Politics and Tradition Between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople - A Study of Cassiodorus and the Variae, 527–554

This study examines the historical context of Cassiodorus' Variae as a collection, rather than as an assemblage of individual case studies on sixth-century Italy. It reveals the author's motives in preparing the epistolary collection and, in doing so, sheds new light on early medieval political, ecclesiastical, fiscal and legal affairs.