Cassiodorus→Caelianus and Agapitus, Patricians|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus|AI-assisted
imperial politics
41. King Theoderic to Agapitus, Vir Illustris, Patrician, and Prefect of the City.
[1] The special care belonging to your order makes us more cautious in pronouncing our judgments, and the honor of the senate compels us to examine more anxiously those who are to be admitted to that revered assembly, which we wish to be augmented not only in the number of its citizens, but above all to be adorned with the luster of their merits. Let some other order perhaps receive men of middling worth: the senate rejects those who are not eminently proven. For this reason, from what source do we better seek a colleague for the nobility than from the vein of the noble, who promises by his character to shrink from baseness as much as he recoils from it by his blood? And therefore let your Illustrious Magnificence decree that there be granted to Faustus, now come of age, the son of the Illustrious Faustus, those things which the ancient order prescribed concerning those to be enrolled in the curia. For in commanding this we diminish nothing of the sacred order's accustomed authority of judgment, since it is a greater glory of dignity to await the opinion of the leading men after the royal decision. For it is an honor to them, if we command those things which they are accustomed to choose, and if we earnestly entreat that which is daily sought from them.
XLI. AGAPITO V. I. P. U. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Praecipua vestri ordinis cura cautiora nos facit proferre iudicia et admittendos reverendo coetui examinare cogit sollicitius honor senatus, quem non solum numero volumus augeri civium, sed ornari maxime luce meritorum. recipiat alius ordo forte mediocres: senatus respuit eximie non probatos. quapropter unde melius nobilitati collegam quaerimus quam de vena nobilium, qui se promittat abhorrere moribus, quam refugit sanguine, vilitatem? atque ideo illustris magnificentia tua Fausto adulto, filio. illustris Fausti, decernat attribui, quae circa referendos curiae priscus ordo dictavit. hoc enim praecipientes nihil imminuimus sacro ordini de solita auctoritate iudicii, quando gloria maior est dignitatis spectare sententiam procerum post regale iudicium. ornatus enim ipsorum est, si, quae solent illi deligere, nos iubemus et si, quod ab illis cottidie petitur, nos magnopere postulemur.
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41. King Theoderic to Agapitus, Vir Illustris, Patrician, and Prefect of the City.
[1] The special care belonging to your order makes us more cautious in pronouncing our judgments, and the honor of the senate compels us to examine more anxiously those who are to be admitted to that revered assembly, which we wish to be augmented not only in the number of its citizens, but above all to be adorned with the luster of their merits. Let some other order perhaps receive men of middling worth: the senate rejects those who are not eminently proven. For this reason, from what source do we better seek a colleague for the nobility than from the vein of the noble, who promises by his character to shrink from baseness as much as he recoils from it by his blood? And therefore let your Illustrious Magnificence decree that there be granted to Faustus, now come of age, the son of the Illustrious Faustus, those things which the ancient order prescribed concerning those to be enrolled in the curia. For in commanding this we diminish nothing of the sacred order's accustomed authority of judgment, since it is a greater glory of dignity to await the opinion of the leading men after the royal decision. For it is an honor to them, if we command those things which they are accustomed to choose, and if we earnestly entreat that which is daily sought from them.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XLI. AGAPITO V. I. P. U. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Praecipua vestri ordinis cura cautiora nos facit proferre iudicia et admittendos reverendo coetui examinare cogit sollicitius honor senatus, quem non solum numero volumus augeri civium, sed ornari maxime luce meritorum. recipiat alius ordo forte mediocres: senatus respuit eximie non probatos. quapropter unde melius nobilitati collegam quaerimus quam de vena nobilium, qui se promittat abhorrere moribus, quam refugit sanguine, vilitatem? atque ideo illustris magnificentia tua Fausto adulto, filio. illustris Fausti, decernat attribui, quae circa referendos curiae priscus ordo dictavit. hoc enim praecipientes nihil imminuimus sacro ordini de solita auctoritate iudicii, quando gloria maior est dignitatis spectare sententiam procerum post regale iudicium. ornatus enim ipsorum est, si, quae solent illi deligere, nos iubemus et si, quod ab illis cottidie petitur, nos magnopere postulemur.