Letter 122: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Letter] of Anastasius to the Senate of the City of Rome, through Theopompus and Severianus, most illustrious men. [Summary:] That he entreats for the peace of the Church, both before King Theodoric and before the Pope. The Emperor Caesar Flavius Anastasius, renowned high priest, renowned conqueror of the Germans, renowned conqueror of the Alamanni, renowned conqueror of the Franks, renowned conqueror of the Sarmatians, holding the tribunician power for the twenty-fifth time, consul for the third time, pious, fortunate, victorious, ever Augustus, father of the fatherland, to the proconsuls, the consuls, the praetors, the tribunes of the plebs, and to his own Senate, sends greeting. If you and your children are well, it is good: I and my army are likewise [well]. As often as, by a favorable disposition, prosperous outcomes attend both commonwealths [...], not only an exhortation but a petition also is believed fitting to be made, so that, with two causes converging into one, the spirit, once stirred, may have the power to attain that which is happy and good for the parties. For if Christ, our God and Lord, both through his most gentle will and through a certain entreaty of his dispensation has called us back to himself, and, having redeemed us by his own blood, has restored us to liberty, that he might bestow salvation upon mortality; it does not seem absurd that the conscript fathers of the kindly city of Rome, joined to the imperial petition, should hope, both before the most glorious king and before the most blessed Pope, for those things which, with God assenting, may profit in common both ourselves and you: that is, that they may not hear the contrived discourses of fugitives, composed of mere falsehood, but rather, with satisfaction received - which both the truth and the inquiry of the envoys who were sent has made plain - may hasten toward the desired peace with that delight which is acceptable to God. For it is beyond doubt, from the long succession of years, that your constancy lays claim to a great part of the commonwealth. Therefore it behooves your most holy assembly to strive with skillful zeal and provident labor, both before the exalted king, to whom the power and the care of governing you has been committed, and before the venerable Pope, to whom the faculty of interceding before God has been granted, that they may deign to expend the goodness of their spirit upon that quarter in which the members of both commonwealths may be saved by the hoped-for soundness. For you will fulfill the ancient custom, and one most well known by reason of your counsel, if, by treating, hoping, and demanding those things which befit the public utility, you bring about their effect, with God as your guide. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of August at Chalcedon, [...] being consul, a most illustrious man. [Editorial note within the manuscript tradition, on the emperor's complaint against the Greeks, and against Anastasius in particular:] When they had promised that they would dispatch priestly men, our brother and fellow-bishop Ennodius [among them], to confirm those things which the Apostolic See had demanded, they not only failed to send, in accordance with their own [agreement], men of no ill repute, in whose hands there could be full instruction of the case itself, but, as though a trivial matter were being transacted, they appointed laymen and persons foreign to the ecclesiastical body. [Textual notes from the editor: In one branch of the manuscripts (b, CC) the reading is different ("6 a": ...let them provoke things looked for, certain heavenly matters - "a" adds "Now"). In one fuller manuscript (G, a) a shorter heading is prefixed to this inscription: "Anastasius Augustus to the Senate of the City of Rome, through Theopompus and Severianus, most illustrious men." The b manuscripts altered the inscription a little, whether by mere carelessness I do not know: "The Emperor Caesar Flavius Anastasius, pious, fortunate, victorious, ever Augustus, renowned conqueror of the Germans, renowned conqueror of the Alamanni, [renowned conqueror] of the Franks, renowned conqueror of the Sarmatians, father of the fatherland, to the consuls," etc. Furthermore Anastasius had already held the third consulship - by which he here names himself consul for the third time - from the year [5]07. Now he had been proclaimed emperor in the year 491, in the month of April, and accordingly the twenty-fifth year of the tribunician power is reckoned by him not from the month in which he entered upon the imperial office to the month in which I write, but from the year in which he was created emperor to the year in which this letter was sent. (In the year 516.)]

^nastasii ad senatnni nrbis Komae per Tlieoponipum et ^g^j^^' Severianum viros ciarissimos. t/ £ pacem Ecdesiae ium apud regem Theodoricum tum apud papam deprecetur. Imperator') Caesar Flavius Anastasius, pontifex inclytus, Germanicus inclytus, Alamannicus inclytus, Francicus inclytus, Sarmaticus in- clytus, tribuniciae potestatis XXV, consul III, pius, felix, victor, semper augustus, pa- ter patriae, proconsulibus, consulibus, prae- toribus, tribunis plebis senatuique suo salu- tem dicit. Si vos liberique vestri valetis, bene est: ego exercitusque meus *^inus. Quotiens utrisque publicis rebus prospera voluntate con- ^^orat de Graecis generatim, in Anastasium nominatim conveniebat: quum ^nnodium ait fratrtm et coepiscopum nostrum sacerdotes viros ad confirmanda * ^uae sedes apostolica poposcerat , direcluros se esse promLsissent , non solum non ^Tiosos viros, penes quos causae ipsius plena esse posset inslructio^ secundum con- "***fl propria non miserunt^ verum etiam quasi res parva gereretur, laicos et alie- ^ «6 ecclesiastico corpore destinarunl, •) Ita b CC; 6* a^ spectata provocent, quaedam (a^ add. Jam) caeiesti. ') In G* a' ampb*ori hiiic inscriptioni brevior ista praemittitnr: Anastasius '&9tstus senatui urbis Romae per Theopompum et Severianum VV cc, — b cc in- *^;tptionem, nescio an sola incuria quadam, paulo mutarimt: Imp. Caes. Fl. ^^^t.pius, feliXf victor, semper augustus, Ocrmanicus incl,, Alamannic. incl., Franc. ^* 9 Sarmaticus inclytus, pater patriae, consulibus etc. Porro Anastasius consula- *^ III, a quo sese hic consulem tertio denominat, jara ab anno 607 gesserat. ^l^erator autem anno 491 mense Aprili fuerat renuntiatus, adeoque tiibunitiae *^^siatis XXV annus non a mense, quo imperium iniit, ad mcnsem quo scribo- ^^, sed ab anno quo crcatus fiiit imperator, ad annum quo baec epistola mirtsa *^» ab illo numeratur. i a. 616. sulitur, non solum exhortatio sed postulatio quoque creditar esse convenieus, ut duabus in unum concurrentibus causis animus inci- tatus^ quod felix et bonum partibus sit^ valeat adipisci. Si eienim Christus Deus et Dorainus noster et per mitissimam voluntatem et quamdam dispensationis petitionem nos revocavit ad se, et redemptos proprio sanguine libertati restituit, ut salutem mortalitati praesta- ret; non videtur absurdum, tam apud gloriosissimum regem, quam apud beatissimum papam almae urbis Romae patres conscriptoe, im- periali petitioni conjunctos, oa sperare, quae et nobis et sibi Deo annuente in commune proficiant: hoc est, ne fugitivorum audiau^ concinnatos sermones et mendacio solo composito&^ sed satisfactionc suscepta, quam et veritas et legatorum qui directi sunt inquisitio patefecit, ad desideratam pacem acceptabili Deo voluptate coneuJ* rant^). Indubitatum siquidem est ex longa annorum serie, multafiJ'1 partem, reipublicae vestram vindicare constantiam. Proinde oporfc^ sanctissimum coetum vestrum solerti studio ac provido labore cox- tendere tam apud excelsum regem, cui regendi vos potestas et 9^' licitudo commissa est, quam apud venerabilem papam, cui int>^^' cedendi apufl Deum facultas est praestita, ut in ea parte animi ^^ bonitatem dignentur impendere, in qua utriusque reipublicae m^^ ^* bra sperata sanitate salventur. Implebitis enim veterem consa dinem et nimis consilio vestro notissimam, si ea, quae publi utilitati conveniunt, tractando, sperando, postulando effectum adip Deo auspice feceritis. Data V Calendas Augusti Calchedone^ viro clarissimo consule.