Cassiodorus→Boethius, Patrician, a Man|c. 522 AD|cassiodorus
VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 45
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus
To: Boethius, the Patrician, a Distinguished Man
Date: ~507-511 AD
Context: One of the most celebrated letters in the Variae: Theoderic asks Boethius to select a musician to send as a gift to the Burgundian king, while delivering an extraordinary tribute to Boethius's learning -- his translations of Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Euclid, Aristotle, Plato, and Archimedes into Latin.
[1] Gifts from neighboring kings that are sought for the sake of prestige should not be scorned, since small things often accomplish more than great wealth can achieve. What arms cannot complete, the charms of pleasant artistry can impose. Let there be statecraft, then, even when we seem to be at play -- for we pursue pleasurable things precisely so that through them we may accomplish serious ends. [2] The king of the Burgundians has earnestly requested from us a water clock -- regulated by water flowing in measured amounts -- and a sundial that captures the path of the immense sun and marks the hours, along with craftsmen who know how to operate them. He wishes to enjoy these delightful devices so that what is commonplace to us may seem a miracle to them. They naturally want to examine closely what astonishes their own ambassadors' reports. [3] We have learned that you, nourished by extensive learning, know these arts so well that while the uneducated practice them mechanically, you have drunk from the very fountain of the disciplines. You entered the schools of Athens though you stood far away; you mingled the toga among the robed philosophers, so that you made Greek teachings into Roman knowledge. You learned the depth at which speculative philosophy is studied, the method by which practical philosophy is classified -- bringing to the Roman Senate everything the Athenians had given to the world. [4] Through your translations, Pythagoras the musician and Ptolemy the astronomer are read in Italian; Nicomachus the arithmetician and Euclid the geometer are heard in Latin; the theologian Plato and the logician Aristotle debate in the language of Rome; and you even gave back the engineer Archimedes in Latin to the Sicilians. Whatever disciplines or arts fertile Greece produced through individual men, Rome received from you, a single author, in her native tongue. You rendered them so brilliantly clear, so notably precise in their language, that those authors themselves might have preferred your version, had they known both languages.
XLV. BOETHIO V. I. PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Spernenda non sunt quae a vicinis regibus praesumptionis gratia postulantur, dum plerumque res parvae plus praevalent praestare quam magnae possunt optinere divitiae. frequenter enim quod arma explere nequeunt, oblectamenta suavitatis imponunt. sit ergo pro re publica et cum ludere videmur. nam ideo voluptuosa quaerimus, ut per ipsa seria compleamus. [2] Burgundionum itaque dominus a nobis magnopere postulavit, ut horologium, quod aquis sub modulo fluentibus temperatur et quod solis immensi comprehensa illuminatione distinguitur, cum magistris rerum ei transmittere deberemus: quatenus impetratis delectationibus perfruendo, quod nobis cottidianum, illis videatur esse miraculum. merito siquidem respicere cupiunt, quod legatorum suorum relationibus obstupescunt. [3] Hoc te multa eruditione saginatum ita nosse didicimus, ut artes, quas exercent vulgariter nescientes, in ipso disciplinarum fonte potaveris. sic enim Atheniensium scholas longe positus introisti, sic palliatorum choris miscuisti togam, ut Graecorum dogmata doctrinam feceris esse Romanam. didicisti enim, qua profunditate cum suis partibus speculativa cogitetur, qua ratione activa cum sua divisione discatur: deducens ad Romuleos senatores quicquid Cecropidae mundo fecerant singulare. [4] Translationibus enim tuis Pythagoras musicus, Ptolemaeus astronomus leguntur Itali: Nicomachus arithmeticus, geometricus Euclides audiuntur Ausonii: Plato theologus, Aristoteles logicus Quirinali voce disceptant: mechanicum etiam Archimedem Latialem Siculis reddidisti. et quascumque disciplinas vel artes facunda Graecia per singulos viros edidit, te uno auctore patrio sermone Roma suscepit. quos tanta verborum luculentia reddidisti claros, tanta linguae proprietate conspicuos, ut potuissent et illi opus tuum praeferre, si utrumque didicissent. [5] Tu artem praedictam ex disciplinis nobilibus notam per quadrifarias mathesis ianuas introisti. tu illam in naturae penetralibus considentem, auctorum libris invitantibus, cordis lumine cognovisti, cui ardua nosse usus, miracula monstrare propositum est. molitur ostendere, quod obstupescant homines evenisse miroque modo naturis conversis facti detrahit fidem, cum ostentet et oculis visionem. facit aquas ex imo surgentes praecipites cadere, ignem ponderibus currere, organa extraneis vocibus insonare, et peregrinis flatibus calamos complet, ut minuta possint arte cantare. [6] Videmus per eam defensiones iam nutantium civitatum subito tali firmitate consurgere, ut machinamentorum auxiliis superior reddatur, qui desperatus viribus invenitur. madentes fabricae in aqua marina siccantur: dura cum fuerint, ingeniosa dispositione solvuntur. metalla mugiunt, Diomedes in aere gravius bucinat, aeneus anguis insibilat, aves simulatae fritinniunt et quae vocem propriam nesciunt habere, dulcedinem probantur emittere cantilenae. [7] Parva de illa referimus, cui caelum imitari fas est. haec fecit secundum solem in Archimedis sphaera decurrere: haec alterum zodiacum circulum humano consilio fabricavit: haec lunam defectu suo reparabilem artis illuminatione monstravit parvamque machinam gravidam mundo, caelum gestabile, compendium rerum, speculum naturae ad speciem aetheris indeprehensibili mobilitate volutavit. sic astra, quorum licet cursum sciamus, fallentibus tamen oculis prodire non cernimus: stans quidam in illis transitus est et quae velociter currere vera ratione cognoscis, se movere non respicis. [8] Quale est hoc homini etiam facere, quod vel intellexisse potest esse mirabile? quare cum vos ornet talium rerum praedicanda notitia, horologia nobis publicis expensis sine vestro dispendio destinate. primum sit, ubi stilus diei index per umbram exiguam horas consuevit ostendere. radius itaque immobilis et parvus, peragens quod tam miranda solis magnitudo discurrit, et fugam solis aequiperat, quod motum semper ignorat. [9] Inviderent talibus, si astra sentirent, et meatum suum fortasse deflecterent, ne tali ludibrio subiacerent. ubi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum, si has et umbra demonstrat? ubi praedicabilis indefecta rotatio, si hoc et metalla peragunt, quae situ perpetuo continentur? o artis inaestimabilis virtus, quae dum se dicit ludere, naturae praevalet secreta vulgare! [10] Secundum sit, ubi praeter solis radios hora dinoscitur, noctes in partes dividens: quod ut nihil deberet astris, rationem caeli ad aquarum potius fluenta convertit, quarum motibus ostendit, quod caelo volvitur et audaci praesumptione concepta ars elementia confert, quod originis condicio denegavit. universae disciplinae, cunctus prudentium labor naturae potentiam, ut tantum possint, nosse perquirunt: mechanisma solum est, quod illam ex contrariis appetit imitari et, si fas est dicere, in quibusdam etiam nititur velle superare. haec enim fecisse dinoscitur Daedalum volare: haec ferreum Cupidinem in Dianae templo sine aliqua illigatione pendere: haec hodie facit muta cantare, insensata vivere, immobilia moveri. [11] Mechanicus, si fas est dicere, paene socius est naturae, occulta reserans, manifesta convertens, miraculis ludens, ita pulchre simulans, ut quod compositum non ambigitur, veritas aestimetur. haec quia te studiosius legisse cognovimus, praedicta nobis horologia quantocius transmittere maturabis, ut te notum in illa mundi parte facias, ubi aliter pervenire non poteras. [12] Agnoscant per te exterae gentes tales nos habere nobiles, quales leguntur auctores. quotiens non sunt credituri quae viderint? quotiens hanc veritatem lusoria somnia putabunt? et quando fuerint ab stupore conversi, non audebunt se aequales nobis dicere, apud quos sciunt sapientes talia cogitasse.
◆
VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 45
From: King Theoderic, writing through Cassiodorus To: Boethius, the Patrician, a Distinguished Man Date: ~507-511 AD Context: One of the most celebrated letters in the Variae: Theoderic asks Boethius to select a musician to send as a gift to the Burgundian king, while delivering an extraordinary tribute to Boethius's learning -- his translations of Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Euclid, Aristotle, Plato, and Archimedes into Latin.
[1] Gifts from neighboring kings that are sought for the sake of prestige should not be scorned, since small things often accomplish more than great wealth can achieve. What arms cannot complete, the charms of pleasant artistry can impose. Let there be statecraft, then, even when we seem to be at play -- for we pursue pleasurable things precisely so that through them we may accomplish serious ends. [2] The king of the Burgundians has earnestly requested from us a water clock -- regulated by water flowing in measured amounts -- and a sundial that captures the path of the immense sun and marks the hours, along with craftsmen who know how to operate them. He wishes to enjoy these delightful devices so that what is commonplace to us may seem a miracle to them. They naturally want to examine closely what astonishes their own ambassadors' reports. [3] We have learned that you, nourished by extensive learning, know these arts so well that while the uneducated practice them mechanically, you have drunk from the very fountain of the disciplines. You entered the schools of Athens though you stood far away; you mingled the toga among the robed philosophers, so that you made Greek teachings into Roman knowledge. You learned the depth at which speculative philosophy is studied, the method by which practical philosophy is classified -- bringing to the Roman Senate everything the Athenians had given to the world. [4] Through your translations, Pythagoras the musician and Ptolemy the astronomer are read in Italian; Nicomachus the arithmetician and Euclid the geometer are heard in Latin; the theologian Plato and the logician Aristotle debate in the language of Rome; and you even gave back the engineer Archimedes in Latin to the Sicilians. Whatever disciplines or arts fertile Greece produced through individual men, Rome received from you, a single author, in her native tongue. You rendered them so brilliantly clear, so notably precise in their language, that those authors themselves might have preferred your version, had they known both languages.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.