VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 40
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: Count Osuin, a Distinguished Man
Date: ~507-511 AD
Context: Theoderic orders the arming and training of the garrison at Salona (modern Split, Croatia), with characteristically vivid natural metaphors -- calves play-fighting to prepare for strength, puppies learning through mock hunts, and fires started with kindling rather than heavy logs.
[1] Our arrangements must not be impeded by delay, lest what has been wisely planned encounter obstacles through the fault of tardiness. Arms must therefore be distributed before necessity can demand them, so that when the time comes, those prepared for orders will be ready. The art of war, if not rehearsed in advance, is nowhere to be found when it is needed. Accordingly, your illustrious Sublimity will procure the necessary arms for the soldiers of Salona, as each man's ability to equip himself permits, in accordance with our command -- for the state's true safety is an armed defender. Let the soldier learn in peace what he can accomplish in war. Men's spirits do not rise suddenly to arms unless they have been prepared by prior training. Calves practice the contests they will fulfill in mature strength; puppies play at hunting while still young. We start fires with tender twigs -- but if you apply heavy logs to the first sparks, you smother the very flame you are trying to nurture. Just so, unless human spirits are first gently educated, they cannot be found fit for the goal you have in mind. All beginnings are timid, and timidity is not overcome except by removing the strangeness from things that are necessary.
XL. OSUIN V. I. COMITI THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Ordinatio nostra per moram non debet impediri, ne, quod salubriter constat esse dispositum, per tarditatis vitium incurrat obstaculum. et ideo ante distribuenda sunt arma quam possit flagitare necessitas, ut, cum tempus exegerit, paratiores ad imperata sufficient. ars enim bellandi, si non praeluditur, cum fuerit necessaria, non habetur. proinde illustris sublimitas tua Salonitanis militibus, ut cuique se expediendi facultas obtulerit, pro nostra iussione arma necessaria procurabit, quia fida rei publicae salus est defensor armatus. discat miles in otio, quod perficere possit in bello. animos subito ad arma non erigunt nisi qui se ad ipsa idoneos praemissa exercitatione confidunt. gestiunt vituli certamina, quae impleant aetate robusta: catuli in novellis venationibus ludunt. focos ipsos comprehendere virgultis teneris inchoamus: ceterum si robora primis scintillis adhibeas, igniculum opprimis, quem fovere contendis. sic animi hominum, nisi prius leniter fuerint imbuti, ad hoc, quod tendis, idonei nequeunt reperiri. primordia cuncta pavida sunt et aliter timiditas non tollitur, nisi cum rebus necessariis novitas abrogatur.
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VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 40
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: Count Osuin, a Distinguished Man Date: ~507-511 AD Context: Theoderic orders the arming and training of the garrison at Salona (modern Split, Croatia), with characteristically vivid natural metaphors -- calves play-fighting to prepare for strength, puppies learning through mock hunts, and fires started with kindling rather than heavy logs.
[1] Our arrangements must not be impeded by delay, lest what has been wisely planned encounter obstacles through the fault of tardiness. Arms must therefore be distributed before necessity can demand them, so that when the time comes, those prepared for orders will be ready. The art of war, if not rehearsed in advance, is nowhere to be found when it is needed. Accordingly, your illustrious Sublimity will procure the necessary arms for the soldiers of Salona, as each man's ability to equip himself permits, in accordance with our command -- for the state's true safety is an armed defender. Let the soldier learn in peace what he can accomplish in war. Men's spirits do not rise suddenly to arms unless they have been prepared by prior training. Calves practice the contests they will fulfill in mature strength; puppies play at hunting while still young. We start fires with tender twigs -- but if you apply heavy logs to the first sparks, you smother the very flame you are trying to nurture. Just so, unless human spirits are first gently educated, they cannot be found fit for the goal you have in mind. All beginnings are timid, and timidity is not overcome except by removing the strangeness from things that are necessary.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.