The Letters of Cassiodorus
In the following chronological table of the life of Cassiodorus I
have, for convenience sake, assumed 480 as the year of his birth, and
575 as that of his death. It is now, I think, sufficiently proved that
if these dates are not absolutely correct, they cannot be more than a
year or two wrong in one direction or the other.
[Sidenote: Consular Fasti.]
As dates were still reckoned by Consulships, at any rate through the
greater part of the life of Cassiodorus, I have inserted the Consular
Fasti for the period in question. It will be seen that several names
of correspondents of Cassiodorus figure in this list. As a general
though not universal practice, one of the two Consuls at this time was
chosen from out of the Senate of Rome and the other from that of
Constantinople. We can almost always tell whether a chronicler belongs
to the Eastern or Western Empire by observing whether he puts the
Eastern or Western Consul first. Thus, for A.D. 501, Marcellinus
Comes, who was an official of the Eastern Empire, gives us 'Pompeius
et Avienus, Coss.;' while Cassiodorus, in his 'Chronicon,' assigns the
year to 'Avienus et Pompeius.' Pompeius was a nobleman of
Constantinople, nephew of the Emperor Anastasius; while Avienus was a
Roman Senator[186]. Again, in A.D. 490, Marcellinus gives the names of
Longinus and Faustus, which Cassiodorus quotes as Faustus and
Longinus. Longinus was a brother of the Emperor Zeno, and Faustus was
for many years Praetorian Praefect under Theodoric, and was the
receiver of many letters in the following collection.
[Footnote 186: See Usener, p. 32.]
I have endeavoured to give the priority always to the _Western_ Consul
in the list before us, except in those cases where an Emperor (who was
of course an Eastern) condescended to assume the Consular _trabea_.
[Sidenote: Indictions.]
Another mode of reckoning the dates which the reader will continually
meet with in the following pages is by _Indictions_. The Indiction, as
is well known, was a cycle of fifteen years, during which, as we have
reason to believe, the assessment for the taxes remained undisturbed,
a fresh valuation being made all round when the cycle was ended.
Traces of this quindecennial period may be found in the third century,
but the formal adoption of the Indiction is generally assigned to the
Emperor Constantine, and to the year 312[187]. The Indiction itself,
and every one of the years composing it, began on the 1st of September
of the calendar year. The reason for this period being chosen probably
was that the harvests of the year being then gathered in, the
collection of the tithes of the produce, which formed an important
part of the Imperial revenue, could be at once proceeded with. What
gives an especial importance to this method of dating by Indictions,
for the reader of the following letters is, that most of the great
offices of State changed hands at the beginning of the year of the
Indiction (Sept. 1), not at the beginning of the Calendar year.
[Footnote 187: Compare Marquardt (Roemische Staatsverwaltung ii. 237).
He remarks that the Indiction seems to have been first adopted in
Egypt, and did not come into universal use all over the Empire till
the end of the Fourth Century.]
To make such a mode of dating the year at all satisfactory, it would
seem to us necessary that the number of the cycle itself, as well as
of the year in the cycle, should be given; for instance, that A.D. 313
should be called the first year of the first Indiction, and A.D. 351
the ninth year of the third Indiction. This practice, however, was not
adopted till far on into the Middle Ages[188]. At the time we are
speaking of, the word Indiction seems generally to have been given
not to the cycle itself, but to the year in the cycle. Thus, 313 was
the first Indiction, 314 the second Indiction, 315 the third
Indiction, and so on. And thus we find a year, which from other
sources we know to be 313, called the first Indiction, 351 the ninth
Indiction, 537 the fifteenth Indiction, without any clue being given
to guide us to the important point in what cycles these years held
respectively the first, the ninth, and the fifteenth places.
[Footnote 188: The Twelfth Century, according to Marquardt.]
As the Indiction began on the 1st of September a question arises
whether the calendar year is to be named after the number of the
Indiction which belongs to its beginning or its end; whether, to go
back to the beginning, A.D. 312 or A.D. 313 is to be accounted the
first Indiction. The practice of the chroniclers and of most writers
on chronology appears to be in favour of the latter method, which is
natural, inasmuch as nine months of the Indiction belong to the later
date and only three to the earlier. Thus, for instance, Marcellinus
Comes calls the year of the Consulship of Belisarius, which was
undoubtedly 535, 'Indictio XIII:' the thirteenth Indiction of that
cycle having begun Sept. 1, 534, and ended August 31, 535. But it is
well that the student should be warned that our greatest English
authority, Mr. Fynes Clinton, adopts the other method. In the very
useful table of comparative chronology which he gives in his Fasti
Romani[189] he assigns the Indiction to that year of the Christian era
in which it had its beginning, and accordingly 534, not 535, is
identified with the thirteenth Indiction.
[Footnote 189: Vol. ii. pp. 214-216. See his remarks, p. 210: 'The
Indictions in Marcellinus and in the Tables of Du Fresnoy are compared
with the Consulship and the Julian year in which they end. In the
following Table they are compared with the year in which they begin,
because the years of the Christian era are here made the measure of
the rest, and contain the beginnings of all the other epochs.']
In order to translate years of Indiction into years of the Christian
era it is necessary first to add some multiple of 15 (_what_ multiple
our knowledge of history must inform us) to 312. On the 1st of
September of the year so obtained the Indiction cycle began; and for
any other year of the same cycle we must of course add its own number
minus one. Thus, when we find Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect
writing a letter[190] informing Joannes of his appointment to the
office of Cancellarius 'for the _twelfth_ Indiction,' as we know
within a little what date is wanted, we first of all add 14 x 15 (=
210) to 312, and so obtain 522. The first Indiction in that cycle ran
from September 1, 522, to August 31, 523. The twelfth Indiction was
therefore from September 1, 533, to August 31, 534, and that is the
date we require.
[Footnote 190: Var. xi. 6.]
On the other hand, when we find a letter written by Cassiodorus as
Praetorian Praefect to the Provincials of Istria[191] as to the
payment of tribute for the _first_ Indiction, we know that we must now
have entered upon a new cycle. We therefore add 15 x 15 (= 225) to
312, and get 537. As it happens to be the _first_ Indiction that we
require, our calculation ends here: September 1, 537, to August 31,
538, is the answer required.
[Footnote 191: Var. xii. 22.]
If anyone objects that such a system of chronology is cumbrous,
uncertain, and utterly unscientific, I can only say that I entirely
agree with him, and that the system is worthy of the perverted
ingenuity which produced the Nones and Ides of the Roman Calendar.
In the following tables I have not attempted to mark the years of the
Indiction, on account of the confusion caused by the fact that two
calendar years require the same number. But I have denoted by the
abbreviation 'Ind.' the years in which each cycle of the Indictions
_began_. These years are 492, 507, 522, 537, 552, and 567.
_Chronological Tables._
Private Public Rulers of
A.D. Consuls. Events. Events. Italy. Popes. Emperors.
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480 Basilius Magnus Assassination ODOVACAR SIMPLICIUS ZENO
Junior. Aurelius of Nepos, (from 476). (from 468). (from 474).
Cassiodorus formerly
Senator, Emperor of
born at the West.
Scyllacium
(?).
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481 Placidus. Odovacar
avenges the
murder of
Nepos. Death
of
Theodoricus
Triarii.
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482 Trocondus Accession of
and Clovis.
Severinus.
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483 Faustus. Zeno issues FELIX II
the Henoticon. (or III).
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484 Theodoricus Illus revolts
and against Zeno.
Venantius. Schism between
Eastern and
Western
Churches.
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485 Q. Aurelius
Memmius
Symmachus.
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486 Decius and
Longinus.
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487 Boethius War between
(_Father of Odovacar and
the great the Rugians.
Boethius_).
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488 Dyanamius Theodoric
and starts for
Sifidius. Italy. Death
of Illus.
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489 Anicius Theodoric
Probinus descends into
and Italy. Battles
Eusebius. of the Isonzo
and Verona.
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490 Flavius Battle of the
Faustus Adda.
Junior and
Longinus (II).
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491 Olybrius Battle of ANASTASIUS.
Junior. Ravenna.
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492 Flavius GELASIUS.
(Ind.) ANASTASIUS
Augustus and
Rufus.
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493 Eusebius Surrender of THEODORIC.
(II) and Ravenna.
Albinus. Death of
Odovacar.
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494 Turcius
Rufus
Apronianus
Asterius and
Praesidius.
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495 Flavius
Viator.
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496 Paulus. Clovis ANASTASIUS.
defeats the