schools seems to be diminished. [2] Wherefore, since it is manifest that reward nourishes the arts, we have judged it an outrage that anything should be withdrawn from the teachers of young men, who ought rather to be summoned to glorious studies through increases of their emoluments. [3] For the school of the grammarians is the foremost, the most beautiful foundation of letters, the glorious mother of eloquence, which knows how to think toward praise, and to speak without fault. In the course of speech this discipline detects a discordant error in the same way that good morals abhor a foreign crime. For just as the musician produces the sweetest melody from harmonious choirs, so the grammarian knows how to chant meter with accents fittingly arranged. [4] Grammar, the mistress of words, the adorner of the human race, which through the exercise of the most beautiful reading of the ancients is known to aid us with its counsels. Barbarian kings do not employ it: it is known to remain peculiar to lawful lords. For arms and the rest the nations also possess: eloquence alone is found to be that which obeys the lords of the Romans. Hence the civic battle of orators sounds the war-trumpet of the law: hence the most noble eloquence commends all the nobles, and, to pass over the rest in silence, this very thing which we are speaking comes from there. [5] On which account, conscript fathers, we bestow upon you this care, this authority, by the favor of the Divinity, that the successor in the school of liberal letters, the grammarian as well as the orator and likewise the expounder of law, may receive the emoluments of his predecessor from those whose concern it is without any diminution; and, once confirmed by the authority of your first order and of the rest of the most ample Senate, so long as he is found fit for the work he has undertaken, he shall suffer from no one a dishonest dispute either about the transferring or about the diminishing of his allowances, but, with you ordaining and guarding, he shall enjoy the security of his profits, the Prefect of the City nonetheless preserving what has been established. [6] And lest anything be left uncertain according to the will of those who furnish the payment, as soon as six months have elapsed, let the aforesaid masters obtain the middle portion of the fixed sum, and let the remaining seasons of the year be closed with the due rendering of their allowances: lest they be compelled to depend upon the caprice of another, for whom it is a sin to have been idle for any moment even of hours. [7] For we wish the things that have been decreed to be guarded so very firmly that, if anyone whose concern it is shall have thought that this function, as if it were a debt, ought to be deferred, let him himself, after the manner of interest, suffer the losses thereby incurred, who through punishable greed withdrew the just emoluments from those who labor in praiseworthy fashion. [8] For if we bestow our wealth upon stage-performers for the delight of the people, and those obtain it most eagerly who are reckoned not at all necessary, how much more ought it to be furnished without delay to those through whom both honorable morals come forth and eloquent talents are nourished for our palace! [9] Moreover, we command that this be made known by the present masters of letters to your venerable assembly, so that, just as they recognize that we are concerned for their emoluments, so they may know that the advancement of young men is to be exacted from them by us the more strenuously. Let there now cease that maxim, usurped by complaining satirical teachers, that the mind ought not to be occupied by two cares. Behold, they are now proved to have a tolerable lodging: whence now deservedly, clinging continually to a single concern, let them transfer themselves with the whole vigor of their mind to the studies of the good arts.

XXI. SENATUI URBIS ROMAE ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Filiorum causas iure ad patrum cognoscimur remisisse personas, ut ipsi de illorum provectu debeant cogitare, quorum interest studia Romana proficere. neque enim credendum est vos inde posse minus esse sollicitos, unde et generi vestro crescit ornatus et coetui provenit assidua lectione consilium. nuper siquidem, ut est de vobis cura nostra sollicita, quorundam susurratione cognovimus doctores eloquentiae Romanae laboris sui constituta praemia non habere et aliquorum nundinatione fieri, ut scholarum magistris deputata summa videatur imminui. [2] Quapropter, cum manifestum sit praemium artes nutrire, nefas iudicavimus doctoribus adulescentium aliquid subtrahi, qui sunt potius ad gloriosa studia per commodorum augmenta provocandi. [3] Prima enim grammaticorum schola est fundamentum pulcherrimum litterarum, mater gloriosa facundiae, quae cogitare novit ad laudem, loqui sine vitio. haec in cursu orationis sic errorem cognoscit absonum, quemadmodum boni mores crimen detestantur externum. nam sicut musicus consonantibus choris efficit dulcissimum melos, ita dispositis congruenter accentibus metrum novit decantare grammaticus. [4] Grammatica magistra verborum, ornatrix humani generis, quae per exercitationem pulcherrimae lectionis antiquorum nos cognoscitur iuvare consiliis. hac non utuntur barbari reges: apud legales dominos manere cognoscitur singularis. arma enim et reliqua gentes habent: sola reperitur eloquentia, quae Romanorum dominis obsecundat. hinc oratorum pugna civilis iuris classicum canit: hinc cunctos proceres nobilissima disertitudo commendat et ut reliqua taceamus, hoc quod loquimur inde est. [5] Qua de re, patres conscripti, hanc vobis curam, hanc auctoritatem propitia divinitate largimur, ut successor scholae liberalium litterarum tam grammaticus quam orator nec non et iuris expositor commoda sui decessoris ab eis quorum interest sine aliqua imminutione percipiat et semel primi ordinis vestri ac reliqui senatus amplissimi auctoritate firmatus, donec suscepti operis idoneus reperitur, neque de transferendis neque de imminuendis annonis a quolibet patiatur improbam quaestionem, sed vobis ordinantibus atque custodientibus emolumentorum suorum securitate potiatur, praefecto urbis nihilominus constituta servante. [6] Et ne aliquid pro voluntate praebentium relinquatur incertum, mox ut sex menses exempti fuerint, statutae summae consequantur praedicti magistri mediam portionem, residua vero anni tempora cum annonarum debita redhibitione claudantur: ne cogantur de alieno pendere fastidio, cui piaculum est vel horarum aliquo vacasse momento. [7] In tantum enim quae sunt decreta volumus firmissime custodiri, ut si quis cuius interest differendam putaverit hanc quasi debitam functionem, procurato more usurarum dispendia ipse patiatur, qui iusta commoda laudabiliter laborantibus plectenda cupiditate subtraxit. [8] Nam si opes nostras scaenicis pro populi oblectatione largimur et ea studiosissime consequuntur qui adeo necessarii non habentur, quanto magis illis sine dilatione praebenda sunt, per quos et honesti mores proveniunt et palatio nostro facunda nutriuntur ingenia! [9] Hoc autem praesentibus litterarum magistris venerando coetui vestro praecipimus intimari, ut sicut nos agnoscunt de suis commodis esse sollicitos, ita a se provectus adulescentium enixius noverint nos exigendos. cesset nunc illa satyricis doctoribus querulis usurpata sententia, quia duabus curis ingenium non debet occupari. ecce iam habere tolerabile probantur hospitium: unde nunc merito, uni sollicitudini iugiter inhaerentes, toto vigore animi ad bonarum artium studia transferantur.