Cassiodorus

Italian statesman and writer

• Born: c. 490
• Birthplace: Scyllacium, Calabria, Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (now Squillace, Italy)
• Died: c. 585
• Place of death: Vivarium, Calabria (now in Italy)

Cassiodorus aided in the cultural synthesis of Germanic, Greco-Roman, and Christian cultures in the transition period between the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages and was a key conservator of ancient manuscripts for later generations.

Cassiodorus was born on a luxurious estate on the south coast of the Ionian Sea, near the modern Gulf of Squillace. The temperate climate produced grapes, grains, and olives. Cassiodorus's grandfather was a Roman general and his father was a wealthy, aristocratic diplomat, esteemed by the king, who was in charge of the imperial lands and, later, of the royal treasury. He was also the governor of Sicily and of Calabria. His family was noted for its honesty and integrity in public service.

Cassiodorus benefited from an excellent classical education and entered public office in the service of the Ostrogothic rulers. He was schooled in Latin and Greek literature and, typical for aristocratic students, in rhetoric. This educational foundation helped to develop Cassiodorus's literary gifts; he became one of the most distinguished writers of the period.

Cassiodorus was reared a good Catholic, and he remained orthodox all of his life. It is most interesting that he and Theodoric were able to produce a cultural synthesis of Roman, Greek, and Gothic elements. Indeed, one of Cassiodorus's principal works was History of the Goths (519), which is no longer extant. Theodoric's Arianism did not cause undue tension with Cassiodorus's orthodox Catholic faith. Each man respected the other, and both wished to see a coexistence between clashing cultures. Theodoric achieved a working relationship between Romans and Goths. He emulated much of the Roman political system, retaining the offices and titles of imperial Rome. The architecture and furnishings of his palace resembled Constantinople. The army was made up of Goths, and the civil government was largely composed of Romans. Cassiodorus was a key government administrator.

Life's Work

Cassiodorus served as his father's consiliarius, a legal assistant, and Theodoric appointed him, at the age of twenty, a quaestor, the king's private secretary and legal adviser in the preparation of administrative law. Later, Theodoric made him a consul and in 527 a magister-officiorum, giving him responsibility for polishing the writings and speeches of the quaestors. Cassiodorus's literary ability was obvious: He worded many public documents and was a confidant of the king. King Athalaric, Theodoric's grandson, appointed Cassiodorus praetorian prefect for Italy, in effect making him prime minister of the Ostrogothic civil government from 533 to 538. Cassiodorus supervised the collection of taxes and the administration of justice. Vicars, provincial governors, proconsuls and all were subordinate to him.

Early Life

When the Roman Empire collapsed and fell to invading Goths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals, the Germanic tribes dealt with the Romans in contrasting ways. Vandals

He ended his public career when the Byzantine emperor Justinian I defeated the Goths in 551 and expanded westward into Italy. After fifteen years in Constantinople, Cassiodorus returned to his family's estates overlooking the Ionian Sea; in retirement, he began a second career almost as long and productive as his civil service.

Cassiodorus was sixty-five years old when he established two monasteries on his estates at Vivarium (meaning “fish pond,” named after his landscaped gardens). He was primarily interested in an intellectual, peaceful monastic life, but he also sought to refresh travelers and provide for the poor from his irrigated gardens. He channeled the river Pellena into his fish ponds and used the power of the river to turn the monasteries’ mills. Fresh water was abundant in this earthly paradise within sight and sound of the Mediterranean Sea.

For nearly thirty years, Cassiodorus collected a large library, supervising the preservation and copying of invaluable ancient manuscripts. His monks copied and studied the Bible, works of the church fathers, and ancient Greek and Latin classics. Cassiodorus also prepared a guide for monastic education , which was used for many generations, sought refined learning under the authority of Scripture and church tradition, and prepared a bibliography of studies on all the sections of the Bible. In his detailed instructions for accurate transcription of texts in the scriptorium, he allowed slight stylistic emendation of texts, with the exception of the text of Scripture, where particular care was made to compare the ancient copies. Cassiodorus continued writing and working into his ninety-third year; he died, at the age of ninety-five, on the peaceful estate where he had dedicated many years to preserving ancient manuscripts and to studying and teaching theology.

Significance

Cassiodorus inspired scholarly pursuits in other monasteries as well as his own. His example helped enormously in the preservation of ancient manuscripts and in creating copies of works from the classical world and from the early Christian centuries. His own writings, too, greatly enhanced historical knowledge of his own era. For example, Variae (537; The Variae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, 1886; better known as the Variae), a work in twelve volumes collected during his years in public office, contains voluminous letters, proclamations, official appointments, edicts, records of judicial decisions, and administrative orders of the Ostrogothic kingdoms. It is an invaluable source of information concerning all aspects of life in that period of history: economic, cultural, political, and diplomatic. History of the Goths is adulatory and one-sided, but it, too, provides detailed information concerning the Goths and their perspective of their struggle and coexistence with the Romans.

Modern knowledge of church history would be much sparser without his twelve-volume Historia ecclesiastica tripartita (c. 540-559), which became the principal source used in the Middle Ages for the history it covered, while De orthographia (c. 583) was designed to systematize the rules for copying manuscripts. The care with which the monks of the Middle Ages copied and preserved ancient manuscripts has been an indispensable link for modern knowledge of the ancient and medieval worlds.

In addition to these historical efforts, Cassiodorus designed a complete book of instruction for the Western monasteries, Institutiones divinarum et humanarum lectionum (562; An Introduction to Divine and Human Readings, 1946, better known as Institutiones), which includes a catalog of the books contained in the library at Vivarium. His division of scholarship into categories was followed throughout the Middle Ages: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. Finally, Cassiodorus's Expositio Psalmorum (c. 540-548; Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms, 1990-1991) was one of his most famous expositions of Scripture and devotional works, of which he wrote many.

Cassiodorus is only a small part of the larger story in which he was a participant, but he was particularly significant historically. He played a key role in the transition from the Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages and helped to synthesize the Gothic-Greco-Roman-Christian culture that was emerging. He was a good steward for the Gothic kings but was faithful to his culture, his church, and his God also. He helped perpetuate his love of learning and organized the European monastic educational system. He organized, sorted, and classified scholarly materials that became essential tools of medieval Scholasticism. Above all, he was an essential conservator of the literary treasures of antiquity and the early Church for future generations.

Bibliography

Burns, Thomas S. A History of the Ostrogoths. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. To understand the historical importance of Cassiodorus, one needs to have a knowledge of the Ostrogoths he served. This book portrays their culture and values as well as their history. It describes the synthesis of two cultures: Germanic and Roman.

Cassiodorus. Cassiodorus: An Explanation of the Psalms. Translated and annotated by P. G. Walsh. 3 vols. New York: Paulist Press, 1990-1991. The commentary that accompanies this translation sheds light on the psalms and on their author.

Cassiodorus. An Introduction to Divine and Human Readings. Translated by Lewlis Webber Jones. 1946. Reprint. New York: Octagon Books, 1966. This translation of Institutiones provides an understanding of the writer and statesman as well as of the work itself.

Cassiodorus. The “Variae” of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator. Translated with notes and introduction by S. J. B. Barnish. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992. This translation and notes provide valuable information on Cassiodorus.

O’Donnell, James J. Cassiodorus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. An important study of Cassiodorus, it analyzes the books he wrote, his career in the service of the Ostrogoths, and his establishment of and life in the monasteries of Vivarium. An unusual feature of this book is the author’s explanation of his sources and the procedures used in their critical analysis.

Previté-Orton, C. W. The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History/Middle Ages. 2 vols. 1962. Reprint. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1971. The first volume focuses on the period from the later Roman Empire to the twelfth century. Illustrations, maps, and index.