oops of
cavalry. He and his ancestry would signify little now-a-days but for
the life-work of his greater son--Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator,
statesman, historian, monk. _Senator_ was not a title, but a personal
name; the name our Cassiodorus always used when speaking of himself.
But history calls him otherwise, and for us he must be Cassiodorus
still.

The year of his birth was 480. In the same year were born two other
men, glories of their age, whose fame is more generally remembered:
Boethius the poet and philosopher, and Benedict called Saint.

From Quaestorship (old name with no longer the old significance) to
Praetorian Prefecture, Cassiodorus held all offices of state, and seems
under every proof to have shown the nobler qualities of statesmanship.
During his ripe years he stood by the side of Theodoric, minister in
prime trust, doubtless helping to shape that wise and benevolent policy
which made the reign of the Ostrogoth a time of rest and hope for the
Italian people--Roman no longer; the word had lost its meaning, though
not its magic. The Empire of the West had perished; Theodoric and his
minister, clearly understanding this, and resolute against the
Byzantine claim which was but in half abeyance, aimed at the creation
of an independent Italy, where Goth and Latin should blend into a new
race. The hope proved vain. Theodoric's successors, no longer kings,
but mere Gothic chieftains, strove obscurely against inevitable doom,
until the generals of Juistinian trod Italy into barren servitude. Only
when the purpose of his life was shattered, when--Theodoric long
dead--his still faithful service to the Gothic rule became an idle
form, when Belisarius was compassing the royal city of Ravenna, and
voice of council could no longer make itself heard amid tumult and
ruin, did Cassiodorus retire from useless office, and turn his back
upon the world.

He was aged about sixty. Long before, he had written a history of the
Goths (known to us only in a compendium by another hand), of which the
purpose seems to have been to reconcile the Romans to the Gothic
monarchy; it began by endeavouring to prove that Goths had fought
against the Greeks at Troy. Now that his public life was over, he
published a collection of the state papers composed by him under the
Gothic rulers from Theodoric to Vitigis: for the most part royal
rescripts addressed to foreign powers and to officials of the kingdom.
Invaluable for their light