Letter 9001: Athalaric, King of the Goths, to Hilderic, King of the Vandals.

I. KING ATHALARIC TO HILDERIC, KING OF THE VANDALS. [1] We are constrained by an exceedingly harsh lot, that those whom formerly we called dear kinsmen we must now charge with the most bitter grievances, which no one who is known to ponder the memorials of family devotion can lay aside. For who could fail to know that Amalafrida [the late queen, sister of Theodoric], of divine memory, the distinguished glory of our lineage, met among you a violent setting of her light, and that her whom you once held as your sovereign lady you did not suffer to live even as a private person? If she seemed to be burdensome to her kindred contrary to right, she ought to have been sent back to us as an honored person, she whom you sought out with great entreaties. It is a kind of parricide, that her whom the union of a king had made your kinswoman, you should, by unspeakable acts of daring, conspire together for her destruction. [2] What so great an evil did she deserve, abandoned by her own husband? If the succession was owed to another, surely a woman could not be found to stand in the way of that ambition? Nay rather, she ought to have been held as a mother, who poured the kingdom over to you. For this too would have been an addition to your nobility, if among the stock of the Hasdingi you had retained the purple dignity of Amal blood. This our Goths perceive to have been attempted, rather to their own reproach. For he who brought death upon the lady of a foreign nation is seen to have utterly despised the valor of her kindred, since no one supposes that to be worth attempting which he believes must be cut off. [3] And therefore, admonished by moral reasoning, through our envoys so-and-so and so-and-so we first seek fairness from you by words, looking to see what kind of excuse may be offered for such great calamities. For even if any business whatsoever had arisen in the case of such a person, it ought to have been made known to us, so that she who had mixed herself up in the worst of deeds might perish also by our judgment. It remains that her death be feigned as natural. We do not ask for impossible things, we do not seek novelties: hand over so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so, through whom the deed ought to be brought to light. Let there be in them the complete proof of the whole case, without war, without slaughter; let it either render us appeased, or render you guilty. [4] But if you believe this is to be scorned and do not compose yourselves to reasonable answers, we are released from the terms of the peace entered into, we who are not held by the bond of a broken treaty. Let the heavenly majesty now avenge a crime committed by whatever artifice, that majesty which professes that the impious slaughter of a brother's blood cries out to it.

I. HILDERICO REGI VVANDALORUM ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Durissima nimis sorte constringimur, ut quos ante dulces parentes diximus, nunc eis causas amarissimas imputemus, quas nemo potest relinquere, qui pietatis noscitur monimenta cogitare. quis enim nesciat divae recordationis Amalafridam, generis nostri decus egregium, violentum apud vos reperisse lucis occasum, et quam pridem habuistis dominam, passi non estis vivere nec privatam? haec si contra fas parentelae gravis esse videbatur, remitti ad nos debuit honorabilis, quam magnis supplicationibus expetistis. parricidii genus est, ut quam vobis fecerat affinem coniunctio regis, nefandis ausibus in eius vos interitum misceretis. [2] Quid tantum mali a suo coniuge relicta promeruit? si successio debebatur alteri, numquid femina in eo ambitu potuit inveniri? mater quin immo haberi debuit, quae vobis regna transfudit. nam et hoc nobilitati vestrae fuisset adiectum, si inter Hasdingorum stirpem retinuissetis Hamali sanguinis purpuream dignitatem. hoc Gothi nostri ad suum potius opprobrium intellegunt fuisse temptatum. nam qui dominae alienae gentis intulit necem, omnino eius parentum visus est despexisse virtutem, quando nemo quod resecandum credit, putat esse temptandum. [3] Et ideo morali ratione commoniti per illum et illum legatos nostros verbis prius a vobis expetimus aequitatem, spectantes qualis excusatio tantis casibus afferatur. nam etsi quodlibet negotium in tali persona fuisset enatum, nobis debuit intimari, ut et nostro iudicio periret, quae se pessimis actibus miscuisset. restat ut naturalis eius fingatur occasus. inpossibilia non dicimus, nova non quaerimus: illum et illum atque illum tradite, per quos res facta debeat elucere. sit in eis totius causae absoluta probatio, sine bello, sine caede, aut nos efficiat placatos, aut vos reddat obnoxios. [4] Quod si creditis esse temnendum nec vos ad rationabilia responsa componitis, condicione initae pacis absolvimur, qui laesi foederis vinculo non tenemur. vindicet nunc superna maiestas scelus qualibet arte commissum, quae ad se clamare profitetur fraterni sanguinis impiam caedem.