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Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' was part of his surname, not his rank. He also founded a monastery, Vivarium (or "Castellum"), where he worked extensively the last three decades of his life. Life Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near present-day Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy, into a family of Syrian origin. His ancestry included some of the most prominent ministers of the state extending back several generations. His great-grandfather held a command in the defense of the coasts of southern Italy from Vandal sea-raiders in the middle of the fifth century; his grandfather appears in a Roman embassy to Attila the Hun, and his father (who bore the same name) served as '' comes sacrarum largitionum'' and '' comes rerum privatarum'' to Odovacer and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivarium (monastery)
The Vivarium was a monastery founded around the year 544 by Roman statesman, Cassiodorus near Squillace, in Calabria, Italy. He also established a biblical studies center focused on studying the Bible as well as a library. It became a place where they worked on preserving Greek and Latin classical literature. Cassiodorus donated his land to the community of Squillace so that the ‘Vivarium’ could be built there. Having acquired the Roman noble title of '' patricius'' in 507, his family had become one of the most powerful in Italy. In 540, Cassiodorus retired from public life and moved into the monastery, ordering the Benedictine monks living there to learn about medicinal herbs and to copy various medical texts, supposedly including works of Galen, Hippocrates and of the pharmacist Dioscorides. When evaluating Cassiodorus' project, we must take into account the fact that the immense devastation caused by the Gothic War had endangered the survival not only of classical and pagan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the translation of the Greek classics into Latin, a precursor to the Scholasticism, Scholastic movement, and, along with Cassiodorus, one of the two leading Christian scholars of the 6th century. The local cult of Boethius in the Diocese of Pavia was sanctioned by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1883, confirming the diocese's custom of honouring him on the 23 October. Boethius was born in Rome a few years after the forced abdication of the last Western Roman Empire, Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. A member of the Anicii family, he was orphaned following the family's sudden decline and was raised by Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, a later Roman consul, consul. After mastering both Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ostrogoths
The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under Theodoric the Great. Theoderic's family, the Amal dynasty, accumulated royal power in Roman Pannonia after the death of Attila, and collapse of his Hunnic empire. Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Zeno (emperor), Emperor Zeno played these Pannonian Goths off against the Thracian Goths to their south. However, instead the two groups united after the death of the Thracian leader Theoderic Strabo and his son Recitach. Zeno then backed Theodoric to invade Italy and replace Odoacer there, whom he had previously supported as its king. In 493, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodoric The Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patrician (ancient Rome)#Late Roman and Byzantine period, patrician of the Byzantine Empire#Loss of the Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire. As ruler of the combined Gothic realms, Theodoric controlled an empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea. Though Theodoric himself only used the title 'king' (''rex''), some scholars characterize him as a Roman Emperor#Later assertions to the title, Western Roman emperor in all but name, since he ruled a large part of the former Western Roman Empire described as a ''Res Publica'', had received the former Western imperial regalia from Constantinople in 497 which he used, was referred to by the imperial title ''princeps'' by the Italian aristocracy and exercised imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has 1,832,147 residents as of 2025 across a total area of . Catanzaro is the region's capital. Calabria is the birthplace of the name of Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC. They established the first cities, mainly on the coast, as Greek colonisation, Greek colonies. During this period Calabria was the heart of Magna Graecia, home of key figures in history such as Pythagoras, Herodotus and Milo of Croton, Milo. In Roman times, it was part of the ''Regio III Lucania et Bruttii'', a region of Roman Italy, Augustan Italy. After the Gothic War (535–554), Gothic War, it became and remained for five centuries a Byzantine empire, Byzantine dominion, fully recove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scylletium
Scylletium or Skylletion or Scolacium was an ancient seaside city in Calabria, southern Italy. Its ruins can be found at the ''frazione'' of Roccelletta, near Catanzaro, facing the Gulf of Squillace. History Greek era Skylletion may originally have been founded in the 7th c. BC on the Punta di Staletti promontory. In any case Scylletium was situated from the 6th c. BC on the east coast of Calabria (ancient Bruttium), on the shores of an extensive bay, to which it gave the name of Scylleticus Sinus. According to a tradition generally received in ancient times, Scylletium () was founded by an Athenian colony of Magna Graecia, a part of the followers who had accompanied Menestheus to the Trojan War. Solinus also mention that the Scylaceum was established by Athenians. Another tradition was, however, extant, which ascribed its foundation to Ulysses. However, it did not display any friendship towards the Athenians. It appears during this period to have been a minor place and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squillace
Squillace (; ; ) is an ancient town and in the Province of Catanzaro, part of Calabria, Southern Italy. Squillace is situated near the east coast of Calabria, facing the shores of the eponymous Gulf of Squillace (), which indents the coast of Calabria on the east as deeply as that of the Gulf of Saint Euphemia () does on the west, with a comparatively narrow isthmus between them facing the Gulf of Squillace, eponymous gulf. History Squillace is known today as one of Italy's most important archaeological sites as well as a popular resort. The name derives from the ancient city of Scylletium, the principal ruins of which are located in the nearby comune of Borgia (CZ), Borgia. The Roman statesman and writer Cassiodorus founded a monastery called Vivarium (monastery), Vivarium on his family estates on the shores of the Ionian Sea in the 6th century AD. This monastery was on the site of the modern Santa Maria de Vetere near Squillace. Medieval and early modern history The modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odovacer
Odoacer ( – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally understood as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Although he held power over Italy, he also represented himself as the client of the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, Zeno. He was referred to not only as a king (), but also as commander (), or using the Roman honorific patrician, granted by Zeno. Odoacer himself used the title of king in the only surviving official document that emanated from his chancery, and it was also used by the consul Basilius. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to distribute land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his soldiers led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the later period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magister Officiorum
The (Latin; ; ) was one of the most senior administrative officials in the Later Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantium, the office was eventually transformed into a senior honorary rank, simply called ''magistros'' (μάγιστρος), until it disappeared in the 12th century. History and functions Late Roman Empire Although some scholars have supported its creation under Emperor Diocletian (), the office can first be definitely traced to the year 320, during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine the Great (), but was probably created sometime soon after 312–13, probably as part of an effort to limit the power of the praetorian prefect (''praefectus praetorio'') the Roman emperor's chief administrative official. The ''magister'' was first given command of the palace guard, the '' Scholae Palatinae''. He was also appointed head of the palatine secretariats, divided into four bureaux, the ''sacra scrinia'', each under a respective ''magist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athalaric
Athalaric (; 5162 October 534) was the king of the Ostrogoths in Italy between 526 and 534. He was a son of Eutharic and Amalasuintha, the youngest daughter of Theoderic the Great, whom Athalaric succeeded as king in 526. Athalaric was described to live a hedonistic lifestyle by Procopius of Caesarea. His mother managed the kingdom during his reign, and he died as a teenager. Life The grandfather of Athalaric was Theodoric the Great (470-526). His area of rule encompassed Italy, southern Spain, southern France, and the western Balkans. Theodoric died in 526, when Athalaric became his successor. Athalaric was about ten years old, so his mother, Amalasuintha, held all the real power. This power was to make decisions about the kingdom's politics and negotiate with foreign rulers like Justinian I, at least within the 530s. For example, around 533, she had Emperor Justinian protect the Gothic kingdom. Amalasuintha also controlled the type of education Athalaric would undergo. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pope Agapetus I
Pope Agapetus I (489/490 – 22 April 536) was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death on 22 April 536. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two popes, Pope Felix III, Felix III and Pope Gregory I, Gregory I. In 536, Agapetus traveled to Constantinople at the behest of King Theodahad of the Ostrogoths and unsuccessfully tried to persuade Emperor Justinian I to call off a Byzantine invasion of the Ostrogoth kingdom. While in Constantinople, Agapetus also deposed the patriarch Anthimus I and personally consecrated his successor who is Patriarch Menas of Constantinople, Menas of Constantinople. Four of Agapetus’ letters from this period have survived: two addressed to Justinian, one to the bishops of Africa, and one to the Bishop of Carthage. Agapetus was canonized in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions; his feast day is April 22. Family Agapetus was born in Rome, although his exact date of birth is unknown. He was the son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
