Letter 8016: It is customary for those approaching court offices to be weighed by long examination, lest the royal judgment seem...

16. King Athalaric to Opilio, Count of the Sacred Largesses [imperial treasury]. [1] Those who come to the dignities of the court are indeed accustomed to be weighed by long examination, lest the imperial judgment should seem to approve anything doubtful, since it is the glory of the realm to have found out exquisite judges. But so frequent is the most fortunate advancement of your family, prudence has been so declared in so many persons, that, even though someone should choose you on a sudden, he would seem to have done nothing uncertain. A fortunate vein preserves the likeness of its own kin, since those who cannot find the like within their own line are ashamed to do wrong. [2] Hence it is that to have chosen a noble man is recognized as better than to have made a fortunate one: because the former, admonished by the deeds of the ancients, guards himself, while the latter has no example except what he himself shall have done. Therefore we trust you securely, since we rejoice that this office has so often been entrusted to your line. Your father presided over these fasces [insignia of office]; but your brother too shone with the same brightness. The dignity itself, in a manner, set up its household shrine among your house-gods [penates], and what was domestic became a public ornament. [3] For you learned the order of public service under your brother's praise, to whom, joined by mutual affection, you filled the part of an associate in labors and of a brother in the sharing of counsels, judging that what your brother had received pertained rather to you. Upon this staff that more fortunate man leaned, neglecting certain things through his confident reliance upon you, because through you he perceived that all things were fulfilled. [4] Behold the sweet obedience of brothers and, in present times, the harmony of old. Well is judgment entrusted to such dispositions, who are felt by nature to preserve good morals. But if, perchance, pleasant retreats and provincial leisure had been agreeable to him, the throngs of litigants and the anxious prayers of the wronged ran to you. Among them you took up the office of a good judge, so that, as if by some urgent foreknowledge of what was to come, you carried out by an assumption of merits what you could have received from us. [5] We remember also with what devotion you served us in the beginnings of our reign, when the obedience of the faithful is held to be most necessary. For when, after the passing of the lord our grandfather of divine memory, the anxious prayers of the peoples trembled, and the hearts of the subjects were flooded with doubt about the heir of so great a realm still uncertain, you, a fortunate bearer, announced our auspices to the Ligurians, and, made firm by the address of your wisdom, they changed into joys the grief which they had conceived from the setting [death], at the rising of our rule. The renewal of the king passed without any confusion, and your solicitude brought it about that no one offended us. [6] And therefore, since you have been proved by such institutions, with the divinity favorable to you we grant you, from the sixth indiction, the comitiva [countship] of the Sacred Largesses with good fortune. You shall make use of all the privileges and emoluments which are known to have belonged to your predecessors: far be it that those who stand firm by the soundness of their administration should be shaken by any machination of false accusation. For there was a time when even judges were harassed by informers. Lay aside now your dread, you who have no error: enjoy the fruits of your dignities: for what long custom gave to you through your predecessors and forerunners in the times of the lord our grandfather, our indulgence also preserves. [7] We confer upon you your brother's honor: but do you imitate the faithfulness of his service. For if you follow him, you surpass many in praise, a man of the greatest authority, of proven constancy, who under so great a prince both obeyed without fault and exercised his judgments with praise. For it is easy to estimate what he did, since, under an ungrateful successor, the palatine office could not keep silent his commendations. It is therefore not difficult to be able to follow your brother in morals, since those who are begotten from one seed for the most part agree also in the fruit of their conduct.

XVI. OPILIONI COMITI SACRARUM ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Solent quidem venientes ad aulicas dignitates diutina exploratione trutinari, ne imperiale iudicium aliquid probare videatur ambiguum, quando gloria regni est reperisse iudices exquisitos. sed tam frequens est familiae vestrae felicissimus provectus, tam in multis personis declarata prudentia, ut licet aliquis vos eligat ad subitum, nihil fecisse videatur incertum. similitudinem suorum felix vena custodit, quando pudet delinquere, qui similia nequeunt in sui genere reperire. [2] Hinc est, quod melius agnoscitur elegisse nobilem quam fecisse felicem: quia iste commonitus per veterum se facta custodit, ille exemplum non habet nisi quod fecerit. quapropter secure tibi credimus, quod totiens tuo generi commissum fuisse gaudemus. pater his fascibus praefuit: sed et frater eadem resplenduit claritate. ipsa quodammodo dignitas in penatibus vestris larem posuit et domesticum factum est publicum decus. [3] Nam militiae ordinem sub fraterna laude didicisti, cui mutuo conexus affectu implebas laboribus socium et consiliorum participatione germanum, ad te potius pertinere diiudicans quod frater acceperat. hoc baculo reclinabatur ille felicior, astu quaedam neglegens praesumptione tui, quia per te omnia cernebat impleri. [4] En dulce fratrum obsequium et praesentium temporum antiqua concordia. bene talibus sensibus iudicium creditur, qui servare mores naturaliter sentiuntur. quod si amoeni recessus et provinciale otium forte libuissent, ad te catervae causantium et anxia currebant vota laesorum. boni iudicis inter eos assumebas officium ut futurorum quodam urgente praesagio, quod a nobis accipere poteras, meritorum assumptione peragebas. [5] Meminimus etiam, qua nobis in primordiis regni nostri devotione servieris, quando maxime necessarium fidelium habetur obsequium. nam cum post transitum divae memoriae domni avi nostri anxia populorum vota trepidarent et de tanti regni adhuc incerto herede subiectorum se corda perfunderent, auspicia nostra Liguribus felix portitor nuntiasti et sapientiae tuae allocutione firmati maerorem, quem de occasu conceperant, ortu nostri imperii in gaudia commutabant. innovatio regis sine aliqua confusione transivit et sollicitudo tua praestitit, quod nos nullus offendit. [6] Atque ideo probato talibus institutis ab indictione feliciter sexta sacrarum largitionum comitivam propitia tibi divinitate concedimus. usurus es omnibus privilegiis atque emolumentis, quae ad tuos decessores pertinuisse noscuntur: absit enim, ut aliqua calumniae machinatione quatiantur qui actionis suae firmitate consistunt. fuit enim tempus, cum per delatores vexarentur et iudices. deponite iam formidinem, qui non habetis errorem: fructibus vestrarum utimini dignitatum: nam quod vobis per decessores prodecessoresque vestros temporibus domni avi nostri consuetudo longa dedit, indulgentia quoque nostra custodit. [7] Conferimus tibi honorem germani: sed tu fidem eius imitare servitii. nam si illum sequeris, multos laude praecedis, virum auctoritatis maximae, probatae constantiae, qui sub tanto principe et sine culpa paruit et iudicia laudatus exercuit. promptum est enim aestimare quid egerit, quando sub ingrato successore palatinum officium praeconia eius tacere non potuit. difficile non est itaque moribus sequi posse germanum, quia et in conversationis fructu plerumque consentiunt, qui unius semine procreantur.