Modern monographs.
All these works, however, are rendered entirely obsolete by three excellent monographs which have recently been published in Germany on the life and writings of Cassiodorus. These are—
Thorbecke.
August Thorbecke's 'Cassiodorus Senator' (Heidelberg, 1867);
Franz.
Adolph Franz's 'M. Aurelius Cassiodorius Senator' (Breslau, 1872); and
Usener.
Hermann Usener's 'Anecdoton Holderi' (Bonn, 1877), described in the [second chapter] of this introduction.
Thorbecke discusses the political, and Franz the religious and literary aspects of the life of their common hero, and between them they leave no point of importance in obscurity. Usener, as we have already seen, brings an important contribution to our knowledge of the subject in presenting us with Holder's fragment; and his Commentary (of eighty pages) on this fragment is a model of patient and exhaustive research. It seems probable that these three authors have really said pretty nearly the last word about the life and writings of Cassiodorus. In addition to these authors many writers of historical works in Germany have of late years incidentally contributed to a more accurate understanding of the life and times of Cassiodorus.
Dahn, in the third section of his 'Könige der Germanen' (Würzburg, 1866), has written a treatise on the political system of the Ostrogoths which is almost a continuous commentary on the 'Variae,' and from which I have derived the greatest possible assistance.