'Surrounded as you are by an innumerable multitude of subjects, and strong in the remembrance of their having turned back Attila[275], still do not fight with Clovis. War is a terrible thing, and a terrible risk. The long peace may have softened the hearts of your people, and your soldiers from want of practice may have lost the habit of working together on the battlefield. Ere yet blood is shed, draw back if possible. We are sending ambassadors to the King of the Franks to try to prevent this war between our relatives; and the ambassadors whom we are sending to you will go on to Gundibad, King of the Burgundians, to get him to interpose on behalf of peace. Your enemy will be mine also.' [Footnote 275: 'Quamvis Attilam potentem reminiscamini Visigothorum viribus inclinatum.'] [The battle of Vougle in which Alaric was overthrown by Clovis, was fought in 507; but the date of this letter is probably 506 (Dahn's date) rather than 507, as there were no doubt some premonitory symptoms before the war broke out. Binding i. 181 (_n._ 608), and Pallmann ii. 55 _n._ 1, and 135 _n._ 2, incline to a date somewhat earlier even than 506, thinking that there may have been earlier threatenings of war, which Theodoric succeeded for the time in averting. The earlier the date the better will it suit the allusion to Clovis (and Alaric) as 'Regii _Juvenes_' in the following letter. Clovis was born in 466, and was therefore 41 years of age at the battle of Vougle.] 2. KING THEODORIC TO GUNDIBAD, KING OF THE BURGUNDIANS. [Sidenote: Dissuades Gundibad from war.] Repeats the arguments in iii. 1 about the ill effects of war on the fortunes of all, and says that it is Theodoric's part to moderate the angry impulses of 'regii juvenes.' It becomes them to reverence 'senes,' such as Theodoric and Gundibad, although they are themselves in the balmy vigour of the flower of their age. Sends two ambassadors ('illum atque illum') with letters and a verbal message, hoping that the wisdom of Gundibad may reflect upon what they say to him [perhaps too delicate a matter to be committed to writing], and find some way of preserving peace. [It is remarkable that in this letter Theodoric, who was probably only 52, if the date of it be 506, and who may have been a year or two younger, speaks of himself along with Gundibad as a _senex_, and of Clovis, who could hardly be more than twelve years his junior, as _regius juvenis_. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that Cassiodorus speaks from his own point of view. To him, now about 26 years of age, Theodoric might seem to be fitly described as 'senex.' See Binding i. 181-183 on this letter and the reasons why it produced no effect on Gundibad. See also Dahn ii. 144.] 3. KING THEODORIC TO THE KINGS OF THE HERULI, WARNI (GUARNI), AND THURINGIANS. [Sidenote: Attempt to form a Teutonic coalition on behalf of Alaric.]