I might justly be reproached, most clement of princes, were I to seek your peace but lukewarmly, the peace which it is established my forebears sought more ardently; or in what respect should I prove a worthy heir, if I were found unequal to my ancestors amid so great a glory? It is not the purple-clad rank of our forefathers alone that ennobles us, nor does the royal throne so exalt us as does your favour, which extends far and wide, ennoble us. For we believe that all things stand perfectly secure in our kingdom, if we feel that this favour is in no way lacking to us. But as it befits your piety to love those whose fathers it chanced that you loved—for no one is believed to have shown harmless purity toward men of old unless he is proven to have received their stock as acceptable—let hatreds be shut up together with the buried:
Let wrath learn to perish along with the insolent; but favour ought not to die together with those who are beloved: rather he is to be treated all the more affectionately who, in matters concerning the kingdom, is found guiltless. Weigh well what an heir of good things deserves from you. You raised our grandfather upon lofty curule chairs in your own city; you adorned my father in Italy with the splendour of the palm-embroidered robe. Out of desire for concord he was made, through arms, a son—he who in years seemed almost your equal. This name you will bestow still more fittingly upon a youth, in such measure as you granted it to our elders. Your affection ought now to pass into the place of kinship: for one born of your son is not held, by the laws of nature, a stranger to you.
And therefore I seek peace not as one far off but as one near at hand, since you granted me the favour of a grandson at that time when you bestowed upon my father the joys of adoption. Let us too be admitted into your heart, who have obtained the royal inheritance. This is to me, above dominion itself, to have so great and such a ruler well-disposed toward me. May our beginnings, then, deserve to have the comfort of a long-lived prince; may my boyhood obtain the protection of your favour, and we are not wholly left destitute of parents, we who are upheld by such protection. Let our kingdom be bound to you by the bonds of favour. You will reign the more in that part where you command all things by love.
Wherefore we have judged that these our envoys, so-and-so and so-and-so, should be dispatched to your Serenity, that you may grant us friendship upon those pacts and those conditions which it is established your illustrious predecessors held with our lord and grandfather of divine memory. Perhaps I even merit something of greater sincerity, since neither does my age appear suspect nor is my lineage now proven foreign. Certain matters, indeed, we have entrusted to be conveyed by word of mouth to your most serene mind through our above-named envoys; cause these, after the manner of your clemency, to come to effect. It is established to be a most full joy, conscript fathers, to learn of the rise of a sovereign, so that he who is believed able to protect all may be heard to have come to the heights of the kingdom.
The measure of gladness comes from the magnitude of the tidings, and the eagerness of the spirit is as great as the consideration of the matter has been. For if foretold advantages of comrades uplift prudent men, if the announced safety of friends relieves them, with how great exultation ought it to be received that the ruler of all lands has come forth happily—he whom no roused sedition put forward, no raging wars brought to birth, no losses of the commonwealth purchased, but who was made through tranquillity, even as it befitted the author of civil order to come! A great kind of felicity indeed it is to obtain sovereignty without strife, and for a youthful lord to be made in that commonwealth where many are established to be found of mature character.
For counsel cannot be lacking to any age where so many public parents are established to be found. Our hope, then, has been preferred to the deserts of all, and it was more certain that trust should be placed in us than what could be approved concerning others—and not unjustly, since any nobility of birth yields to the Amal line, and just as he who is born of you is named of senatorial origin, so he who proceeds from this family is approved most worthy of the kingdom. What we say has been proven by present fact. For when our lord and grandfather, in proportion to the abundance of his benefits, was pressed at his last hour by sweetest remembrance of us, he transferred the greatness of his dominion upon us with such swiftness that you would believe not so much a kingdom as a garment to have been changed.
So many magnates, glorious in hand and counsel, raised no murmur, as is wont to happen; but with great joy they so followed the judgments of their prince that you would rather recognize the divine will to have shone forth therein. Wherefore we have deemed it necessary, with God propitious, to make you more certain concerning the rise of our kingdom, since the empire seems enlarged rather than changed when it passes to descendants: for in a certain manner he himself is thought to live, whose offspring is known to rule over you. This your prayers desired; this was his undoubted resolve—that he should leave as heir of his goods one who might be able to increase his benefits toward you.
It is established to have been devised out of love for princes that fidelity to an image should be preserved by bronze statues, so that the coming generation might behold the author who had bound the commonwealth to himself by many benefits. But how much truer is he who lives on in his posterity, through whom for the most part both the form of the body is restored and the vigour of the mind is prolonged! And therefore you ought now to display the fidelity of your nobility with greater zeal, so that the former gifts may be seen to have been conferred upon the deserving, and we may without doubt bestow future ones upon those whom we shall have in no way perceived to have been forgetful of things past.
Know also that it was ordained by divine providence that the general consent of Goths and Romans should accrue to us, and that they should confirm by the religion even of an oath the goodwill which they offered with pure hearts. This we in no way doubt that you will follow—in time, not in love: for that could be begun by you which you, forestalled by remoteness, now follow. For it is established that the most excellent fathers can love all the more, in proportion as they are seen to have received greater honours than the other orders.
But that you may recognize even our first beginnings of kindness toward you—since it befits us to enter your curia with benefits—we have caused our illustrious Count Sigismer, together with those who have been sent, to give you our solemn oaths, because we desire inviolably to keep what we promise by public authority. But if you believe anything ought to be petitioned of us which may multiply the increases of your security, ask without hesitation, being admonished by us who even seem to exhort you to pour forth your prayers. For this is a promise rather than a mere reminder: for he who bids the venerable senate to make supplication has none the less pledged what it may be able to obtain. Now it is for you to hope for some such thing as may be able to increase our common commonwealth.
If a foreign heir had received the empire, you might perhaps have been able to doubt lest the successor, out of envy, should not love those whom the former had loved—since, in some unaccountable way, when a successor strives to be praised more, the fame of his predecessor is slackened. But now only the person, not the favour, has been changed for you, since we believe rightly to be dealt with by us, if we follow the venerable judgments of our grandfather. For it concerns our reputation that those whom he most kindly protected, we too should feed with an established abundance and a richness of benefits. They think too little who succeed obscure princes versed in mediocre activity: such a one preceded us that we ought to follow the footsteps of his exquisite virtues.
Wherefore—and may this be said with God as our guide—we announce to you that it was arranged by the ordinance of our glorious lord and grandfather, that the most sweet consent of Goths and Romans should accrue to our kingdom; and, lest in adverse circumstances any suspicion might remain, they confirmed their vows by the interposition of oaths: that they would undertake our dominion with as great joy as if our lord and grandfather had not been seen to be withdrawn by the lot of fate, so that they might prove themselves devoted not with their tongues alone, but also with their inmost hearts.
But if you, as we suppose, shall have done the like with a willing mind, we have caused the bearers of this letter, under divine adjuration, to promise you that we will, with the Lord's help, keep justice and equable clemency, which nourishes peoples, and that there shall be a common law for Goths and Romans among us, nor anything divided between you save that they undergo the toils of war for the common benefit, while you the quiet habitation of the Roman city multiplies. Behold, by inclining to the most clement condition of the oath, we have exalted our sovereignty, so that the peoples whom our blessed author nurtured can have nothing doubtful, nothing to dread. Behold, we restore the example of your Trajan, illustrious through the ages:
He swears to you by Him through whom you yourselves swear, nor can anyone be deceived by Him, by whose invocation it is not permitted to lie with impunity. Lift up your spirits now, and with God propitious ever hope for better things, so that, just as we have begun the royal power from love, so we may carry through, in the times that follow, a tranquillity pleasing to God. We believe it honourable to announce what you could have learned with rumour as witness. Rightly, indeed, will he be reckoned to have been well esteemed concerning himself who merits a royal address, since it is a dignity to have deserved the discourse of the sovereign as a subject—especially in that cause in which the hearts of all are seen to be so anxious that, if they do not learn of prosperity, they ever believe in adversity. For he who hears that a reign is changed none the less dreads a new empire.
And in very truth he is believed to be pondering something sad, who delays to promise kindly things at the outset. Wherefore, cutting off all occasion for sinister thoughts, we do not allow ourselves to be believed otherwise than as could be reckoned of our forebears. And therefore—and may this be said with the Divinity propitious, our glorious lord and grandfather happily ordaining it—we have undertaken the oaths of the kingdom we have obtained, for the safeguard of both the Goths and the Romans present. This we judge most gladly that you also will do, so that you who proved faithful to our parents may obey us too with like devotion. For he loves the heir more sweetly who remembers the author of his benefits.
But that the integrity of our goodwill toward you may even now become known, we have caused it to be promised to you by the religion of an oath, what may both declare our purpose and ought to fortify the hope of all. We should indeed have wished to announce to you the joys of the long life of our lord and grandfather: but since he was withdrawn from those who loved him by a hard condition, he substituted us, by God's command over him, as heirs of his kingdom, so that through the succession of his own blood he might make the benefits conferred by him upon you to be perpetual, while we desire both to increase and to safeguard those things which we know were done by him.
To his ordinance, while he yet survived, the vows of all in the royal city were so joined together by the interposition of an oath, that you would believe one man to be promising what the whole body seemed to desire. Following this example, do you accomplish it with like devotion, lest you should seem to have done less than those present, by whom all is believed to be likewise capable of being fulfilled. That count, indeed, we have caused to promise you with sworn voice, that, just as you most devotedly disclose your mind to us, so you may hear desired things from our disposition.
Receive therefore the ever-prosperous name for you—the royal lineage of the Amals, the purple-born scion, the purpled infancy—through whom, with God's help, our parents were fittingly exalted and, amid so extended a line of kings, ever received increase. For we believe that the Divinity, propitious, which deigned to help our ancestors, now too bestows the grace of its favour, so that, while we reign, you who flourished under our parents amid the abundant praise of your virtues may bring forth for us the sweetest fruits of good things. We know that your mind is wearied with bitter grief over the death of our lord and grandfather of glorious memory, since all good things are grievously bewailed when lost: for the more is sought when a desirable lord is taken away.
But it is expedient that the mind afflicted by zeal of piety be consoled with a compensating remedy, since that loss is scarcely felt for which no stranger succeeds. For thus, by God's command, he made provision for himself, being provident even after death, that he might leave peace to his regions, lest any novelty should disturb their quiet. He established us as lords upon the throne of his kingdom, so that the glory of the race, which flourished in him, might forthwith radiate upon his successors with equal light. To this ordinance the desires of Goths and Romans concurred, so that under the religion of an oath they promised that they would keep faith toward our kingdom with a devoted mind.
This we have believed ought to be brought to the notice of your illustrious greatness, so that from those who in the Gauls are devoted to the kingdom of our piety, a like example may be set forth, and, just as they do not desire that our affections toward them be made less, so they may be held bound by an equal condition. Although the setting of our lord and grandfather of glorious memory may seem sad to you on account of his excellent merits, nevertheless, since he sank down by the human condition, he left us behind for the continuation of the governance which he had singularly conducted, lest you should feel the loss of a good prince, whose offspring you know to reign over you.
For with us no one loses what he rendered to him, but, munificent with a twofold bounty, we both repay the debts due to him and, with an inborn piety, requite future services with native benefits. And therefore it now befits you to display your former fidelity with greater devotion, since he well provides for things to come who serves the beginnings of those who reign, while he himself is believed to persevere into the rest who is felt to cherish the first beginnings. We announce, moreover, by divine favour, that when we came to the heights of the kingdom, all things so fell out for us as happy and so tranquil, that you would believe the whole body to be uttering one thing, nor would it be thought human that the vows of so many vast peoples were proven to have nothing contrary.
Whence it befits you also to imitate the aforesaid, that the Goths may give an oath to the Romans and the Romans confirm to the Goths by sacrament that they are unanimously devoted to our kingdom, so that both your sincerity may become laudably known to us, and the mutually promised concord may profit your tranquillity. Let a lawful tranquillity, once sent, pass among you: let not the more powerful be hostile to the lesser. Keep a peaceful mind, you who have no foreign war, since you can first please us in this, if you provide for yourselves by this reasoning. Concerning faith and constancy, those persons are to be admonished who are shaken by human desires with diverse fortune.
But you, whom wisdom makes firm and a religious mind consolidates, ought rather to be roused to the uniting of the provincials, since he justly becomes a debtor to another's judgment who merits to be heard by many. Wherefore, greeting you with the reverence which is due, we announce with the greatest grief what may indeed bring you mourning—the passing of our lord and grandfather of glorious memory. But hence your sadness can be tempered, since he has set us, by the Divinity's favour, upon the throne of his kingdom, so that he may not seem altogether snatched from your desire who rises up for you, restored in the succession.
Favour now our sacred prayers gladly with your auspices, that the heavenly King may confirm to us human kingdoms, may crush foreign nations, absolve our sins, and propitiously consolidate and preserve what He deigned to bestow upon our glorious parents. Wherefore let your holiness admonish all the provincials, that, keeping concord among themselves, they ought to be in all things most pure toward our kingdom. For we desire that fidelity be found in our subjects, which we may be able to reward with bounteous piety. Granted that the Divine may render fit for ruling peoples those whom it has advanced to the august summit—
since age is no hindrance where heavenly power infuses itself—nevertheless, for the relief of the anxiety of our most flourishing age, it has seemed fitting to employ you, a most prudent man, suitably, you who are established to have clung continually and laudably even to the deliberations of our lord and grandfather. But if it was worthy to make such and so great a man do this, how much more does it befit us to seek comfort, of which, for the bloom of our youth, we can still fittingly stand in need! For great and boundless is prudence, which no one so attains as not to seem to seek it of necessity even through others. The aged themselves learn wisdom by counsels, and from mature men is sought in common what is treated for the benefit of all.
Mature kings frequently apply to themselves the comfort of shared cares, and are esteemed the better hence, if they do not presume all things alone. But if long-lived lords are aided by the talents of their subjects, we, with deliberation, relax the brief holidays of our age, so that, increased by its own augmentations, it may rise up more robustly and prosperously to sustain the burdens of empire. And therefore we elevate you, with divine favour, to the rank of patrician of the presence, so that a lofty seat may exalt you as you deliberate for our commonwealth, lest a salutary opinion, which it is fitting humbly to obey, should seem to have come from a common station. This is an honour which both befits arms and shines forth in peace: this that rich Greece, which owed much to our most glorious lord and grandfather, gratefully rendered:
the chlamys-garment veiled his strong shoulders, that Roman shoe painted his calves, and he was seen graciously to receive what he knew himself to take by way of honour. The eagerness to behold our hero grew among the eastern peoples, while, in some unaccountable way, in him who is believed warlike the civil virtues are loved the more. Content, therefore, with this remuneration of honour, he laboured with untiring devotion for foreign parts, and he who had been begotten of the stock of so many kings deigned, together with his ancestors, to render obedience to the prince. Thus the benefits of the great ever exalt themselves, so that even upon those whom they cannot command they impose the laws of veneration. The advanced ever love the author of their advancement, and they know not the laws of morality who are not held by benefits.
But it would be long to speak sufficiently of the glory of him whom fertile ages brought forth as singular among the nations. His labour itself instructed you, so that we should have to labour the less. With you he conferred about the certainties of peace, with you about the uncertainties of war, and—what among wise kings is a singular gift—he, solicitous about all things, securely laid open to you the secrets of his breast. You, however, mocked no one with ambiguous replies. You loved patience in hearing, truth in your counsel: often things which had reached him falsely you corrected out of zeal for the right; and—what is a rare kind of confidence—at times you resisted against the prince's wishes, but for the ruler's good repute.
For that man, unconquered in battles, suffered himself to be overcome for the sake of his own fame, and a reasonable contradiction of an obedient man was sweet to a just prince. Love justice now in a loftier station, which you loved while serving. Show yourself to be the disciple of him who never laboured in vain: joined to the Amal race, take to yourself as partner most noble deeds. For affinity with a king ought to commend every good. You are about to act with your accustomed prudence, so that you may be seen to have attained a lofty summit by the praise of your character. There is an example of this probity of the Gothic race: that Gensimund, sung throughout the whole world, made a son by arms alone, joined himself with such devotion to the Amals that he displayed a diligent service to their heirs.
Although he himself was sought for the kingship, he bestowed his merit upon others, and, most moderate of all, what could have been conferred upon himself he displayed toward little children. And therefore the fame of our people celebrates him: he ever lives in records who scorned things destined some day to die. Thus, as long as the name of the Goths survives, his praise is borne on by the testimony of all. Whence it is right to believe better things of you, who are established to rejoice in the affinity of our race. You have, conscript fathers, that whereby you ought to render thanks to our glorious prince, since upon the most exalted Tuluin, resplendent also with our affinity, we have conferred the dignity of your order. For the genius of peace has been increased by the adornment of radiant iron, nor does the toga, now made ready for campaign, lie ungirded.
Before now we conferred honours upon you, but now we have raised up the very dignity itself. Through all, doubtless, the splendour is poured back which a present patrician can possess: since that is the nature of the purest light, which shines again even upon those nearby. But although the candidate is most well-known to you, who clung to such bright and long-continued services of our lord and grandfather, nevertheless it is pleasant to repeat those things which are established to pertain to the glory of his instructor. First—which among the nations is most distinguished—he glories in the most noble stock of the Goths. As soon as he left his infancy among his kindred, he straightway bore his raw years to the secrets of the sacred bedchamber, acting not as his age, but rather as his station, demanded.
For although all services of kings are to be performed with caution, there all the more fear is acquired, in proportion as one is held the nearer. It is exceedingly arduous to have merited the prince's secret, where, if anything is known to be betrayed, it is dreaded even from another. These storms he, ruler of himself, passed through without offence, dear to the highest men, ever acceptable to his colleagues, so that even then it seemed a presage of great felicity to have merited the favour of all. As his age began to grow toward youth and his tender years to harden into the robust daring of the race, he was directed to the expedition of Sirmium: so that what he had learned in words from that man of Mars, he might display in the freedom of the open fields.
He won a triumph over the Huns among others, and, having inaugurated well-earned praise in his first encounters, he put to death the Bulgars, terrible throughout the whole world. Such warriors do our cradles send forth: thus are hands made ready where the spirit is exercised. Nursed in leisurely service, he subdued the toilsome, and what he had not learned by exercise, ready valour fulfilled. He returned suddenly to the prince a veteran though he had set out in his early prime, so that he might be believed to have ever striven not after peaceful services, but after arms.
That scrutinizer of deeds and rewarder of good things, beholding this, committed to him the vigour of the royal house through contemplation of his virtue, so that he whom wars had proved ingenious might be mingled in the counsels of the most valiant king—subtle in devising, robust in accomplishing, most cautious in concealing. He fulfilled with merit the place of the public secret: with him the king disposed his battles, with him the equable arrangements of affairs, and he had joined himself to so great a likeness of his thought, that, the cases being recognized, what the king could wish, this man of his own accord carried out. He aided the defender of all by his deliberations, and, by furnishing counsel, he himself governed the governor.
The Gallic expedition also calls him to mind, where, now dispatched among the leaders, he brought to bear both his prudence in war and, most ready, his person amid dangers. Arles is a city set above the waters of the Rhone, which sends across the back of the said river a planked bridge into the prospect of the east. To capture this for the enemy and to defend it for our own was a matter of necessity. Wherefore the most vigorous contests of Goths and Franks were stirred up at that time. There, in doubtful circumstances, the daring of the candidate was present, where he fought in so great a struggle with bands of enemies that he both drove the foes from their desires and received wounds as the standards of his deeds:
wounds, I say—an inseparable repute, a renown without an advocate, the very tongue of valour—which, although they bring danger for the present, yet adorn the remaining time of life. For an unwounded body needs witnesses, it seeks others to spread abroad what they have seen; concerning proven fortitude there is no doubt, which is approved by such testimony. The clash of brave men returns weapon for weapon, nor was he ever safe who contended with a numerous foe. One stroke, perhaps, is skilfully eluded: he who withstands many receives a wound from the quarter where he did not expect it—wounds which are now glorious in so far as they then held perils.
It is pleasing, therefore, to narrate the most valiant man's tranquil example of felicity, since in a leader it is not perfect praise ever to assert anxious toils. He is sent, then, while Frank and Burgundian were contending, again to guard the Gauls, lest the adverse hand should presume anything which our army had vindicated at the cost of toils. He acquired for the Roman commonwealth, while others were contending, a province without any fatigue, and our quiet advantage was achieved where we had no peril of warlike contention: a triumph without battle, a palm without toil, a victory without slaughter. So much, therefore, do we owe to his glory, as we received of advantage.
Him too that arbiter of affairs judged worthy to be advanced by a bestowal of revenues, so that he might become lord of possessions there where he had procured an increase for the public good. The storm at Aquileia we may also rightly count among his prosperous fortunes, for perils, when they turn out happily, leave behind a memory of the sweetest savour. When the foam of the billows bore witness to the sea raging amid savage winds, the swelling waters swallowed up his long-tossed ship, leaving the brave man no aid save only the oarage of his own arms. Then, while the sailors perished, this man alone escaped, together with his dear child.
There the love of our most pious king was shown, there the worth of the imperilled man was proven, when that ruler, scarcely set upon the shore, desired to enter the waves again, that he might prevail to snatch him from destruction. Then did he dread that man's perils, who knew not how to fear for his own safety. Does he not seem to you, conscript fathers, to have been divinely rescued from harsh mishaps, for whom the present outcome was being prepared? This man, therefore, trained in wars, illustrious in good fortune, approved in prudence, we have raised — and let this be said under God's auspices — to the summit of the patriciate of the court. Favour now the auspices of the candidate, and open the halls of Liberty to our men. It befits the Roman race to have martial men as colleagues.