The Letters of Cassiodorus is a condensed translation of the Variae Epistolae, the official correspondence of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, who served the Ostrogothic kings of Italy in the sixth century. As secretary to Theodoric the Great and his successors, Cassiodorus drafted letters touching on administration, law, diplomacy, and culture in the kingdom that arose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.
Thomas Hodgkin’s translation and commentary make these documents accessible, illuminating the workings of government, the survival of Roman institutions under Gothic rule, and the intellectual life of late-antique Italy. The letters reveal Cassiodorus as both statesman and scholar, a preserver of classical learning. Readers interested in late antiquity, the early medieval West, or the Ostrogoths will find them invaluable. This free EPUB edition revives a key source for the dawn of the Middle Ages.