Letter 2003: KING THEODERIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME

III. KING THEODERIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME. [1] Rejoice, conscript fathers, that the salaried offices of dignity have returned to you; rejoice that provinces long unaccustomed are rendering to you men of consular rank, and from such an omen promise yourselves greater things. Beginnings are wont to portend better things, when they commence from small starts which in what follows lift themselves up with great admiration. [2] A noble lineage lay prostrate under the suspension of justice in Gaul, and, deprived of its own honors, it lived as a stranger in its own homeland. At last divine powers raised up those who had been pressed down: they received them back at Rome with glory, and gathered the ancient laurels of their forefathers from the honored grove of the senate house. For who could deny to a family a gift, of which you hold, as it were, a deposit kept in a citadel? Indeed it is on the lips of rumor that the consulship of the late Felix lives even now: because good things know how to endure after a man, and what is performed gloriously is not confined by the limit of time. [3] But, to pass over his ancient ancestry, sated as we are with the abundance of his forebears, there is still before the eyes of all the most noble father of the candidate, who so shone forth with the torches of his prudence in the senate house that he was deservedly accounted illustrious among so many luminaries of dignities. For, dedicated to the pursuits of letters, he gave over his whole lifetime to the most learned disciplines. Having attained eloquence not, as they say, with the tips of his lips, he sated himself from the whole Aonian fountain. [4] A forceful disputant in books, a charming declaimer in tales, a fresh sower of words, he had altogether matched in merits the authors he had read again and again. He commended too the goods of his studies through the distinctions of his kindliness, knowing that inexperience is the more puffed up by the breeze of pride, which is exposed to light gusts because it is not held fast by the roots of the virtues. He was a certain Cato of our times, who by abstaining from vices would shape others by his examples. Having also most subtly examined the causes of natural things, he fattened himself with the Attic honey of the Cecropian teaching. A knowledge plainly worthy, in which a most honorable mind may find rest, which always embraces in the soul something wholesome: to which nothing unwelcome can befall, since alone it commends to itself all worldly matters, over which slippery fortune holds no command. It is enough for you to remember the rest concerning him, since there is no leisure for us, occupied as we are, to set forth the good qualities of so great a man. [5] Now turn your faces to the candidate, that you may recognize there is in him a trace of his father's praises, and that the father may be judged to have not so much given the likeness of his body as transmitted the marks of his virtue. For he has lived among you, as you know, not with foreign custom, but with Roman gravity. Indeed, joined to honors from his very beginnings, he allied his boyhood, which is the surest indication of probity, always with the most glorious men in rivalrous gravity, so that after the examples of domestic virtue he might take steadfastness from public authority. And although he pursued the favor of all with undiscriminating choice, since from among great men one can rarely be chosen, nevertheless he adorned himself with affection for the patrician Paulinus, that from this he might give a sign of his admirable discernment, in that he was seen to hasten toward a preeminent man. [6] For the longed-for friendship of one's betters confers distinction, which the fellowship of good morals knows how to instill, since with harmonious affection it strives that the one it loves should be its equal. To this man therefore, conscript fathers, resplendent with ancestral goods together with his own merits, grant the brilliance of your favor. He comes not unequal to the insignia of the curials, who descends from a splendid stock. [7] For Rome has often chosen the fasces from the walls of Gaul, lest either it should despise distinguished men to its own loss, or proven virtue should remain without honor. Let the noble senate house therefore be filled with provincial goods, whose own property is whatever seems to be preeminent. The year itself, the father of the seasons, composes itself with a fourfold diversity, and would not arouse longing if it did not possess the grace of novelty. Favor therefore, conscript fathers, your own increase, by our judgment. For if the candidate is adorned, what he merits already profits you.

III. SENATUI URBIS ROMAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Gaudete, patres conscripti, redisse vobis stipendia dignitatum: gaudete provincias longa aetate desuetas viros vobis pendere consulares et de tali auspicio maiora promittite. solent initia portendere meliora, dum a parvis inchoant, quae in sequentibus magna se ammiratione sublimant. [2] Iacebat nobilis origo sub Gallicano iustitio et honoribus suis privata peregrinabatur in patria. tandem pressos divina levaverunt: Romam recepere cum gloria et avorum antiquas laurus ab honorata curiae silva legerunt. nam quis possit negare generi munus, cuius habetis velut in arce depositum? in ore quippe rumoris est quondam Felicis adhuc vivere consulatum: quia bona norunt durare post hominem et quod gloriose geritur, fine temporis non tenetur. [3] Cuius ut antiquam prosapiem, satiati veterum copia, transeamus, est adhuc in oculis omnium candidati nobilissimus pater, qui prudentiae facibus ita praeluxit in curia, ut haberetur merito clarus inter tot lumina dignitatum. litterarum quippe studiis dedicatus perpetuam doctissimis disciplinis mancipavit aetatem. non primis, ut aiunt, labris eloquentiam consecutus toto Aonii se fonte satiavit. [4] Vehemens disputator in libris, amoenus declamator in fabulis, verborem novellus sator aequiperaverat prorsus meritis quos lectitarat auctoros. commendavit etiam studiorum bona per benignitatis insignia: sciens imperitiam magis inflari aura superbiae, quae levibus flabris exponitur, quia virtutum radicibus non tenetur. fuit quidam nostrorum temporum Cato, qui abstinendo vitiis alios formaret exemplis. rerum quoque naturalium causas subtilissime perscrutatus Cecropii dogmatis Attico se melle saginavit. digna plane scientia, in qua mens honestissima conquiescat, quae animo semper aliquid salutare complectitur: cui accidere nulla possunt ingrata, dum sibi commendat omnia mundanarum rerum sola, cui labilis fortuna non imperat. cetera de illo meminisse vos sufficit, quando bona explicare tanti viri non vacat occupatis. [5] Nunc ad candidatum ora convertite, ut paternarum laudum in hunc recognoscatis esse vestigium, nec tantum pater imaginem dedisse corporis quam signa iudicetur transfudisse virtutis. vixit enim inter vos, ut scitis, non consuetudine peregrina, sed gravitate Romana. ab ipsis quippe primordiis honoribus aggregatus pueritiam suam, quod est certissimae probitatis indicium, gloriosissimis viris aemula semper gravitate sociavit, ut post domesticae virtutis exempla sumeret de publica auctoritate constantiam. et quamquam omnium gratiam indiscreta fuerit electione sectatus quia de magnis raro eligi potest, tamen patricii Paulini se ornavit affectu, ut hinc daret mirabilis conscientiae signum, quod ad virum visus est festinare praecipuum. [6] Praestat enim decus amicitia desiderata potiorum, quam societas bonorum morum callet infundere, dum affectione concordi parem sibi studet esse quem diligit. huic igitur, patres conscripti, avitis bonis cum suis meritis relucenti vestrae gratiae praestate fulgorem. non impar ad curialium insignia venit, qui de speciosa stirpe descendit. [7] Legit enim frequenter Roma fasces de moenibus Gallicanis, ne aut in damno suo praecipua contemneret aut probata virtus inhonora cessaret. impleatur ergo nobilis curia provincialibus bonis, cuius est proprium quodcumque videtur esse praecipuum. ipse quoque annus temporum pater quadrifaria se diversitate componit, nec desiderium caperet, si novitatis gratiam non haberet. favete ergo, patres conscripti, augmento vestro, nostro iudicio. nam si candidatus ornabitur, iam vobis proficit quod meretur.