of amber, and a history of its
supposed origin, from which Cassiodorus has borrowed in this letter.]

'It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame, and
have sent ambassadors who have pressed through so many strange nations
to seek our friendship.

'We have received the amber which you have sent us. You say that you
gather this lightest of all substances from the shores of the ocean,
but how it comes thither you know not. But, as an author named
Cornelius [Tacitus] informs us, it is gathered in the innermost
islands of the ocean, being formed originally of the juice of a tree
(whence its name _succinum_[375]), and gradually hardened by the heat
of the sun.

[Footnote 375: Cassiodorus apparently spells this word with two c's.
The more usual spelling is with one.]

'Thus it becomes an exuded metal, a transparent softness, sometimes
blushing with the colour of saffron, sometimes glowing with flame-like
clearness[376]. Then, gliding down to the margin of the sea, and
further purified by the rolling of the tides, it is at length
transported to your shores to be cast up upon them. We have thought it
better to point this out to you, lest you should imagine that your
supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge.

[Footnote 376: 'Modo croceo colore rubens, modo flammea claritate
pinguescens.']

'We send you some presents by our ambassadors, and shall be glad to
receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened
up, and to show you future favours.'

[The collection of amber is also noticed by Pliny ('Nat. Hist.' 37.
2). It is interesting to observe that he there, on the authority of
Pytheas, attributes to the Guttones dwelling on the Baltic shore the
collection of amber, and its sale to the Teutones. These Guttones
were, if we are right in accepting Jordanes' account of the Gothic
migrations, themselves ancestors of the Ostrogoths.]

3. KING THEODORIC TO HONORATUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, QUAESTOR.

4. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Honoratus, brother of Decoratus, is made Quaestor.]

The usual pair of letters on the promotion of Honoratus to the
Quaestorship. He succeeds his brother Decoratus, whose early death
Theodoric regrets. The date of the letters is the Third Indiction,
September 1, 509.

The writer remarks on the prophetic instinct[377] of the parents, who
named these two sons, destined to future eminence, Decoratus and
Honoratus. Decoratus was