雜記與文集 第 9 章

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.

Be assured, conscript fathers, that the zeal of you all ought to be stirred up to render thanks to your most excellent king, since you know that my promotion has been devised for the benefit of all. And therefore that should be received with eagerness which would necessarily have been a thing to wish for. It is indeed useful to all to follow the judgements of princes, but he makes them his own who gladly accepts what is another's. You remember that I have always cherished the assembly of the senate, but now most of all, when I seem to enter into your fellowship. The taking up of the dignity of your order has doubled our gratitude, since I feel myself to be among those by whom I trust I can be loved.

There is added also that most welcome pledge of your goodwill, that the dignity of the patricians stands exalted through us, since none of the foreigners will think it abased in you which he beholds honoured in me. In the seeking of honours too, before Theoderic, that prince of kings of glorious memory, I often joined my prayers with yours, so that by a kind of foreshadowing I may seem to have sent ahead such men, among whom it was fitting that I should enter with goodwill. For that is sought with more confidence where men hasten after benefits already conferred. Often have I promoted consuls, often patricians, often prefects by my intercession, striving to obtain for you what I could only with difficulty have wished for myself. Rejoice now with me, conscript fathers, at my auspices, I who have ever favoured your honours.

Do you wish to know with what affection I embrace you? Engrafted into the royal stock, I wished to hold a title in common with you. Live secure under God's favour and — what is the most blessed kind of sweetness — exult together with your children. Strive, as ever, to be praised for Roman morals, and seek the renown of good deeds in deep tranquillity. It concerns our glory that those whose number we have increased we should protect with the divinity propitious. We judge that the perfecting of necessary matters is complete only if, just as by choosing a magnificent man as patrician we have provided for the armed part of the commonwealth, so we also take counsel for joining to him one most skilled in letters.

For it is fitting that those to whom the highest power is committed should have most learned counsellors, so that, with no defect of merits hindering, the foreseen advantage of the commonwealth may be unfolded. There are other honours which compose themselves by an ordinary provision; but for the general security a man had to be associated with the careful prince such as would have no equal in his pursuits. Nor indeed will you be recognized as hitherto less approved, although you have come to honours in your prime. The field of advocacy has exercised you; the summit of our judgement has chosen you. For though your profession of letters was ample, it dwelt within you in such a way that we would not suffer your talent to grow old there.

You began as a soldier, when you could have filled the office of judge; and although eloquence drew you to plead for the defence, yet equity urged you to bring forward matters to be adjudged. It has been proven what usefulness eloquence armed with good morals possesses. For just as it is pernicious that learned men should persuade to depravity, so it is a wholesome gift when discourse knows not how to overstep the bounds of truth. But that we may set forth your merits rather 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 sent from the regions of Dalmatia to our lord grandfather, you so set forth the needs of the provincials and the public interests, that before that anxious and most cautious prince you were both copious and yet stirred no weariness. For your words flowed in abundance with the sweetest charm, and when you made an end, you were still asked to speak: by delighting and moving you fulfilled rather the effort of a true orator, when you had now laid aside the office of a mere pleader. You were aided too by the eloquence and character of your own father, whose discourse could have instructed you, even if you had not had leisure for the books of the ancients. For he was, as we know, eminently learned in letters.

And that we may seem to say something choice to a scholar, Mercury, the inventor of many arts, is recorded — as the more frequent opinion relates — to have first gathered these letters from the flight of the Strymonian birds. For even today the cranes, which join themselves into a flock, trace the forms of the alphabet by nature's instilling: and he, reducing this into a seemly order, with vowels and consonants fittingly mingled, found a path of meaning, by which the mind, seeking the heights, may most swiftly arrive at the inner sanctuaries of wisdom. Hence Helenus, an author of the Greeks, said many things excellently, describing the virtue and composition of letters with most subtle narration, so that at the very beginning the abundance of great letters may be recognized.

But that we may return to our purpose: you are to be believed, then, 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 wrings from others! In short, you found Roman eloquence not in its own regions, and there the reading of 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 his shame, if the earlier ages had begotten this accomplished man. The force of that saying is indeed undone: even Liguria sends forth its own Tullii.

Recognize what we have esteemed from your merits, since you see yourself associated with the counsel of him who handles the secret of our rule. Hence it is that, having distinguished you among the count of the domestics, we adorn you with this honour, so that you may deservedly hope greater things from our judgements, you in whom we believe still better things to be found. You see that a great task has been committed to you: whatever you shall do, the whole community feels it. For he who can sin against the universe is exceedingly glorious, if he knows not how to transgress. Secure does he ascend the heights who has approved himself in things a little lower, and with sure footstep he advances who gains the desired thing step by step.

For whatever is sudden is thought to be rewarded without merit, nor does that which has come about suddenly escape the suspicion of being untested. On the contrary, all things deliberated are robust, and he is believed to have obtained the whole by good deeds who is promoted after the documents of a praised service. Long ago, received among the schools of letters by that inspector of merits who by his judgements foretold even future things, you presided over the insignia of the privy largesses: an honour but slight, had it not grown from yourself, which you, taking up the patronage of merits, so increased by the favour of your sovereign, that there was often committed to you what the dignity did not possess. But if it is praiseworthy to be equal even to middling honours, how much more excellent to have surpassed the dignity of the court by one's character.

When you carried out these praised duties under so great a judge, you found favour also in another place. For you are proven to have been employed in dictations, when another was expelled for his offences, and your talent so sustained your suspended honour that you did not allow the palace to lack a judge whose dignity we had learned to be for a time abrogated. Our times are not unequal to those that are past: we have followers and rivals of the men of old. Behold, again, by your talent you come, eminent, to the quaestorship. Give us back now a Pliny, and take up a Trajan. You have great things to say, if you too shine resplendent with like discourse. The fame of the times is begotten of a lawful and eloquent command. A learned tongue heaps up all good things, and what is enjoined by us is adorned by the grace of him who composes it.

Be most ready for us to suggest good things, and constantly upright against the wickedness of those who presume ill. Tell to our ears even that which is wholly for us. That is a good prince who may be addressed on behalf of justice, and against the token of tyrannical savagery is unwilling to hear anything against the ordinances of the ancient sanctions. We renew indeed that most famous saying of Trajan: take up the dictation, if I be good, on behalf of the commonwealth, and against me, if I be evil, on behalf of the commonwealth. But see what we ask of you, since we do not permit even ourselves to do anything unjust. Let our decrees, therefore, echo the ordinances of the ancients, which find as much sweetness of praise as they take on a savour of antiquity.

The prejudgements which we dread, we do not love in others. We bind you assuredly to the community, while we absolutely command the laws to be kept. This we now say for this reason, that we may seem to have taken counsel for all in your person opportunely. For it is fitting to forewarn, lest we should seem to wish to correct you too late, after the perils of others. Follow the examples of good men, and walk on mindful of your own nobility. Those return worthily to the vices of their stock who are born of a contemptible lineage. Having therefore foretold these things for the public good, in this fifth indiction we grant you happily, by God's bestowing, the insignia of the quaestorship — the honour of the prudent, the fount of all dignities, since from it there proceeds whatever has flowed forth from the bounty of our indulgence.

Act so that you, who are taken into our counsel, may be known to excel all in prudence and gravity. For you see what befits you. You are called the voice of the laws, while we establish statutes. Apply yourself now to probity and to faith, so that, just as your prior honour made you worthy of another, so the second may make you worthy of a third dignity. Receive, conscript fathers, the judgement which our beginnings have brought forth, since the things that are done with caution are wholly more pondered, because such a sequel is believed to follow as the commencement is felt to have come. For no one thinks that man will be diligent in the future whom he does not see to be a keeper of his own reputation in its very newness.

The provident gardener strives to adorn his garden with fruitful nursery-plots, so that those which had been tended with careful labours may yield the desired fruits: how much more does it befit a kingdom to be composed at the beginnings of peace with pleasantness, lest it seem to have the appearance of an untilled field! And therefore we have thought to give a quaestor to our benefits as a kind of doorway, through which the summits of coming dignities may fittingly pass forth. The merits of the candidate are surely known to you, since even the present matters are such as we speak of. For when the anxious hearts of his subjects mourned the passing of our lord grandfather of glorious memory — for a good thing lost, while it is sought, is the more loved — through him there were opened to you the desired things both of our auspices and of your security.

Understand with what equity we bind ourselves for the future, that he himself should become the keeper of the laws for you, who had been made the promiser of justice to be preserved. He attended the royal mandates as an eloquent and comely orator, soothing even by his appearance those whom he rendered most well-disposed by his hearing. For such ought courtiers to be, that they may disclose the goods of nature by the witness of their countenance, and may be recognized by their character when they are seen. For one who is silent is for the most part despicable, if only his tongue ennobles him: but he ever remains in honour if, when his mind is tranquil, his most serene aspect also commends him. By this deed, in short, we testify that we have an abundance of prudent men, since one is chosen such as is praised on both sides.

But it is foolish to extol the goods of eloquence in a quaestor, since he is for this in particular proven to be chosen, that he may commend the repute of the times by the quality of his words. For to other judges of the provinces let the collection of taxes be committed, to others let the custody of the private treasury be delegated: but here the insignia of courtly fame are deposited, whence the report spread abroad may be praised throughout the whole world. This we have judged worth recalling to you, conscript fathers, so that you may believe us to seek such men as it is expedient to find both for our praise and for your security. Recognize, learned men, the good intention of a prince: have confidence in benefits, you who are proven to have knowledge of letters. It belongs to the most sluggish to grow torpid, when he knows that the lords of affairs have invited him to advancement.

Wherefore, conscript fathers, let the favour of your kindness receive the illustrious Ambrosius, adorned with the summit of the quaestorship. For there should be no doubt about him who has already deserved to be approved in his first dignity by your order. We profess it most welcome to our mind that you assented to the judgement of our glorious lord grandfather in the election to the episcopate. For it behoved that the will of a good prince should be obeyed, who, weighing matters with wise deliberation, seemed — though in another religion — to have chosen such a pontiff as ought rightly to displease no one, so that you may recognize that he chiefly desired this: that by good priests the religion of all the churches might flourish.

You have therefore received a man both commendably instructed by divine grace and approved by royal examination. Let no one any longer be held by his former contention. He has not the shame of one defeated, whose wish chances to be overcome by the prince. Nay rather, he makes that wish his own who has loved him in purity. For what cause of grief is there, when he finds even in this man that which, drawn into the other party, he had desired for another? These are civic contests, a battle without the sword, a quarrel without hatred: the matter is carried through by shouts, not by sorrows. For even if a particular person be set aside, yet nothing is lost by the faithful, since the longed-for priesthood is possessed.

Wherefore, on the return of your legate, the illustrious Publianus, we have thought it reasonable to direct words of salutation to your assembly. For we enjoy great gladness whenever we exchange words with our nobles. And this too we doubt not is most sweet to you, if what you did at his bidding you also know to be pleasing to us. Those who come to courtly dignities are wont indeed to be weighed by long examination, lest the imperial judgement should seem to approve anything doubtful, since it is the glory of a kingdom to have found out choice judges. But so frequent is the most fortunate advancement of your family, prudence so declared in many persons, that although someone choose you on the sudden, he would seem to have done nothing uncertain.

A fortunate vein preserves the likeness of its own, since they are ashamed to fail who cannot find the like within their own stock. Hence it is that to have chosen a noble man is recognized to be better than to have made one fortunate: for the former, admonished, keeps himself by the deeds of the ancients, while the latter has no example save what he himself shall have done. Wherefore we securely entrust to you that which we rejoice to have so often been committed to your family. Your father presided over these insignia: but your brother too shone with the same brightness. The very dignity has, as it were, set up a household-god in your dwelling, and a domestic matter has become a public adornment.

For you learned the order of military service under your brother's praise, to whom, joined by mutual affection, you fulfilled the part of a partner in labours and of a brother by sharing in his counsels, judging that to pertain rather to yourself which your brother had received. Upon this staff that happier man leaned, by your forethought neglecting some things in shrewdness, because through you he saw all things fulfilled. Behold the sweet compliance of brothers, and the ancient concord of present times! Well is judgement entrusted to such dispositions, who are felt to preserve their character by nature. But if pleasant retreats and provincial leisure had perchance pleased him, troops of suitors and the anxious prayers of the wronged ran to you.

Among them you took up the office of a good judge, so that, urged as it were by some presage of things to come which you could receive from us, you carried it out by the assumption of merits. We remember also with what devotion you served us in the beginnings of our reign, when the compliance of the faithful is held most necessary. For when, after the passing of our lord grandfather of divine memory, the anxious prayers of the peoples trembled, and the hearts of his subjects were poured forth in fear over the still uncertain heir of so great a realm, you, a fortunate bearer, announced our auspices to the Ligurians, and, strengthened by the address of your wisdom, they changed into joys, at the rising of our reign, the grief which they had conceived from the setting of the former.

The renewal of the king passed without any confusion, and your solicitude brought it about that no one offended us. And therefore, having approved you in such institutions, from the happily sixth indiction we grant you, with the divinity propitious, the countship of the sacred largesses. You shall enjoy all the privileges and emoluments which are known to have pertained to your predecessors: for far be it that those should be shaken by any machination of calumny who stand firm by the firmness of their own conduct. For there was a time when even judges were vexed by informers. Lay aside now your dread, you who have no fault: enjoy the fruits of your dignities:

for what long custom gave to you through your predecessors and forerunners in the times of our lord grandfather, our indulgence also preserves. We confer upon you your brother's honour: but do you imitate the faith of his service. For if you follow him, you outstrip many in praise — a man of greatest authority, of proven constancy, who under so great a prince both obeyed without fault and, praised, exercised his judgements. For it is easy to estimate what he did, since under an ungrateful successor the palatine office could not keep silent his praises. It is therefore not difficult to be able to follow a brother in character, because for the most part those agree even in the fruit of their conduct who are begotten from one seed.

So great, conscript fathers, is the abundance of merits in the candidate, that we fear he may be thought to have been chosen too late rather than not proven by judgement. For when our grandfather of divine memory sought out the best men, a more prosperous fortune preserved him unrewarded for us. To him he obeyed, him he served with much dutifulness, and yet from a lord most lavish of benefits he is agreed to have been left without any recompense. I believe the recompense of his merit was deferred so that the occasion of bestowing might become more fitting for us: for our piety congratulates itself by the law of nature. It is fitting that what is agreed to have been conferred on the author should be paid by the heir. For why should our munificence put him off, when the custom of his nobility urged him to advance?

His father was illustrious in deed and conspicuous for the highest nobility of character, whom neither did burning wars reject nor would tranquil leisures fail to extol; sound in body, robust in friendship, he bore the antiquity of his age, and, the ages of Odovacar cast aside, was enriched with illustrious honours. In these times he was held eminent, when the prince was not exalted. But why do we recall the ancient nobility of his parents, when it shines resplendent in the near light of his brother? To have been joined to him not, I will say, in kinship, but even in friendship, can be praiseworthy. To his virtues he so associated and bound himself, that this is rather uncertain — which of the two is the more to be extolled by the other. The one excels in faith toward friendships: but the latter owes great constancy to his promises.

The one too is empty of avarice: and the other is proven a stranger to cupidity. Hence it is that they know how to keep faith with kings, because they know not how to practise perfidy even among their equals. For there character is more easily proven, where nature is shown under freedom. How then should they not serve their lords in purity, who knew not how to deceive their colleagues? Chosen by these praises, he is said to have been allied by his wife to the Basilian family — a thing which for the most part comes from merit, that one can be joined to the noble. Look in him, if it please you, also at his domestic life, because more often these signs have betokened industrious men to your ancestors. His private estate was managed with such moderation that it neither grew sordid by any stinginess nor again slipped into ruin by excessive lavishness.

The barbarians he bound to himself by his fare, the Romans by his judgements; and where ingratitude for the most part comes to dignities, this man, by adjudicating, gathered friendships for himself. See what noble nature does. Born of judges, he played the part of an arbiter — a thing which can come about by no means except from probity of character. For obedience to the magistracies the necessity of power for the most part compels: but to obey a private judge only the probity of his sentences brings about. Whence a voluntary judge seems to us to have more praise, since none is chosen for arbitration save he who is esteemed to be just in character. Wherefore, conscript fathers, favour your foster-sons and favour our judgements.

For the second time he comes to your curia, who is both born of a senator and is proven to be honoured with courtly dignities. It is agreed to be the profession of justice to appoint judges skilled in the laws, because he can scarcely be negligent who knows equity, nor easily is he befouled by the fault of error whom doctrine has purged. Long ago the imperial eye beheld you sweating over forensic affairs, nor could it lie hidden with what fidelity you carried out the causes you undertook, with what brilliance you pleaded the matters you handled. With equal step your eloquence and your conscience advanced together: no client had anything more to desire: no judge found anything in you that he could correct. There was added a charm of countenance and a chastity of mind: your beauty alone showed you a youth:

from your youthful mouth flowed hoary words. The flower of age and the maturity of mind contended: but rather did that maturity prevail which leads us to the steps and glory of the virtues. Wherefore we fit our gifts to your name and to your merits, that you, Fidelis, may receive the royal secrets, and you, an eloquent man, may find a lettered dignity. Now judge gloriously the causes which you used to plead praiseworthily: let your own and well-exercised learning sit beside you. Now is the condition of affairs happy and assured, when he pronounces sentence who cannot be ignorant of what he reads. For it does not befit a judge to be the minister of another's will, so as to obey rather another, to whom so many soldiers are subservient.

Surely, if in others it is somehow to be tolerated, it is exceedingly shameful in a quaestor that he who is chosen for the prince's counsel should expect another's help. And therefore — and let this be said under God's auspices — through the sixth indiction we confer upon you the dignity of the quaestorship. But your honour is a reproach to the unskilled. For just as the conscience is glad which is advanced by merits, so he lies under guilt who knows himself unequal to the offices he has obtained. You have men of old whom it befits you to imitate. Outstrip in fame him whom you follow in dignity. For if private life exercised you in virtues, how much better will advancement declare it? You have taken your name from your merits: keep it, so that you may always rejoice in the truth of your appellation.

For since every appellation seems to be imposed to declare realities, it is exceedingly absurd to bear another's name and to be called something other than can be found in one's character. But let these words suffice for a good conscience, since he is believed to be doubted of who is admonished by very many. Although your assembly is ever illumined by its native splendour, yet it is rendered more brilliant whenever it is increased by the light of dignities. For heaven itself shines forth the more with most numerous stars, and from a manifold beauty renders a wondrous comeliness to those who behold it. For it is implanted in nature that an abundance of good things should delight the more. Meadows, in short, are painted with countless flowers: the denser crop of a fertile field is praised. Let antiquity have made you held to be noble:

we wish the senate to be extolled also for its numerousness. Hence it is that we desire to add to you whomever we shall have found pre-eminent anywhere. For although among you there be a seedbed of the senate, yet there is also born of our indulgence one who may be joined to your assemblies. All the courtly dignities bring forth foster-sons for you, but the quaestorship is truly the mother of a senator, since it comes from prudence. For what is more worthy than that he should become a participant in the curia who has cleaved to the counsel of the prince? But since for a prudent man a general praise does not suffice, let us touch upon his peculiar and proper notes.

Know, conscript fathers, that our quaestor first pleased by his eloquence practised beforehand, and so won the frequent victories of his advocacy, that a triumphal election deservedly drew him to itself, so that, inaugurated with happy palms, he might give us the omens of laurels. Led in his first youth to the forensic school, he ever pursued the integrity of his mind, and with most noble modesty passed his bodily chastity under exceeding toil. An eloquent orator, a most weighty patron, he aided the causes he undertook with his praises, since a case could not be believed unprovable to which such a man seemed to lend his aid. 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 deserved to be approved among the laws? For he can love those laws by which, learned, he shone forth, since each man aspires to his own glory, nor can the mind forget from what quarter it was associated with us. Do you perhaps believe, princely men, that a new and unprepared prudence has appeared in this man? His origin claimed for itself hereditary letters, whose father so shone resplendent in the Milanese forum that he flourished both from a triple growth of brothers and from a Ciceronian sod. Therefore, although even among the middling the kind of pleasing is most difficult, yet he frequently deserved to find the praise of advocacy among the foremost of eloquence.

He stood against the great Olybrius, he sufficed against the richness of the prize-winning tongue of Eugenetes, and he proved equal to those whom Rome knew as singular. For what is more noble than to have had as ancestors so many leaders of letters? For if wealth grown old and drawn through one's lineage makes men noble, much more excellent is he whose origin is found rich in the treasures of prudence. Wherefore, conscript fathers, favour our judgement and the candidate for his merits: since if you stretch out the hand of clemency to a colleague, you rather raise up yourselves. It is a proof of merits to have been able to be chosen after the wickedness of an accused judge, since the excess of those preceding is not corrected save when a most excellent successor is found.

For the most part medicine succeeds by contrary things, for when vital heat has been applied, then the pestilent cold recedes. The very clouds are wiped away by the breathing of the winds, and the north wind renders tranquil the face of the sky which the south breeze had disturbed. So we removed your predecessor for love of the community, that you, most wholesome, might come. Imitate things contrary to the former, and you have carried out things to be praised. He was odious for calumnies: do you study to be rendered acceptable by justice. He was rapacious: be you continent. Of all good men the definition is brief — to avoid what he did, since those things are truly to be praised which he did not approve by his own judgement. Look, in short, upon the public hatred in him, and do you aspire to the love of all.

Let men give thanks for your character as greatly as they denounce the bitterness of his administration. Take heart, then, from the disgrace of your predecessor, since after that man of professed malice you are worthy of praise merely for having refrained from evil. For how splendid it will be if you grant to the provinces benefits which until now they did not enjoy? An unaccustomed good is loved the more, and sorrow that has gone before lends sweetness to the times through the joy that follows. And therefore, with God's help, we confer upon you the fasces of the prefecture, happily for the sixth indiction; and just as that office has hitherto been terrible in its capacity to harm, so now it ought to possess as many benefits of gentleness, since wounds are to be soothed by your care. Let no one be burdened either by your hands or by another's.

For it surpasses all impiety to injure the wounded, when one is believed to heal the stricken. Let that prefecture of the praetorium, praiseworthy throughout the whole world, return to its ancient repute: for if we seek its origin, it began with Joseph as a dispenser of benefits. And not undeservedly is the father of the provinces also proclaimed by our laws the father of the empire, since they willed that affairs be conducted so justly and so providently that they imposed upon him not the stern title of judge but the name of piety. Through just and lawful gains let our treasury grow by your hand. We refuse the profits which the safeguards of the laws condemn as unholy: we desire those moneys by which the scale of justice is upheld. We do not suffer iniquity to enter our halls, since we cannot admit privately what we condemn with public voice.

Hear, O judges, what we love, and do not suspect anything else to the public harm. For to whom do you believe you will be pleasing by unjust exactions, when you know that we love those things alone which can accord with the precepts of justice? You sin against your own character already, if after these things you transgress. But perhaps those men committed such deeds who attained to dignities unknown to their forebears: you, after your father's praiseworthy prefecture, add something that may be praised as still better, for he who follows ought always to be the more diligent, since we both desire to imitate the good deeds of our parents in a way deserving approval and hasten to surpass them. It is added too to your praises that you are proved to be steeped in the sayings of the wise. It is grievous to a wise man to give offence, when he finds that another has fallen.

Let him perhaps overlook the law who has not known the laws: from you everything lawful is required, whose origin is not known to have been unschooled. The books of the ancients and the deeds of your parents are alike yours. Live up to your reputation, live up to our judgement, that you may not be unequal to the merits of those whose dignities you have equalled through our benefits. Although you have often been praised for the honours of your own and for the dignity of your brother, nevertheless, because the nature of good things is not spent when it is recounted, we return as it were to a familiar theme, of which many praises have already resounded. There has been attested of you whatever ought to be reckoned of the faithful, whatever of the well-deserving. But he who has fulfilled himself by the uprightness of his conduct, when he wills, sends forth fresh occasions worthy of praise.

The nature of glory is an ever-flowing spring, a vein that keeps welling forth: for just as that spring is not spent by flowing, so neither is glory dried up by frequent speech. And even if past deeds be passed over in silence, you are proved to supply new ones to be spoken of, you who ever grow both in age and in merits. The course of the years procures you an increase of praise. You grow old indeed in body, but in praise you grow young again. Deservedly a longer life is wished for you, in whom fame is ever found more robust. Under our grandfather of divine memory you kept watch, always praised, on both sides. The still-heathen Danube saw you as a warrior: the host of the Bulgar did not terrify you, who was about to stand in the way even of our own men by his presumption of battle.

It was peculiar to you both to assail the barbarians while they yet resisted and to pursue them with terror once they had turned to flight. Thus you aided the victory of the Goths not so much by numbers as by toil. Afterwards indeed—which was no less than the battles themselves—you discharged the office of referendary amid laborious disputes. For with that man of every virtue there were services both warlike and peaceful. For who would not wage war, who could furnish him a fitting answer? He who always demanded such firmness of mind, such constancy of words in asserting the truth, that he rightly said he had vanquished an enemy who, in his presence, had been able to avoid error.

Hence it was that his attendants rendered men prudent, since caution always applied raises up the understanding, and while a man dreads to incur fault, he strives to join himself to the wise. He also conferred upon you the dignity of the sacred largesses—that is, a gift most fitting to your labours—which you administered with a mind so chaste, so moderate, that you made greater things to be owed to you, although you had received it as a great reward. Through these your flourishing youth exercised you, but our times have preserved you to a mature age. In counsel indeed you are of the greatest worth, yet you are not perceived to be broken by age: for you have so attained the goods of old age that you do not undergo its discomforts.

These are the things which we judge ought to be increased in you, that, as you are endowed with a good conscience, you may also be rendered worthy of reverence by honour. For agreeing with our benefits there are in you also the judgements from on high, since, having been made the father of such sons, you seem by nature itself to be patrician. Their flourishing good qualities it is not absurd to recount, since the praise of those who rear children is the happier for being praised on account of the uprightness of the sons. First—which affords a beginning of no small praise—their infancy is known to the palace. Thus your offspring, proving themselves after the manner of the eagle, have endured the royal gaze almost from the very cradle. They shine also with their native grace and do not cease to be steeped in the brave institutions of arms.

The boys of the Roman stock speak our tongue, signally showing that they will display future loyalty to us, since they already appear to have affected its speech. We have, O happy father, that for which a reward ought to be rendered to you, who have offered us the very hearts of your sons. Wherefore, having been approved by many labours and by much fidelity and constancy, we confer upon you, with God as our sponsor, the dignity of the patriciate—an exalted honour indeed, yet one that may be proved equal to your merits. Enjoy, then, your most approved endowments, that, when you have doubled your good things, you may again be increased by our benefits.

If he is worthy of your favour who could but once obtain a royal judgement, what, conscript fathers, will the magnificent man Cyprianus deserve, who ought to become the more pleasing to you as often as he has received dignities from us? In the stadium a more abundant crown glorifies the contestants; the frequent palm ennobles the Olympic chariots: so even in trifling matters he is rendered the more glorious upon whom rewards are frequently conferred. About a first advancement, in fine, there can be hesitation, since many deceive the prince's mind, when it is easy to delude one whose constant wish is to have bestowed: but he displayed such constancy of mind, he held so great a purpose of good things, that he ever called forth upon himself the royal bounty.

This is sure glory, this an undoubted verdict, to have been able frequently to merit, by which it is established that men are adorned. It is fitting that such men too should enter your senate-house, who at their first honours do not exhaust their merit, but, when they have received great things, again earn greater. Such men also adorn our judgements, since he is rightly believed to have been well chosen at first who is more often approved. The very nature of the good is prized when perseverance is applied to it, since it is less praiseworthy to begin than to guard a resolve of good things. You once had men like him, conscript fathers—the Decii; antiquity proclaims that the Corvini were like him. For this man, of whom we speak, has not won over to himself our judgement alone.

To be advanced by a single prince might perhaps seem a matter of favour: but to have merited advancement under another as well makes it plain that the judgement of both was unbiased. He therefore has all men as his followers who decrees anything in accordance with the truth. He deserved that one as the author of his advancement, so that he might most worthily find us as augmenters. That one laid in him the foundations of honours; we have built the summit of dignities. And therefore, conscript fathers, to the illustrious man Cyprianus, made famous by so many labours, by so many praises, we have added also the rank of the patriciate, lest he should be greater in his own merits than in our honours. Favour now as a colleague him whom you have often adorned as a stranger. He returns secure to you, who has already deposited his honours in the hall of Liberty.