1. KING ATHALARIC TO HILDERIC, KING OF THE VANDALS (A.D. 527). [Sidenote: Murder of Amalafrida, widow of King Thrasamund and sister of Theodoric.] 'Friendship and relationship are turned to bitterness by the tidings that Amalafrida, of divine memory, the distinguished ornament of our race, has been put to death by you[574]. If you had any cause of offence against her, you ought to have sent her to us for judgment. What you have done is a species of parricide. If the succession, on the death of her husband, passed to another [yourself], that was no reason why a woman should be embroiled in the contest. It was really an addition to your nobility to have the purple dignity of the Amal blood allied to the lineage of the Hasdingi. [Footnote 574: With reference to this event Victor Tunnunensis writes: 'Cujus (Trasamundi) uxor Amalafrida fugiens ad barbaros congressione facta Capsae juxta Heremum capitur, et in custodia privata moritur.' Procopius (De B. Vandalico i. 9) says: [Greek: Kai sphisi (tois Bandilois) xynenechthe Theudericho te kai Gotthois en Italia ek te symmachon kai philon polemioi genesthai ten te gar Amalaphridan en phylake eschon kai tous Gotthous diephtheiran hapantas epenenkontes autois neoterizein es te Bandilous kai Hilderichon]. Both Victor and Procopius seem to place the conflict before the death of Theodoric; Victor says A.D. 523. Probably therefore the fighting, the capture of Amalafrida, and the death of her countrymen, took place in that year, the year of her husband's death and Hilderic's accession. Three or four years later (526 or 527), when her brother Theodoric was dead, the imprisoned princess was murdered--a grievous insult to the young Sovereign of the Goths, her great-nephew.] 'Our Goths keenly feel the insults conveyed in this deed, since to slay the royal lady of another race is to despise the valour of that race and doubt its willingness to avenge her. 'We send you two ambassadors to hear what your excuses are. We hear that you pretend that her death was natural. And you also must send ambassadors in return to us to explain the matter, without war or bloodshed, and either pacify us or acknowledge your guilt. If you do not do this, all ties of alliance between us are broken, and we must leave you to the judgment of the Divine Majesty, which heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground.' 2. EDICT OF KING ATHALARIC. [Sidenote: Oppression of the Curiales.] 'The body of the Republic is so tempered together that if one member suffers all the members suffer with it. The Curiales, whose name is derived from their care (cura) and forethought, are, we are told, molested by hostile proceedings, so that what was bestowed upon them as an honour turns out rather to their injury. What scandalous injustice! What an insupportable evil! that he who ought to have benefited the Republic by his services, should often lose both fortune and liberty.