inasmuch as you, by your blameless service sustaining the weight of
that royal intellect by all the force of your eloquence, enabled him,
with his keen interest in all public affairs, to await the result with
confidence. In you he possessed a counsellor pleasant in the
transaction of business, rigid in his sense of justice, free from all
taint of avarice. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of
his benefits; and thus you reaped your reward in a wealth of public
opinion, not in gold. It was because that just Prince proved you to be
averse from all these vices that he selected you for his glorious
friendship. A wise judge, he threw upon you the weight of listening to
the arguments of contending parties; and so high was his opinion of
your tried sagacity that he at once uttered your decision as the
greatest benefit that he could confer on the litigants. How often did
he rank you among the oldest chiefs of his Council! How often was it
seen that your young beginnings were more than a match for them, who
had the experience of long years behind them! What he found to praise
in you was your excellent disposition, wide open for useful work,
tight closed against the vices of avarice. Whereas, for some reason,
it is rare to find amongst men, the hand closed and justice open.

[Footnote 621: 'Primaevum recipiens ad Quaestoris Officium, mox
reperit conscientia praeditum, et legum eruditione maturum.']

[Sidenote: His career as Master of the Offices.]

'Let us pass on to the dignity of _Magister Officiorum_, which all men
knew that you obtained, not from the reputation of wealth, but as a
testimony to your character. In this place you were always ready to
help the [successive] Quaestors; for, when pure eloquence was
required, the case was always put in your hands. The benignant
Sovereign claimed from you the fulfilment of duties which he knew that
he had not formally laid upon you; and such was the favour that he had
for you, while others laboured you received the reward of his abundant
praises[622]. For under your administration no dignity kept its exact
limits; anything that was to be honestly done by all the chiefs of the
State together, you considered to be entrusted to _your_ conscience
for its performance.

[Footnote 622: 'Et quadam gratia praejudiciali vacabat alios laborare,
ut te sententiae suae copiosa laude compleret.' One would have
expected Cassiodorus to say, 'You had the special privilege of doing
othe