11 [469c], 14 [618a], 14 [645b], 15 [676f-177a]). In Ne ̄sias, he reported the summertime
practice of chilling water underground at Kimolos (3 [123d]). He described Dionysian rites
in On Paean (Deipn. 14 [622a–d]; Souda Sigma-327) and Thesmophorian rituals (Souda
Chi-43). The rare name, found at De ̄los 3rd/2nd cc. BCE (LGPN 1.404), may be a variant of
the commonly attested S ̄ımos.
FGrHist 396; KP 5.98, H. Gärtner; OCD3 1383, K.S. Sacks; NP 11.383–384, S. Fornaro (erroneously
dating Se ̄mos to 200 CE).
GLIM
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (507 – 585 CE)
Born 485 CE in Scylletium; a statesman of the Ostrogothic government of Italy and, later,
founder of the monastery Vivarium in his native Calabria, Cassiodorus (d. 585 CE) wrote a
variety of political, philosophical, religious and pedagogical works. He held office as quaes-
tor, consul, master of offices and praetorian prefect. When the Ostrogothic court sur-
rendered Ravenna to Justinian’s forces in 540 CE, Cassiodorus’ official public career ended
and he seems to have relocated to Constantinople, later returning to Italy and retiring at
Vivarium ca 552.
Among Cassiodorus’ political pieces, the Variae survive as a collection of administrative
letters containing disquisitions on the liberal arts, natural history and certain technologies.
The text is traditionally dated at 538 CE, although recent research suggests a later publica-
tion during the 540s CE. Digressions within individual letters include material pertaining to
animal typology (Va r. 1.35, 2.14, 3.48, 5.34, 8.31, 10.30, 11.40), astronomy (11.36), engin-
eering and land surveying (1.45, 3.52), environment (2.21, 2.39, 3.47, 3.48, 4.50, 8.32, 8.33,
11.14, 11.39, 12.12, 12.14, 12.15, 12.22, 12.24, 12.25), epidemiology (10.29), mathematics
(1.10, 3.52), music (2.40) and different modes of production (1.2, 5.1, 5.16, 11.38). These
digressions evince continued interest in natural and technical sciences in a 6th c. audience
and highlight the importance of libraries in the transmission of such topics. Cassiodorus
deployed this material epideictically and derivatively, illustrating wide reading rather than
genuine inquiry. A M (e.g., Hexaemeron) and B (e.g., De arithmetica)
number among his sources. Neo-Platonic conceptions of law and nature form a unifying
theme for the encyclopedic interest of the Variae. The text’s varietas was intended to demon-
strate traditionalism at the Ostrogothic court by attaching legal decisions to a universal
understanding of nature.
Sometime after 562 CE, Cassiodorus began the Institutiones diuinarum et saecularium lit-
terarum, wherein he outlined the tenets to a liberal Christian education, attempting to inte-
grate the Classical tradition of letters with the study of Christian scriptures and to provide a
point of departure for those interested in pursuing secular and divine topics. The treatment
of Classical learning in the Institutiones is neither exhaustive nor entirely systematic, but
it reveals a willingness to expand the precepts of education to a wider epistemological
conception of past and present learning. Book 2 addresses the liberal arts with references to
diverse authors, perhaps illustrative of scientific texts available at Vivarium – 2.4 on arith-
metic (P, N, A, Boëthius), 2.5 on music (G,
C, A, E, A, Apuleius, A), 2.6 on geometry
(V, Censorinus, Euclid, A P, A, Boëthius, S),
and 2.7 on astronomy (Varro, P, B C, Augustine). Each sec-
tion pertaining to the Classical tradition provides an etymological background, a broad
MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR