The rule of the Herulian was short; in less than twenty years he was overthrown by the Goth, and Theodoric came into possession of Rome and undertook the task of organizing a kingdom out of the much harried territory of Italy.
In the later portion of his reign, after the city had been favored with a few years of peace and of freedom from the dread of invasion, there was some revival of intellectual and literary interests. Cassiodorus, prætor, prefect, quæstor, and later “master of the offices,” won fame as court orator and official letter-writer. He wrote a Gothic history in twelve books (which has disappeared), and a collection of letters and state-papers entitled Variæ, also in twelve books. Of greater permanent importance was the work of the philosopher Boëthius. Hodgkin says of him:
“Boëthius was the skilful mechanic who constructed the water-clock and sun-dial for the King of the Burgundians ... a man of great and varied accomplishments—philosopher, theologian, musician, and mathematician. He had translated thirty books of Aristotle into Latin for the benefit of his countrymen; his treatise on music was for many centuries the authoritative exposition of the science of harmony.”[294]
His greatest work was The Consolation of Philosophy, which was composed while the philosopher was in prison awaiting sentence of death. This was rendered into English by King Alfred and by Geoffrey Chaucer; translations were made into every European tongue, and copies were to be found in every mediæval convent library. The Consolation is written partly in prose and partly in verse. Hodgkin is of opinion that its writer was at the time a Christian.
The production of this work is the only literary event which marks the rule of Rome by the Goths, and in fact, unless we include the “master of the offices,” Cassiodorus, with his court orations and courtly letters, there appeared during the time no other writer of whose work record has remained. We can infer that some means existed in connection either with the Court or with the convents for the production of copies of the Consolation and of the translation of Aristotle. The latter work, having been prepared, as its translator says, “for the benefit of his countrymen,” was evidently planned for some general circulation.
As there is no evidence of the existence at the time of any bookselling machinery, it is probable that for the multiplication and distribution of his volumes, Boëthius depended upon the scribes of the Church and upon the connections with each other of the convents throughout Europe. It is undoubtedly through the libraries of the convents (the only places in Europe which were to any extent protected against ravages of war) that the Consolation was preserved.
After the death of Theodoric, Italy became the camping ground and the fighting place for successive hordes of Lombards, Saracens, and Franks. Social organization must have almost disappeared. Of scholarly or literary production there is again for some centuries hardly a trace. Inter arma silent styli. What intellectual life, outside of the monasteries, was still active in Europe must be looked for at the Court of the Greek Emperors of Constantinople.
CHAPTER VI.
Constantinople.