PROOEMIVM Preface.

... [anyone] who called him [that] before Paul the Deacon, an author of the eighth century 1) History of the Lombards 1, 25: "In the times of this [Justinian], Cassiodorus was famous at Rome in both secular and divine knowledge, who among other things he nobly wrote, he most powerfully unlocked the hidden things of the Psalms, especially... He was first consul, then senator, and finally a monk." Therefore, he was not unaware of the title Senator, but he misunderstood it., nor is he correctly named so. But we have retained the word that has prevailed through long usage. Therefore, his full name was Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator; briefly, Senator; and as time slipped away, Cassiodorus. Those who write Cassiodorius, if I see correctly, are mistaken 2) The codices... do not settle the question; for since it is the ancient custom that nouns ending in -ius—and especially proper names—form the genitive in -i, and later scribes are accustomed to substitute a double vowel, sometimes correctly, sometimes wrongly, but always rashly, we depend on their license in such forms, and nothing concerning the true form of the nominative can be concluded from this....

Cassiodoros—a word which, as the Senator himself writes while narrating the origin and acts of his people (Ep. I 4), although it may seem to run through others, is nevertheless confirmed to be proper to his family—signifies that the name originated from Syria, derived entirely from a most well-known Syrian deity, and in a better age, it was not used except among the people of Antioch 3) See note 2. Usener Anecdoton p. 67.. Connected to this is the fact that in that letter, the parents of the Cassiodori are said to have flourished in the parts of the East: "For Heliodorus," King Theoderic says there, "who in that republic, while we were watching, held the prefecture for twice nine years most excellently, was proven to be joined to their kinship." Since Theoderic was born only about the year 454, it is hard to believe this refers to the Heliodorus whom Gothofredus thought of, who was the urban prefect of Constantinople in 432 4) Codex Theodosianus 6, 24, 11., who furthermore is known to have held that position for only a few years; it fits better the Heliodorus who held the office of the comes sacrarum largitionum count of the sacred largesses in 468 5) Codex Iustinianus 10, 23, 3. 4. and who, between 454 and 488—the year Theoderic left the East—could have administered several prefectures in the East at different times. For the words seem to be taken in this way, since it is more likely that the author, immersed in the praises of his kin, spoke somewhat pompously in this place, rather than that no trace of a prefecture, held continuously for eighteen years beyond custom, has reached us. In the West, the Cassiodori certainly held a primary place from the middle of the fifth century, having their seat at Scyllaceum in the Bruttii 6) Scyllaceum (concerning the various forms of the word I have spoken in C. I. L. X p. 12)....