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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bjornlie, M. Shane, 1969- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought ; 4th ser., 89.

Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought ; 4th ser., 89

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580. Variae.

Cassiodorus.

Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580--Political and social views.

Rome--History--Germanic Invasions, 3rd-6th centuries.

Rome.

Italy--Politics and government--476-1268.

Italy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 370 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Politics & Tradition Between Rome, Ravenna & Constantinople

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 and to analyse the collection's wider historical context. M. Shane Bjornlie highlights the insights the Variae provide into early medieval political, ecclesiastical, fiscal and legal affairs and the influence of the political and military turbulence of Justinian's reconquest of Italy and of political and cultural exchanges between Italy and Constantinople. The book also explores how Cassiodorus revised, updated and assembled the Variae for publication and what this reveals about his motives for publishing an epistolary record and for his own political life at a crucial period of transformation for the Roman world.

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.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-61090-2

1-107-23702-5

1-139-60914-9

1-139-62578-0

1-139-61276-X

1-139-61648-X

1-139-23617-2

1-283-87060-6

1-139-62206-4

OCLC:

823710290