Letter 8012: VARIAE, BOOK 8, LETTER 12

12. KING ATHALARIC TO ARATOR, MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK. [1] We judge the perfection of necessary matters to be complete if, just as in choosing a magnificent patrician we have made provision for the armed part of the commonwealth, so also we take counsel concerning joining to him a man most skilled in letters. For it is fitting that those to whom the highest power is entrusted should have the most learned administrators, so that, with no deficiency of merits standing in the way, the foreseen benefit of the commonwealth may be unfolded. There are other honors which arrange themselves by ordinary provision; but for one anxious about the general security, such a man had to be associated as would have no equal in his own pursuits. [2] For you will not be recognized as any less approved up to now, although you have come to honors at an early age. The field of advocacy exercised you; the summit of our judgment chose you. For although your profession of letters was a vast one, it was so contained within you that we would not allow your talent to grow old there. You began as a soldier, when you could have filled the office of an examining judge, and although eloquence drew you to plead for the defense, fairness nonetheless urged you to bring forth matters to be judged. It has been proven what usefulness eloquence armed for good morals possesses. For just as it is destructive when the learned counsel wicked things, so it is a salutary service when eloquence does not know how to exceed the boundaries of truth. [3] But that we may rather affirm your merits by praiseworthy examples, it is pleasing to recall that splendid embassy which you carried out not with common words, but with a torrential river of eloquence. For when sent from the regions of the Dalmatias to our lord grandfather, you so set forth the necessities of the provincials and so the public benefits that, in the presence of one anxious with great caution, you were both copious and did not provoke weariness. For your words flowed down in abundance with most pleasing charm, and when you made an end, you were still sought after to speak: by delighting and by moving you fulfilled rather the effort of a true orator, when you had already abandoned the office of an advocate. [4] You have indeed been aided also by the eloquence and character of your father, whose speech could have instructed you, even if you had not had leisure for the books of the ancients. For he was, as we know, exceptionally erudite in letters. And that we may seem to say something choice to a man of study, these letters first, as the more frequent opinion hands down, Mercury, the discoverer of many arts, is recorded to have collected from the flight of the Strymonian birds. [5] For even today the cranes, which join together in a flock, with nature instructing them, trace out the shapes of the alphabet: and reducing this into a comely order, with vowels and consonants suitably mixed in, he found a path of meaning, through which the mind, seeking the heights, might be able most swiftly to arrive at the inner chambers of prudence. Hence Helenus, an author of the Greeks, said many things excellently, describing his virtue and arrangement with most subtle narration, so that at the very beginning the abundance of great letters can be recognized. [6] But that we may return to our purpose, you are therefore to be believed to have extended your talent by your father's example, you who did not nourish your eloquence in the Roman forum. O blessed teacher and most fortunate pupil, who learned with affection what the terror of teachers extorts from others! [7] In short, you found Roman eloquence not in its own regions, and there the reading of Tullius [Cicero] rendered you eloquent, where once the Gallic tongue resounded. Where are those who assert that Latin letters are to be learned at Rome, and not also elsewhere? Caecilius would have escaped the weight of shame, if earlier ages had brought forth this man so advanced. For that force of the maxim is dissolved: Liguria too sends its own Tulliuses. [8] Recognize what we have esteemed from your merits, since you see yourself associated in the counsel of that man who handles the secret of our empire. Hence it is that, having distinguished you in the assemblies of the household troops, we adorn you with this honor, so that you ought deservedly to hope for greater things from our judgments, you in whom we believe still better things to be found. You see that a great task has been entrusted to you: whatever you do, the whole community feels it. For he who is able to sin against the universal body is far too glorious, if he does not know how to transgress.

XII. ARATORI V. I. ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Perfectionem necessariarum rerum completam esse iudicamus, si, quemammodum eligendo virum magnificum patricium armatae rei publicae parti providimus, ita et de sociando ei litterarum peritissimo consulamus. decet enim tractatores habere doctissimos, quibus potestas summa committitur, ut, nullo defectu impediente meritorum, provisa rei publicae utilitas explicetur. alii sunt honores qui se ordinaria provisione componunt: de generali autem securitate sollicito talis associandus fuit, qui parem in suis studiis non haberet. [2] Neque enim adhuc minus probatus agnosceris, licet primaevus veneris ad honores. advocationis te campus exercuit: te iudicii nostri culmen elegit. nam ita intra te fuit quamvis ampla professio litterarum, ut tuum ibi consenescere non pateremur ingenium. auspicatus es militem, cum implere potueris cognitorem, et quamvis traheret te eloquentia pro defensione dicere, suadebat tamen aequitas iudicanda proferre. probatum est, quid utilitatis habeat moribus armata facundia. nam sicut perniciosum est doctos prava suadere, sic salutare munus est, cum veritatis terminos disertitudo nescit excedere. [3] Sed ut merita tua exemplis potius laudabilibus asseramus, iuvat repetere pomposam legationem, quam non communibus verbis, sed torrenti eloquentiae flumine peregisti. directus enim de partibus Dalmatiarum ad domnum avum nostrum sic necessitates provincialium, sic utilitates publicas allegabas, ut apud illum magna cautela sollicitum et copiosus esses et fastidia non moveres. abundantia siquidem verba cum suavissimo lepore defluebant et cum finem faceres, adhuc dicere quaerebaris: delectando movendo implebas magis veri oratoris nisum, cum iam causidici deseruisses officium. [4] Genitoris quin etiam tui facundia et moribus adiuvaris, cuius te eloquium instruere potuit, etiamsi libris veterum non vacasses. erat enim, ut scimus, egregie litteris eruditus. et ut aliquid studioso exquisitum dicere videamur, has primum, ut frequentior tradit opinio, Mercurius repertor artium multarum volatu Strymoniarum avium collegisse memoratur. [5] Nam et hodie grues, qui classe consociant, alphabeti formas natura inbuente describunt: quem in ordinem decorum redigens, vocalibus consonantibusque congruenter ammixtis, viam sensualem reperit, per quam alta petens ad penetralia prudentiae mens possit velocissima pervenire. hinc Helenus auctor Graecorum plura dixit eximie virtutem eius compositionemque subtilissima narratione describens, ut in ipso initio possit agnosci magnarum copia litterarum. [6] Sed ut ad propositum redeamus, paterno igitur exemplo ingenium extendisse credendus es, qui in Romano foro eloquentiam non nutristi. o beatum magistrum felicissimumque discipulum, qui affectuose didicit, quod aliis doctorum terror extorsit! [7] Romanum denique eloquium non suis regionibus invenisti et ibi te Tulliana lectio disertum reddidit, ubi quondam Gallica lingua resonavit. ubi sunt, qui Latinas litteras Romae, non etiam alibi asserunt esse discendas? evaserat Caecilius pondus verecundiae, si hunc provectum saecula priora genuissent. soluta est quippe vis illa sententiae: mittit et Liguria Tullios suos. [8] Cognosce quid ex meritis tuis aestimavimus, quando te illius consilio vides esse sociatum, qui nostri inperii tractat arcanum. hinc est quod te comitiis domesticorum illustratum isto honore decoramus, ut merito maiora de nostris debeas sperare iudiciis, qui in te adhuc meliora credimus inveniri. grande tibi negotium vides esse commissum: quidquid egeris, generalitas sentit. nam qui potest in universitate peccare, gloriosus nimis est, si nescit excedere.