s--which are suggested by Usener.]

[Sidenote: Contents of the Anecdoton Holderi.]

'Excerpta ex libello Cassiodori Senatoris monachi servi Dei,
ex-Patricio, ex-Consule Ordinario Quaestore et Magistro
Officiorum, quem scripsit ad Rufum Petronium Nicomachum
ex-Consule Ordinario Patricium et Magistrum Officiorum. Ordo
generis Cassiodororum[98]: qui scriptores exstiterint ex
eorum progenie vel ex civibus[99] eruditis.

[Footnote 98: In the original, 'Casiodoru.']

[Footnote 99: In the original, 'ex quibus.']

'Symmachus Patricius et Consul Ordinarius, vir philosophus,
qui antiqui Catonis fuit novellus imitator, sed virtutes
veterum sanctissima religione transcendit. Dixit sententiam
pro allecticiis in Senatu, parentesque suos imitatus
historiam quoque Romanam septem libris edidit.

'Boethius dignitatibus summis excelluit. Utraque lingua
peritissimus orator fuit. Qui regem Theodorichum in Senatu
pro Consulatu filiorum luculenta oratione laudavit. Scripsit
librum de Sancta Trinitate et capita quaedam dogmatica et
librum contra Nestorium. Condidit et carmen bucolicum. Sed
in opere artis logicae, id est dialecticae, transferendo ac
mathematicis disciplinis talis fuit ut antiquos auctores aut
aequiperaret aut vinceret.

'Cassiodorus Senator, vir eruditissimus et multis
dignitatibus pollens. Juvenis adeo, dum patris Cassiodori
Patricii et Praefecti Praetorii Consiliarius fieret et
laudes Theodorichi regis Gothorum facundissime recitasset,
ab eo Quaestor est factus. Patricius et Consul Ordinarius,
postmodum dehinc Magister Officiorum [et praefuisset
formulas dictionum, quas in duodecim libris ordinavit et
Variarum titulum superposuit] scripsit praecipiente
Theodoricho rege historiam Gothicam, originem eorum et loca
moresque XII libris annuntians.'

This memorandum, for it is hardly more, is a vestige, and the only
vestige now remaining, of a short tract by Cassiodorus on the literary
history of his family and kinsmen. The 'Excerpta' have been made by
some later hand--perhaps that of a monk in the Vivarian convent. To
him undoubtedly we owe the words 'monachi servi Dei' as a description
of Cassiodorus; probably also the 'ex-Patricio,' which is perhaps an
incorrect designation. 'Vir eruditissimus,' in the last paragraph, is
probably due to the same hand, as, with all his willing