[Footnote 1: We get these titles from the Notitia Occidentis I.]
[Footnote 3: On the authority of a letter of Pope Gelasius, 'Philippo et Cassiodoro,' Usener fixes this governorship of Bruttii between the years 493 and 496 (p. 76).]
The Praefecture of this Cassiodorus probably lasted three or four years, and at its close he received the high honour of the Patriciate. We are not able to name the exact date of his retirement from office; but the important point for us is, that while he still held this splendid position his son was first introduced to public life. To that son's history we may now proceed, for we have no further information of importance as to the father's old age or death beyond the intimation (contained in Var. iii. 28) that Theodoric invited him, apparently in vain, to leave his beloved Bruttii and return to the Court of Ravenna.
MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR was born at Scyllacium (_Squillace_) about the year 480. His name, his birthplace, and his year of birth will each require a short notice.
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus, or Cassiodorius.]
(1) _Name._ Magnus (not Marcus, as it has been sometimes incorrectly printed) is the author's praenomen. Aurelius, the gentile name, connects him with a large gens, of which Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus was one of the most distinguished ornaments. As to the form of the cognomen there is a good deal of diversity of opinion, the majority of German scholars preferring Cassiodor_i_us to Cassiodorus. The argument in favour of the former spelling is derived from the fact that some of the MSS. of his works (not apparently the majority) write the name with the termination _rius_, and that while it is easy to understand how from the genitive form _ri_ a nominative _rus_ might be wrongly inferred instead of the real nominative _rius_, it is not easy to see why the opposite mistake should be made, and _rius_ substituted for the genuine _rus_.
The question will probably be decided one way or the other by the critical edition of the 'Variae' which is to be published among the 'Monumenta Germaniae Historica;' but in the meantime it may be remarked that the correct Greek form of the name as shown by inscriptions appears to be Cassiodo_rus_, and that in a poem of Alcuin's[4] occurs the line