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[Transcriber's Note: This e-text contains a number of words and phrasesin ancient Greek. In the original text, some of the Greek characters havediacritical marks which do not display properly in some browsers, such asInternet Explorer. In order to make this e-text as accessible as possible,the diacritical marks have been omitted, except that the rough-breathingmark is here represented by an apostrophe at the beginning of the word.All text in Greek has a mouse-hover transliteration, e.g.,καλος.]
The abstract of the 'Variae' of Cassiodorus which I now offer to thenotice of historical students, belongs to that class of work whichProfessor Max Mller happily characterised when he entitled two of hisvolumes 'Chips from a German Workshop.' In the course of mypreparatory reading, before beginning the composition of the third andfourth volumes of my book on 'Italy and Her Invaders,' I found itnecessary to study very attentively the 'Various Letters' ofCassiodorus, our best and often our only source of information, forthe character and the policy of the great Theodoric. The notes whichin this process were accumulated upon my hands might, I hoped, bewoven into one long chapter on the Ostrogothic government of Italy.When the materials were collected, however, they were so manifold, soperplexing, so full of curious and unexpected detail, that I quitedespaired of ever succeeding in the attempt to group them into oneharmonious and artistic picture. Frankly, therefore, renouncing a taskwhich is beyond my powers, I offer my notes for the perusal of the fewreaders who may care to study the mutual reactions[Pg vi] of the Roman andthe Teutonic mind upon one another in the Sixth Century, and I askthese to accept the artist's assurance, 'The curtain is the picture.'
It will be seen that I only profess to give an abstract, not a fulltranslation of the letters. There is so much repetition and such alavish expenditure of words in the writings of Cassiodorus, that theylend themselves very readily to the work of the abbreviator. Of coursethe longer letters generally admit of greater relative reduction inquantity than the shorter ones, but I think it may be said that on anaverage the letters have lost at least half their bulk in my hands. Onany important point the real student will of course refuse to acceptmy condensed rendering, and will go straight to the fountain-head. Ihope, however, that even students may occasionally derive the samekind of assistance from my labours which an astronomer derives fromthe humble instrument called the 'finder' in a great observatory.
A few important letters have been translated, to the best of myability, verbatim. In the not infrequent instances where I have beenunable to extract any intelligible meaning, on grammatical principles,from the words of my author, I have put in the text the nearestapproximation that I could discover to his meaning, and placed theunintelligible words in a note, hoping that my readers may be morefortunate in their interpretation than I have been.
With the usual ill-fortune of authors, just as my last sheet waspassing through the press I received from[Pg vii] Italy a number of the 'Attie Memorie della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie diRomagna' (to which I am a subscriber), containing an elaborate andscholarlike article by S. Augusto Gaudenzi, entitled 'L'Opera diCassiodorio a Ravenna.' It is a satisfaction to me to see that inseveral instances S. Gaudenzi and I have reached practically the sameconclusions; but I cannot but regret that his paper reached me toolate to prevent my benefiting from it more fully. A few of the moreimportant points in which I think S. Gaudenzi throws useful light onour common subject are noticed in the 'Additions and Corrections,' towhich I beg to draw my readers' attention.
I may perhaps be allowed to add that the Index, the preparation ofwhich has cost me no small amount of labour, ought (if I have notaltogether failed in my endeavour) to be of considerable assistance tothe historical enquirer. For instance, if he will refer to the headingSajo, and consult the passages there referred to, he will find, Ibelieve, all that Cassiodorus has to tell us concerning theseinteresting personages, the Sajones, who were almost the onlyrepresentatives of the intrusive Gothic element in the fabric of Romanadministration.
From textual criticism and the discussion of the authority ofdifferent MSS. I have felt myself entirely relieved by theannouncement of the forthcoming critical edition of the 'Variae,'under the superintendence of Professor Meyer. The task to which aneminent German scholar has devoted the labour of several years, itwould be quite useless for me, without[Pg viii] appliances and without specialtraining, to approach as an amateur; and I therefore simply helpmyself to the best reading that I can get from the printed texts,leaving to Professor Meyer to say which reading possesses the highestdiplomatic authority. Simply as a a matter of curiosity I have spentsome days in examining the MSS. of Cassiodorus in the British Museum.If they are at all fair representatives (which probably they are not)of the MSS. which Professor Meyer has consulted, I should say thatthough the titles of the letters have often got into great confusionthrough careless and unintelligent copying, the main text is notlikely to show any very important variations from the editions ofNivellius and Garet.
I now commend this volume with all its imperfections to the indulgentcriticism of the small class of historical students who alone willcare to peruse it. The man of affairs and the practical politicianwill of course not condescend to turn over its pages; yet the anxiousand for a time successful efforts of Theodoric and his Minister topreserve to Italy the blessings of Civilitas might perhaps teachuseful lessons even to a modern statesman.
(1) 10 B. XV. is a MS. about 11 inches by 8, written in a fine boldhand, and fills 157 folios, of which 134 belong to the 'Variae' and 23to the 'Institutiones Divinarum Litterarum.' There are also two foliosat the end which I have not deciphered. The MS. is assigned to theThirteenth Century. The title of the First Book is interesting,because it contains the description of Cassiodorus' official rank, 'ExMagistri Officii,' which Mommsen seems to have looked for in the MSS.in vain. The MS. contains the first Three Books complete, but only 39letters of the Fourth. Letters 40-51 of theFourth Book, and the wholeof the Fifth, Sixth, andSeventh Books, are missing. It then goes onto the Eighth Book (which it calls the Fifth), but omits the firstfive letters. The remaining 28 appear to be copied satisfactorily. TheNinth, Tenth, Eleventh, andTwelfth Books, which the transcriber callsthe Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, seem to be on the wholecorrectly copied.
There seems to be a certain degree of correspondence between thereadings of this MS. and those of the Leyden MS. of the TwelfthCentury (formerly at Fulda) which are described by Ludwig Tross in his'Symbolae Criticae' (Hammone, 1853).
(2) 8 B. XIX. is a MS. also of the Thirteenth Century, in a smallerhand than the foregoing. The margins are very large, but the Codexmeasures only 6-3/4 inches by 4-1/4. The rubricated titles are ofsomewhat later date than the body of the text. The initial letters areelaborately illuminated. This MS. contains, in a mutilated state andin a peculiar order, the books from the Eighth to the Twelfth. Thefollowing is the order in which the books are placed:
The amanuensis, who has evidently been a thoroughly dishonest worker,constantly omits whole letters, from which however he sometimesextracts a sentence or two, which he tacks on to the end of somepreceding letter without regard to the sense. This process makes itexceedingly difficult to collate the MS. with the printed text. Owingto the Eighth Book being inserted after theTwelfth, it is erroneouslylabelled on the back, 'Cassiodori Senatoris Epistolae, Lib. X-XIII.'
(3) 10 B. IV. (also of the Thirteenth Century, and measuring 11 inchesby 8) contains, in a tolerably complete state, the first Three Booksof the 'Variae,' Book IV. 5-39,Book VIII. 1-12, and BooksX-XII. Theorder, however, is transposed, Books IV. andVIII. coming after BookXII. These excerpts from Cassiodorus, which occupy folios 66 to 134 ofthe MS., are preceded by some collections relative to the Civil andCanon Law. The letters which are copied seem to be carefully andconscientiously done.
Besides these MSS. I have also glanced at No. 1,919 in the BodleianLibrary at Oxford. Like those previously described it is, I believe,of the Thirteenth Century, and professes to contain the whole of the'Variae;' but the letters are in an exceedingly mutilated form. On anaverage it seems to me that not more than one-third of each letter iscopied. In this manner the 'Variae' are compressed into the otherwiseimpossible number of 33 folios (149-182).
All these MSS., even the best of them, give me the impression of beingcopied by very unintelligent scribes, who had but little idea of themeaning of the words which they were transcribing. In all, thesuperscription V.S. is expanded (wrongly, as I believe) into 'ViroSenatori;' for 'Praefecto Praetorio' we have the meaningless'Praeposito;' and the Agapitus who is addressed in the 6th,32nd, and33rd letters of the First Book is turned, in defiance of chronology,into a Pope.
P. 146 (last line of text). S. Gaudenzi remarks that the addresses ofthe laws in the Code of Justinian forbid us to suppose that Heliodoruswas Praetorian Praefect for eighteen years. He thinks that most likelythe meaning of the words 'in illa republica nobis videntibuspraefecturam bis novenis annis gessit eximie' is that twice in thespace of nine years Heliodorus filled the office of Praefect.
In the titles of I. 14, 26,34, 35, and II. 5 and9, for 'Praepositus'read 'Praetorian Praefect.' The contraction used by the earlyamanuenses for Praefecto Praetorio has been misunderstood by theirsuccessors, and consequently many MSS. read 'Praeposito,' and thisreading has been followed by Nivellius. There can be no doubt,however, that Garet is right in restoring 'Praefecto Praetorio.'
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