1. Senator, Praetorian Praefect, to the Senate of the City of Rome (a.d. 534)[712].

Cassiodorus on his promotion to the Praefecture.

'If I can only be sure that my advancement is acceptable to you, Conscript Fathers, I shall not doubt of its being approved by God and popular with all good men.

'It is in the nature of things to love a colleague, and you are in fact exalting your own honour when you approve of a dignity given to a Senator [713].

'After our Sovereigns there is none to whom I so much desire to commend myself as you. To me honour will ever be the sole test of advantage. Justice, like a handmaid, will wait upon my actions; and the power, which I have not myself bought from our virtuous Sovereign, I in my turn shall sell to no man. You have heard, noble Sirs, the panegyrics[714] passed upon me at my entrance into office. These praises I will not dare to call false, but I will say that they lay upon me a heavy responsibility to show that they are not unmerited.

'Happy fortune of our time in which, while the Sovereign himself takes holiday, the love of his mother rules and covers us all with the robe of her universal charity! Happy for the young Ruler, who in this difficult position learns first to triumph over his impetuous impulses, and attains in the springtime of his life that self-control which hoary age with difficulty acquires!

Praises of Amalasuentha.

'As for the Mother whom he so dutifully obeys, her most fittingly do all kingdoms venerate, whom to behold is to adore, to listen to is to witness a miracle. Of what language is she not a perfect mistress? She is skilled in the niceties of Attic eloquence; she shines in the majesty of Roman speech; she glories in the wealth of the language of her fathers. She is equally marvellous in all these, and in each the orator in his own especial tongue feels himself surpassed by her. A great safeguard and a great excellence is this in the ruler of so many nationalities. None needs an interpreter with his accomplished mistress. No ambassador need wait, or hear his words slowly filtered through the mind of a go-between. Everyone feels that his own words are listened to, and receives his answer from her lips in the language of his forefathers.

'To these accomplishments, as a splendid diadem, is added that priceless knowledge of Literature, by which the treasures of ancient learning are appropriated, and the dignity of the throne is ever enhanced.

'Yet, while she rejoices in such perfect mastery of language, on public occasions she is so taciturn that she might be supposed to be indolent. With a few words she unties the knots of entangled litigations, she calmly arranges hot disputes, she silently promotes the public welfare. You do not hear her announce beforehand what will be her course of action in public; but with marvellous skill she attains, by feigning, those points which she knows require to be rapidly gained[715].

Comparison to Placidia.

'What case like this can be produced from the annals of revered Antiquity? Placidia's care for her purple-clad son has often been celebrated; but by Placidia's lax administration of the Empire its boundaries were unbecomingly retrenched. She gained for him a wife and for herself a daughter-in-law[716] by the loss of Illyricum; and thus the union of Sovereigns was bought by a lamentable division of the Provinces[717]. The discipline of the soldiers was relaxed by too long peace; and, in short, Valentinian, under the guardianship of his mother, lost more than he could have done if he had been a helpless orphan.

Relations with the East.

'But under this Lady, who can count as many Kings as ancestors in her pedigree, our army by Divine help is a terror to foreign nations. Being kept in a prudent equipoise it is neither worn away by continual fighting nor enervated by unbroken peace. In the very beginnings of the reign, when a new ruler's precarious power is apt to be most assailed, contrary to the wish of the Eastern Emperor she made the Danube a Roman stream. Well known is all that the invaders suffered, of which I therefore omit further mention, that the shame of defeat may not be too closely associated with the thought of the Emperor, our ally. Still, what he thought of your part of the Empire is clear from this, that he conceded to our attack that peace which he has refused to the abject entreaties of others. Add this fact, that though we have rarely sought him he has honoured us with so many embassies, and that thus his unique majesty has bowed down the stately head of the Orient to exalt the lords of Italy[718].

Expedition against the Franks.

'The Franks also, overmighty by their victories over so many barbarous tribes—by what a great expedition were they harassed! Attacked, they dreaded a contest with our soldiers; they who had leaped unawares upon so many nations and forced them into battle. But though that haughty race declined the offered conflict, they could not prevent the death of their own King. For Theodoric[719], he who had so often availed himself of the name of our glorious King as an occasion for triumph, now fell vanquished in the struggle with disease—a stroke of Divine Providence surely, to prevent us from staining ourselves with the blood of our kindred, and yet to grant some revenge to the army which had been justly called out to war. Hail! thou Gothic array, happy above all other happiness, who strikest at the life of a Royal foe, yet leavest us not the poorer by the life of one of the least of our soldiers[720].

League with the Burgundians.

'The Burgundian too, in order to receive his own again, crouched in devotion, giving up his whole self that he might receive a trifle. For he chose to obey with unimpaired territories, rather than to resist with these cut short; and thus, by laying aside his arms, he most effectually defended his kingdom, recovering by his prayers what he had lost by the sword[721].

'Happy Princess, whose enemies either fall by the hand of God, or else by your bounty are united with your Empire! Rejoice, Goths and Romans alike, and hail this marvel, a being who unites the excellences of both the sexes! As woman she has given birth to your illustrious King, while with manly fortitude of mind she has maintained the bounds of your Empire.

'And now, if leaving the realm of war we enter the inner courts of her moral goodness, a hundred tongues will not suffice to sound forth all her praises. Her justice is as great as her goodwill, but even greater is her kindness than her power. You, Senators, know the heavenly goodness which she has shown to your order, restoring those who had met with affliction to a higher state than that from which they had fallen[722], and exalting to honour those who were still uninjured.

'Look at the case of the Patrician Liberius[723], Praefect of the Gauls—a man of charming manners, of distinguished merit, a soldier with honourable scars—who even while absent in his Praefecture has received the fasces and a patrimony from her.

'What can I say of her strength of mind and tenacity of purpose, in which she excels even philosophers? I speak of this from my own experience. You know, oh Conscript Fathers, what influences were arrayed against me[724]. Neither gold nor the prayers of great men availed: all things were tried, and tried in vain, to prove the glorious constancy of that wisest Lady.

Virtues of the Amal Kings.

'And here the rules of rhetoric would require me to compare her with a long line of Empresses in the past. But if men cannot vie with her glory, what is the use of adducing female examples? If we look at the Royal Cohort of her ancestors, we shall see that she, like a pure mirror, reflects all their excellences. For Amal[725] was conspicuous for his good fortune, Ostrogotha for his patience, Athal for mildness, Munitarius [Winithar] for justice, Unimund for beauty, Thorismuth for chastity, Unalamer [Walamir] for faith, Theudimer for warmth of heart[726], and Theodoric, the renowned father of Amalasuentha, as ye have all seen, for patience. Each of these would recognise in her his own special attribute, but all would acknowledge that in these very attributes they are excelled by her.

'You will now perhaps expect me to praise our young King, but in extolling the author of his being, I have abundantly extolled him, her offspring. You will remember that excellent saying of the eloquent Symmachus, "I hesitate to praise the beginning of his career because I am confidently hoping for his advance in virtue[727]." Come to my help, Conscript Fathers, and render to your Lords and mine your united thanks for my promotion.'