11. King Theodoric to Argolicus, Vir Illustris [a.d. 510].

Argolicus appointed Praefect of the City.

Announces to this young man his nomination to the Praefecture of the City (for the 4th Indiction). Enlarges on the dignity of the office, especially as involving the Presidency of the Senate, and calls upon him by a righteous and sober life to show himself worthy of the choice.

Argolicus is a great student [perhaps a literary friend of Cassiodorus], and he is exhorted to keep himself in the right path by musing on the great examples of antiquity.

[There is a sort of tone of apology for the appointment of Argolicus, which is perhaps accounted for by the fact, which comes out in the next letter, that his father was a comparatively poor man.

See a sharp rebuke of Argolicus for venal procrastination, iv. 29.]