Variae & Works 3 part 3/3

And therefore let the whole sum of money, which had been assigned to the buildings of Rome and now, by the investigation of your magnitude, is established to have been disavowed — since it is neither restored in its own time nor shown to have been spent — be recovered without any delay, and, at your direction, be again applied to the walls of Rome. For it is a wicked thing that those things should pass over to other uses which Rome, not without reason, sighs for as subtracted from herself. We ought therefore to strike the concealers of the assigned money with an immoderate penalty, who in such a cause have defrauded our munificence. But clemency was at hand, the moderatrix who is ever joined to us, lest we should grievously punish things unbecomingly done, with justice goading us on. Let it suffice for us that greed has not fulfilled what it wished.

Nor can a greater vengeance come about, when one seems to lose as his own that which, basely suppressed, he had judged himself to possess. It is too bitter that in our times the deeds of the ancients should diminish, we who daily desire to increase the adornment of the cities. Wherefore by the present orders we admonish you to search out with all eagerness, concerning the city of Como, the bronze statue which is reported to have perished: promising also a hundred gold pieces, if anyone should prefer to betray this sacrilegious theft, so that the promise of our serenity may invite the fearful to the hope of confession — which the edicts directed to you also proclaim.

But when you shall have promulgated these commands, if the crime should still have veiled itself in secret, after the venerable day cause the craftsmen of those places to be gathered together: from whom, under terror, search out by whose agency it was perpetrated. For by men unskilled in these matters the overturning of a statue would not have been easy, unless presumption, the mistress, had attempted to move it from its place. Although a penalty greatly relaxed may suffice for the betrayal of the crime, and it is no small reward for audacity to have escaped the terror of punishment, yet we add a reward such as innocence usually has: not because the deeds done have pleased us, but because it delights us to be munificent in the love of vengeance.

Wherefore by the authority of the present edict let each man know that he earns a hundred gold pieces by our largesse, if he betrays those who carried off the statue from the city of Como; and concerning his own deed, which is most harmful and demands investigation, let him know that he will have pardon. We give a golden gift in compensation for the bronze: and we bestow more precious metals than we are able to find again — redeeming by this liberality rather this, that what is established to be forbidden may not pass into use. Who, then, would be condemned by so great a blindness of folly as to hesitate to break forth, when he both finds security and gains the reward of confession?

But if anyone should perhaps think it a thing to be dissembled, and our serenity should detect him by some indication of the truth, let him know that he is to be carried off to the utmost peril. For it is unworthy that humanity should afterwards support those who spurn our indulgence, once they are detected. The advancement of our reign our benignity ought to emulate, so that humanity may relax its gifts as much as the commonwealth has received increases. For we cannot otherwise keep the praised measure, unless we ought to rouse our purpose to the consideration of affairs. For amid so many successes daily, by God's favour, it would be a vice of tenacity to be content with a narrow largesse.

And therefore let your illustrious magnificence know, by the present authority, that to the citizens of Spoleto, for the maintenance of their baths, another thousand 'modii' beyond the customary amount is to be assigned. For we gladly desire to expend those things which we know pertain to the health of the citizens, since the celebrated joys of the peoples are the praises of our times. We desire that our wealth be increased by the treasury of devotion, abhorring those advantages which have been acquired for us by the calamities of the harassed. A levy which is bewailed is troublesome to our clemency, since whatever is paid amid gladness is added to the praises of him who receives it. The merchants of the city of Siponto, then, assert that they have been laid waste by the depredation of enemies:

and since we esteem the relief of the needy rather as our own riches, let your illustrious magnificence cause the aforesaid men to be vexed by no compulsory purchase throughout this continuous biennium. But since to have relieved the fallen profits nothing, if another burden of payment is added, let your highness cause those who are known to have lent money to the said merchants to be admonished that in this space of two years they should reckon nothing of the entrusted sum to be demanded, so that, under the aforesaid respites, they may both be able to restore the money given and the substance of the debtors may to some extent be able to draw breath. For what does it profit a creditor to press himself, when in vain he strives to exact from the stripped? We provide for these men the more, if we cause them to attain to their borrowings by being sustained.

If we wish to retain the famed miracles of the ancients for the praise of our clemency — since they are increases of royal glory, when under us nothing diminishes — with what zeal does it befit that to be restored which is established to be offered even frequently to our own eyes? For it delights us to recall the power of the health-bringing Aponus, that you may understand with what desire we long to repair that which knows not how to depart from our memory. We have seen the azure spring boiling in the form of a cask with hollow gapings, and the furnaces of panting waters crowned, with a smooth rounded rim, by the admirable arrangement of nature:

which, although after the manner of hot water they exhale misty vapours, yet open this pleasant clarity to human sight, so that any man might desire to touch that grace, even though he is not unaware that it burns. With brimming mouth, in the likeness of a sphere, the backs of the waters swell above their own bounds, whence the stream flows down with such quiet, runs off with such seeming stability, that you would not think it to grow, except that you perceive something to issue thence with a hoarse murmur. The waters come through chilling channels, kindled with such fervour that, after winding spaces which by art are made longer, they are about to render the greatest heat.

O the ever-marvellous ingenuity of the Master, that He so tempered the ardour of raging nature to the use of the human body, that what at its source could give death, most learnedly moderated, He made to bestow both delight and health! It is pleasant to behold the secret: the streams exhaling fiery vapours, an ardour friendly to the waters unceasingly, and heat coming down the course of a stream, where it was wont usually to be extinguished. Rightly do the philosophers say that the elements are bound to one another by mutual combinations and joined by a marvellous confederation, which are understood to war against each other in their contrary variety.

Behold, it is established that the moist substance produces fiery vapours, which, when it shall presently have reached the fair buildings of the baths, the wave, descending and dashed against the rocks, both kindles the air by its quality and becomes manageable to the touch when it is received into the bathing-pools: whence not so much delicious pleasure is acquired as gentle medicine is conferred. To wit, a cure without torment, remedies without dread, health with impunity, baths apportioned against diverse pains of the body. These the beneficent antiquity named in the Greek tongue 'Aponos', that the sick man might recognize the cause of so great a remedy, since concerning such a name he might have no doubt.

But among the other goods of that very place we have learned that this too is to be wondered at, that one nature of the flowing waters appears suited to diverse services. For straightway, the rock receiving it, the dashed water breathes forth the sweating quality of the first chamber: then, descending into the basin, mitigated, with its menacing ardour laid aside, it softens into a sweet temperateness: presently, led on into the neighbouring place, when it has grown torpid with some delay, it cools much more gently into warmth: lastly, that very tepidity also being abandoned, it becomes so much the colder in the Neronian pool as it is felt to have boiled before. Not undeservedly, sharing the name of its author, it is a colleague with the greenness of gems, so that, itself also clear with the colour of a glassy element, it may quietly stir certain trembling waves.

But that the bath itself too might be rendered more cleanly, by a certain astonishing discipline of restraint, if a woman should descend into the water in which men are refreshed, it is kindled to greater heat — for this reason, that a separate provision has been fairly bestowed upon them as well: namely, lest they should not believe that the most fruitful place of burning waters had a source whence it might bestow very much, if either sex used the one gift in common. This perennial flow of the waters affords a token for understanding that, flowing in through the fiery veins of the earth by hidden channels, the irrigating purity of the seething spring bursts forth from below into the air. For if that burning had been of nature, it would not have been lost without the destruction of the substance:

but the perceptible matter of the water, just as it contracted a foreign fire, so again easily received its native chill. That medicinal force affords yet another kind of assistance. For beside the head of the sparkling spring provident nature has formed a certain channel for itself. Hence above, a seat is set in place, which is perforated in the shape of an apse for human necessities, and receives the sick as they pour forth with their inward moisture: where, when, wearied by excessive languor, they have sat down, refreshed by the delight of that vapour, they both restore their weary inward parts and, by a vital dryness, draw together the humours loosened by a noxious infusion.

And just as men, refreshed by some desirable food, can presently be found stronger, so to the healing substance there comes from the sulphur its warmth, and from the saltiness its drying power. Not to hand such things on to posterity is to sin grievously over a long span of time. Wherefore let the ancient solidity of those buildings be renewed there, so that whether in the conduits or in the baths anything needs repair, it ought to be reconstructed at your prompting. Let the noxious shrubs too, springing up with troublesome growth, be removed by tearing up the turf, lest the hair-like roots, gradually swelling, should insinuate themselves into the very vitals of the structures and, after the manner of vipers, nourish for themselves an offspring of contrary fertility, whereby the joined fabric, ready to fall, may burst apart.

Strengthen also by constant repair the palace, shaken by long old age. The space which lies between the public edifice and the source of the fiery spring, cleanse of its wild roughness. Let the comely face of the countryside laugh with flowering grass; indeed it rejoices in the fertility of the burning water, and in a wondrous manner, while close at hand it engenders barren salt, it likewise nourishes verdure. But not by these benefits alone is the Antenorean land fruitful: it brings forth other things at which you would marvel far more greatly. Those hearts of the mountains, so to speak, like a tribunal, disentangle contentious disputes.

For if anyone should presume to strip a stolen beast of its natural hair in the usual manner, it must needs be that, repeatedly plunged into the burning waters, he should boil it before he can avail to cleanse it. O tribunal truly to be revered by right, since in these waters there is found not only sensation but even a true judgment, and what cannot be undone by human wrangling has been granted to be determined by the equity of the springs! There silent nature speaks while it judges, and in a certain manner pronounces sentence which excludes the perfidy of one who denies. But who would neglect to preserve such things, however much he be defiled by excessive stinginess? Since indeed it adorns the realm, which has been singularly renowned throughout the whole world.

And therefore, as to the money which has been given you, if it cannot suffice to complete the work undertaken, you shall indicate to us by sending brief reports how much you believe still needs to be expended; for we are not loath to spend, that we may be seen to guard so great a rampart of the countryside. When the king of the Franks, allured by the fame of our banqueting, had with great entreaties sought from us a player on the lyre, we promised to fulfill it solely on the ground that we knew you to be skilled in the learning of music. For it falls to you to choose a learned man, you who have been able to attain that very discipline set on so lofty a height. For what is more excellent than that which modulates the framework of heaven with sonorous sweetness, and by the grace of its own power comprehends the harmony of nature everywhere dispersed?

For whatever exists in the conception of any measured arrangement does not depart from the continuity of harmony. Through it we think fittingly, speak beautifully, move becomingly; and as often as this, by the law of its discipline, reaches our ears, it commands song, the artful sense of hearing transforms our minds, and this laborious delight, when it has come forth from the secret of nature as it were the queen of the senses, adorned with its own modes, then the remaining thoughts leap away and it causes all else to be cast out, so that it alone may give delight in being heard.

It gladdens harmful sadness, it softens swollen rages, it renders bloody savagery gentle, it rouses sloth drowsing in languor, it restores to the wakeful most salutary rest, it recalls chastity, corrupted by base love, back to honorable pursuit, it heals the weariness of a mind ever opposed to good thoughts, it converts pernicious hatreds into helping grace; and, what is a blessed kind of cure, through the sweetest pleasures it expels the passions of the soul. It soothes the incorporeal soul in a bodily manner, and by hearing alone leads to whatever it wishes that which it cannot hold fast by a word: silent, it cries out with the hands; without a mouth it speaks; and through the service of insensible things it prevails to exercise dominion over the senses.

All this is carried out among men by five modes, which are each named after the names of the provinces where they were discovered. For the divine compassion scattered grace locally, while it made all its works greatly worthy of praise. The Dorian is the bestower of prudence and the producer of chastity. The Phrygian stirs up battles and inflames the desire for fury. The Aeolian calms the tempests of the soul and grants sleep to those already pacified. The Iastian (Ionian) sharpens dull understanding, and to those weighed down by earthly desire it kindly works the longing for heavenly goods. The Lydian, devised against excessive cares of the soul and against weariness, restores by relaxation and strengthens by delight. This mode, bending the corruptible age toward dancing, made an honorable remedy into a base contrivance.

Now this number five consists of a threefold division. For every tone has its highest and its lowest: and these are spoken of in relation to a middle. And since those things cannot exist apart from one another which are referred back by mutual interchange, it was usefully discovered that artificial music—that is, the music sought out by the operations of its authors through various instruments—is contained in fifteen modes. To these things human ingenuity, adding something greater, gathered by most learned inquiry a certain harmony for the earth, which is called the diapason, assembled namely out of them all, so that this marvelous union might contain the powers which the whole melodic range could have possessed.

Hence Orpheus effectually held command over dumb animals, and invited the wandering flocks, scorning their pastures, rather to the feast of listening. As he sang, the Tritons loved the dry lands, Galatea sported on solid ground, the bears abandoned their beloved woods, the lions at last left their familiar reed-thickets; the prey rejoiced beside its predator. Into one assembly contrary desires were gathered, and, with the lyre speaking faith, all things believed their opposites to be friendly toward them. Amphion too, of Dirce, is said by his singing with strings to have founded the walls of Thebes, so that, while he was raising men, worn out with toil, to the pursuit of perfection, the very stones were believed to have come, abandoning their crags.

Musaeus also, the son both of Orpheus' art and of nature, the most powerful tongue of Maro (Virgil) celebrates, saying that he is established among the dead in the highest blessedness, because through the Elysian Fields he delighted the happy souls with the strains of seven strings—signifying that he enjoys the highest reward to whom it has fallen to feast on the sweetnesses of this discipline. But all these things seem to have been accomplished by human effort through manual music. Natural rhythm, however, is known to be assigned to the living voice: which then beautifully preserves melody, if it be silent at the right time, speak harmoniously, and through accents proceed along the way with metrical feet in well-composed utterance.

There was discovered also, for moving the minds of orators, a forceful and pleasing speech, so that judges may be angered against the guilty and may pity the erring: and whatever the eloquent man can accomplish, there is no doubt that it pertains to the glory of this discipline. To poets too, as Terentianus testifies, two principal meters were first assigned, that is, the heroic and the iambic—the one that should rouse, the other that should soothe. From these, for delighting the minds of hearers, various meters were brought forth; and as in instruments there are tones, so in the human voice the pregnant meters have given birth to the varied affections of the soul.

Inquisitive antiquity relates that the Sirens sang as a marvel, and that although the wind would carry sailors away on the waves and fill the sails, men, sweetly deceived, chose to run upon the rocks rather than suffer themselves to pass by so great a sweetness. From these only the Ithacan (Ulysses) escaped, who at once stopped up the seducible hearing of his sailors. Against the harmful sweetness that most prudent man devised a most fortunate deafness, and what they could not conquer by understanding, they better overcame by not perceiving. But himself he bound with tight knots to the solidity of the mast, so that he might both test the famous songs with free ears and, though bound, escape the perils of the sweet-sounding voice while the wave swept him along.

But that we too, after the example of the wise Ithacan, may pass by such things, let us speak of that psaltery fallen from heaven, which a man, sung of throughout the whole world (David), composed thus modulated for the safety of the soul, so that by these hymns both the wounds of the mind might be healed and the singular grace of divinity might be sought out. Behold what the age may marvel at and believe: the Davidic lyre drove out the devil; the sound held command over spirits; and at the playing of the cithara the king returned to liberty, whom the inward enemy basely possessed. For although many instruments of this delight have been sought out, yet nothing more effectual has been found for moving minds than the soothing resonance of the hollow cithara. Hence too we judge that the string (chorda) is so named because it easily moves the heart (cor):

where so great a concord of voices is gathered under such diversity, that a string struck near another makes that other tremble of its own accord, which no one has chanced to touch. For so great is the power of concord that it makes an insensible thing move of itself, because it is established that its companion has been set in motion. Hence come diverse voices without a tongue; hence from various sounds a certain most sweet chorus is produced—the one high by too great tension, the other low by some slackness, this middle one most charmingly tempered in its course—so that men cannot avail to bring themselves to so great a unity as that to which things devoid of reason have attained in social agreement.

For there whatever sounds excellently, whatever weightily, whatever hoarsely, whatever most purely, and the other distinctions, all seem to be gathered as it were into one ornament; and as a diadem with the varied light of its gems delights the eyes, so the cithara with the diversity of its sound charms the hearing. The eloquent web of the Muses, the wordy warp, the singing threads, in which what is sweetly heard is covered by the sharp plectrum. This, then, in imitation of the varied tortoise-shell, Mercury is said to have invented; which, providing things so most useful, the astronomers thought ought to be sought among the stars, persuading men that music is heavenly, since they were able to grasp the form of the lyre placed among the constellations.

But the harmony of heaven cannot fittingly be expounded by human speech, which reason alone has given to the mind, but which nature has not disclosed to the ears. For they say it must be believed that heavenly blessedness fully enjoys those delights which neither fail with any end nor wither with any interruption. For in the very intellect, they relate, the things above have their dwelling; that the heavenly beings fully enjoy these very delights, and that those who cleave to such contemplations are continually held in blessed pleasures. They judged indeed rightly, if they had placed the cause of heavenly blessedness not in sounds, but in the Creator, where there is truly joy without end, an eternity ever abiding without any weariness, and where the sole beholding of the Godhead brings it about that nothing can be more blessed.

This (the Creator) truly bestows perpetuity, this heaps up delights: and just as apart from Him the creature does not exist, so without Him it cannot avail to have unchangeable gladness. But since we have made a pleasurable digression—because it is always agreeable to converse about learning with skilled men—let your wisdom choose, at the present time, a better lyre-player, the one whom we said was requested of us, one who will do something of Orpheus, when with sweet sound he shall have tamed the wild hearts of the heathen. And as great as the thanks rendered to us shall be, so great are returned to you also from us in equal recompense, you who both obey our command and accomplish what may make you renowned.

We rejoice indeed in the glorious kinship of your valor, in that you happily roused the nation of the Franks, sluggish in former times, into new battles, and subjected to your victorious right hand the Alamannic peoples, brought low when their stronger men were slain. But since excess always seems to be cut off in the instigators of treachery, and the punishable guilt of the leaders ought not to be the avenging of all, temper your assaults against the weary remnants; for they deserve by right to escape through grace, whom you regard as having fled for refuge to the defense of your kinsmen. Be lenient toward those who, terrified, are hidden within our borders. It is a memorable triumph that the most fierce Alaman has so quailed that you compel him to beg for the gift of his life.

Let it suffice that that king has fallen together with the pride of his nation; let it suffice that an innumerable people has been subjugated, partly by the sword, partly by servitude. For if you contend with the remnants, you will not yet be believed to have overcome all. Receive what has often been proved in such cases: those wars have turned out fortunately for me which have been carried through to a moderate end. For he conquers constantly who knows how to temper all things, since pleasant prosperity rather flatters those who do not stiffen with excessive harshness. Yield therefore graciously to our genius, which heathendom has been accustomed to grant to itself by common example. For thus it comes about that you may be seen both to have satisfied our requests, and not to be anxious on that side which you know belongs to us.

Wherefore, greeting you with the honor and affection of which you are worthy, we have directed to your excellency, with our accustomed charity, such-and-such, our legates, through whom we may obtain both an assurance of your safety and the effect of our hoped-for petition. Certain matters, indeed, which have come to us for your advantages, we have entrusted to be conveyed to you by word through the bearers of these letters, so that, being made more cautious, you may be able steadfastly to fulfill the longed-for victory. For your safety is our glory, and we judge the kingdom of Italy to prosper as often as we learn glad tidings of you. We have also dispatched, as requested, a lyre-player learned in his art, who, singing with mouth and hands in harmonious voice, may delight the glory of your power:

whom we believe will for this reason be welcome, because you yourselves have judged that he ought greatly to be sent.