ABSTRACT
The execution of Boethius marks the close of an era for the historian of philosophy in a way far more absolute than it could do for the investigator of political or more broadly cultural events. So far from signalling the end of the Roman Empire, Boethius’ death may have contributed to the fall of the Gothic Kingdom and Justinian’s rule over Italy. Boethius’ immediate successor as master of the offices under Theodoric was Cassiodorus, a man of wide reading and considerable intelligence. He retired later in life to found the monastery of Vivarium, a centre which was of great importance in preserving classical texts. Cassiodorus was an historian, a theologian (in a minor way) and the writer of the Institutiones, a textbook outlining a basic scheme of education. The work contains a section (109-29) on the divisions of philosophy and logic; but this neither added significantly to the stock of antique philosophical ideas otherwise transmitted, nor showed any originality of thought.
