Letter 8031: It is a matter of deep concern to us that the liberal arts -- which have always been the glory of Rome -- should...

31. King Athalaric to Severus, Most Distinguished Man [vir spectabilis]. [1] Since we believe that you, by laudably attending to the counsels of the prefects, have learned all those things that pertain to the ordering of the commonwealth's condition, you have above all recognized -- being learned in letters -- that the fair countenance of cities is that which is shown to possess an assembly of peoples. For thus in those cities both the adornment of liberty shines forth, and the effect necessary to our regulations is served. To beasts it has been granted to seek out fields and woods, but to men to love their ancestral hearths above all things. [2] The birds themselves fly in flocks, those which grow gentle through a harmless disposition: the melodious thrushes love the dense gathering of their own kind; the chattering starlings follow their companions like armies without ceasing; the murmuring wood pigeons love their own cohorts, and whatever belongs to the simple life does not refuse the grace of joining together. [3] On the contrary, the spirited hawks, the hunting eagles, and -- beyond all the winged creatures -- those gazing more sharply, desire solitary flights, because rapacious ambushes do not seek out harmless gatherings. For they aim to do something alone, who do not wish to find their prey along with another. So too the will of mortals is most often detestable when it is shown to flee the sight of men, nor can anything good be truly believed of him for whose life no witness can be found. [4] Let the landholders and the curiales [town councilors] of Bruttium return: in their own cities they are settlers who till their fields continually. Let those whom we have honored, and to whom we have entrusted public functions by a commendable estimation, allow themselves to be set apart from rustic life -- especially in that region where unlaboured delights come in abundance: [5] there Ceres luxuriates in great fertility; Pallas too rejoices with no small bounty; the level lands smile with fertile pastures, the steep ones with vineyards; it abounds with manifold herds of animals, but it glories most in droves of horses -- deservedly, since in the burning season the springtime of the woods is such that the animals are neither wearied by the stings of flies and are filled to satiety by the ever-green grasses. You might see the purest streams running along the peaks of the mountains, and, as though they flowed forth from on high, so they run down along the summits of the Alps. It is added that on either side it possesses abundant maritime trade through frequent traffic, so that it both overflows richly with its own produce and is filled with foreign stores by the nearness of its shores. There the country folk live on the banquets of townsmen, and the middling sort on the abundance of the most powerful, so that not even the slightest fortune there is shown to be excluded from plenty. [6] Do they then refuse to inhabit this province in its cities, the province which they confess they thoroughly love even in its fields? What does it profit that such men, refined by letters, lie hidden? Boys seek out the gathering of the liberal schools, and as soon as they could be worthy of the forum, they straightway begin to be unknown in their rustic dwelling: they advance only to unlearn; they are educated only to neglect it; and while they love their fields, they do not know how to love themselves. Let the learned man seek where he can become glorious; let the prudent man not spurn the throng of men, among whom he knows he is to be praised. Otherwise fame is taken away from virtues, if their merits be not known among men. [7] For what kind of longing is it to desert the throng of citizens, when they see that even certain birds wish to mingle themselves with human company? For the nightingale trustingly hangs its nests among the dwellings of mortals, and amid the crowds of those living together it rears its young without fear. It is therefore exceedingly base for a nobleman to bring up his sons in desolate places, when he sees that the birds have entrusted their own offspring to human society. Let the cities, then, return to their former dignity: let no one prefer the pleasantness of the countryside to the walls of the ancients. [8] How can one flee for refuge in peace that for whose sake war must be undertaken, lest it be laid waste? To whom would the meeting of nobles seem less welcome? To whom is it not a thing of affection to share conversation with one's equals, to seek the forum, to visit the honorable arts, to dispatch one's own cases by the laws, sometimes to be occupied with the counters of Palamedes [board games / dice], to go to the baths with one's associates, to set out luncheons with mutual provision? He is assuredly deprived of all these things who wishes always to have his life among his servants. [9] But lest, further on, a mind otherwise imbued should slip back into the same habit, let both the landholders and the curiales, sureties having been given, under an assessment of their means and a penalty interposed, promise that for the greater part of the year they will remain in the cities which they have chosen to inhabit. So it comes about that neither is the adornment of citizens lacking to them, nor is the pleasure of the fields denied.

XXXI. SEVERO V. S. ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Cum te praefectorum consiliis laudabiliter inhaerentem omnia didicisse credamus, quae ad rei publicae statum pertinent componendum, maxime cognovisti litteris eruditus pulchram esse faciem civitatum, quae populorum probantur habere conventum. sic enim et in illis splendet libertatis ornatus et nostris ordinationibus necessarius servit effectus. feris datum est agros silvasque quaerere, hominibus autem focos patrios supra cuncta diligere. [2] Aves ipsae gregatim volant, quae innoxia voluntate mitescunt: canori turdi amant sui generis densitatem: strepentes sturni compares sequuntur indesinenter exercitus: murmurantes palumbi proprias diligunt cohortes et quicquid ad simplicem pertinet vitam, adunationis gratiam non refutat. [3] Contra animosi accipitres, aquilae venatrices et supra omnes alites acutius intuentes volatus solitarios concupiscunt, quia rapaces insidiae innoxia conventicula non requirunt. ambiunt enim aliquid soli agere, qui praedam cum altero non desiderant invenire. sic mortalium voluntas plerumque detestabilis est, quae conspectum hominum probatur effugere, nec potest de illo aliquid boni veraciter credi, cuius vitae testis non potest inveniri. [4] Redeant possessores et curiales Bruttii: in civitatibus suis coloni sunt, qui agros iugiter colunt. patiantur se a rusticitate divisos, quibus et honores dedimus et actiones publicas probabili aestimatione commisimus, in ea praesertim regione, ubi affatim veniunt inelaboratae deliciae: [5] Ceres ibi multa fecunditate luxuriat: Pallas etiam non minima largitate congaudet: plana rident pascuis fecundis, erecta vindemiis: abundat multifariis animalium gregibus, sed equinis maxime gloriatur armentis: merito, quando ardenti tempore tale est vernum silvarum, ut nec muscarum aculeis animalia fatigentur et herbarum semper virentium satietatibus expleantur. videas per cacumina montium rivos ire purissimos et quasi ex edito profluant, sic per Alpium summa decurrunt. additur, quod utroque latere copiosa marina possidet frequentatione commercia, ut et propriis fructibus affluenter exuberet et peregrino penu vicinitate litorum compleatur. vivunt illic rustici epulis urbanorum, mediocres autem abundantia praepotentum, ut nec minima ibi fortuna copiis probetur excepta. [6] Hanc ergo provinciam civitatibus nolunt incolere, quam vel in agris suis se fatentur omnino diligere? quid prodest tantos viros latere litteris defaecatos? pueri liberalium scholarum conventum quaerunt et mox foro potuerint esse digni, statim incipiunt agresti habitatione nesciri: proficiunt, ut dediscant: erudiuntur, ut neglegant et cum agros diligunt, se amare non norunt. quaerat eruditus, ubi possit existere gloriosus: prudens frequentiam non respuat hominum, in qua se novit esse laudandum. alioquin virtutibus fama tollitur, si earum merita in hominibus nesciantur. [7] Nam quale desiderium est civium frequentiam deserere, cum aliquas quoque avium conversationi humanae se videant velle miscere? mortalium enim penatibus fiducialiter nidos philomena suspendit et inter commanentium turbas pullos nutrit intrepida. foedum ergo nimis est nobili filios in desolationibus educare, cum frequentationi humanae videat alites sua pignora commisisse. redeant igitur civitates in pristinum decus: nullus amoenitatem ruris praeponat moenibus antiquorum. [8] Quomodo potest in pace refugi, pro qua oportet bellum, ne vastetur, assumi? cui enim minus grata nobilium videatur occursio? cui non affectuosum sit cum paribus miscere sermonem, forum petere, honestas artes invisere, causas proprias legibus expedire, interdum Palamediacis calculis occupari, ad balneas ire cum sociis, prandia mutuis apparatibus exhibere? caret profecto omnibus his, qui vitam suam vult semper habere cum famulis. [9] Sed ne ulterius in eandem consuetudinem mens aliter inbuta relabatur, datis fideiussoribus tam possessores quam curiales sub aestimatione virium poena interposita promittant anni parte maiore in civitatibus se manere, quas habitare delegerint. sic fit, ut eis nec ornatus desit civium nec voluptas denegetur agrorum.