Glossary of Select Sources 539
work by Louis Duchense (1886–92), scholars have dated the Liber Pontificalis’ ori-
gins to the Ostrogothic period. Recent work identifies the version commonly used
by modern scholars as a second edition likely produced during the episcopate of
Vigilius (537–55). The second edition appears to be a reworking of a slightly earlier
first edition produced just after 535, which included the lives of Peter to John II
(533–55). After the second edition was produced, however, the entire project was
abandoned until the 580s, when several additional lives were added. Writing was
resumed again during the 620s and then continued sporadically through the 9th
century. The Liber Pontificalis was likely not the only serial papal biography to cir-
culate in Rome during the Ostrogothic period. Another text, known today only in
fragmented form (the so-called Laurentian Fragment), seems to reflect an alterna-
tive perspective on at least one Roman bishop, Symmachus.Marcellinus Comes (ca. 480–540) Illyrian courtier, possibly soldier, and later count
(comes) who rose to prominence in Constantinople under the emperors Justin
(r. 518–27) and Justinian (r. 527–65). Orthodox in faith, his primary language was
Latin and his sole surviving work is a consular Chronicle written as a conscious con-
tinuation of Jerome’s Chronicle. Its first edition covers the period 379 to 518; its sec-
ond 519 to 534. Although noteworthy for being the first source to mention the fall
of the western empire, providing two dates (454 and 476), Marcellinus’ Chronicle
is primarily concerned with the East, especially Constantinople and the Balkans.
It provides tantalizingly few details about the Ostrogothic kingdom; however, its
anonymous continuation, which extends the second edition to 548, focuses heav-
ily on Italy and is an invaluable source for the Gothic War. There is some debate as
to when Marcellinus composed the first edition of his Chronicle (ca. 518 to as late
as the mid 520s), the context in which he was writing, the prevalence of his views
on western affairs, and the sources he employed. The main debate surrounding its
continuation is the origin and identity of its author. Some have suggested he was
Italian; others eastern, probably Constantinopolitan.
Papal Letters Letters written by (and occasionally addressed to) Roman bish-
ops constitute our most substantial body of evidence for the Roman church
and its bishops during the Ostrogothic period. The subject of the letters range
from official missives to clergy on matters of theology, clerical discipline, and
church doctrine (i.e. the decretals), to screeds against perceived heretical threats
addressed to emperors, to far more mundane exchanges that record Roman
bishops’ involvement in the daily business of ecclesiastical management. Some
of the letters addressed to other bishops on matters of discipline and doctrine
were preserved outside of Rome from the early 5th century, but the earliest Italian
collections date to the Ostrogothic period: Dionysius Exiguus’ compilations of