strong probability that he
was not present at the long siege of Rome (March, 537, to March, 538),
nor is it likely that he, an elderly civilian, would take much part in
any of the warlike operations that followed. Upon the whole, it seems
probable that during the greater part of this time Cassiodorus was, to
the best of his power, keeping the civil administration together by
virtue of his own authority as Praetorian Praefect, without that
constant reference to the wishes of the Sovereign which would have
been necessary under Theodoric and his daughter. Perhaps, in the
transitional state of things which then prevailed in Italy, with the
power of the Gothic sceptre broken but the sway of the Roman Caesar
not yet firmly established in its stead, men of all parties and both
nationalities were willing that as much as possible of the routine of
government should be carried on by a statesman who was Roman by birth
and culture, but who had been the trusted counsellor of Gothic Kings.

[Sidenote: Dates of later letters.]

I have endeavoured as far as possible to fix the dates of these later
letters. It will be seen that we have one[69] probably belonging to
the year 536, five[70] to 537, and one[71] (possibly) to 538. These
later letters refer chiefly to the terrible famine which followed in
the train of the war, and of which Cassiodorus strenuously laboured to
mitigate the severity.

[Footnote 69: Var. xii. 20.]

[Footnote 70: Var. xii. 22, 23, 24, 27, 28.]

[Footnote 71: Var. xii. 25.]

[Sidenote: End of Cassiodorus' official career.]

It is possible that the Praefect may have continued to hold office
down to the capture of Ravenna in May, 540, which made Witigis a
prisoner, and seemed to bring the Ostrogothic monarchy to an end. Upon
the whole, however, it is rather more probable that in the year 538
or 539 he finally retired from public life. The dates of his letters
will show that there is nothing in them which forbids us to accept
this conclusion; and the fact, if it be a fact, that in 540, when
Belisarius, with his Secretary Procopius in his train, made his
triumphal entry into Ravenna, the late Praefect was no longer there,
but in his native Province of Bruttii, a little lessens the difficulty
of that which still remains most difficult of comprehension, the
entire omission from Procopius' History of the Gothic War of all
mention of the name of Cassiodorus.

[Sidenote: The Variae edited.]

The closing years o