Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, a Roman scholar,…

Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, a Roman scholar, author, and diplomat who held high office under Theodoric the Great and other Ostrogothic kings of Italy, retires from public life around 540.

He establishes two monasteries at Vivarium, his estate in Calabria on the shores of the Ionian Sea.

Here, he pursues scholarly activities, especially writing, and encourages monks to devote their free time to the copying of old religious and secular manuscripts.