e Island of Leucosia, now Licosa, a few miles from Paestum,
evidently does not represent the Leucothea of this letter.]

'And this is in truth a marvellous fountain, full and fresh, and of
such transparent clearness that when you look through it you think you
are looking through air alone. Choice fishes swim about in the pool,
perfectly tame, because if anyone presumes to capture them he soon
feels the Divine vengeance. On the morning which precedes the holy
night [of St. Cyprian], as soon as the Priest begins to utter the
baptismal prayer, the water begins to rise above its accustomed
height. Generally it covers but five steps of the well, but the brute
element, as if preparing itself for miracles, begins to swell, and at
last covers two steps more, never reached at any other time of the
year. Truly a stupendous miracle, that streams of water should thus
stand still or increase at the sound of the human voice, as if the
fountain itself desired to listen to the sermon.

'Thus hath Lucania a river Jordan of her own. Wherefore, both for
religion's sake and for the profit of the people, it behoves that good
order should be kept among the frequenters of the fair, since in the
judgment of all, that man must be deemed a villain who would sully the
joys of such happy days.'

BOOK IX.

CONTAINING TWENTY-FIVE LETTERS, ALL WRITTEN IN THE NAME OF ATHALARIC
THE KING.

1. KING ATHALARIC TO HILDERIC, KING OF THE VANDALS (A.D. 527).

[Sidenote: Murder of Amalafrida, widow of King Thrasamund and sister
of Theodoric.]

'Friendship and relationship are turned to bitterness by the tidings
that Amalafrida, of divine memory, the distinguished ornament of our
race, has been put to death by you[574]. If you had any cause of
offence against her, you ought to have sent her to us for judgment.
What you have done is a species of parricide. If the succession, on
the death of her husband, passed to another [yourself], that was no
reason why a woman should be embroiled in the contest. It was really
an addition to your nobility to have the purple dignity of the Amal
blood allied to the lineage of the Hasdingi.

[Footnote 574: With reference to this event Victor Tunnunensis writes:
'Cujus (Trasamundi) uxor Amalafrida fugiens ad barbaros congressione
facta Capsae juxta Heremum capitur, et in custodia privata moritur.'
Procopius (De B. Vandalico i. 9) says: [Greek: Kai sphisi (tois
Bandilois) xynenechthe Theudericho te kai Gotthois en