FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  
on the boundary of two worlds, the Roman and the Teutonic. [Sidenote: Also on the confines of Politics and Religion.] But the statesman who, after spending thirty years at the Court of Theodoric and his daughter, spent thirty-three years more in the monastery which he had himself erected at Squillace, was a borderer in another sense than that already mentioned--a borderer between the two worlds of Politics and Religion; and in this capacity also, as the contemporary, perhaps the friend, certainly the imitator, of St. Benedict, and in some respects the improver upon his method, Cassiodorus largely helped to mould the destinies of mediaeval and therefore of modern Europe. I shall now proceed to indicate the chief points in the life and career of Cassiodorus. Where, as is generally the case, our information comes from his own correspondence, I shall, to avoid repetition, not do much more than refer the reader to the passage in the following collection, where he will find the information given as nearly as may be in the words of the great Minister himself. [Sidenote: His ancestors.] The ancestors of Cassiodorus for three generations, and their public employments, are enumerated for us in the letters (Var. i. 3-4) which in the name of Theodoric he wrote on his father's elevation to the Patriciate. From these letters we learn that-- [Sidenote: Great grandfather.] (1) Cassiodorus, the writer's great grandfather, who held the rank of an Illustris, defended the shores of Sicily and Bruttii from the incursions of the Vandals. This was probably between 430 and 440, and, as we may suppose, towards the end of the life of this statesman, to whom we may conjecturally assign a date from 390 to 460. [Sidenote: Grandfather.] (2) His son and namesake, the grandfather of our Cassiodorus, was a Tribune (a military rank nearly corresponding to our 'Colonel') and Notarius under Valentinian III. He enjoyed the friendship of the great Aetius, and was sent with Carpilio the son of that statesman on an embassy to Attila, probably between the years 440 and 450. In this embassy, according to his grandson, he exerted an extraordinary influence over the mind of the Hunnish King. Soon after this he retired to his native Province of Bruttii, where he passed the remainder of his days. We may probably fix the limits of his life from about 420 to 490. [Sidenote: Father.] (3) His son, the third Cassiodorus, our author's father, se
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cassiodorus

 

Sidenote

 

grandfather

 

statesman

 

information

 

Bruttii

 

embassy

 

ancestors

 

Theodoric

 

Religion


letters
 

thirty

 

father

 
borderer
 

Politics

 

worlds

 

assign

 

elevation

 
Patriciate
 

conjecturally


suppose

 

defended

 
Illustris
 

writer

 

shores

 
Vandals
 

incursions

 

Sicily

 

retired

 

native


Province
 

passed

 
influence
 
Hunnish
 

remainder

 

Father

 

author

 

limits

 

extraordinary

 

exerted


Notarius
 

Valentinian

 

Colonel

 

namesake

 
Tribune
 

military

 

enjoyed

 

grandson

 

Attila

 
Carpilio