Part 68 (2/2)
[Footnote 617: 'Et, ut reliqua taceamus, hoc quod loquimur inde est.']
'Wherefore let the teacher of grammar and of rhetoric, if he be found suitable for his work and obey the decrees of the Praefect of the City, be supported by your authority, and suffer no diminution of his salary[618].
[Footnote 618: 'Et semel Primi Ordinis vestri ac reliqui Senatus amplissimi auctoritate firmatus.' What is the meaning of 'Primi Ordinis vestri?']
'To prevent his being dependent in any way on the caprice of his employer, let him receive half his salary at the end of half a year, and his _annonae_ at the customary times. If the person whose business it is to pay him neglects this order, he shall be charged interest on the arrears.
'The Grammarian is a man to whom every hour unemployed is misery, and it is a shame that such a man should have to wait the caprice of a public functionary before he gets his pay. We provide for the salaries of the play-actors, who minister only to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the public; and how much more for these men, the moulders of the style and character of our youth! Therefore let them henceforward not have to try the philosophical problem of thinking about two things at once, but, with their minds at ease about their subsistence, devote themselves with all their vigour to the teaching of liberal arts.'
22. KING ATHALARIC TO PAULINUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS AND CONSUL (533).
[Flavius Theodoras Paulinus Junior was Consul with the Emperor Justinian in 534. This letter was written in Sept. 533, about thirteen months before the death of Athalaric. Paulinus was son of Venantius and grandson of Liberius.]
[Sidenote: Paulinus chosen as Consul.]
'The absent from our Court need not fear that they will be disregarded in the distribution of honours, especially when they are sprung from an ill.u.s.trious stock, the offspring of the Senate.
'In your family Rome recognises the descendants of her ancient heroes the Decii, who, in a great crisis, alone saved their country.
'Take then for the twelfth Indiction the ensigns of the Consuls.h.i.+p[619]. It is an arduous honour, but one which your family is well used to. The Fasti are studded with its names, and nearly all the Senate is of kin to you. Still, presume not too much on the merits of your ancestors, but rather seek to emulate their n.o.ble deeds.'
[Footnote 619: The twelfth Indiction began Sept. 1, 533. The Consul would enter office Jan. 1, 534. Was he _designated_ when the great Imperial officers were _appointed_ at the beginning of the Indiction?]
23. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the Consuls.h.i.+p of Paulinus.]
'Judge of our esteem for your honourable body, Conscript Fathers, when, without any hesitation, we appoint your sons whom we have never seen to high office, because they are your sons.
'We admire the Patrician Venantius, blessed as he has been with such an abundant progeny, and found equal to the weight of so many Consuls.h.i.+ps. His sons have been all temperate and lively; worthy members of the same distinguished family. They have been trained in arms, their minds have been formed by letters, their bodies by the exercises of the gymnasium. They have learned to show constancy to their friends, loyalty to their lords; and they have succeeded to the virtues of their ancestors, as they will to their patrimony. Wisely husbanding his own fortune, Venantius has been able to support the honour--gratifying, but burdensome--of seeing so many of his sons made Consuls. But this is an honour not strange to his family, sprung from the ancient Decii. His hall is full of laurelled Fasces, and in his line one might almost say that each one is born a Consular.
'Favour our candidate then, Conscript Fathers, and cherish him with that care which the name of your body[620] signifies.'
[Footnote 620: _Curia_, from _cura_.]
24. KING ATHALARIC TO SENATOR [Ca.s.sIODORUS HIMSELF], PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT (SEPT. 1, 533).
[Sidenote: Ca.s.siodorus appointed Praetorian Praefect.]
'If you had been hitherto an obscure person we might feel some doubt how you would bear yourself in your new office, but your long and glorious career under our grandfather relieves us from any such anxieties. _His_ choice of you is a thing to be not discussed but reverently accepted. It was by him that we ourselves were chosen; and the Divine favour so conspicuously followed him that no General whom he selected was other than victorious, no Judge whom he appointed was other than just. In short, one might almost deem him to have been endowed with the gift of prophecy.
[Sidenote: His Quaestors.h.i.+p.]
'In your early manhood he received you into the office of Quaestor, and soon found you to be a conscientious man, learned in the law beyond your years[621]. You were the chief ornament of your times, inasmuch as you, by your blameless service sustaining the weight of that royal intellect by all the force of your eloquence, enabled him, with his keen interest in all public affairs, to await the result with confidence. In you he possessed a counsellor pleasant in the transaction of business, rigid in his sense of justice, free from all taint of avarice. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of his benefits; and thus you reaped your reward in a wealth of public opinion, not in gold. It was because that just Prince proved you to be averse from all these vices that he selected you for his glorious friends.h.i.+p. A wise judge, he threw upon you the weight of listening to the arguments of contending parties; and so high was his opinion of your tried sagacity that he at once uttered your decision as the greatest benefit that he could confer on the litigants. How often did he rank you among the oldest chiefs of his Council! How often was it seen that your young beginnings were more than a match for them, who had the experience of long years behind them! What he found to praise in you was your excellent disposition, wide open for useful work, tight closed against the vices of avarice. Whereas, for some reason, it is rare to find amongst men, the hand closed and justice open.
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