showed in his cause; no Judge
found in you anything to blame.

[Footnote 535: 'Dudum te forensibus negociis insudantem, _oculus
imperialis_ aspexit'--an expression which goes very near to styling
Theodoric Imperator.]

'Receive then now the dignity of Quaestor for this sixth Indiction
(Sept. 1, 527), and judge in the Courts where hitherto you have
pleaded.

'You are called Felix; act so as always to merit that name; for it is
absurd to have a name which denotes one thing and to display the
opposite in one's character. We think we have now said enough for a
man of your good conscience. Many admonitions seem to imply a doubt of
the character of him who receives them.' [A maxim often forgotten by
Cassiodorus.]

19. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[On the promotion of Felix.]

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'As the sky with stars, or the meadow with flowers, so do we wish the
Senate to be resplendent with the men of eminence whom we introduce
into it. It is itself a seminary of Senators; but our favour and the
dignities of our Court also rear them.

'The Quaestorship is the true mother of the senatorial dignity, since
who can be fitter to take his seat in the Curia than he who has shared
the counsels of his Sovereign?

'You know the eloquence of our candidate [Felix], his early triumphs,
his modesty, his fidelity. To leave such a man unpromoted were a
public loss; and he will always love the laws by the practice of which
he has risen to eminence.

'Nor is he the first of his race to earn rhetorical distinction. His
father shone so brilliantly in the Forum of Milan, that he bloomed
forth with undying fruits from the soil of Cicero[536]. He stood
against Magnus Olybrius, he was found equal in fluency to
Eugenius[537] and many others whom Rome knew as foremost in their
art. If the transmission of material wealth by long descent makes men
noble, how much more should the inheritance of the treasures of the
intellect give nobility.'

[Footnote 536: 'Pater ita in Mediolanensi foro resplenduit, ut aeterno
fructu e Tulliano cespite pullularet.']

[Footnote 537: 'Is palmarum Eugenetis linguae ubertate suffecit.'
Possibly this is the Magister Officiorum of Var. i. 12, and the person
to whom is addressed a letter of Ennodius (iv. 26). The form
Eugenetis, instead of Eugenii, belongs to the debased Latinity of the
age.]

20. KING ATHALARIC TO ALBIENUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PRAEFECTUS
PRAETORIO[538]