APPENDIX 555 life of Epiphanius was composed between a.d. 501 and 504 (see Vogel's preface to his ed., p. xviii.-xix.). All the works of Ennodius are included in the large edition of Vogel in the Mon. Germ. Hist., 1885. There is another ed. by Hartel in the Corp. scr. ecc. Lat., 1882. They form a very valuable supplement to Cassiodorus for the history of Italy under Theodoric. [Monograph : Fertig, Ennodius und seine Zeit, 1858.] Cassiodorus has had the misfortune of being called out of his name. His full name was Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, and in accordance with the custom of the time he was always known by the last name, Senator. We do not find him called Cassiodorus till the eighth century (by Paul the Deacon, Hist. Lang. i. 25) ; and even the name has been corrupted, modern scholars following Maffei in writing Cassiodorius. But Mommsen, who at first approved, has now con- demned, this fashion, and adopts the true form in his edition of the works of Cassiodorus. This name points to the derivation of the writer's family from Syria. They settled at Scyllace and by the middle of the fifth century had become the most influential people in Bruttii. The father of Senator filled financial offices under Odovacar, administered Sicily, and embraced the cause of Theodoric, who rewarded him by the less distinguished post of corrector of Bruttii and Lucania. The in- feriority of this post to the posts which he had already occupied may have been compensated for by the circumstance that the appointment was an exception to the rule that no man should be governor of his native province. But he was soon raised to be praetorian prsefect (after a.d. 500). The son was born c. 490. At an early age (twelve or thirteen ?) he became consiliaritis to his father, and he became quaestor between the years 507 and 511 (cp. Mommsen, Procem. p. x.) and drew up state papers for the king. Then, like his father, he was appointed corrector of his native province ; became consul ord. in a.d. 514 ; and was promoted to be magister officiorum before a.d. 526. In a.d. 533 Amalasuentha created him praetorian pre- fect, a post which he retained under Theodahat and Witigis. The dates of his chief works are : Chronicle, a.d. 519 ; Gothic History in twelve Books, between a.d. 526 and 533 (so Mommsen ; Usener put it earlier, 518-21) ; publication of his Variae, a.d. 537. He also wrote various theological works (including a compilation of Church History from Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, entitled Historia tripartita ; in this work he had a collaborator, Epiphanius). He survived a.d. 573. He had thrown himself thoroughly into the Gothic interest, and both the official and private correspondence contained in his Variae (epistolae) are a most valuable mine for the history of the Ostrogothic kingdom. His weak point was inordinate literary vanity, and the tumid pomposity of his style, tricked out with far-fetched metaphors and conceits, renders it often a task of considerable difficulty to elicit the sense. Hodg- kin observes that, next to Rhetoric, "Natural History had the highest place in his affections. He never misses an opportunity of pointing a moral lesson by an allu- sion to the animal creation, especially to the habits of birds." A short extract found in a Ms. of the Institutiones humanarum rerum of Cassiodorus, at Carlsruhe, and known as the Anecdoton Holderi, was edited with a commentary by H. Usener in 1877. It threw new light on some points connected with the statesman's bio- graphy. The Variae have been edited in a splendid edition by Mommsen (in Mon. Germ. Hist., 1894). A large volume of selected translations has been published by Hodgkin. The Chronicle (or Consularia) of Cassiodorus was drawn up in a.d. 519, on the occasion of the consulship of Theodoric's son-in-law, Eutharic Cillica. The sources which he used were : (1) The Chronicle of Jerome ; (2) the Chronicle of Prosper, in the edition published in a.d. 445 (cp. above, vol. iii., Appendix 1), for the years subsequent to the end of Jerome's Chron. ; (3) an epitome of Livy ; (4) the history of Aufidius Bassus ; (5) Eutropius ; (6) the Paschale of Victorius ; (7) Consularia Italica (see above, vol. iii., App. 1). " Written for the use of the city populace," as Mommsen remarks, it contains many entries relating to games and the buildings in Borne, and it is marked by some interesting blunders in gram- matical form. Finding in his source, for instance, Varane et Tertullo conss. (a.d. 410), Cassiodorus translating this into the nominative case gives Varan et Tertullus. See Mommsen, Chron. Min. ii. p. 112. In the later part of the work he has made several slight additions and changes of his own in the notices which
