Chapter 41

[861]'Illum sedis nostrae militem.'

[862]He was sent by Theodahad; entered Constantinople February 20, 536, and died there 21st April of the same year.

[863]'Facto pictacio.'

[864]'Vasa sanctorum.' One would think this must refer to the vessels used in celebrating mass; but I do not quite see how the meaning is to be got out of the words.

[865]'Actoribus.'

[866]Baronius not unfairly argues that if the Roman See was so poor that the Church plate had to be pawned to provide for the Pope's journey to Constantinople, thewealthof the Pope cannot have largely contributed to that great increase of his influence which marked the early years of the Sixth Century.

[867]'Armarium ipsius fortuna cunctorum est.'

[868]'Translator esto, non conditor antiquorum gestorum.'

[869]Compare Cassiodorus' treatise De Animâ, chapters x. and xi., in which he enumerates the various points in which the faces of good men and bad men differ from one another.

[870]The first Indiction was from September 1, 537, to September 1, 538.

[871]Here follows this sentence: 'Haec loca garismatia plura nutriunt.' Garum seems to have been a sauce something like our anchovy-sauce. Garismatium is evidently a garum-supplying place.

[872]We have a special allusion in Martial (iv. 25) to the villas of Altinum, and he too compares them to those of Baiae.

[873]Evidently 'the annexed letter' referred to inNo. 22.

[874]'Ut in tot solidos vini, olei, vel tritici species de tributario solido debeas procurare.'

[875]'Sicut te a Numerariis instruxit porrecta Notitia.' Note this use of the word 'Notitia,' as illustrating the title of the celebrated document bearing that name.

[876]Corn, wine, and oil.

[877]Written shortly after Sept. 1, 537. This is the celebrated letter to which Venetian historians point as evidence of the existence of their city (or at least of the group of settlements out of which their city sprang) in the Sixth Century. We may set side by side with it the words of the Anonymous Geographer of Ravenna (in the Seventh Century), 'In patria vero Venetiae sunt aliquantae insulae, quae hominibus habitantur.'The address,Tribunis Maritimorum, looks as if there were something like a municipal government established in these islands. Tribunus was at this time generally, but not exclusively, a military title. Compare the Tribunus Fori Suarii and Tribunus Rerum Nitentium of the Notitia (Occidens iv. 10 and iv. 17). But there can be no doubt, from the tone of this letter, that the islanders were subjects of the Ostrogothic King.

The address,Tribunis Maritimorum, looks as if there were something like a municipal government established in these islands. Tribunus was at this time generally, but not exclusively, a military title. Compare the Tribunus Fori Suarii and Tribunus Rerum Nitentium of the Notitia (Occidens iv. 10 and iv. 17). But there can be no doubt, from the tone of this letter, that the islanders were subjects of the Ostrogothic King.

[878]An obscure sentence: 'Per hospitia quodammodo vestra discurritis qui per patriam navigatis.' The idea seems to be: 'You have to sail about from one room to another of your own house, and therefore Ravenna will seem like a neighbouring inn.'

[879]The next four sentences describe the movement of the ships when towed along the channels of the streams (Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento, &c.) the deposits from which have made the lagunes.

[880]'Venetiae praedicabiles.' An allusion, no doubt, as other commentators have suggested, to the reputed derivation of Venetia fromΑινετοι, 'the laudable.'

[881]Alluding probably to the story of the floating island of Delos.

[882]'Earum similitudine.' Does Cassiodorus mean 'like the water-fowl,' or 'like the Cyclades?'

[883]The reading of Nivellius (followed by Migne), 'Domicilia videntur sparsa, quae Natura non protulit sed hominum cura fundavit,' seems to give a better sense than that of Garet, who omits the 'non.'

[884]'Inde vobis fructus omnis enascitur, quando in ipsis, et quae non facitis possidetis.'

[885]'Moneta illic quodammodo percutitur victualis.' Some have supposed that these words point to a currency in salt; but I think they are only a Cassiodorian way of saying 'By this craft ye have your wealth.'

[886]This is the only translation I can suggest of 'quatenus expensas necessarias nulla difficultate tardetis, qui pro qualitate aeris compendium vobis eligere potestis itineris.'

[887]'Agenti vices.' Seenoteonxi. 4.

[888]'Vestros (?) veraciter pandit aspectus.'

[889]Joseph, Praetorian Praefect of Egypt under Pharaoh.

[890]Paulas was probably a Sajo.

[891]Now Cividale in Friuli. Notice the terminations of these names: 'ex Concordiense, Aquileiense, et Forojuliense civitatibus' ('e,' not 'i').

[892]The letter here alluded to does not appear to be preserved.

[893]Cassiodorus, like Procopius, spells this name with a 't.' Some of the ecclesiastical writers spell it with a 'c.'

[894]Pavia.

[895]Tortona.

[896]Twelve shillings for twenty pecks, or about nineteen shillings and twopence a quarter; not a very low price, one would think, for such a grain as millet.Datius is ordered to selltertiam portionemof this millet. Probably this expression has the same meaning as the 'tertia illatio' ofxi. 37.In the similar letter,x. 27, 'tertia portio' (whether of wheat or millet is not stated) is to be sold at 25 modii per solidum.

[896]Twelve shillings for twenty pecks, or about nineteen shillings and twopence a quarter; not a very low price, one would think, for such a grain as millet.

Datius is ordered to selltertiam portionemof this millet. Probably this expression has the same meaning as the 'tertia illatio' ofxi. 37.

In the similar letter,x. 27, 'tertia portio' (whether of wheat or millet is not stated) is to be sold at 25 modii per solidum.

[897]'Arcarius.'

[898]Literally, 'of the present Empire:' 'subito praesentis Imperii tanquam solis ortus fama radiavit.' I avoid the word 'present,' because of its ambiguity. Observe the use of 'Imperii' applied to the Gothic Kingdom.

[899]'Quando illum cognovit nominatae (?) gentis esse Rectorem, quem sub militis nomine probaverat esse singularem.' This evident allusion to Witigis obliges us to place the date of this Burgundian invasion not much earlier than the summer of 536, when Witigis was raised to the throne. Apparently the Burgundians were already in Italy when they heard the news of that event.

[900]'Ut Gothi ad belli studium geminâ se fortitudine contulerunt.' These words perhaps allude to the necessity of fighting two enemies at once, Belisarius and the Burgundians; or perhaps to the existence of two Gothic armies, whose combined operations are indicated by the following words, 'prospera concertatione.'

[901]'Quasi inde nudos hinc stare contigisset armatos.' 'Hinc' and 'inde' refer to geographical position, not to the order of the words in the sentence.

[902]See von Schubert's 'Unterwerfung der Alamannen,' pp. 57-59, for a careful analysis of the following paragraph.

[903]'Pace tanti patris dixerim.'

[904]Probably one solidus: making the largesse price 15s. 4d. a quarter (about four shillings less than the price named in the preceding letter for millet); while the market price was 38s. 4d. a quarter. I read these sentences thus: 'Vendit itaque largitas publica vicenos quinque modios, dum possessor invenire non possit, ad denos. Ordinem rerum saeculi mutavit humanitas.' The construction is harsh and elliptical, but this makes sense, which the ordinary punctuation, throwing 'ad denos' into the following sentence, does not.

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