Politics and tradition between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople : a study of Cassiodorus and the Variae 527-554 /

"The Variae of Cassiodorus have long been valued as an epistolary collection offering a window into political and cultural life in a so-called barbarian successor state in sixth-century Italy. However, this study is the first to treat them as more than an assemblage of individual case studies a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bjornlie, M. Shane, 1969-
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Series:Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought ; 4th ser., 89.
Subjects:
Online Access:Available to Stanford-affiliated users.
Table of Contents:
  • Part I, The Variae as windows onto painted curtains : 1. Cassiodorus and Italy in the fifth and sixth centuries
  • Part II, Cassiodorus and the circumstances of political survival: 2. The age of bureaucracy ; 3. The reign of Justinian ; 4. Voices of discontent in Constantinople ; 5. The Anicii between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople ; 6. The memory of Boethius in the Variae
  • Part III, Reading the Variae as political apologetic: 7. Literary aspects of the Variae ; 8. Antiquitas and novitas : the language of good governance in the Variae ; 9. Natura and law in Justinian's Novellae and the Variae ; 10. Reading good governance in the Variae and the De anima ; 11. The Variae as apologetic narrative ; 12. Conclusion. innovative traditionalism and its consequence.