Part 64 (1/2)

[Footnote 559: 'Antiqui operis formam.']

[Footnote 560: 'Quatenus antiquos cuniculos, sive subterraneos, sive qui junguntur marginibus platearum diligenter emendent.']

'How fair is water in a running stream, but how ugly in puddles and swamps; it is good then neither for man nor beast. Without water city and country alike languish; and rightly did the ancients punish one who was unfit for human society by forbidding all men to give him water. Therefore you ought all heartily to combine for this most useful work, since the man who is not touched by the comeliness of his city has not yet the mind of a citizen.'

31. KING ATHALARIC TO SEVERUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.

[Is Severus _Vicarius Urbis_? His t.i.tle Spectabilis seems to require some such rank as this, otherwise he seems more like a _Corrector_ (Clarissimus) _Bruttiorum et Lucaniae_. Perhaps already the strict gradation established by Diocletian and Constantine was somewhat broken down, and governors received higher t.i.tles than strictly belonged to them.]

[Sidenote: Dissuasions from a country life, and praises of Ca.s.siodorus' native land of Bruttii.]

'Since you, when on the staff of the Praefect, have learned the principles of statesmans.h.i.+p, we are sure that you will agree with us that cities are the chief ornament of human society. Let the wild beasts live in fields and woods: men ought to draw together into cities. Even among birds we see that those of gentle disposition--like thrushes, storks, and doves--love to flock together, while the greedy hawk, intent on its b.l.o.o.d.y pastime, seeks solitude.

'Now we say that the man who shuns human society becomes at once an object of suspicion. Let therefore the Possessores and Curiales of Bruttii return to their cities. The Coloni may cultivate the soil--that is what their name denotes[561]; but the men whom we decorate with civic honours ought to live in cities.

[Footnote 561: 'Coloni sunt qui agros jugiter colunt.']

'In truth it is a lovely land. Ceres and Pallas have crowned it with their respective gifts (corn and oil); the plains are green with pastures, the slopes are purple with vineyards. Above all is it rich in its vast herds of horses[562], and no wonder, since the dense shade of its forests protects them from the bites of flies, and provides them with ever verdant pasture even in the height of summer. Cool waters flow from its lofty heights; fair harbours on both its sh.o.r.es woo the commerce of the world.

[Footnote 562: Cf. what is said (i. 4) as to the large present of horses made by the father of Ca.s.siodorus to Theodoric for the use of the Gothic army.]

'There the countryman enjoys the good food of the citizen, the poor man the abundance of the wealthy[563]. If such then be the charms even of the country in your Province, why should you s.h.i.+rk living in its cities[564]?

[Footnote 563: 'Vivunt illic rustici epulis urbanorum, mediocres autem abundantia praepotentium.' 'Mediocres' and 'tenues' are technical words with Ca.s.siodorus for the poor.]

[Footnote 564: Ca.s.siodorus must have felt the weakness of his logic here. He patriotically praises the rural beauty of Bruttii, yet the conclusion which by main force he arrives at is, 'Leave the country and live in towns.']

'Why should so many men refined by literature skulk in obscurity? The boy goes to a good school, becomes imbued with the love of letters, and then, when he is come to man's estate and should be seeking the Forum in order to display his talents, he suddenly changes into a boor, unlearns all that he has learned, and in his love for the fields forgets what is due to a reasonable love for himself. And yet even birds love human fellows.h.i.+p, and the nightingale boldly rears her brood close to the haunts of men.

'Let the cities then return to their old splendour; let none prefer the charms of the country to the walls reared by the men of old. Why should not everyone be attracted by the concourse of n.o.ble persons, by the pleasures of converse with his equals? To stroll through the Forum, to look in at some skilful craftsman at his work, to push one's own cause through the law courts, then between whiles to play with the counters of Palamedes (draughts), to go to the baths with one's acquaintances, to indulge in the friendly emulation of the banquet--these are the proper employments of a Roman n.o.ble; yet not one of them is tasted by the man who chooses to live always in the country with his farm-servants[565].

[Footnote 565: 'Cui enim minus grata n.o.bilium videatur occursio. Cui non affectuosum sit c.u.m paribus miscere sermonem, forum petere, honestas artes invisere, causas proprias legibus expedire, interdum Palamediacis calculis occupari, ad balneas ire c.u.m sociis, prandia mutuis apparatibus exhibere? Caret profecto omnibus his, qui vitam suam vult semper habere c.u.m famulis.']

'We order therefore that all Possessores and Curiales shall, according to their relative means, find bail and give bonds, promising that they will for the larger part of the year reside in some city, such as they may choose[566]. And thus, while not wholly debarred from the pleasures of the country, they will furnish to the cities their proper adornment of citizens.'

[Footnote 566: 'Datis fidejussoribus jam Possessores quam Curiales, sub aestimatione virium, poena interposita, promittant anni parte majore se in civitatibus manere, quas habitare delegerint.']

32. KING ATHALARIC TO SEVERUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.

[Sidenote: The Fountain of Arethusa.]

'Nimfadius (Vir Sublimis) was journeying to the King's Comitatus on some affair of his own, when, wearied with his journey, he lay down to rest, and let his beasts of burden graze round the fountain of Arethusa.

'This fountain, situated in the territory of Squillace[567], at the foot of the hills and above the sand of the sea, makes a green and pleasant place all round it, fringed with rustling reeds as with a crown. It has certain marvellous properties: for let a man go to it in silence and he sees it calmly flowing, more like a pond than a fountain. But let him cough or speak with a loud voice, and it becomes violently agitated, heaving to and fro like a pot boiling. Strange power this of a fountain to answer a man. I have read that some fountains can change the colours of the animals that drink at them; that others can turn wood dropped into them to stone. The human reason is altogether unable to understand such things as these.

[Footnote 567: 'In Scyllatino territoris.' Transcribers, thinking of the Arethusa at Syracuse, have tried to alter this into _Siciliano_; but there can be little doubt that the above reading is right. As to the situation of the Fountain of Arethusa, see Introduction, p. 72.]

'But let us return to the complaint of our suppliant. Nimfadius a.s.serts that, while he was resting, the country people artfully drove off his beasts of burden.