that excellent
institution by which facilities for intercourse were provided between
the capital and the most distant Provinces, relays of post-horses
being kept at every town, available for use by those who bore properly
signed 'letters of evection.' Thus to the multifarious duties of the
Master of the Offices was added in effect the duty of
Postmaster-General. It was found however in practice to be an
inconvenient arrangement for the Master of the Offices to have the
control of the services of the 'public horses,' while the Praetorian
Praefect remained responsible for the supply of their food; and the
charge of the _Cursus Publicus_ was accordingly retransferred--at any
rate in the Eastern Empire--to the office of the Praefect, though the
letters of evection still required the counter-signature of the
Master[52].

[Footnote 51: They are 'Scutariorum prima, secunda et tertia,
armaturarum seniorum et gentilium seniorum' (Notitia Occidentis, cap.
ix.).]

[Footnote 52: This is the account of the matter given by Lydus (De
Magistratibus ii. 10); but as the Notitia (Or. xi.) puts the 'Curiosus
Cursus Publici Praesentalis' under the disposition of the Magister
Officiorum, the retransfer had probably not then taken place. It would
seem also from the Formula of Cassiodorus (Var. vi. 6) that in his
time the Magister Officiorum still had the charge of the Cursus
Publicus.]

[Sidenote: Death of Theodoric, Aug. 30, 526.]

Such was the position of Cassiodorus when, on the 30th of August, 526,
by the death of Theodoric, he lost the master whom he had served so
long and so faithfully. The difficulties which beset the new reign are
pretty clearly indicated in the letters which Cassiodorus published in
the name of the young King Athalaric, Theodoric's grandson, and which
are to be found in the Eighth Book of the 'Variae.' Athalaric himself
being only a boy of eight or ten years of age, supreme power was
vested in his mother Amalasuentha, with what title we are unable to
say, but apparently not with that of Queen. This Princess, a woman of
great and varied accomplishments, perhaps once a pupil, certainly a
friend, of Cassiodorus, ruled entirely in accordance with the maxims
of his statesmanship, and endeavoured with female impulsiveness to
carry into effect his darling scheme of Romanising the Goths. During
the whole of her regency we may doubtless consider Cassiodorus as
virtually her Prime Minister, and the eight years which it o