'We now invite you to follow their example, that the Goths may give their oath to the Romans, and the Romans may confirm it by a Sacramentum to the Goths, that they are unanimously devoted to our King.'
'Thus will your loyalty be made manifest, and concord and justice flourish among you.'
[There is an appearance of mutuality about this oath of allegiance as between Goths and Romans, not merely by both to Athalaric, which we have not had in the previous letters.]
[8.] King Athalaric to Victorinus, Vir Venerabilis and Bishop[508] (a.d. 526).
To Bishop Victorinus.
'Saluting you with all the veneration due to your character and office, we inform you with grief of the death of our lord and grandfather. But your sadness will be moderated when you hear that his kingdom is continued in us. Favour us with your prayers, that the King of Heaven may confirm to us the kingdom, subdue foreign nations before us, forgive us our sins, and propitiously preserve all that He was pleased to bestow on our ancestors. Let your Holiness exhort all the Provincials to concord.'
[9.] King Athalaric to Tulum, Patrician.
Praises of Tulum, who is raised to the Patriciate.
'As our grandfather used to refresh his mind and strengthen his judgment by intercourse with you, so, à fortiori, may we in our tender years do the same. We therefore make you, by this present letter, Patrician, that the counsels which you give us may not seem to proceed from any unknown and obscure source.
'Greece adorned our hero [Tulum] with the chlamys and the painted silken buskin; and the Eastern peoples yearned to see him, because for some reason civic virtues are most prized in him who is believed to be of warlike disposition[509]. Contented with this repayment of honour he laboured with unwearied devotion for foreign countries (?), and with his relations (or parents) he deigned to offer his obedience to the Sovereign, who was begotten of the stock of so many Kings[510].