PROOEMIVM Preface.

The writer assigns his great-grandfather a leading role there original: "primatum in illis provinciis haberet quae sunt Bruttii et Sicilia" (he held the primacy in those provinces which are Bruttium and Sicily) and says that he himself presided over them original: "ab avis atavisque" (from ancestors and great-grandfathers). Throughout the text, whenever the author’s discourse falls upon that region and its inhabitants, his devotion to them is clearly apparent.

We have received the following information regarding his ancestors. He writes that his great-grandfather, Cassiodorus, received the rank of illustris illustrious (the highest order of the late Roman nobility) due to the splendor of his birth, and that when Geiseric, King of the Vandals, threatened the Bruttian region and Sicily before he captured Rome in 455 AD, he successfully defended those regions from invasion.

His grandfather, whose name is not explicitly stated, became a tribune and notary during the reign of Valentinian III (425–455 AD). A friend of Aetius (died 454 AD), he was sent together with Aetius's son, Carpilio, as an envoy to Attila—a mission he likely undertook somewhat before 448 AD. Since these offices are suitable for a young man, it is likely that he was born around 430 AD. When honors of the illustrious order were offered to him, he did not accept them and spent the rest of his life at home.

His father, also named Cassiodorus, to whom two royal letters (I.3, III.28) are addressed and of whom the King speaks with the Senate in letter I.4, can be believed to have been born around 460 AD. Under King Odoacer (476–488 AD), he ascended the first rungs of the highest order, becoming Count of the Private Estates and soon after, Count of the Sacred Largesses. When Theodoric entered Italy in 489 AD, he was administering Sicily as a consular, and as letter I.3 states, he immediately followed Theodoric's side and reconciled the minds of the Sicilians to their new master. In order to repay the favor of this assistance, Theodoric offered him the governorship original: "correcturam" of his native province of Lucania and the Bruttii. This was a singular honor, for even in that age, no one was permitted to administer their own homeland without the special permission of the prince. However, I do not know how to explain why, after two honors of the first order, he undertook a consularship of an inferior rank and a governorship even lower than the consularship, unless it was due to the disordered state of the administration during those times. The letter concerning the affairs of Scyllacium, as it seems, written to a certain Cassiodorus by the Roman Bishop Gelasius (492–496 AD) around 495 AD, could possibly have been directed to him while he was administering that province.

He narrates in that same place that he not only took an interest in the Bruttian lands out of patriotic affection, but that he also managed to construct fish-ponds at the foot of Mount Moscius on the shore, which perhaps gave the name to the Vivarium monastery near the river Pellena or Castellum, where Cassiodorus spent the remaining years of his life after abandoning public affairs. He frequently signifies the origin of his family from the Bruttii.