Cassiodorus and his «Variae». Two Lives of a 6th Century Roman Nobleman

The article deals with a number of unsolved problems related to the study of Cassiodorus’ «Variae». It starts with the problem of dating the collection and determining the circumstances of its publication. Debating with M. Shane Bjornlie, one of the leading contemporary authorities on Cassiodorus, who insists that he published his documents in Constantinople after 540, the author argues in favour of the more traditional approach according to which the «Variae» were made public in Italy in 537-538. Another problem arises from the uncertainty about the kind of audience to which the collection was addressed. It is suggested that the key to its solution lies in the genre features of the «Variae», which can be considered an artefact of an epistolary culture inherent and comprehensible only to the Roman bureaucratic elite to which Cassiodorus himself belonged. The third problem consists in the questionable reliability of the «Variae» as a historical source. Drawing on the research of philologists and scholars of diplomatics, as well as on the data provided by archaeology and epigraphy, the author makes a case for the collection being based on authentic documents from the chancery of the Ostrogothic kings.