ABSTRACT
A strong case can be made, on the basis of the identity and careers of the scholars of the postRoman period, that scholarship and literature were dominated by the Roman heritage. The writings that we have from the late fifth and sixth centuries are mostly the work of men who came from the Roman senatorial aristocracy, and had been shaped by Roman classical education. In the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy, two of the most notable scholars were Cassiodorus (485/90-c.580) and Boethius (480-524). Cassiodorus, the author of a compilation of the official correspondence of the Ostrogothic kings called the Variae, of the Divine and Human Institution, and of a chronicle on which Jordanes based his History of the Goths, was the scion of a senatorial family. Boethius, chiefly known for his The Consolation of Philosophy, a masterpiece of philosophy which came to be important to later Christian scholars, was also a senator, and in his case he was accused by the Ostrogothic king, Theoderic, of collaborating with the east Roman government against the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and he was imprisoned and executed. Indeed, the consolation of philosophy which he sought in the book of that title was needed during his prior imprisonment. Somewhat later, but also in Italy, another man of senatorial extraction, who was the son of a senator and prefect of the city of Rome in 573, was Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604, and the author of a series of Christian works: the Dialogues (a work on the lives of Italian saints, including the author of the Rule of St Benedict composed in the form of dialogues
between Gregory and his deacon Peter); The Pastoral Care (a book about how rulers, including bishops, should act, later to be thought to be especially applicable to secular rulers); and The Moralia on Job (a book seeking to convey the teachings of Christianity through a commentary on the Old Testament book of Job, who was notable for patiently suffering God’s retribution sitting on a dunghill)
We can see a similar pattern in the kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain, where one of the most prominent scholars was Isidore of Seville (c.560-636), who came from a noble Roman family in the province of Cartagena, his father having fled to Seville from the incursions of the Visigoths. He was a prolific author, and his works include a sort of encyclopaedia called the Etymologies, and a Great Chronicle from the creation of the world, as described in the Bible, to the year 636. Likewise in Gaul, prominent scholars included Gregory of Tours (c.540-94), who came from a GalloRoman senatorial family and was the author not only of the History of the Franks, which we have had frequent occasions to consult, but also of eight books of miracles of saints. Finally, Venantius Fortunatus (c.535-c.610), the author of eleven books of poems, a Life of St Martin in verse, and lives of other saints of Gaul, was born in Italy and educated at the Roman schools of Ravenna, before his career in Gaul.
