VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 35
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: Faustus, Praetorian Prefect
Date: ~507-511 AD
Context: An angry inquiry about delayed grain shipments from Calabria and Apulia, featuring one of Cassiodorus's most playful passages -- he speculates that the ships may have been held fast by remora fish or that the sailors were paralyzed by the touch of a torpedo ray.
[1] When the drought of this year -- which customarily rages at certain times in particular places -- hardened the earth's innards with excessive heat and produced the miscarried offspring of the harvest, not so much bearing them as casting them forth in incomplete abundance, we must now search all the more diligently for what is customarily sought even in times of plenty. [2] We are deeply disturbed that the public grain, which your administrator normally dispatches by sea from the shores of Calabria and Apulia during the summer, has not arrived even by autumn, when the sun's retreat into the southern signs, moderated by the order of nature, stirs up stormy tempests through the mixture of air -- as the very names of the months suggest, having taken their names from the number of rains to come. What excuse, then, for such delay, when during such calm seas the swift ships have not yet been dispatched, while the bright position of the never-setting stars eagerly invites the unfurling of sails and the reliability of clear skies cannot frighten those who hurry? [3] Or perhaps, while the south wind blew and the oars assisted, the bite of the remora fish has bound the ships' passage amid the liquid waves. Or perhaps the shells of the Indian Ocean have fixed the hulls of ships to their lips with similar power -- creatures whose quiet touch is said to hold fast more than the raging elements can drive forward. The sluggish vessel stands still, its sails billowing, and the ship that the wind favors cannot move: fixed without anchors, bound without ropes, and such tiny creatures resist more than all the aids of favorable winds can propel. While the wave beneath should speed the course, the ship stands fixed on the sea's surface -- and by a marvel, floating things are held motionless while the water is carried away in countless currents. [4] But to name another creature of the sea, perhaps the sailors of the aforementioned ships have been most sluggishly paralyzed by the touch of the torpedo ray -- a creature so powerful that when struck through a spear, it so numbs the hand of the striker that a part of the living body is rendered motionless without any sensation. I believe they encountered such a creature, these men who cannot bring themselves to move.
XXXV. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Cum siccitas praesentis anni, quae localiter certis solet desaevire temporibus, terrenis visceribus nimio calore duratis abortivos messium fetus non tam edidit quam inperfecta ubertate proiecit, maiori nunc studio quaerenda sunt quae etiam in abundantia expeti consuerunt. [2] Et ideo frumenta publica, quae de Calabro atque Apulo litoribus per cancellarium vestrum aestatis tempore consuerant destinari, nec autumno venisse modis omnibus permovemur, cum solis reflexus australia signa discurrens, naturae ordine modificatus, tumultuosas procellas aeris permixtione resuscitat: quod ab ipsis quoque mensibus datur intellegi, quando ex numero imbrium futurorum competenter nomina susceperunt. quae ergo talis mora, ut in tantis tranquillitatibus velocia necdum fuerint destinata navigia, cum stellarum non mergentium lucidus situs tendi carbasa festinanter invitet et aeris sereni fides properantium nequeat vota terrere? [3] Aut forte incumbente austro remigiisque iuvantibus meatus navium echinais morsus inter undas liquidas alligavit: aut Indici maris conchae simili potentia labiis suis navium dorsa fixerunt: quarum quietus tactus plus dicitur retinere quam exagitata possunt elementa compellere. stat pigra ratis tumentibus alata velis et cursum non habet, cui ventus arridet: sine anchoris figitur, sine rudentibus alligatur et tam parva animalia plus resistunt quam tot auxilia prosperitatis impellunt. ita cum subiecta unda praecipitet cursum, supra maris tergum navigium stare constat infixum miroque modo natantia inconcusse retinentur, dum innumeris motibus unda rapiatur. [4] Sed ut dicamus aliam piscis naturam, forte nautae praedictarum navium tactu torpedinis segnissime torpuerunt: a qua tantum infigentum dexterae praegravantur, ut per hastam, qua fuerit vulnerata, ita manum percutientis inficiat, quatenus vivae substantiae pars sine sensu aliquo immobilis obstupescat. credo talia incurrerunt, qui se movere non possunt. sed echinais illis impedimentosa venalitas est, concharum morsus insatiata cupiditas, torpedo fraudulenta simulatio. ipsi enim studio pravo faciunt moras, ut occasiones incurrere videantur adversas. quod magnitudo tua, cui specialiter convenit cogitare de talibus, celerrima faciat emendatione recorrigi, ne inopia non tam ab sterilitate temporis quam a neglegentia matre nata esse videatur.
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VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 35
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: Faustus, Praetorian Prefect Date: ~507-511 AD Context: An angry inquiry about delayed grain shipments from Calabria and Apulia, featuring one of Cassiodorus's most playful passages -- he speculates that the ships may have been held fast by remora fish or that the sailors were paralyzed by the touch of a torpedo ray.
[1] When the drought of this year -- which customarily rages at certain times in particular places -- hardened the earth's innards with excessive heat and produced the miscarried offspring of the harvest, not so much bearing them as casting them forth in incomplete abundance, we must now search all the more diligently for what is customarily sought even in times of plenty. [2] We are deeply disturbed that the public grain, which your administrator normally dispatches by sea from the shores of Calabria and Apulia during the summer, has not arrived even by autumn, when the sun's retreat into the southern signs, moderated by the order of nature, stirs up stormy tempests through the mixture of air -- as the very names of the months suggest, having taken their names from the number of rains to come. What excuse, then, for such delay, when during such calm seas the swift ships have not yet been dispatched, while the bright position of the never-setting stars eagerly invites the unfurling of sails and the reliability of clear skies cannot frighten those who hurry? [3] Or perhaps, while the south wind blew and the oars assisted, the bite of the remora fish has bound the ships' passage amid the liquid waves. Or perhaps the shells of the Indian Ocean have fixed the hulls of ships to their lips with similar power -- creatures whose quiet touch is said to hold fast more than the raging elements can drive forward. The sluggish vessel stands still, its sails billowing, and the ship that the wind favors cannot move: fixed without anchors, bound without ropes, and such tiny creatures resist more than all the aids of favorable winds can propel. While the wave beneath should speed the course, the ship stands fixed on the sea's surface -- and by a marvel, floating things are held motionless while the water is carried away in countless currents. [4] But to name another creature of the sea, perhaps the sailors of the aforementioned ships have been most sluggishly paralyzed by the touch of the torpedo ray -- a creature so powerful that when struck through a spear, it so numbs the hand of the striker that a part of the living body is rendered motionless without any sensation. I believe they encountered such a creature, these men who cannot bring themselves to move.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.