25. King Athalaric to the Senate of the City of Rome (on the Promotion of Cassiodorus Senator to the Praetorian Praefecture).

Eulogy of Cassiodorus on his appointment as Praetorian Praefect.

'We have loaded Senator with our benefits, Conscript Fathers, because he abounds in virtue, is rich in excellence of character, and is already full of the highest honours. But, in fact, we are his debtors. How shall we repay that eloquent tongue of his, with which he set forth the deeds of the Prince, till he himself who had wrought them wondered at his story? In praising the reign of the wearer of the purple, he made it acceptable to your nation. For taxes may be paid to a tyrant; praise, such as this, is given only to a good Prince.

His Gothic History.

'Not satisfied with extolling living Kings, from whom he might hope for a reward, he drew forth the Kings of the Goths from the dust of ages, showing that the Amal family had been royal for seventeen generations, and proved that the origin of the Gothic people belonged to Roman history[626], adorning the whole subject with the flowers of his learning gathered from wide fields of literature.

'In the early days of our reign what labour he gave to the settling of our affairs! He was alone sufficient for all. The duty of making public harangues, our own private counsels, required him. He laboured that the Empire might rest.

His official career.

'We found him Magister; but he discharged the duties of Quaestor, and willingly bestowed on us, the heir, the experience which he had gained in the counsels of our grandfather.

His military services.

'And not only so, he helped the beginning of our reign both with his arms and his pen. For when the care of our shores[627] occupied our royal meditation, he suddenly emerged from the seclusion of his cabinet, boldly, like his ancestors, assumed the office of General[628], and triumphed by his character when there was no enemy to overcome. For he maintained the Gothic warriors[629] at his own charges, so that there should be no robbery of the Provincials on the one hand, no too heavy burden on the exchequer on the other. Thus was the soldier what he ought to be, the true defender, not the ravager of his country. Then when the time for victualling the ships was over, and the war was laid aside, he shone as an administrator rather than a warrior, healing, without injury to the litigants, the various suits which arose out of the sudden cessation of the contracts[630].

'Such was the glory of the military command of a Metellus in Asia, of a Cato in Spain—a glory far more durable than any that can be derived from the varying shock of war.

His religious character.

'Yet with all these merits, how humble he has been, how modest, how benevolent, how slow to wrath, how generous in the distribution of that which is his own, how slow to covet the property of others! All these virtues have been consolidated by his reading of the Divine Book, the fear of God helping him to triumph over baser, human motives. Thus has he been rendered humble towards all, as one imbued with heavenly teaching.

'Him therefore, Conscript Fathers, we make, under God's blessing, Praetorian Praefect from the twelfth Indiction [Sept. 1, 533], that he may repress by his own loyalty the trafficking of knaves, and may use his power for the good of the Republic, bequeathing eternal renown to his posterity.'