Letter 3049: The devotion that anticipates a good command is welcome and pleasing to us, and it is rightly well-received when...
Cassiodorus→Honorati, landowners, defenders, and curials of city of Tridentum (Trento)|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus|AI-assisted
barbarian invasion
49. KING THEODERIC TO THE HONORABLE LANDHOLDERS, DEFENDERS, AND CURIALS OF THE CITY OF CATANA.
[1] Pleasing and welcome to us is the devotion that has gone before a good command, and it is rightly received with gratitude if something we are able to order is requested. For it is the good fortune of one who reigns that those who serve love what is expedient, since the toil of deliberation is taken from us when our subjects arrange the things that will profit them. [2] And therefore, now that the substance of your petition is known to us, the petition that you have undertaken out of civic love for the strengthening of your walls, we judge that you have full license in this matter: nor should you fear anything in this affair, on account of which you ought presently to expect the rewards of our favor. For your fortification is no less our own strength: and whatever snatches you from uncertainty extends the renown of our protection. [3] Therefore, as for the stones which you report to have fallen from the amphitheater through long age, and which no longer serve any public adornment except only to display their unsightly ruins, we grant you license over them solely for public uses, so that what cannot be of profit if it lies prostrate may rise into the face of the walls. Wherefore carry out confidently whatever caution requires for defense, whatever ornament demands for beauty, knowing only that what you do will be as pleasing to us as the dignity of your city shall thereby have been raised up.
XLVIIII. HONORATIS POSSESSORIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS CATINENSIS CIVITATIS THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Optabilis nobis est et grata devotio, quae bonam praecesserit iussionem, et merito acceptum redditur, si quid, quod possumus imperare, poscatur. felicitas enim regnantis est famulantes amare quod expedit, quando labor nobis cogitationis aufertur, dum subiecti sibi profutura disponunt. [2] Atque ideo suggestionis vestrae tenore comperto, quam caritate civica in communiendis moenibus suscepistis, absolutam huius rei vobis censemus esse licentiam: nec quicquam de hac re vereamini, unde gratiae nostrae expectare praemia mox debetis. vestra enim munitio nostra est nihilominus fortitudo: et quicquid vos ab incerto eripit, famam nostrae defensionis extendit. [3] Saxa ergo, quae suggeritis de amphitheatro longa vetustate collapsa nec aliquid ornatui publico iam prodesse nisi solas turpes ruinas ostendere, licentiam vobis eorum in usus dumtaxat publicos damus, ut in murorum faciem surgat, quod non potest prodesse, si iaceat. quocirca perficite confidenter, quicquid cautio ad munimen, quicquid ornatus expetit ad decorem, tantum nobis scituri gratum fore quod facitis, quantum exinde gratia vestrae se civitatis extulerit.
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49. KING THEODERIC TO THE HONORABLE LANDHOLDERS, DEFENDERS, AND CURIALS OF THE CITY OF CATANA.
[1] Pleasing and welcome to us is the devotion that has gone before a good command, and it is rightly received with gratitude if something we are able to order is requested. For it is the good fortune of one who reigns that those who serve love what is expedient, since the toil of deliberation is taken from us when our subjects arrange the things that will profit them. [2] And therefore, now that the substance of your petition is known to us, the petition that you have undertaken out of civic love for the strengthening of your walls, we judge that you have full license in this matter: nor should you fear anything in this affair, on account of which you ought presently to expect the rewards of our favor. For your fortification is no less our own strength: and whatever snatches you from uncertainty extends the renown of our protection. [3] Therefore, as for the stones which you report to have fallen from the amphitheater through long age, and which no longer serve any public adornment except only to display their unsightly ruins, we grant you license over them solely for public uses, so that what cannot be of profit if it lies prostrate may rise into the face of the walls. Wherefore carry out confidently whatever caution requires for defense, whatever ornament demands for beauty, knowing only that what you do will be as pleasing to us as the dignity of your city shall thereby have been raised up.
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
XLVIIII. HONORATIS POSSESSORIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS CATINENSIS CIVITATIS THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Optabilis nobis est et grata devotio, quae bonam praecesserit iussionem, et merito acceptum redditur, si quid, quod possumus imperare, poscatur. felicitas enim regnantis est famulantes amare quod expedit, quando labor nobis cogitationis aufertur, dum subiecti sibi profutura disponunt. [2] Atque ideo suggestionis vestrae tenore comperto, quam caritate civica in communiendis moenibus suscepistis, absolutam huius rei vobis censemus esse licentiam: nec quicquam de hac re vereamini, unde gratiae nostrae expectare praemia mox debetis. vestra enim munitio nostra est nihilominus fortitudo: et quicquid vos ab incerto eripit, famam nostrae defensionis extendit. [3] Saxa ergo, quae suggeritis de amphitheatro longa vetustate collapsa nec aliquid ornatui publico iam prodesse nisi solas turpes ruinas ostendere, licentiam vobis eorum in usus dumtaxat publicos damus, ut in murorum faciem surgat, quod non potest prodesse, si iaceat. quocirca perficite confidenter, quicquid cautio ad munimen, quicquid ornatus expetit ad decorem, tantum nobis scituri gratum fore quod facitis, quantum exinde gratia vestrae se civitatis extulerit.