Cassiodorus (4)
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Cassiodorus (4): (full name: Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator). (b. cAD 485/490; d. c585). Roman statesman and scholar. A native of Scyllacum, Bruttium, he was the son of Cassiodorus (3). Sometime between AD 503 and 507, he served as consilarius to his father when the latter was Praetorian Prefect of Italy. This was to launch him into a distinguished political career through the reign of King Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic ruler of Italy. After delivering a well-written panegyric to Theodoric, he was promoted by the king to the post of Quaestor Palatii. Holding this office from AD 507 to 511, he developed a reputation for reliability and scholarship. Sometime between AD 511 and 533, he served as corrector Lucaniae et Bruttii, a position held a few years earlier by his father Cassiodorus 3. In AD 514, he obtained the Consulship. He was a minister at court when Theodoric died in AD 526. After a long career in government, Cassiodorus retired at the age of 70, taking up residence at the monastery of Viviers, which he had founded near his family estate in Bruttium. For the next three decades he concentrated on scholarly pursuits. Cassiodorus produced works on a myriad of subjects including history, metaphysics, liberal arts, and divinity. He also created a number of scientific instruments including sun-dials and water-clocks. Many scholars sometimes refer to Cassiodorus as the “Last of the Romans” because with his passing Western European culture and scholarship deteriorated into the long Dark Ages.