Cassiodorus

Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c.490-c.585), commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman, writer and monk. He was born at Scyllaceum (Squillace) in southern Italy. During his working life, as a consul under Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, he wrote on public affairs. Senator was his surname, not his rank. In his retirement he founded the monastery of Vivarium, and his writings turned to religion.

Works

• Gothic History (526-533) [surviving only in abridged form]
• Variae epistolae (Theodoric's state papers) (537)
• De anima (On the Soul) (540)
• Institutiones Divinarum et Sæcularium Litterarum (543-555)
• De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum (On the Liberal Arts)
• Codex Grandior (a version of the Bible)