ality of the water, and so
prevent you from wasting labour on a brackish spring. This science was
ably treated of by ----[323], and by Marcellus among the Latins. They
tell us that waters which gush forth towards the east and south are
light and wholesome; that those which emerge towards the north and
west are too cold and heavy.

[Footnote 323: 'Apud Graecos _ille_.' Cassiodorus has left the name
blank, and has either forgotten or been unable to fill it up; like the
'ille et ille' in his State documents.]

'So then, if the testimonials of the aforesaid water-finder and the
results of his indications shall approve themselves to your wisdom,
you may pay his travelling expenses and relieve his wants: he having
to repay you by his future services. For though Rome itself is so
abundantly supplied with aqueducts, there are many suburban places in
which his help would be very useful. Associate with him also a
mechanician who can sink for and raise the water when he has pointed
it out. Rome ought not to lack anything which is an object of
desire.'

BOOK IV.

CONTAINING FIFTY-ONE LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN THE NAME OF
THEODORIC.

1. KING THEODORIC TO HERMINAFRID, KING OF THE THURINGIANS.

[Sidenote: Marriage of Theodoric's niece to the King of the
Thuringians.]

'Desiring to unite you to ourselves by the bonds of kindred, we bestow
upon you our niece [Amalabirga, daughter of Theodoric's sister; see
'Anon. Valesii' Sec. 70], so that you, who descend from a Royal stock,
may now far more conspicuously shine by the splendour of Imperial
blood[324]'. [A remarkable passage, as showing that Theodoric did in a
sense consider himself to be filling the place of the Emperors of the
West.]

[Footnote 324: 'Nunc etiam longius claritate Imperialis sanguinis
fulgeatis.']

The virtues and intellectual accomplishments of the new Queen of the
Thuringians are described.

'We gladly acknowledge the price of a favour, in itself beyond price,
which, according to the custom of the nations, we have received from
your ambassadors: namely, a team of horses, silvery in colour, as
wedding-horses should be. Their chests and thighs are suitably adorned
with round surfaces of flesh. Their ribs are expanded to a certain
width. They are short in the belly. Their heads have a certain
resemblance to the stag, the swiftness of which animal they imitate.
These horses are gentle from their extreme plumpness; very swift
notwithstanding