322 Lozovsky
Although Procopius’ depiction of Theoderic does not agree with what we know
about that king’s upbringing and policies, this story reflects the different ideas
that Romans and Goths held about proper education and culture, as perceived
by the eastern Roman historian.25
In addition to stories about Theoderic and his family, other surviving bits
of evidence show that some Gothic scholars adopted Roman learning and
shared Roman intellectual interests. A man with a Gothic name was respon-
sible for producing a number of Latin manuscripts. A subscription preserved
in a codex of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans states that the text had been
copied in the scriptorium of Viliaric. Paleographers have dated this codex, as
well as some others coming from the same scriptorium, to the first decades of
the 6th century.26 An anonymous 8th-century compiler of a geographical trea-
tise, the so-called Ravenna Cosmographer, mentions among his sources three
“philosophers of the Goths”, Athanarid, Heldebald, and Marcomir, who had
written accounts of some lands and peoples in Europe. Modern studies locate
all three scholars at Theoderic’s court in Ravenna.27 Latin and Gothic sermons
and commentaries preserved in palimpsests and de luxe codices, which have
been attributed to Ostrogothic Italy, may have been sponsored by the royal
court. Theoderic, an Arian Christian who devoted special efforts to building
splendid Arian churches in Ravenna, would have supported copying texts that
promoted Arian Christianity and preserved the Gothic language.28
Theoderic’s Ravenna attracted educated and ambitious Romans like
Cassiodorus whose careers were tied to the Ostrogothic government. Flavius
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (ca. 485–ca. 585), a native of Calabria, belonged
to a distinguished, if not particularly old, provincial aristocratic family that
rose to prominence during the 5th century. His father, a provincial governor,
served as the praetorian prefect under Theoderic (ca. 500–07), and Cassiodorus
began his career as a consiliarius to his father, continuing his education while
assisting his father with correspondence and legal cases. Cassiodorus rose
in Theoderic’s administration from quaestor to consul (514) to magister
25 Procopius, History of the Wars 5.2.6–20; Vitiello, Il Principe, 40–44; idem, “Nourished at the
Breast of Rome”; idem, Theodahad, especially p. 22.
26 Florence, Bibliotheca Laurenziana 65.1, fol. 41v: “Confectus codex in statione magistri
Viliaric antiquarii”; Cavallo. “La cultura scritta”, pp. 84–5.
27 Anonymus of Ravenna, Cosmographia 4.13: “... Attanaridus et Eldevaldus
Marcomirus Gothorum phylosophi... “ The most detailed study of these Gothic sources,
including bibliography and critique of the opposing views, is still Staab, “Ostrogothic
Geographers”.
28 Hen, Roman Barbarians, pp. 55–7; also Cohen in this volume.