Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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 (I) 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 of state; the edicts published by Cassiodorus
himself when praefectus praetorio. It is the best source of our knowledge of the Ostrogothic
kingdom in Italy (ed. T. Mommsen in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores
Antiquissimi, xii., 1894 condensed English translation by T. Hodgkin, 1886).
(b) Chronica, written at the request of Theodoric's son-in-law Eutharic. during whose
consulship (519) it was published. It is a dry and inaccurate compilation from various
sources, unduly partial to the Goths (ed. T. Mommsen in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Ant. xi. t
i., 1893).
p (c) Panegyrics on Gothic kings and queens (fragments ed. L. Traube in Mon. Germ. Hist.:
Auct. Ant. xii.).
2. (a) De Anima, a discussion on the nature of the soul, at the conclusion of which the
author deplores the quarrel between two such great peoples as the Goths and Romans. It
seems to have been published with the last part of the Variae. (b) Institutiones divinarun et
humanarum litterarum, an encyclopaedia of sacred and profane literature for the monks,
and a sketch of the seven liberal arts. It further contains instructions for using the library,
and precepts for daily life.
(c) A commentary on the Psalms and short notes (complexiones) on the Pauline epistles,
the Acts, and the Apocalypse.
(d) De Orthographia, a compilation made by the author in his ninety-third year from the
works of twelve grammarians, ending with his contemporary Priscian (ed. H.
Keil, Grammatici Latini, vii.).
The Latin translations of the Antiquities of Josephus and of the ecclesiastical histories
of Theodoret, Sozomen and Socrates, under the title of Historia Tripartita (embracing the
years 3 06 -439), were carried out under his supervision.
Of his lost works the most important was the Historia Gothorum, written with the object of
glorifying the Gothic royal house and proving that the Goths and Romans had long been
connected by ties of friendship. It was published during the reign of Athalaric, and appears
to have brought the history down to the death of Theodoric. His chief authority for Gothic
history and legend was Ablavius (Ablabius). The work is only known to us in the meagre
abridgment of Jordanes (ed. T. Mommsen, 1882).