SOURCE: “Cassiodorus and Italian Culture of His Time,” in Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 41, 1955, pp. 207-45.

In the essay below, originally delivered as a lecture, Momigliano studies the political atmosphere in Italy during Cassiodorus's career and demonstrates the ways in which the relationship between the Romans and the Goths influenced Cassiodorus's writings. Momigliano observes that in works such as the Gothic History, Cassiodorus intended to support the peaceful coexistence of Goths and Romans.

I

When I want to understand Italian history I catch a train and go to Ravenna. There, between the tomb of Theodoric and that of Dante, in the reassuring neighbourhood of the best manuscript of Aristophanes and in the less reassuring one of the best portrait of the Empress Theodora, I can begin to feel what Italian history has really been.¹ The presence of a foreign rule, the memory of an imperial and pagan...