in full Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus
born 490, Scylletium, Bruttium, kingdom of the Ostrogoths
died 0441; 585, Vivarium Monastery, near Scylletium
Historian, statesman, and monk who helped preserve Roman culture after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
He was secretary to Theodoric and later held other high imperial offices. Soon after 540 he founded a monastery to perpetuate the culture of Rome. He collected pagan and Christian manuscripts and had the monks copy them, establishing a practice continued in later centuries. His own works included the Chronicon , a history of mankind to 519; De anima , on the soul after death; and Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum , on the study of scripture and the seven liberal arts.