Title Politics and tradition between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople : a study of Cassiodorus and the Variae 527-554 / M. Shane Bjornlie

Published Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource Series Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought. Fourth series ; no. 89 Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought ; 4th ser., 89. Contents Part I: The Variae as windows onto painted curtains. Introduction -- 1. Cassiodorus and Italy in the fifth and sixth centuries. Empire in the sixth century ; Cassiodorus and the Gothic war ; Locating the Variae ; The Variae in a context of political urgency -- Part II: Cassiodorus and the circumstances of political survival. Introduction -- 2. The age of bureaucracy. Ideology and legitimacy ; Structures of political power at Constantinople ; The structure of the eastern bureaucracy ; Bureaucratic intellectual culture ; Neoplatonism and bureaucratic culture -- 3. The reign of Justinian. Regime change ; Bureaucracy under siege ; Contesting law and religion in Constantinople ; The Nika revolt ; The aftermath -- 4. Voices of discontent in Constantinople. The literary public of political complaint ; Zosimus at the threshold of the debate ; Marcellinus Comes on Zosimus and empire ; The anonymus Valesianus as imperial propaganda ; Junillus Africanus and the biblical basis for empire ; The anonymous Dialogue on political science ; Procopius and the 'secret' riposte ; The gothic histories of Jordanes and Cassiodorus ; John Lydus at the centre of conflict ; John Malalas ; Echoes of controversy -- 5. The Anicii between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople. New audiences for Constantinopolitan controversy ; The Western Senatorial and Palatine Divide in Constantinople ; The political importance of the Anicii ; The fall of Boethius and the Amals ; Western Anicii in Constantinople during the Gothic War ; Memories of Boethius and Theoderic during the Gothic War ; The Ordo generis of Cassiodorus -- 6. The memory of Boethius in the Variae. Rewriting family histories ; Rewriting the De consolatione and the Anicii ; The constructed memory of Boethius -- Part III: Reading the Variae as political apologetic. Introduction -- 7. Literary aspects of the Variae. The prefaces and audience of the Variae ; The rhetorical purpose of Varietas ; The Variae and the late antique chancery -- 8. Antiquitas and novitas : the language of good governance in the Variae. Justinianic law as novitas ; Antiquitas legis in the Variae ; The virtue of conserving the past ; The formulae as models of traditionalism ; The ethics of public building ; The Variae in contrast ; Church building in the Variae ; Civilitas -- 9. Natura and law in Justinian's novellae and the Variae. Sixth-century cultural debates ; The new natural law and the classical tradition of natura ; Classical natura and the divine ; Christian interest in natura ; Neoplatonic interest in natura ; Natura in the Variae ; Natura as the source of tradition and moral governance ; Cassiodorus' sources for natura -- 10. Reading good governance in the variae and the de anima. Discerning probity ; Procopius and reading nature ; Cassiodorus and the portrayal of reading probity ; The De anima and the soul as the instrument of reading probity ; Conscientia and spiritual light -- 11. The Variae as apologetic narrative. Cassiodorus and self-presentation ; Theodahad as a rhetorical foil ; Theodahad's failed vision ; Rhetorical arrangement in the Variae -- 12. Conclusion: Innovative traditionalism and its consequence Summary A revealing study of the Variae of Cassiodorus and the insight that the epistolary collection can provide into sixth-century Italy Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580. Variae. Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580 -- Political and social views SUBJECT Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580 fast Cassiodorus, Flavius Magnus Aurelius 490-583 Variae gnd Variae (Cassiodorus, Senator) fast Subject HISTORY -- Europe -- General. HISTORY -- Europe -- Italy. Political and social views Politics and government Politik SUBJECT Rome -- History -- Germanic Invasions, 3rd-6th centuries. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85115148 Italy -- Politics and government -- 476-1268. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069000 Rome -- History -- Germanic Invasions, 3rd-6th centuries Italy -- Politics and government -- 476-1268 Subject Italy Rome (Empire) Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781107028401 110702840X 9781283870603 1283870606 9781139236171 1139236172 9781139625784 1139625780 9781139612760 113961276X

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