eholding the untroubled estate of the man whom he sought to ruin.
Behold herein a deed which may well chasten and subdue the hearts of all
our great dignitaries when they see that not even a Praetorian Prefect is
permitted to trample on the lowly, and that when we put forth our arm to
help, such an one's power of injuring the wretched fails him. From this
may all men learn how great is our love of justice, since we are willing
to diminish even the power of our judges, that we may increase the
contentment of our own conscience". This edict was followed by a letter
to the Illustrious Faustus himself, in which that grasping governor was
reminded that human nature frequently requires a change, and permission
was graciously given him to withdraw for four months into the country.
At the end of that time he was without fail to return to the capital,
since no Roman Senator ought to be happy if permanently settled
anywhere but at Rome. It is tolerably plain that the four months'
_villeggiatura_ was really a sentence of temporary banishment, and we
may probably conclude that the Magnificent Faustus never afterwards held
any high position under Theodoric.

The letters announcing the King's judgment in this matter, like all the
other extant state-papers of Theodoric, were written by a man who was
probably by the fall of Faustus raised a step in the official hierarchy,
and who was certainly for the last twenty years of the reign of
Theodoric one of the most conspicuous of his Roman officials. This was
Cassiodorus, or, to give him his full name, _Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus
Senator_, a man, whose life and character require to be described in
some detail.

Cassiodorus was sprung from a noble Roman family, which had already
given three of its members in lineal succession (all bearing the name
Cassiodorus) to the service of the State. His great-grandfather, of
"Illustrious" rank, defended Sicily and Calabria from the incursions of
the Vandals. His grandsire, a Tribune in the army, was sent by the
Emperor Valentinian III. on an important embassy to Attila. His father
filled first one and then the other of the two highest financial offices
in the State under Odovacar. On the overthrow of that chieftain, he,
like Liberius, transferred his services to Theodoric, who employed him
as governor first of Sicily, then of Calabria, and finally, about the
year 500, conferred upon him the highest dignity of all, that of
Praetorian Prefect. The ance