Letter 2019: We justly detest all crimes, and our merciful hearing condemns everything that is unjust.
Cassiodorus→Rechared, of Visigoths|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus|AI-assisted
barbarian invasion
19. KING THEODERIC TO ALL GOTHS AND ROMANS, OR TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THE HARBORS OR THE PASSES.
[1] We do indeed rightly detest all crimes, and our merciful ear abhors everything that is unjust; but most of all those crimes which, polluted by the shedding of human blood, have stirred up our censure against themselves. For who could endure that there should be a place for perils within the protections of one's own household, and that the end of a sweet life should be found in the very place from which the help of one's defense ought to have arisen? [2] And therefore by the present command we charge you that, against those servants who, slaughtering their master Stephanus in a punishable crime, also cast aside even the reverence due to his unburied corpse, you cut them down with the severity of the laws, so that those who are provoked by the worst examples may be restrained by punishments held before their eyes. Oh, the grief! Devotion is found in birds, which is forsaken by the human condition. [3] The vulture itself, whose life is another's corpse, is not shown to be hostile to a body of such great size, nor to the tiny winged creatures, but rather it strikes with its wings the hawk that pursues the life of feathered birds, tears it with its beak, and strives with its whole weight to come to the aid of those in danger: and human beings cannot spare the one whose own kind they recognize themselves to be. That bird does not wish to destroy that on which it could feed: the slaves preferred to kill the one who, while he survived, had been accustomed to nourish them. Let him then become the food of the dutiful vulture, who could cruelly desire the death of his shepherd. Let him rather be received in such a sepulcher, who rendered his master unburied.
XVIIII. UNIVERSIS GOTHIS ET ROMANIS VEL HIS QUI PORTIBUS VEL CLUSURIS PRAESUNT THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Cuncta quidem iure detestamur scelera et omne quod iniquum est clemens execratur auditus, sed ea maxime quae, humani sanguinis effusione polluta, nostram contra se incitavere censuram. quis enim ferat in domesticis praesidiis locum fuisse periculis et ibi inventum dulcis vitae exitum, unde nasci debuerat defensionis auxilium? [2] Et ideo praesenti iussione mandamus, ut in famulos, qui Stephanum dominum suum plectibili scelere trucidantes inhumatam quoque reverentiam eius funeris abiecerunt, legum districtione resecetis, quatenus qui exemplis provocantur pessimis, poenis arceantur aspectis. pro dolor! pietas in avibus invenitur, quae ab humana condicione deseritur. [3] Vultur ipse, cui vita est cadaver alienum, tantae magnitudinis corpus, nec exiguis alitibus probatur infestus, sed magis accipitrem, vitam plumigerum avium persequentem, alis caedit, ore dilaniat totoque suo pondere periclitantibus nititur subvenire: et homines parcere nequeunt, cuius se genus esse cognoscunt. ille non vult extinguere quo poterat vesci: servi maluerunt occidere qui eos superstes consueverat enutrire. fiat ergo pastus pii vulturis, qui necem potuit crudeliter desiderare pastoris. tali potius sepulcro recipiatur, qui dominum reddidit insepultum.
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19. KING THEODERIC TO ALL GOTHS AND ROMANS, OR TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THE HARBORS OR THE PASSES.
[1] We do indeed rightly detest all crimes, and our merciful ear abhors everything that is unjust; but most of all those crimes which, polluted by the shedding of human blood, have stirred up our censure against themselves. For who could endure that there should be a place for perils within the protections of one's own household, and that the end of a sweet life should be found in the very place from which the help of one's defense ought to have arisen? [2] And therefore by the present command we charge you that, against those servants who, slaughtering their master Stephanus in a punishable crime, also cast aside even the reverence due to his unburied corpse, you cut them down with the severity of the laws, so that those who are provoked by the worst examples may be restrained by punishments held before their eyes. Oh, the grief! Devotion is found in birds, which is forsaken by the human condition. [3] The vulture itself, whose life is another's corpse, is not shown to be hostile to a body of such great size, nor to the tiny winged creatures, but rather it strikes with its wings the hawk that pursues the life of feathered birds, tears it with its beak, and strives with its whole weight to come to the aid of those in danger: and human beings cannot spare the one whose own kind they recognize themselves to be. That bird does not wish to destroy that on which it could feed: the slaves preferred to kill the one who, while he survived, had been accustomed to nourish them. Let him then become the food of the dutiful vulture, who could cruelly desire the death of his shepherd. Let him rather be received in such a sepulcher, who rendered his master unburied.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XVIIII. UNIVERSIS GOTHIS ET ROMANIS VEL HIS QUI PORTIBUS VEL CLUSURIS PRAESUNT THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Cuncta quidem iure detestamur scelera et omne quod iniquum est clemens execratur auditus, sed ea maxime quae, humani sanguinis effusione polluta, nostram contra se incitavere censuram. quis enim ferat in domesticis praesidiis locum fuisse periculis et ibi inventum dulcis vitae exitum, unde nasci debuerat defensionis auxilium? [2] Et ideo praesenti iussione mandamus, ut in famulos, qui Stephanum dominum suum plectibili scelere trucidantes inhumatam quoque reverentiam eius funeris abiecerunt, legum districtione resecetis, quatenus qui exemplis provocantur pessimis, poenis arceantur aspectis. pro dolor! pietas in avibus invenitur, quae ab humana condicione deseritur. [3] Vultur ipse, cui vita est cadaver alienum, tantae magnitudinis corpus, nec exiguis alitibus probatur infestus, sed magis accipitrem, vitam plumigerum avium persequentem, alis caedit, ore dilaniat totoque suo pondere periclitantibus nititur subvenire: et homines parcere nequeunt, cuius se genus esse cognoscunt. ille non vult extinguere quo poterat vesci: servi maluerunt occidere qui eos superstes consueverat enutrire. fiat ergo pastus pii vulturis, qui necem potuit crudeliter desiderare pastoris. tali potius sepulcro recipiatur, qui dominum reddidit insepultum.