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Appendix iii

3 Why should we rehearse your efforts, care-worn by the exertions of long nights,
and the blameless service of your uninterrupted labour? In the office of the exceptio
you employed your talent for eloquence; even a listener pleased with his own com-
positions favoured yours, when, once you began to speak, you produced better. Your
oration gave delight to our halls of judgement, since you refreshed the minds of those
employed in composition as quickly as the care of their concentrations exhausted
them. Yet another part of your life was praiseworthy: you kept our secrets concealed
by the probity of your character, aware of many things, yet, though you knew much,
notproud of it.
You pleased your colleagues with your grace, your superiors with your humility.
4 Thus all share a single opinion about you, united in this despite their great
diversity. You surely pluck the most favoured fruit of proven principles when your
advancement can make everyone rejoice, so that all consider that in you their own
desires have been promoted.
So protect this beloved and splendid constancy of virtue and, supported by the
authority of our domain, seek our grace all the more zealously as you reflect that
you have found opportunity for benefit. Direct the happy issue of your good acts to
date towards yet better ones, knowing that our favour always grows greater towards
him who desires to be found worthy of the eminence he has reached.

iv,4: King Theoderic to the Senate of Rome

1 Itis indeed glorious for us, conscriptFathers, to weigh outhonours far and wide,
but it is more praiseworthy to furnish fitting rewards to those who well deserve them.
For whatever we give to such persons, we rather bestow for the general benefit. A
man tenacious in truth, once advanced, profits all, nor does there remain opportunity
for harm when the rule of discipline takes hold of good men.
2 And so, from this splendid desire, we have borne aloft the vir illustris Senarius.
May he shun the darkness of corruption with the clarity of his mind, may he not
rejoice in injustice, nor, supported by the authority of our patrimony, profit from
fear of us, but may he avail to hold equitable justice with others, reflecting that thus
do our servants please us. His faithful service in times past promises this future for
him.
3 In the very flower of his youth he entered our palace, already mature in his
merits, and performed what exhausts even those in their prime: not led astray by
unfamiliarity when employed in his ruler’s judgement, he put good commands into
effect, now worthy for discourse, now well suited for exceptiones, often also chosen
for the honour of an embassy. His manifold merits performed no fixed office for us,
for one by whom many tasks are completed ought not be called by the title of only
one post.
4 Buthis humility, as renowned as itis rare, more fully recommends his merits.
For it is a novelty that he preserved his modest bearing under the love of his prince,
since joy always unsettles minds; tact, usually found in sad affairs, is rarely employed
in happy ones.
5 Moreover, amidst these admirable merits, he shines alike with the splendour of
his ancestry; so you may be at a loss in which respect he is the richer, when he has

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