2. King Theodoric to Felix, Vir Illustris, Consul Ordinarius, a.d. 511 (4th of the Indiction).

On the same subject.

An address on his elevation to the Consulship, touching on nearly the same topics as the preceding.

Theodoric delights in bestowing larger favours on those whom he has once honoured [a favourite topic with Cassiodorus].

Felix has come back from Gaul to the old fatherland[248]. Thus the Consulship has returned to a Transalpine family, and green laurels are seen on a brown stock.

Felix has shown an early maturity of character. He has made a wise use of his father's wealth. The honour which other men often acquire by prodigality he has acquired by saving. Cassiodorus evidently has a little fear that the new Consul may carry his parsimony too far, and tells him that this office of the Consulship is one in which liberality, almost extravagance, earns praise[249]; in which it is a kind of virtue not to love one's own possessions; and in which one gains in good opinion all that one loses in wealth.

'See the sacred City all white with your vota (?). See yourself borne upon the shoulders of all, and your name flitting through their mouths, and manifest yourself such that you may be deemed worthy of your race, worthy of the City, worthy of our choice, worthy of the Consular trabea.'

[The letter makes one suspect a certain narrowness and coldness of heart in the subject of its praise.]