Page 202 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

his later offices also, giving assistance to the current incumbents of the
post. 4
The Variae is of crucial importance to modern knowledge of court bu-
reaucracy, administration, prosopography, and innumerable social issues
of Ostrogothic Italy and indeed of the later Roman empire in general,
but of course this was not the purpose of the work. Cassiodorus’ pub-
lication is sometimes seen as an apology on behalf of the Ostrogothic
regime or of Cassiodorus himself, written with an eye to the conflict be-
tween Gothic and eastern Roman forces then raging in Italy. It is more
likely, however, that the true motives for publication are those stated by
Cassiodorus in several places, with regard to both the official letters and
the philosophical tract which constitute the Variae: that the work, like
other published epistolary collections of the fifth and sixth centuries, was
a vehicle for the cultivation of amicitia, here within a circle of aristocratic
senior bureaucrats, many of whom are named and praised in the letters;
moreover, that the collection was a display of literary virtuosity, which
would not only provide models for later civil servants to imitate, but also,
most importantly, stand as a monument to the talents of the author. 5
It is with this immodest aim in mind that the diplomatic correspon-
dence in the Variae may be considered. The individual letters of the
collection fall into three distinct categories: the dispositive letters, in-
cluding edicts and rescripts; letters of appointment for office holders; and
6
diplomatic correspondence. Envoys and embassies feature occasionally
in both the edicts and letters of appointment, but it is the third group
which displays, indeed vaunts, the significance of political communica-
tion to Cassiodorus. Certain of the diplomatic letters address issues of
crucial importance to the survival of the Ostrogothic regime: for ex-
ample, the first letter of the collection, from Theoderic to the emperor
Anastasius, seeking peace between utraeque res publicae; and the last letters
of Book x, written in the name of Vitigis, concerning the war with the
eastern empire which had erupted some two years before Cassiodorus

4
On the quaestorship: Gillett, ‘Purposes’, 41–3 with references there. For a comparable example of
a palatine officer carrying out the duties of quaestor while filling another post: PLRE ii, ‘Ambrosius
3’, 69. Cassiodorus’ letters name four of the five quaestores whose tenures overlapped with his four
years as magister officiorum (Decoratus, Honoratus, Ambrosius, Fidelis; PLRE ii, Fasti, 1259), and
one for his time as praetorian prefect of Italy, also held for four years (Patricius, in office 534–5;
Cass., Variae x, 6–7; PLRE ii, ‘Patricius 12’, 839–40; not listed in the Fasti of either PLRE ii or
iii; cf. Ludwig Traube, ‘Index rerum etverborum’, to Cass., Variae, 576, s.v. quaestor palatii). The
latter is the last recorded western quaestor.
5
Motives: Cass., Variae, Praef .; xi Praef .; De anima,c. 1. Fridh, Terminologie et formules, 1–4; Gillett,
‘Purposes’; to references there, add Jean-Louis Jouanaud, ‘Pour qui Cassiodore a-t-il publi´ e les
Variae?’, in Teoderico il Grande e i Goti d’Italia ii, 721–41;Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic
Italy, 49.
6
Fridh, Terminologie et formules, 8–9.
176