RIC TO IMPORTUNUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Importunus promoted to the Patriciate.]

[Importunus was Consul in 509. This letter therefore probably belongs
to the early part of 510.]

'Noble birth and noble deeds meet in you, and we are therefore
bestowing on you an honour to which by age you are scarcely yet
entitled. Your father and uncle were especially noteworthy, the glory
of the Senate, men who adorned modern ages[278] with the antique
virtues, men who were prosperous without being hated. The Senate felt
their courage, the multitude their wisdom.

[Footnote 278: Notice the use of the word _modernus_ here, a
post-classical word, which apparently occurs first in Cassiodorus.]

'Therefore, being descended from such ancestors, and yourself
possessing such virtues, on laying down the Consular fasces, assume
the insignia of the Patriciate. Bind those fillets, which are
generally reserved for the hoary head, round your young locks, and by
your future actions justify my choice of you.'

6. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE ON IMPORTUNUS' ACCESSION TO THE
PATRICIATE.

[See preceding letter.]

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'We delight to introduce new men to the Senate, but we delight still
more when we can bring back to that venerable body, crowned with fresh
honours, her own offspring[279]. And such is now my fortune in
presenting to you Importunus, crowned with the honours of the
Patriciate; Importunus, who is descended from the great stock of the
Decii, a stock illustrated by noble names in every generation, by the
favour of the Senate and the choice of the people. Even as a boy he
had a countenance of serene beauty, and to the gifts of Nature he
added the endowments of the mind. From his parents in household lays
he learned the great deeds of the old Decii. Once, at a great
spectacle, the whole school at the recitation of the Lay of the Decii
turned their eyes on Importunus, discerning that he would one day
rival his ancestors. Thus his widowed mother brought him up, him and
all his troop of brothers, and gave to the Curia as many Consulars as
she had sons[280]. All these private virtues I have discerned in him,
and now seal them with promotion to the Patriciate. At this act I call
on you specially to rejoice.'

[Footnote 279: 'Origo ipsa jam gloria est: laus nobilitati
connascitur. Idem vobis est dignitatis, quod vitae principium. Senatus
enim honor amplissimus vobiscum gignitur, ad quem vix