Amal' can apply to no
one but Theodahad, the terms used being hopelessly inapplicable to a
boy like Athalaric. Who then are 'our lords' ('nostri Domini'), in
whose name peace is besought. The best that we can hope, for the sake
of the reputation of Cassiodorus, is that they are Amalasuentha and
Theodahad, the letter being written between October 2, 534 (when
Athalaric died), and April 30, 535 (when Amalasuentha was imprisoned).
Upon the whole this seems the most probable conclusion. If written
after Amalasuentha's death, in the few months or weeks which
intervened between that event and the landing of Belisarius in Sicily,
the language employed reflects deep discredit on the writer. In that
case, 'nostri Domini' must mean Theodahad and Gudelina.]

14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO GAUDIOSUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE
PROVINCE OF LIGURIA.

[Sidenote: Praises of Como. Relief of its inhabitants.]

'The City of Como[762] is visited by so many travellers that the
cultivators of the soil declare that they are quite worn out with
requisitions for post-horses[763]. Wherefore we direct that by Royal
indulgence they be favoured in this matter[764], that this city, so
beautifully situated, do not become a solitude for want of
inhabitants.

[Footnote 762: Thus called by Cassiodorus; not Comum.]

[Footnote 763: 'Se possessores paraveredorum assiduitate suggerunt
esse fatigatos.']

[Footnote 764: 'Quibus indultu Regali beneficium praecipimus jugiter
custodiri.' These words do not make it clear how the inhabitants were
relieved by the Royal decree; but it was probably by some gift of
money like that which is announced in the next letter.]

'Como, with its precipitous mountains and its vast expanse of lake,
seems placed there for the defence of the Province of Liguria; and
yet, again, it is so beautiful that one would think it was created for
pleasure only. To the south lies a fertile plain with easy roads for
the transport of provisions; on the north a lake sixty miles long,
abounding in fish, soothing the mind with delicious recreation.

'Rightly is it called _Como_, because it is adorned (compta) with such
gifts. The lake lies in a shell-like valley, with white margins. Above
rises a diadem of lofty mountains, their slopes studded with bright
villas[765], a girdle of olives below, vineyards above, while a crest
of thick chestnut-woods adorns the very summit of the hills. Streams
of snowy clearness dash from the hill-sides i