Long before, he had written a history of
the Goths (known to us only in a compendium by another
Hand), of
which the purpose seems to have been to reconcile the Romans to the
Gothic monarchy; it began by endeavouring to prove that Goths had
fought against the Greeks at Troy. Now that his public life was
over, he published a collection of the state papers composed by him
under the Gothic rulers from Theodoric to Vitigis: for the most part
royal rescripts addressed to foreign powers and to officials of the
kingdom. Invaluable for their light upon men and things fourteen
hundred years ago, these Variae of Cassiodorus; and for their own
sake, as literary productions, most characteristic, most
entertaining. Not quite easy to read, for the Latin is by no means
Augustan, but after labour well spent, a delightful revelation of
the man and the age. Great is the variety of subjects dealt with or
touched upon; from the diplomatic relations between Ravenna and
Constantinople, or the alliances of the Amal line with barbaric
royalties in Gaul and Africa, to the pensioning of an aged
charioteer and the domestic troubles of a small landowner. We form a
good general idea of the condition of Italy at that time, and, on
many points political and social, gather a fund of most curious
detail. The world shown to us is in some respects highly civilized,
its civilization still that of Rome, whose laws, whose manners, have
in great part survived the Teutonic conquest; from another point of
view it is a mere world of ruin, possessed by triumphant barbarism,
and sinking to intellectual darkness. We note the decay of central
power, and the growth of political anarchy; we observe the process
by which Roman nobles, the Senatorial Order when a Senate lingers
only in name, are becoming the turbulent lords of the Middle Ages,
each a power in his own territory, levying private war, scornful of
public interests. The city of Rome has little part in this turbid
history, yet her name is never mentioned without reverence, and in
theory she is still the centre of the world. Glimpses are granted us
of her fallen majesty; we learn that Theodoric exerted himself to
preserve her noble buildings, to restore her monuments; at the same
time we hear of marble stolen from palaces in decay, and of temples
which, as private property, are converted to ignoble use. Moreover,
at Rome sits an ecclesiastical dignitary, known as Papa, to whose
doings already attaches considerable importance. One of the last
acts of the Senate which had any real meaning was to make a decree
with regard to the election of this Bishop, forbidding his advance
by the way of Simony. Theodoric, an Arian, interferes only with the
Church of Rome in so far as public peace demands it. In one of his
letters occurs a most remarkable dictum on the subject of
toleration. "Religionem imperare non possumus, quia nemo cogitur ut
credat invitus - we cannot impose a religious faith, for no one
can be compelled to believe against his conscience." This must, of
course, have been the king's own sentiment, but Cassiodorus worded
it, and doubtless with approval.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 68 of 78
Words from 34699 to 35238
of 40398
