Letter 4051: [Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus was the leading Roman senator of his generation, father-in-law of Boethius, and a...

51. KING THEODERIC TO SYMMACHUS THE PATRICIAN. [1] Since you have devoted yourself to private building works so diligently that you seem to have raised veritable city-walls upon your own household ground, it is fitting that you, who have adorned Rome with the beauty of dwellings, should be known to encompass her among her own marvels: an outstanding founder of buildings and a peerless embellisher of them, since both gifts proceed from prudence, namely both to lay things out aptly and to ornament suitably what already stands. [2] For it is well known with how great praise you have drawn Rome into her own suburban districts, so that whoever happens to enter those buildings of yours does not feel his gaze to be outside the city, save when he recognizes that he is at the same time amid the charms of the countryside: a most careful imitator of the ancients, a most noble instructor of the moderns. Your buildings proclaim your character, since no one is recognized as careful in them who is not also found most refined in his own perceptions. [3] And therefore we believe that the structure of the theatre, which is collapsing under its own great mass, ought to be strengthened by your counsel, so that what was clearly granted by your ancestors for the adornment of the fatherland may not appear to be diminished under better descendants. What do you not loosen, old age, you who have shaken apart things so robust? Mountains might more easily be thought to give way than that solidity be shaken: since the very mass itself was so wholly of rock that, apart from the artistry added to it, it too would be believed to be a thing of nature. [4] These things we might perhaps have been able to neglect, had it befallen us not to see such works: that those tiers of seats, arched upon overhanging stones, have come together into the most beautiful forms with their joints so concealed that you would sooner believe them the grottoes of a lofty mountain than judge them to be anything constructed. The ancients made a place equal to peoples so great, so that those who seemed to hold the mastery of the world might have a spectacle without equal. [5] But because our discourse is acknowledged to be with a learned man, it pleases us to recount why rude antiquity is read to have founded these structures. When the tillers of the fields, on holy days, were celebrating rites to various divinities throughout groves and villages, the Athenians first gathered this rustic beginning into an urban spectacle, naming it 'theatre' by a Greek word, that is, a 'place of viewing,' because the crowd assembling there may, without any obstruction, be seen by those standing at a distance. [6] The front of the theatre, moreover, is called the 'scaena' from the very dense shade of a grove, where by shepherds, at the onset of spring, songs were sung with diverse sounds. There the musical act and the sayings of a most prudent age flourished. But little by little it came about that these most honorable disciplines, fleeing the company of the wicked, withdrew themselves thereafter out of a sense of modesty. [7] 'Tragedy' is named from the vastness of the voice, which, reinforced by hollow reverberations, seems to produce such a sound that it is scarcely believed to issue from a human being. It is raised up, however, upon goat-like feet, because if anyone among the shepherds had given pleasure with such a voice, he was rewarded with the gift of a goat. 'Comedy' is named from the villages: for a village is called 'comus,' where the rustics, exulting, mocked human deeds with most joyful songs. [8] To these were added the most voluble hands of the orchestra-performers, the eloquent fingers, the clamorous silence, the wordless exposition, which the Muse Polymnia is said to have devised, showing that men can declare their will even without the speech of the mouth. The Muses indeed are called, in the Eastern tongue, as it were 'homousae,' because they seem to be necessary to one another in turn, like the virtues. The points of light feathers are for this reason painted upon their brows, because their perception, borne aloft by swift thought, gazes upon the loftiest matters. [9] To the pantomime, therefore, who takes his name from his manifold imitation, when first he has come forward onto the stage, invited by applause, there stand by him harmonious choirs trained in various instruments. Then that hand of the senses sets forth a tuneful song to the eyes, and through arranged signs, as if by certain letters, instructs the gaze of the onlookers; and in it are read the summits of things, and without writing it accomplishes what writing has declared. The same body portrays Hercules and Venus, presents a woman in a man, makes a king and a soldier, renders an old man and a youth, so that in one you would believe there to be many, distinguished by imitation so varied. [10] The mime too, which now is held only for derision, was devised with such great care by Philistion that his act was set down in writing, to the end that he might temper, with most joyful maxims, a world seething with devouring cares. [11] What of the ringing of the little cymbals? What shall I relate of the measured rhythm of the sweetest sound through its varied striking? Which is received with such great charm of pleasantness that, among the remaining senses, men reckoned that hearing was then conferred upon them as the highest gift. Whereupon the following age, mingling slippery things, dragged the inventions of the ancients toward vices, and what had been devised for the sake of honorable delight, they drove, with minds plunged downward, toward bodily pleasures. [12] The Romans, drawing these rites, like other refinements, to their own commonwealth (though to no profit), built an edifice conceived with lofty thought and with marvelous magnanimity. Whence it is believed, not undeservedly, that Pompey was for this reason rather called 'the Great.' And therefore, whether the structure can be held together by masculine piers or such a building can be renewed by zeal for its repair, we have taken care to assign you the expenses from our own privy chamber, so that both the renown of so good a work may be acquired for you, and antiquity may seem to have been more becomingly renewed in our times. Cassiodorus

LI. SYMMACHO PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Cum privatis fabricis ita studueris, ut in laribus propriis quaedam moenia fecisse videaris, dignum est, ut Romam, quam domuum pulchritudine decorasti, in suis miraculis continere noscaris, fundator egregius fabricarum earumque comptor eximius, quia utrumque de prudentia venit, et apte disponere et extantia competenter ornare. [2] Notum est enim, quanta laude in suburbanis suis Romam traxeris, ut, quem illas fabricas intrare contigerit, aspectum suum extra urbem esse non sentiat, nisi cum se et agrorum amoenitatibus interesse cognoscat: antiquorum diligentissimus imitator, modernorum nobilissimus institutor. mores tuos fabricae loquuntur, quia nemo in illis diligens agnoscitur, nisi qui et in suis sensibus ornatissimus invenitur. [3] Et ideo theatri fabricam magna se mole solventem consilio vestro credimus esse roborandam, ut quod ab auctoribus vestris in ornatum patriae constat esse concessum, non videatur sub melioribus posteris imminutum. quid non solvas, senectus, quae tam robusta quassasti? montes facilius cedere putarentur, quam soliditas illa quateretur: quando et moles ipsa sic tota de cautibus fuit, ut praeter artem additam et ipsa quoque naturalis esse crederetur. [4] Haec potuissemus forte neglegere, si nos contigisset talia non videre: caveas illas saxis pendentibus apsidatas ita iuncturis absconditis in formas pulcherrimas convenisse, ut cryptas magis excelsi montis crederes quam aliquid fabricatum esse iudicares. fecerunt antiqui locum tantis populis parem, ut haberent singulare spectaculum, qui mundi videbantur obtinere dominatum. [5] Sed quia nobis sermo probatur esse cum docto, libet repetere, cur antiquitas rudis legatur haec moenia condidisse. cum agri cultores feriatis diebus sacra diversis numinibus per lucos vicosque celebrarent, Athenienses primum agreste principium in urbanum spectaculum collegerunt, theatrum Graeco vocabulo visorium nominantes, quod eminus astantibus turba conveniens sine aliquo impedimento videatur. [6] Frons autem theatri scaena dicitur ab umbra luci densissima, ubi a pastoribus inchoante verno diversis sonis carmina cantabantur. ibi actus musicus et prudentissimi saeculi dicta floruerunt. sed paulatim factum est, ut honestissimae disciplinae improborum consortia fugientes verecunda se exinde consideratione subtraherent. [7] Tragoedia ex vocis vastitate nominatur, quae concavis repercussionibus roborata talem sonum videtur efficere, ut paene ab homine non credatur exire. erigitur autem in hircinos pedes, quia si quis inter pastores tali voce placuisset, capri munere donabatur. comoedia a pagis dicta est: comus enim pagus vocatur, ubi rustici gestientes humanos actus laetissimis carminibus irridebant. [8] His sunt additae orchestarum loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, expositio tacita, quam musa Polymnia repperisse narratur, ostendens hominos posse et sine oris affatu suum velle declarare. Musae vero Eoa lingua quasi homousae dicuntur, quod invicem sicut virtutes necessariae sibi esse videantur. his levium pinnarum acumina ideo in fronte pinguntur, quoniam earum sensus celeri cogitatione subvectus res altissimas intuetur. [9] Pantomimo igitur, cui a multifaria imitatione nomen est, cum primum in scaenam plausibus invitatus advenerit, assistunt consoni chori diversis organis eruditi. tunc illa sensuum manus oculis canorum carmen exponit et per signa composita quasi quibusdam litteris edocet intuentis aspectum, in illaque leguntur apices rerum et non scribendo facit quod scriptura declaravit. idem corpus Herculem designat et Venerem, feminam praesentat in mare, regem facit et militem, senem reddit et iuvenem, ut in uno credas esse multos tam varia imitatione discretos. [10] Mimus etiam, qui nunc tantummodo derisui habetur, tanta Philistionis cautela repertus est, ut eius actus poneretur in litteris, quatenus mundum curis edacibus aestuantem laetissimis sententiis temperaret. [11] Quid acetabulorum tinnitus? quid dulcissimi soni referam varia percussione modulamen? quod tanta gratia iucunditatis accipitur, ut inter reliquos sensus auditum sibi ad munus summum tunc homines aestiment fuisse collatum. ubi aetas subsequens miscens lubrica priscorum inventa traxit ad vitia et quod honestae causa delectationis repertum est, ad voluptates corporeas praecipitatis mentibus impulerunt. [12] Hos ritus Romani sicut ceteras culturas ad suam rem publicam inutiliter trahentes aedificium alta cogitatione conceptum magnanimitate mirabili condiderunt. unde non inmerito creditur Pompeius hinc potius Magnus fuisse vocitatus. et ideo sive masculis pilis contineri sive talis fabrica refectionis studio potuerit innovari, expensas vobis de nostro cubiculo curavimus destinare, ut et vobis adquiratur tam boni operis fama et nostris temporibus videatur antiquitas decentius innovata. Cassiodorus