Category: From Antiquity to Middle Age: cultural bridgebuilders

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Several authors of Late Antiquity (5th-6th Centuries) played an especially important role in the preservation of the ancient Greco-Roman cultural heritage, especially classical literature, through the crises that shook the Roman world in this era. Those authors were highly popular in the Western world in the Middle Age, as until the original classical texts were rediscovered at the Renaissance, the wisdom of the ancient world was known only through them. Several of these authors, including Macrobius, were from Roman Africa, while others, like Boethius and Cassiodorus, had links with North Africa. This article is the summary of our series on the cultural bridge-builders.

• Aelius Donatus: a Roman African grammarian
• Macrobius: the last great Roman African writer
• Martianus Capella: The North African Author Who Influenced the Medieval World
• Priscian of Caesarea: a North African grammarian in Constantinople
• Fulgentius the Mythographer: mythological metaphores
• Boethius: the last Roman philosopher
• Cassiodorus: statesman, theologian and classicist

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Cassiodorus was a statesman, philosopher and theologian of Roman origin, who served at the court of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. As an official of King Theodoric the Great and his successor Athalaric, he was in charge of diplomatic relations with the Vandal Kingdom of Carthage. After the Byzantine reconquest of Italy, he settled in Constantinople, where he played a major role in popularizing Western Christian theologians like Augustine of Hippo in the Eastern regions of the ancient Roman world.

Origins and career

Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator was born around 490, in Scylletium (close to Catanzaro), Southern Italy. Senator was not a title, but part of his name. His family was of Syrian origin, and had held high responsibilities for several generations: his great-grandfather was a military officer in charge of defending Southern Italy against Vandal attacks; his grandfather had taken part in a Roman Embassy to Attila the Hun; and his father was a high official in the service of Odoacer, and then the Praetorian Prefect (commander of the personal guard) of Theodoric the Great.

At around 20 years of age, young Cassiodorus started a public career under his father’s auspices. He became questor, then consul, and then succeeded Boethius as magister officiorum (head of the government) in 523. Cassiodorus certainly knew his predecessor, and shared his ambition to preserve the classical Greco-Roman heritage. However, the official documents he wrote don’t mention the imprisonment and death of Boethius.

Cassiodorus was a Catholic Christian, like most inhabitants of Italy, while the Goths who had taken power in Italy were Arian. While Theodoric had previously been quite tolerant, during the last year of his reign, persecution against Catholics in his kingdom grew stronger, motivated by the persecution of Arians in the Byzantine Empire. In this context, Cassiodorus managed to maintain himself in the circles of power, thanks to his deep loyalty to the King and to his pragmatism in managing affairs of State.

Theodoric died in 526. His nephew and successor Athalaric was just a child. Cassiodorus remained in the service of the royal court. Due to his literary talents, he was often sollicited to write public documents. He was also a diplomat, in charge of diplomatic relations with the Vandal Kingdom of Carthage. He thus was a direct witness of Gelimer’s revolt against the Vandal King Hilderic and the following Byzantine reconquest of North Africa, events he mentions in his letters. During those years, he also collaborated with the Pope Agapetus I in establishing a library of Greek and Latin manuscripts in Rome.

In 533, Athalaric named Cassiodorus Praetorian Prefect for Italy, the highest function at his court. Athalaric died shortly after, of the consequences of his alcoholism. The rest of Cassiodorus’ career was characterized by the gradual reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.

After his public career

In 537, Cassiodorus gave up his responsibilities and left Italy for Constantinople. He spent two decades in the Imperial capital. During those years, he discovered a new vocation: bridging the gap between East and West, by helping the Greeks of the Byzantine Empire, the survivors of the former Western Roman Empire, and the new “barbarian” cultures, to better know and understand each other. While in Constantinople, he also developed his theological knowledge through the discovery of Eastern Christian theologians. He met Junillus Africanus, the Questor of the Palace of Emperor Justinian, who was originally North African. Junillus Africanus wrote a theological treatise inspired by an Eastern theological school, and Cassiodorus promoted his book in the West. At the same time, he also introduced the Eastern Christians in Constantinople to Western Christian theology – especially the Roman African Augustine of Hippo, whom he particularly admired.

After his retirement, he returned to Italy, where he founded the Vivarium Monastery, on his family domain in Calabria (Southern Italy). The monks he welcomed mostly devoted themselves to copying manuscripts – both Greek and Latin, Christian and pagan. Cassiodorus died around 585, in his monastery, at over 90 years of age.

Works

During his public career at the court of the Gothic Kings, Cassiodorus wrote many official letters containing precious information on these turbulent times.

At the same time, he wrote a History of the Goths, probably the first historical book devoted to this people group. His book is lost, but its content is mostly preserved in Getica, written by Jordanes, a 6th-Century Gothic author. He also wrote a Chronica of world history, with an uninterrupted sequence of both Roman and Gothic sovereigns, in order to legitimize the Goths as heirs of the Roman Empire.

While in Constantinople, Cassiodorus mostly devoted himself to theology. He wrote an Exposition on the Psalms, a treatise On the Soul, and an Ecclesiastical History, on the history of the Church from 324 to 439.

After the foundation of the Vivarium Monastery, Cassiodorus wrote the Institutions of Divine and Secular Knowledge, to guide the monks in their studies. This work gives significant importance to the study of secular science and classical literature: just like Augustine of Hippo, Cassiodorus saw them as tools for a better understanding of the sacred texts.

Also for the Vivarium, Cassiodorus ordered a complete copy of the Vetus Latina, the ancient Latin translation of the Bible before the Vulgate. This manuscript, known as Codex Grandior, is lost, but it probably served as a model for the Codex Amiatinus, the best-preserved complete manuscript of the Vulgate, copied around 700, in Northern England, on over 500 animal skins.

Finally, he wrote a book On Liberal Arts, and another one On Orthography, a compilation of the work of eight grammarians.

Cassiodorus strongly believed in the importance of popular education, and played a major role in the spread of both Greco-Roman classical authors and Christian theological works. His role in the preservation of the ancient cultural heritage in the Middle Age is inestimable.

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Boethius was a 6th-Century Roman philosopher and statesman, who played an important role in the translation of the Greek classics into Latin. Born in Italy, a few yeargs after the fall of the Roman Empire, he served in the administration of King Theodoric the Great, the founder of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. While he didn’t have North African origins, the events that occurred in the Vandal Kingdom of Carthage, a close ally to Theodoric, had a major impact on his life.

Life and works of Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was born in Rome around 480, a few years after the fall of the last Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus. He was from a rich and influential Roman family, that had lost much of its influence in the upheavals before the fall of the Roman Empire. After his father, who was a consul, died in his childhood, Boethius was raised by the Roman aristocrat Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, who initiated him to classical literature. Later on, he married Rusticiana, the daughter of his adoptive father.

In 493, the Germanic chief Odoacer, the new master of Italy since he deposed the last Roman Emperor, was defeated by the Gothic King Theodoric, who founded a Kingdom in Italy. Boethius was a teenager then. After he finished his studies, Boethius entered the service of Theodoric. He became a Senator, and then a consul.

Boethius was a Catholic Christian. While the Goths of King Theodoric were Arian, Theodoric himself, whose mother was Catholic, led a policy of religious tolerance, never hesitating to recruit Catholics of the former Roman elite, like Boethius, into his administration.

Boethius, while a devout Christian, was also strongly devoted to ancient Greece and its philosophical heritage. In order to harmonize Plato and Aristotle’s thought with Christian theology, he decided to translate the whole body of Greek classical literature into Latin. While others before him, like the Roman African Apuleius of Madaura, had already sought to translate the Greek texts, Boethius’ initiative was the first systematic effort to translate them all. This initiative was all the more necessary at a time when the inhabitants of the former Western Roman Empire were becoming less fluent in Greek. Next to his translations, Boethius also wrote commentaries of Aristotle and other Greek authors. He is considered as one of the main “cultural bridges” who contributed to the transmission of the ancient Greek heritage to medieval Europe.

Boethius was not only a translator and a commentator: he also wrote his own works of philosophy, mathematics, music, and theology – including treaties defending the Catholic Christian faith and condemning Arianism. His most famous work, On the Consolation of Philosophy, was written while he was in prison, shortly before his execution. We will come back to this work later in this article.

His fall

A major part of Boethius’ public career was devoted to fighting corruption at the royal court. At the very beginning of his career, one of his first missions was leading the investigation on accusations against the commander of Theodoric’s guard, that he had embezzled the money of the guards’ pay for luxury objects given as presents to neighboring kings. Boethius’ integrity and firm commitment to fight all those who abused their power made him highly popular with the people, but also won him many enemies at the court.

In 522, Boethius’ two sons were named consuls together, a very rare honor, which Boethius considered his highest achievement. Shortly after, Boethius was named magister officiorum, head of the government. He was at the zenith of his career.

As head of the government, Boethius continued his fight against corruption. He undid a conspiracy fomented by Triguilla, the steward of the royal palace; opposed Cunigast, a Gothic minister who was “devouring the substance of the poor”; and cancelled a convoy of food from Campania to Rome, as it was threatening to worsen the famine in the region. Due to those initiatives, he had more enemies than ever before; but he still enjoyed the trust of King Theodoric.

The events that led to Boethius’ fall mostly took place in North Africa. The Vandal King Thrasamund, who was married to Theodoric’s sister Amalafrida, died in 523. Amalafrida led a revolt against his successor Hilderic, but she was captured and executed. In this context, Theodoric felt vulnerable, and Boethius’ enemies seized the opportunity to pit the King against him.

At the same time, after a schism between the Western and Eastern Church had finally been resolved, Western Catholics, including Boethius, aspired to renewed links with the Byzantine Empire. In this context, ex-consul Albinus was accused of treason, because of his correspondence with the Byzantine Emperor Justin I. Boethius, defending him, cried out: “The charge is false; but if Albinus did that, so also have I and the whole Senate with one accord done it; it is false, my Lord King.” Boethius was then accused of the same crime, and imprisoned. He wast executed in 524, at around 40 years of age.

During his final imprisonment, Boethius wrote a book that is considered as his masterpiece: On the Consolation of Philosophy. The book is a dialogue between the author and “Dame Philosophy”, a personification of philosophy. At the beginning of the book, Boethius, locked in his cell, laments the injustice that befell him, when a woman comes to visit him. The woman encourages him not to let his happiness depend on circumstances, as the “wheel of fortune” always keeps turning, carrying everything away with it; while true happiness is found in seeking wisdom. The dialogue between Boethius and Dame Philosophy continues, on the ephemeral nature of worldly wealth, the divine origins of wisdom, the reasons why a good God allows evil to exist, and how those who suffer unjustly can find consolation in wisdom, while the evil will never find true happiness. On the Consolation of Philosophy is considered as the last major work of ancient philosophy.

After his death, Boethius was recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church. He is buried in the Basilica San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro (Saint-Peter-of-the-Golden-Sky), in Pavia, Italy, the city where he was executed. His tomb can be seen in the cover picture of this article.

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Priscian of Caesarea was a 6th-Century grammarian. Born in Caesarea (Cherchell), Mauretania, he taught Latin grammar in Constantinople, the new Imperial capital.

Priscian was born around 470, in Caesarea (Cherchell), Mauretania. He was probably of Greek origin. Although he was a Christian, his works contain many references to ancient Greek mythology.

At the time, North Africa was occupied by the Vandals. As a young man, Priscian fled his native region and settled in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, where he taught grammar. Anastasius, the Byzantine Emperor at the time (491-518), led a policy of welcoming Romans who had been uprooted by the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Priscian wrote a panegyric of Anastasius, praising his good will towards those refugees.

The most well-known of Priscian’s works was his Institutes of grammar, a systematic exposition of Latin grammar, in 18 books. In this work, Priscian uses quotes of Latin authors as examples of the grammatical rules he exposes. Those quotes preserved fragments of authors whose work would otherwise be lost.

The Institutes of grammar were used during all the Middle Age to teach Latin, together with the Ars Grammatica, written by Aelius Donatus, another North African grammarian: Aelius Donatus was used as an introduction, while Priscian, whose work was more detailed, served for deeper study.

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Aelius Donatus was a 4th-Century North African grammarian. His works on Latin grammar played an important role in the teaching of Latin in the Middle Age.

Aelius Donatus was born around 310-320, in Roman Africa, maybe Tipasa. He made his career in Rome, as a grammarian and rhetorician, from 354 to 363. After he retired, he devoted himself to writing. He was close to the philosopher Marius Victorinus, who was also from Roman Africa. He died around 380.

Aelius Donatus’ career spans the time when Christianity gradually supplanted classical paganism as the majority religion in the Roman world. North Africa was one of the most strongly Christian regions in the Empire, and Aelius Donatus was certainly in contact with Christians since his youth. Unlike his friend Marius Victorinus, who converted to Christianity in his old age, Aelius Donatus remained pagan all his life. This didn’t prevent him from influencing the Christian Church: he was the preceptor of the Church Father Jerome of Stridon, who is known mostly for his masterful translation of the Christian Bible into Latin – a task for which Aelius Donatus’ grammar lessons were certainly very useful.

Aelius Donatus’ most famous work was his Ars Grammatica, a grammatical treatise that became the most largely used Latin grammar book for over a thousand years, playing a major role in the standardization of the Latin language. The Ars Grammatica was taught in schools, in parallel with the works of Priscian, another later grammarian, who was also North African.

Next to his grammatical works, Aelius Donatus wrote a commentary of the playwright Terence, another Roman African author. His commentary highlights the links between Terence and the Greek playwright Menander. He was also the author of a biography of the poet Virgil, and of a commentary of the Aeneid. Another more famous commentary of the Aeneid, often attributed to him, was actually written by another author, Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who lived around 50 years later, but drew inspiration from Aelius Donatus’ work.

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Macrobius was a 5th-Century Latin writer from North Africa. He is considered as one of the main “bridge” authors whose works enabled the transmission of the cultural heritage of Antiquity to the following centuries, through the crises that shook the Roman world during his time.

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius was born around 400 and wrote at the beginning of the 5th Century. Almost nothing is known of his life, not even where he was born or where he lived during his career as a writer. He wrote that he was born “under a foreign sky”, that is, for the Romans, outside Italy. The fact that he was more familiar with Latin than Greek, as well as other internal clues in his work, led most specialists to believe he was probably from Roman Africa. Macrobius was a pagan, living in a Roman Empire that already had a large Christian majority. He was probably related to Symmachus, the prefect of Rome, who was the leader of the pagan resistance to the Empire’s Christianization. He had a son, Eustathius, to whom he dedicates his works.

Macrobius wrote two books that are still available today. His main work, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, was one of the most-quoted books during the Middle Ages, and one of the main sources on Neoplatonic thought at this time. In Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, the great Roman general appears to his grandson Scipio Aemilianus, to reveal him his future destiny and that of his country, show him the rewards that await virtuous men after their death, and give him a description of how the universe functions and man’s role in this universe. Macrobius comments this dream, and exposes several Neoplatonic theories on the origins and the signification of dreams, the mystical properties of numbers, the nature of the soul, astronomy, and music. Among other things, he writes that the sun is twice as big as the earth. His main sources are the Neoplatonic philosophers Plotinus and Porphyry.

His other major work, the Saturnalia, are an account of the discussions in the house of a rich aristocrat, on a vast diversity of historical, mythological, and grammatical topics. He quotes the opinion of older authors, like Virgil and Cicero, on those topics.

Macrobius, together with the 6th-Century authors Boethius and Cassiodorus, is considered as one of the authors of Late Antiquity whose works enabled the transmission of the Greek-Roman cultural heritage into the Middle Ages.