ccupied
were without doubt that portion of his life in which he exercised the
most direct and unquestioned influence on State affairs.

[Sidenote: Services of Cassiodorus to the Regent Amalasuentha.]

His services at the commencement of the new reign will be best
described in his own words: 'Nostris quoque principiis[53]' (the
letter is written in Athalaric's name) 'quanto se labore concessit,
cum novitas regni multa posceret ordinari? Erat solus ad universa
sufficiens. Ipsum dictatio publica, ipsum consilia nostra poscebant;
et labore ejus actum est ne laboraret imperium. _Reperimus eum quidem
Magistrum sed implevit nobis Quaestoris officium_: et mercedes
justissima devotione persolvens, cautelam, quam ab auctore nostro
didicerat, libenter haeredis utilitatibus exhibebat[54].'

[Footnote 53: Variarum ix. 25.]

[Footnote 54: The meaning apparently is: 'The experience which he had
gained in Theodoric's service was employed for the advantage of his
grandson.']

[Sidenote: Fears of invasion.]

Cassiodorus then goes on to describe how he laboured for his young
Sovereign with the sword as well as with the pen. Some hostile
invasion was dreaded, perhaps from the Franks, or, more probably, from
the Vandals, whose relations with the Ostrogoths at that time were
strained, owing to the murder of Theodoric's sister Amalafrida by
Hilderic the Vandal King. Cassiodorus provided ships and equipped
soldiers at his own expense, probably for the defence of his beloved
Province of Bruttii. The alarm of war passed away, but difficulties
appear to have arisen owing to the sudden cancellation of the
contracts which had been entered into when hostilities seemed
imminent; and to these difficulties Cassiodorus tells us that he
brought his trained experience as an administrator and a judge,
resolving them so as to give satisfaction to all who were concerned.

[Sidenote: Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect, 533.]

Seven years of Amalasuentha's regency thus passed, and now at length,
at fifty-three years of age, Cassiodorus was promoted (Sept. 1, 533)
to the most distinguished place which a subject could occupy. He
received from Amalasuentha the office of Praetorian Praefect. As
thirty-three years had elapsed since his father was invested with the
same dignity, we may fairly conjecture that father and son both
climbed this eminence at the same period of their lives; yet,
considering the extraordinary credit which the younger Cassiodorus