Part 64 (2/2)

'This kind of crime brings our times into disgrace, and turns the charm of that quiet resting-place into disgust. Diligently enquire into it, for the credit of our Comitatus is involved in our subjects being able to journey to it in safety. At first, no doubt, the offenders will lie close, and seem as silent as the unmoved Arethusa.

But begin your investigations, and they will soon break forth, like that fountain, with angry exclamations, in the midst of which you will discover the truth. Punish the offenders severely; for we should regret that owing to the excesses of robbers that wonderful and joy-bringing fountain should be deserted.'

33. KING ATHALARIC TO SEVERUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.

[Sidenote: The Feast of St. Cyprian.]

'We hear that the rustics are indulging in disorderly practices, and robbing the market-people who come from all quarters to the chief fair of Lucania on the day of St. Cyprian. This must by all means be suppressed, and your Respectability should quietly collect a sufficient number of the owners and tenants of the adjoining farms[568] to overpower these freebooters and bring them to justice.

Any rustic or other person found guilty of disturbing the fair should be at once punished with the stick[569], and then exhibited with some mark of infamy upon him[570].

[Footnote 568: 'Spectabilitas vestra praedicto tempore, una c.u.m Possessoribus atque Conductoribus diversarum ma.s.sarum ad quietem convenientium ... reos inveniat,' &c.]

[Footnote 569: 'Inter ipsa initia comprehensus fustuariae subdatur ultioni.']

[Footnote 570: 'Pompatus mala nota.']

'This fair, which according to the old superst.i.tion was named Leucothea [after the nymph], from the extreme purity of the fountain at which it is held, is the greatest fair in all the surrounding country. Everything that industrious Campania, or opulent Bruttii, or cattle-breeding Calabria[571], or strong Apulia produces, is there to be found exposed for sale, on such reasonable terms that no buyer goes away dissatisfied. It is a charming sight to see the broad plains filled with suddenly-reared houses formed of leafy branches intertwined: all the beauty of the most leisurely-built city, and yet not a wall to be seen. There stand ready boys and girls, with the attractions which belong to their respective s.e.xes and ages, whom not captivity but freedom sets a price upon. These are with good reason sold by their parents, since they themselves gain by their very servitude. For one cannot doubt that they are benefited even as slaves [or servants?], by being transferred from the toil of the fields to the service of cities[572].

[Footnote 571: 'Calabri peculiosi.']

[Footnote 572: 'Praesto sunt pueri ac puellae, diverso s.e.xu atque aetate conspicuo, quos non facit captivitas esse sub pretio sed libertas: hos merito parentes vendunt, quoniam de ipsa famulatione proficiunt. Dubium quippe non est servos posse meliorari qui de labore agrorum ad urbana servitia transferuntur.' With almost any writer but Ca.s.siodorus this would prove that in the Sixth Century free Italians were selling their children into actual slavery. But I doubt whether he really means more than that the children of the country people were for hire as domestic servants in the cities. If so, the scene is not unlike our own 'statute fairs' or 'hirings' in the north of England.

It appears from -- 94 of the Edictum Theodorici that parents could sell their children, but that the latter did not lose their _status ingenuus_. Must they then claim it on coming of age? 'Parentes qui cogente necessitate filios suos alimentorum gratia vendiderint ingenuitati eorum non praejudicant. _h.o.m.o enim liber pretio nullo aestimatur._' Cf. also -- 95: 'Operas enim tantum parentes filiorum quos in potestate habuerint, locare possunt.']

'What can I say of the bright and many-coloured garments? what of the sleek and well-fed cattle offered at such a price as to tempt any purchaser?

'The place itself is situated in a wide and pleasant plain, a suburb of the ancient city of Cosilinum, and has received the name of Marcilianum from the founder of these sacred springs[573].

[Footnote 573: Marcilianum is now Sala, in the valley of the Calore (Tanager). Padula is thought by some to mark the site of Cosilinum.

The Island of Leucosia, now Licosa, a few miles from Paestum, evidently does not represent the Leucothea of this letter.]

'And this is in truth a marvellous fountain, full and fresh, and of such transparent clearness that when you look through it you think you are looking through air alone. Choice fishes swim about in the pool, perfectly tame, because if anyone presumes to capture them he soon feels the Divine vengeance. On the morning which precedes the holy night [of St. Cyprian], as soon as the Priest begins to utter the baptismal prayer, the water begins to rise above its accustomed height. Generally it covers but five steps of the well, but the brute element, as if preparing itself for miracles, begins to swell, and at last covers two steps more, never reached at any other time of the year. Truly a stupendous miracle, that streams of water should thus stand still or increase at the sound of the human voice, as if the fountain itself desired to listen to the sermon.

'Thus hath Lucania a river Jordan of her own. Wherefore, both for religion's sake and for the profit of the people, it behoves that good order should be kept among the frequenters of the fair, since in the judgment of all, that man must be deemed a villain who would sully the joys of such happy days.'

BOOK IX.

CONTAINING TWENTY-FIVE LETTERS, ALL WRITTEN IN THE NAME OF ATHALARIC THE KING.

1. KING ATHALARIC TO HILDERIC, KING OF THE VANDALS (A.D. 527).

[Sidenote: Murder of Amalafrida, widow of King Thrasamund and sister of Theodoric.]

<script>