Letter 8019: Although your assembly always radiates with its native splendor, conscript fathers, it is made brighter whenever it...

19. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME. [1] Although your assembly is always irradiated by its native splendor, it is nevertheless rendered more brilliant as often as it is increased by the light of new dignities. For heaven itself shines more resplendently with its most abundant stars, and from their numerous beauty it returns a wondrous adornment to those who gaze upon it. For it is implanted in nature that an abundance of good things should give the greater delight. The meadows, in short, are painted with countless flowers; the richer crop of a fertile field is the more praised. Antiquity may have caused you to be held noble; we wish the Senate to be celebrated also for its numerousness. [2] Hence it is that we desire to add to you whomever we have found pre-eminent, wherever he may be. For although among you there is a seedbed of the Senate, nevertheless from our indulgence too there is born one who may be joined to your assemblies. All the dignities of the court bear nurslings for you, but the quaestorship is in truth the mother of a senator, since it comes from prudence. For what is more fitting than that he who has cleaved to the counsel of the prince should be made a partaker of the curia? But because for a prudent man a general praise, kept within bounds, is not sufficient, let us touch upon what is distinctive and his own. [3] Recognize, conscript fathers, that our quaestor first pleased through eloquence well practiced, and so conducted the frequent victories of his advocacy that a triumphal choice deservedly took him to itself, so that, inaugurated with happy palms, he should give us the omens of laurels. Led in his first youth to the gymnasium of the forum, he ever strove after integrity of mind, and with most noble modesty he passed his bodily chastity through excessive toil. [4] An eloquent orator, a most weighty patron, he aided the causes he undertook by his proclamations, since a disreputable case could not be believed such, to which a man of his sort seemed to lend his assistance. Would it not be a public loss to pass over this man? For what ought to be more welcome either to us or to you than that he should be joined to our side, who has merited approval among the laws? For he can love those laws by which, being learned, he has shone forth, since each man strives after his own glory, nor can the mind forget from what quarter he was associated with us. [5] Do you perhaps believe, foremost men, that a new and unprepared-for prudence has appeared in this man? His origin claimed for itself hereditary letters, since his father so shone in the forum of Milan that he sprang up both from a threefold stock of brothers and from Tullian soil. Accordingly, although even among men of middling rank the art of pleasing is most difficult, nevertheless among the foremost masters of eloquence he frequently merited to find the praise of advocacy. He stood against the great Olybrius; he matched the rich abundance of the tongue of the palm-winning Eugenes; and he proved the equal of those whom Rome has known as singular. [6] For what is more nobly born than to have had as ancestors so many chiefs of letters? For if riches grown old and drawn down through lineage make men noble, much more excellent is he whose origin is found rich in the treasures of prudence. Wherefore, conscript fathers, favor our judgment and a candidate worthy by his own merits: for if you extend to a colleague the hand of clemency, you rather raise up yourselves.

XVIIII. SENATUI URBIS ROMAE ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Licet coetus vester genuino splendore semper irradietur, clarior tamen redditur quotiens augetur lumine dignitatum. nam caelum ipsum stellis copiosissimis plus refulget et de numerosa pulchritudine mirabilem intuentibus reddit decorem. naturae siquidem insitum est, ut bonorum copia plus delectet. prata denique floribus pinguntur innumeris: laudatur pinguis arvi densior seges. antiquitas vos fecerit nobiles haberi: nos senatum volumus etiam de numerositate praedicari. [2] Hinc est quod vobis aggregare cupimus quem repererimus ubicumque praecipuum. nam licet apud vos seminarium sit senatus, tamen et de nostra indulgentia nascitur, qui vestris coetibus applicetur. alumnos cunctae vobis pariunt aulicae dignitates, quaestura autem vere mater senatoris est, quoniam ex prudentia venit. quid enim dignius, quam curiae participem fieri qui adhaesit consilio principali? sed quia prudenti viro generaliter non sufficit conclusa laudatio, eius nota propriaque tangamus. [3] Quaestorem nostrum, patres conscripti, cognoscite eloquentia prius exercitata placuisse et sic advocationis suae crebras egisse victorias, ut merito sibi eum electio triumphalis asciverit, quatenus palmis felicibus inauguratus nobis daret omina laurearum. ad forense gymnasium prima aetate deductus studuit semper integritati mentis et nobilissimo pudore castitatem corporis sub nimio labore transegit. [4] Orator facundus, gravissimus patronus susceptas causas suis praeconiis adiuvabat, quando credi non poterat negotium inprobabile, cui talis videbatur assistere. nonne praetermittere hunc virum esset publicum damnum? quid enim aut nobis aut vobis esse debet acceptius quam nostro coniungi lateri, qui inter leges meruit approbari? amare namque eas potest, per quas doctus enituit, dum affectat unusquisque gloriam suam nec oblivisci potest animus, ex qua nobis fuerit parte sociatus. [5] Creditis forte, principes viri, novam in hunc imparatamque apparuisse prudentiam? origo eius hereditarias sibi litteras vindicavit, cuius pater ita in Mediolanensi foro resplenduit, ut et trino fratrum et Tulliano cespite pullularet. proinde quamvis sit vel inter mediocres difficillimum placendi genus, tamen advocationis laudem inter primarios eloquentiae frequenter meruit invenire. is contra magnum Olybrium stetit, is palmarii Eugenetis linguae ubertate suffecit, et illis par extitit, quos singulares Roma cognovit. [6] Quid enim generosius quam tot litterarum proceres habuisse maiores? nam si inveteratae et per genus ductae divitiae nobiles faciunt, multo magis praestantior est, cuius origo thesauris prudentiae locuples invenitur. quapropter, patres conscripti, favete nostro iudicio ac suis meritis candidato: quando si collegae manum clementiae porrigitis, vos potius sublevatis.