The 6^th c. AD author that scholars today call Cassiodorus was known before as“Senator”.  He was born at Squillace in Calabria not after 490, during the final years of the 5^th c. His family has emigrated from Syria, as their name is commonly attested there, especially near Antioch.  The appellation Cassiodorus derives from Zeus Casius /Cassius, an epithet that Pliny the Elder and Ammianus Marcellinus tell us refers to a mountain range in northern Syria.  From the first half of the 5^th c. AD, direct ancestors of the author are known for military and diplomatic accomplishments: we hear of them preventing Gaisaric’s Vandals from conquering Sicily during the fourty years of 5^th c. AD, before the horde advanced to their famous sack of Rome in 455; they are known to have been amici of the general Flavius Aetius and to have participated in a dangerous but successful ambush of Attila during the invasion of the Huns (perhaps in 448); and Cassiodorus’ father not only was among the first to join ranks with Theoderic when the Ostrogoths entered Italy (a move ordered by the eastern emperor that aimed at transferring control of the peninsula to Odoacer) but also served as praetorian prefect in the first years of the 6^th c.  Another relative, Heliodorus, held important offices in the eastern empire, serving as both prefect of Constantinople and praetorian prefect.

Cassiodorus served as Quaestor sacrii palatii from 507 to 511/12, an office that brought him into the king’s chancellery and that gave him the extremely important role of advisor.  He was then consul in 514 before holding the even more important position of Magister officiorum from 523 (the year of Boethius’ incarceration) until the death of Theoderic in 526.  This begins the period in which Cassiodorus had the greatest political weight, as he had already sided with Theoderic’s daughter Amalasuntha, who was regent for her son Athalaric and widow of Cassiodorus’ long-time ally Eutharic. During this time Cassiodorus wrote a series of official texts on behalf of Amalasuntha and Athalaric, the political goal of which was to forge unity between Romans and Italian Goths: if these two peoples could share the res publica between them, it was said that they would be capable of protecting the peninsula from any possible invasion of Germanic gentes or even imperial troops.  He continued to serve in this role under Amalasuntha’s second husband Theodahad, a marriage contracted in 534 after the death of Athalaric, who was not yet eighteen years old, in response to pressure from more extremist Ostrogothic factions.  Cassiodorus was made praetorian prefect in 533, and maintained this post both after the outbreak of war between Constantinople and the Goths following the murder of Amalasuntha by Theodahad in 535 and after Theodahad was deposed for ineptitude following the capture of Naples by eastern forces in 536. He stood by Theodahad’s successor Witiges, the husband of Athalaric’s sister Matasuntha, until 538.

Byzantine forces took Ravenna in 540 and subsequently deported Witiges to Constantinople. Although scholarly opinion currently holds that Cassiodorus was also sent to the eastern capital at that time and that he remained there - virtually as a hostage - until 554, some have maintained that he stayed at Ravenna before retiring to Squillace to found his Vivarium monastery.  It is certain, however, that he was present at Constantinople from 547 to 551, and the majority of his time there have presumablybeen spent studying the history of Christianity after his “conversion” from political to religious life - a transformation that occurred sometime between 538 and 540.  Our picture becomes clear again in 554: from this date, although he was already about seventy years old, we find him directing Vivarium and monks in the economic and (principally) cultural initiatives of transcribing and translating texts.  This work continued until he died at an advanced age, sometime after 580.

Cassiodorus’ literary output can be divided into three clear phases.  The first contains everything written through 538: the Variae, a collection of official letters sent on behalf of rulers or in his own name during the period when he was praetorian prefect; theChronica, a history from Adam to 519; a collection of speeches; and the twelve-book Historia Gothorum, a work commissioned by Theoderic and published under Athalaric (this is no longer extant, but we possess a summary of it that Jordanes compiled during his stay at Constantinople).  The second phase begins with the De anima, which was written at Ravenna and transmitted together with the Variae, but in fact marks the beginning of a new period in Cassiodorus’ literary career; also included in this group are the works he composed at Constantinople during his “conversion:” the Expositio in Psalmos; translations from Greek into Latin of bibliographies on the books of the New Testament; and possibly the Ordo generis Cassiodororum, a family history that survives to us only in very brief extracts.  The final phase, which is often called “Vivarian,” includes the Institutiones, i.e. the description of the studies activity in his Vivarium, as well as translations of Greek works that were arranged and executed by him in collaboration with the most learned monks in his monastery (Epiphanius, Dionysius Exiguus), e.g. the Historia tripertita, which was drawn from the three great histories of the Church composed by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret; his last project, which is also part of this third phase, was an extensive manual on orthography written when he was more than ninety years old.  [G. Polara; tr. C. L. Caterine].

List of Works:

Chronica

Clementis Alexandrini Adumbrationes in Epistulas canonicas

Complexiones in Apocalypsim

De anima

De artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum

De orthographia

De orthographia et de arte grammatica excerpta

De rhetorica

Didymi Alexandrini Enarratio in Epistulas canonicas

Expositio in Psalmos

Flavii Iosephi De antiquitatibus Iudaicis

Flavii Iosephi De Iudaeorum vetustate seu Contra Apionem

Historia Gothorum

Historia tripertita

Institutiones

Orationes

Ordo generis Cassiodororum

Variae