From: Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To: Faustus, Praetorian Prefect
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Theoderic sentences a curialis convicted of murder to exile on the volcanic island of Vulcano, with a vivid digression on the island's geological wonders.
Tempered severity falls on the side of mercy, and the ruler who softens a deserved punishment with considered moderation punishes under the guise of a benefit. The curialis Jovinus, whom the governor of Lucania and Bruttium reports to us as stained with the shedding of human blood -- because, inflamed by the passions of a mutual quarrel, he carried a verbal dispute to the point of criminal violence against his colleague, then fled to shelter within a church, believing he could evade the legally prescribed retribution -- we sentence to perpetual exile on the island of Vulcano. The sacred temple will be shown the respect it deserves, while the criminal will not entirely escape vengeance for not having spared the innocent.
Let him therefore be deprived of his native hearth, condemned to live with destructive fire, where the bowels of the earth never fail though they are ceaselessly consumed through the ages. Ordinary earthly flame, which is fed by consuming some body of fuel, goes out if it does not devour. But the mass of this mountain burns continuously amid the surrounding waters, neither diminished by what is clearly being dissolved -- because nature's inexplicable power replaces as much fuel in the rocks as the voracious fire takes away. How else would the rocks remain intact if they were always being cooked with no replenishment?
Divine power makes a perpetual miracle from contrary elements, openly restoring through the most hidden means what it wills to endure through the ages. Though other mountains also seethe with volcanic eruptions, none bears a comparable name -- one must suppose it burns more fiercely since it is named for Vulcan himself.
Let the guilty man therefore be sent alive to this place. Let him be deprived of the world the rest of us enjoy -- the world from which he cruelly expelled another. The survivor receives what the deceased suffered by the stroke of death. He will follow the example of the salamander, which often lives amid flames, so constrained by natural cold that it tempers the burning fire. The historians of earlier ages report that this island erupted from the broken depths of the sea some centuries ago, at the time when Hannibal, at the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia, fought against himself with poison rather than be delivered to Roman mockery. What is even more remarkable: a mountain so ignited with such a concentration of flames had been hidden beneath the ocean waves, and the fire lived ceaselessly where such vast water seemed to drown it.
XLVII. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] In partem pietatis recidit mitigata districtio et sub beneficio punit qui poenam debitam considerata moderatione palpaverit. Iovinum curialem, quem corrector Lucaniae Bruttiorumque humani nobis suggerit sanguinis effusione pollutum (ob hoc cum mutuae contentionis ardoribus excitatus rixam verborum usque ad nefarium collegae deduxit in ritum, sed conscius facti sui intra ecclesiae saepta refugiens declinare se credidit praescriptam legibus ultionem) Vulcanae insulae perpetua relegatione damnamus, ut et sacrato templo reverentiam habuisse videamur nec vindictam criminosus evadat in totum, qui innocenti non credidit esse parcendum. [2] Careat proinde patrio foco cum exitiabili victurus incendio, ubi viscera terrae non deficiunt, cum tot saeculis iugiter consumantur. flamma siquidem ista terrena, quae alicuius corporis imminutione nutritur, si non absumit, extinguitur: ardet continue inter undas medias montis quantitas indefecta nec imminuit, quod resolvi posse sentitur: scilicet quia naturae inextricabilis potentia tantum crementi cautibus reponit, quantum illi vorax ignis ademerit. nam quemadmodum saxa incolumia permanerent, si semper inadiuvata decoquerent? [3] Potentia siquidem divina sic de contrariis rebus miraculum facit esse perpetuum, ut palam consumpta occultissimis instauret augmentis, quae vult temporibus stare diuturnis. verum cum et alii montes motibus vaporatis exaestuent, nullus simili appellatione censetur: aestimandum, quia gravius succenditur, qui Vulcani nomine nuncupatur. [4] Mittatur ergo reus capitis in locum praedictum vivus: careat quo utimur mundo, de quo alterum crudeliter fugavit exitio, quando superstes recipit quod eventu mortis inflixit: salamandrae secuturus exemplum, quae plerumque degit in ignibus. tanto enim naturali frigore constringitur, ut flammis ardentibus temperetur. subtile ac parvum animal, lumbricis associum, flavo colore vestitum. vitam praestat soli, quae mortalia cuncta consumit. [5] Memorant autem aevi pristini servatores hanc insulam ante aliquot annos undarum rupto terrore imitus erupisse, cum Hannibal apud Prusiam Bithyniae regem veneno secum ipse pugnavit, ne tantus dux ad Romanorum ludibria perveniret. plus inde mirabile, ut mons tanta flammarum congregatione succensus marinis fluctibus haberetur absconditus et ardor ibi indesinenter viveret, quem tanta unda videbatur obruere.
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From:Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To:Faustus, Praetorian Prefect
Date:~522 AD
Context:Theoderic sentences a curialis convicted of murder to exile on the volcanic island of Vulcano, with a vivid digression on the island's geological wonders.
Tempered severity falls on the side of mercy, and the ruler who softens a deserved punishment with considered moderation punishes under the guise of a benefit. The curialis Jovinus, whom the governor of Lucania and Bruttium reports to us as stained with the shedding of human blood -- because, inflamed by the passions of a mutual quarrel, he carried a verbal dispute to the point of criminal violence against his colleague, then fled to shelter within a church, believing he could evade the legally prescribed retribution -- we sentence to perpetual exile on the island of Vulcano. The sacred temple will be shown the respect it deserves, while the criminal will not entirely escape vengeance for not having spared the innocent.
Let him therefore be deprived of his native hearth, condemned to live with destructive fire, where the bowels of the earth never fail though they are ceaselessly consumed through the ages. Ordinary earthly flame, which is fed by consuming some body of fuel, goes out if it does not devour. But the mass of this mountain burns continuously amid the surrounding waters, neither diminished by what is clearly being dissolved -- because nature's inexplicable power replaces as much fuel in the rocks as the voracious fire takes away. How else would the rocks remain intact if they were always being cooked with no replenishment?
Divine power makes a perpetual miracle from contrary elements, openly restoring through the most hidden means what it wills to endure through the ages. Though other mountains also seethe with volcanic eruptions, none bears a comparable name -- one must suppose it burns more fiercely since it is named for Vulcan himself.
Let the guilty man therefore be sent alive to this place. Let him be deprived of the world the rest of us enjoy -- the world from which he cruelly expelled another. The survivor receives what the deceased suffered by the stroke of death. He will follow the example of the salamander, which often lives amid flames, so constrained by natural cold that it tempers the burning fire. The historians of earlier ages report that this island erupted from the broken depths of the sea some centuries ago, at the time when Hannibal, at the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia, fought against himself with poison rather than be delivered to Roman mockery. What is even more remarkable: a mountain so ignited with such a concentration of flames had been hidden beneath the ocean waves, and the fire lived ceaselessly where such vast water seemed to drown it.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.