Letter 1: MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR

Most distinguished and illustrious man, former Quaestor of the Palace, former Ordinary Consul, former Master of the Offices, Praetorian Prefect and Patrician. The Twelve Books of the Variae ["Miscellaneous Letters"] Preface [1] Although I had gathered the goodwill of the learned by means of shared conversations or unsolicited kindnesses, yet by no genuine deserts, they urged me to collect into a single body my utterances, which, often placed in offices, I had poured out to set forth the nature of public affairs, so that the coming posterity might recognize both the troubles of my labors, which I sustained for the common good, and the unpurchased conduct of a sincere conscience. [2] I kept saying that their very affection would rather be contrary to me, so that what was now thought acceptable on account of the desires of those who petitioned, might afterwards seem insipid to readers. I added that they ought to recall the sayings of Flaccus [Horace], who warns what peril a hastily uttered word can incur. [3] You all see that everyone demands speed of reply, and do you believe that I produce things that cause no regret? That speech is always rustic which is either not adorned with choice meanings through delay, or is not set forth with the proper qualities of words at all. To speak has been granted to us in common: ornament alone is what distinguishes the unlearned. [4] A ninth year is allowed to authors for their writing: to me not even moments of hours are granted: as soon as I have begun, I am threatened with shouts and driven by excessive haste, so that what is begun is not carried through with more caution. One man burdens us with the throng of an odious interruption: another chastises us with a mass of miseries: others surround us with the frenzied sedition of disputes. [5] Amid these things, why do you require the eloquence of dictation, when we can scarcely have an abundance of words? Even the nights themselves an inexplicable care flutters around, lest provisions be lacking to the cities, which the peoples seek above all things, attending to their belly, not their ears. Hence it is that we are compelled to go in mind through all the provinces and forever to inquire into the things enjoined, because it does not suffice to command the soldiers what is to be done, unless the judge's assiduity be seen to require these things. Do not, I beg, love us harmfully. That persuasion must be declined which has more of peril than of distinction. [6] But they rather wearied me with such an argument: "All know you to be Prefect of the Praetorian seat, a dignity to which public occupations, like handmaidens, always attend. For from this seat the army's expenses are demanded: from this seat sustenance for the peoples is sought without consideration of time: to this seat also has been added the heavy weight of judgments alone. To which dignity the laws have therefore seemed to impose an immense burden, since for the sake of the honor's prestige they preferred that almost everything should pertain to it. For what span can you snatch from the public labor, when into one breast flows together whatever the welfare of the community demands? [7] We add also that, frequently burdened with the duties of the quaestorship, constant deliberation takes away the time of leisure, and, as if you were sweating under ordinary fasces [official burdens], the rulers seem to impose upon you, from among other offices, those things which the proper judges cannot accomplish. Yet these things you do by selling nothing, but after the example of your own father you receive from those who hope only labors: thus, by furnishing freely to petitioners, you purchase all things under the gift of self-restraint. [8] Even the glorious conversations of kings, moreover, they know to occupy you for a great part of the day for the public good, so that it is a weariness for the idle to await the things which you are known to sustain by continuous labor. But this can profit you all the more toward the suffrage of praise, if amid such great and such matters you have been able to produce things worth reading: then because your labor will be able, without any offense, to instruct men who are untrained and to be prepared for the commonwealth by a conscious eloquence, and the practice which you, tossed amid the perils of disputants, exercise, those who are placed in tranquility happen to attain more happily. [9] Accordingly, that which, with the loyalty you enjoy intact, you cannot dissemble - such great benefits of the kings - if you allow them to be unknown, in vain have you preferred that they be granted with kindly haste. Do not, we beseech, recall into the darkness of silence those who, while you spoke, deserved to receive illustrious dignities. For you undertook to describe them with true praise and in a certain manner to depict them with a historian's coloring. If you hand these men over to be celebrated by posterity, you have taken away, by the custom of our ancestors, from the dying a fitting death [oblivion]. [10] Then by the king's authority you correct depraved morals, you break the boldness of the transgressor, you restore fear to the laws. And do you still hesitate to publish what you prove can be suited to such great utilities? You even conceal, so to speak, the mirror of your mind, where every coming age might be able to behold you. For it happens that very often a son unlike his father is begotten: a speech unlike the morals can scarcely be found. Therefore this offspring of judgment is far more certain: for what is begotten from the secret of the breast, the posterity of its author is more truly judged. [11] You have also frequently spoken, to the commendation of the whole world, praises to queens and kings: you composed in twelve books the history of the Goths, with its prosperous events culled out. Since in those works the outcome was favorable to you, why do you hesitate to give these also to the public, you who are already known to have laid down your apprenticeship in speaking?" [12] I was overcome, I confess, to my own shame: nor could I withstand such great prudent men, when I saw myself being blamed out of affection. Now pardon me, readers, and if there is any incautious presumption, charge it rather to those who persuaded me, since my judgments seem to side with him who has resolved to accuse me. [13] And therefore what I was able to find dictated by me in the dignities of the quaestorship, the mastership, and the prefecture, in diverse public proceedings, I have composed in an arrangement of twice six books, so that, although the reader's attention may be roused by the diversity of cases, the mind may nevertheless be more effectively carried along as it tends toward the end. [14] But we have not allowed others to endure that which we frequently incurred in the granting of honors - unpolished and headlong compositions, which are so demanded on the spur of the moment that they scarcely seem even able to be written. And so I have comprised the formulae of all the dignities in the sixth and seventh books, that I might both provide for myself, however late, and assist those who follow in a narrow span of time: thus the things I have said suit both the past and the future, because I have set them forth not concerning persons, but concerning the very offices that seemed fitting. [15] But the title of the books, the index of the work, the herald of the cases, the briefest voice of the whole discourse, I have prefixed with the name Variae ["Miscellaneous"], because it was necessary for us not to take up a single style, we who undertook to advise various persons. For one must speak in one way for the sake of persuasion to those sated with much reading, in another way to those held in suspense by a moderate tasting, in another way to those fasting from the savor of letters, so that sometimes it is a kind of skill to avoid what pleases the learned. [16] Accordingly, the beautiful definition of our ancestors is to speak so aptly that you may be able to persuade the hearers of the wishes conceived. For prudent antiquity did not in vain define the three kinds of speaking: the humble, which seems to creep along by its very commonness: the middle, which neither swells with grandeur nor is thinned by smallness, but, placed between the two, enriched with its own grace, is contained within its own bounds: the third kind, which is raised to the highest peak of discourse by choice meanings: namely, so that the variety of persons might obtain a fitting eloquence and, although it flowed from one breast, might nevertheless emanate through diverse channels, since no one obtains the name of an eloquent man, except he who, girded with this threefold virtue, is manfully prepared for the cases that arise. [17] To this is added, that now we seem to speak to kings, now to the powers of the court, now to the most humble, to whom it befell to pour out some things under haste, but others it was permitted to produce after deliberation, so that it may deservedly be called Variae ["Miscellaneous"], which is composed of so great a diversity. But would that, just as we are proved to have received these things from the ancient rules, so the same may discharge the merits of the promised diction. [18] Wherefore we modestly promise the humble of ourselves: the middle we promise not improperly: but the highest, which on account of its nobility is set in a loftier place, we do not believe that we have attained. Yet let illicit presumptions be silent in us, who are to be read. For incongruously do we bring forward our own disputations about ourselves, we who rather await your judgments. Cassiodorus

V. C. ET INL. EXQUAEST. PAL. EXCONS. ORD. EXMAG. OFF. PPO ATQUE PAT. VARIARUM LIBRI DUODECIM Praefatio [1] Cum disertorum gratiam aut communibus fabulis aut gratuitis beneficiis, nullis tamen veris meritis collegissem, dicta mea, quae in honoribus saepe positus pro explicanda negotiorum qualitate profuderam, in unum corpus redigere suadebant, ut ventura posteritas et laborum meorum molestias, quas pro generalitatis commodo sustinebam, et sinceris conscientiae inemptam dinosceret actionem. [2] Dicebam dilectionem ipsorum mihi potius fore contrariam, ut, quod modo propter desideria supplicantium putabatur acceptum, postea legentibus videretur insubidum. addebam debere illos Flacci dicta recolere, qui monet, quid periculi vox praecipitata possit incurrere. [3] Respondendi celeritatem cunctos videtis exigere, et creditis me impaenitenda proferre? dictio semper agrestis est, quae aut sensibus electis per moram non comitur aut verborum minime proprietatibus explicatur. loqui nobis communiter datum est: solus ornatus est, qui discernit indoctos. [4] Nonus annus ad scribendum relaxatur auctoribus: mihi nec horarum momenta praestantur: mox ut coepero, clamoribus imminetur et festinatione nimia geritur, ne cautius coepta peragantur. alter nos frequentia invidiosae interpellationis exaggerat: alter miseriarum mole castigat: alii furiosa contentionum seditione circumdant. [5] Inter haec cur requiritis dictationis eloquium, ubi copiam vix possumus habere sermonum? ipsas quoque noctes inexplicabilis cura circumvolat, ne desint alimonia civitatibus, quae supra omnia populi plus requirunt, studentes ventri, non auribus. hinc est quod cogimur animo per cunctas ire provincias et iniuncta semper inquirere, quia non sufficit agenda militibus imperare, nisi haec iudicis assiduitas videatur exigere. nolite, quaeso, noxie nos amare. declinanda est suasio quae plus habet periculi quam decoris. [6] Sed illi me potius tali disceptatione fatigabant: ëpraefectum te praetorianae sedis omnes noverunt, cui dignitati occupationes publicae velut pedisequae semper assistunt. ab hac enim exercituales flagitantur expensae: ab hac victus quaeritur sine temporis consideratione populorum: huic etiam vel solum grave iudiciorum pondus adiectum est. cui ideo leges visae sunt inmensum onus imponere, dum ad ipsam honoris gratia maluerunt paene omnia pertinere. quod enim spatium possis publico labori subripere, quando in unum pectus confluit, quicquid utilitas generalitatis exposcit? [7] Addimus etiam, quod frequenter quaesturae vicibus ingravato otii tempus adimit crebra cogitatio, et velut mediocribus fascibus insudanti illa tibi de aliis honoribus principes videntur imponere, quae proprii iudices nequeunt explicare. haec autem facis nulla vendendo, sed exemplo proprii genitoris ab sperantibus accipis solos labores: sic petentibus praestando gratis sub continentiae munere cuncta mercaris. [8] Regum quin etiam gloriosa colloquia pro magna diei parte in bonum publicum te occupare noverunt, ut fastidium sit otiosis expectare, quae tu continuo labore cognosceris sustinere. verum hoc magis tibi ad suffragium laudis potest proficere, si inter tanta et talia valueris legenda proferre: deinde quod rudes viros et ad rem publicam conscia facundia praeparatos labor tuus sine aliqua offensione poterit edocere, et usum, quem tu inter altercantium pericula iactatus exerces, illos, qui sunt in tranquillitate positi, contingit felicius adipisci. [9] Proinde, quod salva fide, qua frueris, dissimulare non poteris, tanta regum beneficia, si pateris ignorari, frustra maluisti benigna festinatione concedi. noli, quaesumus, in obscurum silentii revocare, qui te dicente meruerunt illustres dignitates accipere. tu enim illos assumpsisti vera laude describere et quodam modo historico colore depingere. quos si celebrandos posteris tradas, abstulisti, consuetudine maiorum, morientibus decenter interitum. [10 Deinde mores pravos regis auctoritate recorrigis, excedentis audaciam frangis, timorem legibus reddis. et adhuc dubitas edere quod tantis utilitatibus probas posse congruere? celas etiam ut ita dixerim, speculum mentis tuae, ubi te omnis aetas ventura possit inspicere. contingit enim dissimilem filium plerumque generari: oratio dispar moribus vix potest inveniri. est ergo ista valde certior arbitrii proles: nam quod de arcano pectoris gignitur, auctoris sui posteritas veracius aestimatur. [11] Dixisti etiam ad commendationem universitatis frequenter reginis ac regibus laudes: duodecim libris Gothorum historiam defloratis prosperitatibus condidisti. cum tibi in illis fuerit secundus eventus, quid ambigis et haec publico dare, qui iam cognosceris dicendi tirocinia posuisse?í [12] Victus sum, fateor, in verecundiam meam: nec obsistere tantis prudentibus potui, cum me viderem ex affectione culpari. nunc ignoscite, legentes, et si qua est incauta praesumptio, suadentibus potius imputate, quia mea iudicia cum illo videntur facere, qui me decreverit accusare. [13] Et ideo quod in quaesturae, magisterii ac praefecturae dignitatibus a me dictatum in diversis publicis actibus potui reperire, bis sena librorum ordinatione composui, ut, quamquam diversitate causarum legentis intentio concitetur, efficacius tamen rapiatur animus, cum tendit ad terminum. [14] Illud autem sustinere alios passi non sumus quod nos frequenter incurrimus in honoribus dandis, impolitas et praecipites dictiones, quae sic poscuntur ad subitum, ut vix vel scribi posse videantur. cunctarum itaque dignitatum sexto et septimo libris formulas comprehendi, ut et mihi quamvis sero prospicerem et sequentibus in angusto tempore subvenirem: ita quae dixi de praeteritis conveniunt et futuris, quia non de personis, sed de ipsis locis quae apta videbantur explicui. [15] Librorum vero titulum, operis indicem, causarum praeconem, totius orationis brevissimam vocem, variarum nomine praenotavi, quia necesse nobis fuit stilum non unum sumere, qui personas varias suscepimus ammonere. aliter enim multa lectione satiatis, aliter mediocri gustatione suspensis, aliter a litterarum sapore ieiunis persuasionis causa loquendum est, ut interdum genus sit peritiae vitare quod doctis placeat. [16] Proinde maiorum pulchra definitio est sic apte dicere, ut audientibus possis concepta vota suadere. neque enim tria genera dicendi in cassum prudens definivit antiquitas: humile, quod communione ipsa serpere videatur: medium, quod nec magnitudine tumescit nec parvitate tenuatur, sed inter utrumque positum, propria venustate ditatum suis finibus continetur: tertium genus, quod ad summum apicem disputationis exquisitis sensibus elevatur: videlicet, ut varietas personarum congruum sortiretur eloquium et, licet ab uno pectore proflueret, diversis tamen alveis emanaret, quando nullus eloquentis obtinet nomen, nisi qui trina ista virtute succinctus causis emergentibus viriliter est paratus. [17] Huc accedit, quod modo regibus, modo potestatibus aulicis, modo loqui videamur humillimis, quibus alia contigit sub festinatione profundere, alia vero licuit cogitata proferre, ut merito variarum dicatur, quod tanta diversitate conficitur. sed utinam, sicut ista regulis accepisse probamur antiquis, ita eadem promissae resignent merita dictionis. [18] Quapropter humile de nobis verecunde promittimus: mediocre non improbe pollicemur: summum vero, quod propter nobiltatem sui est in editiore constitutum, nos attigisse non credimus. verum tamen sileant praesumptiones illicitae, qui legendi sumus. incongruo namque nostras de nobis disputationes ingerimus, qui vestra potius iudicia sustinemus. Cassiodorus