R (c. 490-585), historian, statesman, and
monk. "Senator" (not a title) is the name used by himself in his
official correspondence. His father held the offices of _comes
privatarum_ and _sacrarum largitionum_ (controller of the emperor's
private revenue and the public exchequer) under Odoacer, and
subsequently attached himself to Theodoric, by whom he was appointed
_corrector_ (governor) of Bruttii and Lucania, and _praefectus
praetorio_. The son at an early age became _consiliarius_ (legal
assessor) to his father, and (probably in 507) _quaestor_, an official
whose chief duty at that time consisted in acting as the mouthpiece of
the ruler, and drafting his despatches. In 514 he was ordinary consul,
and at a later date possibly _corrector_ of his native province. At the
death of Theodoric (526) he held the office of _magister officiorum_
(chief of the civil service). Under Athalaric he was _praefectus
praetorio_, a post which he retained till about 540, after the triumphal
entry of Belisarius into Ravenna, when he retired from public life. With
the object of providing for the transmission of divine and human
knowledge to later ages, and of securing it against the tide of
barbarism which threatened to sweep it away, he founded two
monasteries--Vivarium and Castellum--in his ancestral domains at
Squillace (others identify the two monasteries). The special duty which
he enjoined upon the inmates was the acquisition of knowledge, both
sacred and profane, the latter, however, being subordinated to the
former. He also collected and emended valuable MSS., which his monks
were instructed to copy, and superintended the translation of various
Greek works into Latin. He further amused himself with making scientific
toys, such as sun-dials and water-clocks. As he is stated to have
written one of his treatises at the age of ninety-three, he must have
lived till after 580. Whether he belonged to the Benedictine order is
uncertain.

The writings of Cassiodorus evince great erudition, ingenuity and
labour, but are disfigured by incorrectness and an affected
artificiality, and his Latin partakes much of the corruptions of the
age. His works are (1) historical and political, (2) theological and
grammatical.

1. (a) _Variae_, the most important of all his writings, in twelve
books, published in 537. They contain the decrees of Theodoric and his
successors Amalasuntha, Theodahad and Witigis; the regulations of the
chief offices