officiorum, and in his own name while Pretorian prefect. He gives also in the sixth and seventh
books a collection of formulas for the different offices, an idea which found imitation in the Middle
Age. From the Miscellany a true insight into the state of Italy in the period can be obtained. One
noticeable feature of these rescripts is the amount of animation and variety which Cassiodorus
manages to give their naturally stiff and formal contents. This he does by ingeniously changing the
style to suit the occasion and often by interweaving a disquisition upon some relevant theme. The
work was prepared at the request of friends and as a guide to his successors, and published between
534 and 538.
- His Ecclesiastical History, called Tripartita,^984 is a compilation. His own part in it is
confined to a revision of the Latin condensation of Sozomen, Socrates and Theodoret, made by
Epiphanius Scholasticus. It was designed by Cassiodorus to supply the omissions of Rufinus’
translation of Eusebius, and was indeed with Rufinus the monastic text-book on church history in
the Middle Age. But it is by no means a model work, being obscure, inaccurate and confused. - The Chronicle,^985 the earliest of his productions, dating from 519, is a consular list drawn
from different sources, with occasional notes of historical events. Prefaced to the list proper, which
goes from Junius Brutus to Theodoric, is a very defective list of Assyrian (!), Latin and Roman
Kings. - The Computation of Easter, written in 562.^986
- Origin and History of the Goths, originally in twelve books, but now extant only in the
excerpt of Jordanis.^987 In it Cassiodorus reveals his great desire to cultivate friendship between the
Goths and the Romans. It dates from about 534.
- Exposition of the Psalter.^988 This is by far the longest, as it was in the Middle Age the
most influential, of his works. It was prepared in Viviers, and was begun before but finished after
the Institutes^989 (see below). Its chief source is Augustin. The exposition is thorough in its way. Its
peculiarities are in its mystic use of numbers, and its drafts upon profane science, particularly
rhetoric.^990
- Institutions of Sacred and Secular Letters,^991 from 644, in two books,^992 which are
commonly regarded as independent works. The first book is a sort of theological encyclopaedia,
intended by Cassiodorus primarily for his own monks. It therefore refers to different authors which
were to be found in their library. It is in thirty-three chapters—a division pointing to the thirty-three
years of our Lord’s life—which treat successively of the books of the Bible, what authors to read
upon them, the arrangement of the books, church history and its chief writers, and the scheme he
had devised for usefully employing the monks in copying MSS., or, if not sufficiently educated,
(^984) Historica ecclessiastica vocata Tripartita, ibid. col. 879-1214.
(^985) Chronicon, ibid. col. 1213-1248.
(^986) Computus Paschalis, ibid. col. 1249, 1250.
(^987) De Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus gestis, ibid. 1251-1296.
(^988) Expositio in Psalterium. Migne, LXX. col. 9-1056.
(^989) Inst. I. 4. 1. 1. (Migne, LXX. col. 1115) "Sequitur qui nobis primus est in commentatorum labore."
(^990) The Expositio in Canticum, which comes next in the editions, is now thought to be by another author. So Garet (Migne,
LXX. col. 1055).
(^991) Institutiones divinarum et secularium lectionum. Ibid. col. 1105-1220.
(^992) So Ebert l. 477. Their common titles are (a) De institutione divinarum litterarum. (b) De artibus et disciplinis liberalium
litterarum.