Page 204 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

Variae, and overrides the broadly chronological sequence of the letter
11
collection. This framework, however, is closely allied to a second pat-
tern. Following the first two letters of the first book with their imperial
themes, 12 Cassiodorus placed two letters of appointment, announcing
the elevation of his father to the rank of patricius, c. 507; atthe end of
Book ix, in the position occupied in other books by letters to kings, he
placed the two letters of appointment for his own elevation as praetorian
prefect, in 533. These four letters, our main sources for the biography
of four generations of Cassiodori, serve to set out the cursus honorum of
the author and to eulogise his stirps. Few other letters in the collection
directly concern Cassiodorus or his family; the final two books, written
in his own name as praetorian prefect, are not similarly self-descriptive or
13
formally eulogistic, and serve Cassiodorus’ aims in a different way. The
two pairs of letters of appointment enjoy the same prominent placement
as the diplomatic correspondence, and for the same reasons: as monu-
ments to the career of their author.
Table 2 lists the letters to rulers (indicating first and last letters in each
book with bold print) and letters concerning Cassiodorus personally (in
italics).
The diplomatic letters are distributed unevenly throughout the collec-
tion. Books i to v and viii to ix, containing letters written in the names
of Theoderic and Athalaric, contain only three letters to emperors but all
thirteen letters to western kings. Fifteen letters in Book x, almosthalf the
book, are addressed to Justinian or Theodora; there are no letters to kings
in this book. Presumably, as Justinian sought opportunity for conflict in
Italy, the Ostrogothic monarchs repeatedly used their praetorian prefect
Cassiodorus to act as quaestor by drafting correspondence appropriate to
their delicate and crucial negotiations with the East. None the less, the

11 Organising principle: no satisfactory suggestion has been made to explain the selection of con-
cluding letters for Books iii, iv,and viii. O’Donnell, Cassiodorus, 79–81, is notconvincing. He
assumes a very subtle pattern which would ‘please a Byzantine audience’, not a credible motive
for the publication of the Variae (cf. Gillett, ‘Purposes’): the final letter of Book iv is addressed
to Symmachus, later executed by Theoderic, and that of viii concerns riots; neither ‘put[s] the
very best possible face on the Ostrogothic kingdom’.
Disruption of chronological sequence: e.g. Cass., Variae ii, 1, written late 510,cf. iii, 1–4,writ-
ten late 506/7, which must in fact have been among the earliest letters written by Cassiodorus;
v, 43–4, written c. 510/11, but all other letters in Book v (with the possible exception of v, 1–2)
appear to have been written c. 523–7; Mommsen, Prooemium to Cass., Variae, xxxvi; Krautschick,
Cassiodor, 59, Table 3, 77. It is not clear why Cassiodorus placed these letters at the end of Book v,
notatthe end of Book iii or iv, both of which contain letters written in the same period (during
his tenure as quaestor) but which do not close with diplomatic letters. In general: Krautschick,
Cassiodor, 73–7, Tables 3 and 4, 102–6.
12
Variae i, 2 concerns the production of purple dye for the sacra vestis.
13
Another letter on Cassiodori: Variae iii, 28 (summons to court the author’s father from
Theoderic).
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