Cassiodore

Cassiodore (Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator) was a politician and Latin writer, founder of the monastery of Vivarium, born with Squillace towards 485 and died towards 580. The life of Cassiodore is articulated primarily around two periods separated by the conversio (“conversion”, which marks its withdrawal of the public life).

Life of Cassiodore before its conversio

Cassiodore is resulting from a family of probably Syrian origin (where one meets the name Κασσιόδωρος), installed since several generations with Squillace ( Scyllaceum ), in Calabria. The family of the Cassiodori had already exerted an important political role since her arrival in Italy: the great-grandfather of Cassiodore had been used in the armies as Valentinien III, and pushed back the Vandales at the time of their attempt at unloading in Calabria and Sicily (towards 450), his/her grandfather had belonged to the embassy sent to Attila in 452, his father, who was comes sacrarum largitionum of Odoacre, is named in 495 corrector Lucaniae and Bruttiorum by Théodoric Large the, and reaches into 503 the will praefectura praetoriana .

Cassiodore is thus resulting from a medium which predestines it with a political career of foreground; moreover its name even (Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, name which it gives itself in the superscription of the Variae into 538) testify to this membership in the aristocratic middle of the time: Aurelius translates the alliance of Cassiodore with an eminent member of the people Aurelia , Symmaque (father-in-law of Boèce), and the Senator nickname points out its quality of senator (at the end of its life, Cassiodore will sign nothing any more but Cassiodorus Senator ).

After studies of which we do not know anything, but which, according to its posterior works, had to be marked by an enthusiastic training of the liberal arts, and in particular of grammar, Cassiodore begins its political career at the court of Ravenne (into 503) like advising ( consiliarius ) of his/her father and thus engages in the course honorum . Here a short outline of the political career of Cassiodore:

Consiliarius praefecti (503-506): Cassiodore is to advise of his/her father, then prefect of the court. Its role (kind of pre-quaestorship) results in the recitation of a praise of Théodoric Large the ( Ordo generis ).
Quaestor sacri palatii (506-511): the acts of this function of chancellor are preserved in volumes I to IV of the Variae .
Consul ordinarius (514): it is about a purely honorary title. One sometimes supposed that it had been named then, like had been to it his great-grandfather and his/her father, corrector Lucaniae and Bruttiorum , but nothing in the texts makes it possible to confirm this assumption.
Magister officiorum (523-527): Cassiodore, seems it, replaces in this Boèce function (stopped into 523, and carried out into 524), which throws a remote region on its political career (Cassiodore gives the indication of a civil servant dedicated, opportunist, which succeeds a Boèce which is presented in the Consolation of Philosophy like a defender of weak). Cassiodore becomes even the close friend and the adviser of Théodoric, and it preserves its capacity even after the death of this last, under the regency of his Amalasonthe daughter. In 527, it disappears temporarily from the political scene perhaps (it is withdrawn on its grounds of Squillace, taking again the government of Lucanie and Bruttium).

Præfectus praetorio (533-538): Cassiodore preserves its function whereas many events make this period very turbid: died of the young person Athalaric, wire of Amalasonthe (534), division of the throne enters the Amalasonthe regent and his adversary Théodat (534-535), assassination of Amalasonthe (April 30th, 535), advent of Witigès, forced marriage of the grand-daughter of Théodoric, Matasonthe, with the usurper (at the end of 536). In 537, Bélisaire takes Rome, then it besieges and ends up taking Ravenne into 540 (what causes the exile of Witigès, matasonthe and of their entourage with Constantinople); but Cassiodore opportunely left load into 538.
Patricius (538?): Cassiodore obtains probably this title at the time of its exit of the prefecture of the court (it kept excellent relations with the court of Ravenne).

The conversio and reprocesses it of Cassiodore

Like the majority of the politicians of the time, Cassiodore was catholic. As a whole, the policy of the kings ariens whom it served was tolerant with regard to the catholics. But in the first part of its career, Cassiodore seems to have an interest only external for the things of the religion.

The deep change starts during the prefecture of the court of Cassiodore (533): by its letters of nomination to this load, Cassiodore teaches us that it practiced the lectio divina to draw its principles from them from government; it seems to have a certain credit near the pope Jean II (it intervenes with him in favor of the Scythian monks into 534). It has reports/ratios still narrower with the successor of Jean II, the pope Agapit, with whom it projects, in 535, to found a school of theology in Rome (the catch of Rome by Bélisaire in 536 met a term with this project).

The crucial moment of conversion is marked by the drafting of its treaty Of Animated (538), and especially of its comment to the psalms, Exposition psalmorum , which it probably composes in Constantinople (where it had to be withdrawn after the catch of Ravenne by Bélisaire, in 540).

The most important event this period of retirement of Cassiodore is undoubtedly the foundation of the monastery of Vivarium ; the date is discussed by it: it was sometimes thought that the foundation went back to 540, but it is not very probable that Cassiodore had time to found the monastery right before to leave in exile to Constantinople; it is thought that Cassiodore returned to Calabria only into 555 (on August 13rd, 534, the Pragmatic Sanction of Justinien authorizes the Italian emigrants to return to the country), and that it would thus have founded the monastery, on the family grounds (Squillace), at that time. But one can as consider as it founded Vivarium while he was prefect of the court (around 535), and that he returned there only much later (555).

The monastery of Vivarium owes its name with the fish basins that Cassiodore had made arrange with the foot of the monastery (located on a hill); the church of the monastery was dedicated to Saint Martin, and near the monastery, a hill, the Mons Castellum , was dedicated to the hermits (from where the title that Cassiodore gives, in the Institutiones , with the description of the places: Of positions monasterii Vivariensis siue Castellensis - Inst. div. 1,29 ). Cassiodore describes the monastery of Vivarium by using the topos locus amoenus ( Variae 12,15; Expositio psalm. 103,17; Inst. 1,29). The monastery of Vivarium constituted a kind of city in which the ciues religiosi did not have to be concerned with their material subsistence, but were to be devoted to the liturgical offices, the exercise of the artes , and especially to the copy and the correction of books: Vivarium is a center of first importance for the transmission of many texts, as well biblical or liturgical that pagan.

Cassiodore, withdrawn with Vivarium, devotes its long retirement to its literary work ( Institutions , Exposition epistulae AD Romanos , liber memorialis or liber titulorum , Complexiones apostolorum , Of spelled , that it writes at 93 years).

One does not know the exact date of dead of Cassiodore: after the drafting of its treaty Of Spelled (at 93 years), it continues to correct its former works (in particular the Institutiones ), but considers that its literary work is finished ( Iam tempus is nostri C totius operis conclusionem facere debeamus , foreword with the Of Spelled ). One thus locates the date of his death as soon as possible towards 580.

Some works of Cassiodore

Laudes (panegyrical royal): Cassiodore composes some as of 506.
Chronica : consular list, intended for Eutharic, son-in-law of Théodoric and heir apparent, died into 519.
Historia Gothorum : work in twelve books, made up at the request of Théodoric. This work is lost today, but we preserve the summary of Jordanès ( Of actibusque origin Getarum ).
Variae : collection of 468 letters and official formulas, in twelve books (one finds there the acts written by Cassiodore as questeur: L. I-IV, as Master of the offices: L. V and VIII-IX, and as prefect of the court: L. X-XII; books VI and VII join together formulas of promotion or decree written by Cassiodore); Cassiodore claims to deliver in this collection only the acts which it could find (what enables him to dissimulate what is not with its honor, and inter alia all that relates to the arrest of Boèce into 523).
Ordo generis Cassiodororum : list scriptores and eruditi of the family (preserved in a corrupted form, and undoubtedly summarized).
Liber of animated : treaty on the heart made up starting from the Writings and of the philosophical texts quoted by Claudien Mamert in its Of statu animae ; the liber of animated , probably made up into 538, mark the beginning of the conversio of Cassiodore.
Exposure psalmorum : project conceived and started with Ravenne as of 538, it is most considerable of the writings of Cassiodore, which consists of an at the same time grammatical comment, literary, ascetic and theological on the Psalms. This work takes as a starting point the Enarrationes of Saint Augustin. Cassiodore revised itself this œ during its retirement with Vivarium.
Institutiones : it is the most famous work of Cassiodore, composed for the monks of Vivarium (introduction to the Writings and the Liberal arts), posterior with the stay of Cassiodore with Constantinople. The first books of the Institutions is entitled Institutiones divinarum litterarum (centered on the Writings), and the second Institutiones saecularium litterarum (centered on the Liberal arts). Cassiodore re-examined itself the text in its last years, and it was very old at the time to constitute a codex archetypus , which makes very complex the handwritten tradition.
Expositio Epistulae AD Romanos : rehandling of the comment of Peeling on the thirteen epistles pauliniennes.
Codex of grammatica
Liber memorialis or liber titulorum
Complexiones apostolorum
Of Spelled : compilation of extracts of Cornutus, Velius Longus, Curtius Valerianus, Papirianus, Adamantius Martyrius, Eutyches, Caesellius and Priscien.
Historia ecclesiastica or Historia tripartita .
Antiquitatum Iudaicarum libri XXII : translation of Flavius Josèphe, which had a great influence with the Middle Ages.
Adumbrationes in Epistulas canonicas : translated and purged extracts Hypotyposes of Clement of Alexandria.
Commented on Librorum Regum .
Comment of Jerome Saint “in propria IV evangeliorum” .
canonical Collections .
Collections hagiographic .
dogmatic Anthologies .
Psalterium archetypum : manuscript including/understanding all the Psalms, punctuated by Cassiodore itself.
Codex grandior of the Bible prévulgate: constitution of a corpus including/understanding the whole of the Writings, and intended for the public reading.
Vulgate cassiodorienne, realized starting from manuscripts which passed to be autographs of Saint Jerome; this corpus is undoubtedly at the origin of the text of the Vulgate in the Codex Amiatinus , which is the basic manuscript of our current Vulgate.
a Treated heart , transl. in French by Amaury Bouchard
four books of the Liberal arts, intit. Of institutione divinarum Htterarum (arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, music)
of the treaties of the Speech , of the Orthography , 12 pounds of Letters , the Comments on Psalms , etc It had composed a Histoire of Gothis , which one has only one extract by Jordanès; there is under his name a tripartite Histoire , shortened Socrate, Sozomène and Théodoret, and whose true author is Epiphane the Scholastic. The most estimated edition its works is that of Dom Garet, 2 vol. in-fol., Rouen, 1679, and of Venice, 1729. Denis Holy-Marthe wrote her Vie . Mr. Olleris published in 1841 a thesis on Cassiodore , conservative of the Latin books.

See too

Liberal arts
Boèce
Bède Worthy the

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