ter to whom
avarice was unknown. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of
his benefits; you chose to take your reward in public esteem, not in
riches. Therefore it was that this most righteous ruler chose you to be
honoured by his glorious friendship, because he saw you to be free from
all taint of corrupt vices. How often did he fix your place among his
white-haired counsellors; inasmuch as they, by the experience of years,
had not come up to the point from which you had started! He found that
he could safely praise your excellent disposition, open-handed in
bestowing benefits, tightly closed against the vices of avarice".

[Footnote 87: Variae, ix., 24.]

"Thus you passed on to the dignity of Master of the Offices,[88] which
you obtained, not by a pecuniary payment, but as a testimony to your
character. In that office you were ever ready to help the Quaestors, for
when pure eloquence was needed men always resorted to you; and, in fact,
when you were at hand and ready to help, there was no accurate division
of labour among the various offices of the State.[89] No one could find
an occasion to murmur aught against you, although you bore all the
unpopularity which accompanies the favour of a prince".

[Footnote 88: The date of Cassiodorus' first promotion to this dignity
is uncertain, but it was probably about 518.]

[Footnote 89: Non enim proprios fines sub te ulla dignitas custodivit.
(Of course there is a certain anachronism in representing a statesman of
the sixth century as using the phrase "division of labour".)]

Your detractors were conquered by the integrity of your life; your
adversaries, bowing to public opinion, were obliged to praise even while
they hated you.

"To the lord of the land you showed yourself a friendly judge and an
intimate minister. When public affairs no longer claimed him, he would
ask you to tell him the stories in which wise men of old have clothed
their maxims, that by his own deeds he might equal the ancient heroes.
The courses of the stars, the ebb and flow of the sea, the marvels of
springing fountains,--nto all these subjects would that most acute
questioner inquire, so that by his diligent investigations into the
nature of things, he seemed to be a philosopher in the purple".

This sketch of the character of the minister throws light incidentally
on that of the monarch who employed him. Of course, as a general rule,
history cannot allow the personages with whom she