222

Raf Praet

to a high official of the imperial consistory.15 As well as to Zoticus, he attributed his
initial successes to emperor Anastasius I, whose intellectualist policies he praises in
his de Magistratibus f During his long career in this department, he rose to the pres-
tigious high office of cornicularius. His learnedness attracted the attention of no less
than Emperor Justinian himself, who invited him to deliver an encomium around 532
and commissioned from him a history of the Persian Wars. Perhaps around 543, under
the urban prefecture of Gabriel, Lydus was appointed to a chair of Latin language
and literature at the ‘university’17 of Constantinople.18 He composed two of his erudite
treatises, On the Months {de Mensibus) and On Portents {de Ostentis\ during his early
teaching, and dedicated them to Gabriel.19 The tract On the Months deals with the Ro-
man calendar. The treatise On Portents is a compilation on various portents, with trans-
lations by Lydus from Latin into Greek.20 After his retirement from the prefecture in
552, he embarked on the redaction of an ambitious treatise, On the Magistracies of the
Roman State {de Magistratibus reipublicae Romanae), in which he describes different
military and civil institutions of the Romans, from their mythological origins up to
the present. He probably also continued his teaching after his retirement from office,
and died between AD 557 and 561.21
As a professor of Latin in Constantinople, Lydus could have attracted a wide and
variegated audience. In this paper, therefore, we will not only consider the unilateral
connections between John Malalas and John the Lydian. As a testimony to an exist-
ing common historiographical culture in sixth-century Constantinople, we shall also
consider the possible connections between John the Lydian, John Malalas and a third
contemporary from the Latin West, namely Cassiodorus.
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (ca. AD 485 - ca. AD 5 85)22 served
under the Ostrogothic king Theoderic and his successors until the collapse of the
kingdom under the assaults of the Byzantine armies (535 - ca. 540). During his long
bureaucratic career, Cassiodorus functioned as member of a core of trusted individuals
and advisers to the Ostrogothic king.23 As quaestor he was active in legal drafting for
the government,24 and his service culminated with his appointment to the office of
praetorian prefect of Italy. During his long political career, he used his pen, as many of
15 Bjornlie (2013), p. 47.
16 Lydus, de Magistratibus III 26.1-4; Maas (1992), pp. 28-29), Bjornlie (2013), p. 114.
17 In order to avoid the controversies surrounding the precise nature of this “institution of higher educa-
tion” (Kazhdan 1991, p. 2143), we use the term university as a conventional term.
18 Lydus, de Magistratibus III 26.1-III 30.10; cf. Chastagnol (i960), p. 65 n. 58, Maas (1992), pp. 35-36, Kelly
(2004), p. 13, Bjornlie (2013), p. 114. Treadgold (2007), p. 261 proposed the earlier date of around AD 533
for Lydus’ professorship.
19 PLRE IIIA, s.n. Gabrielius 1, p. 498, Maas (1992), p. 10, Kaldellis (2003), p. 313,Treadgold (2007), p. 261.
20 Maas (1992), p. 107.
21 Maas (1992), p. 11.
22 An overview of the life and works of Cassiodorus can be found in O’Donnell (1979), Bjornlie (2013),
pp. 16-19.
23 Bjornlie (2013), p. 28.
24 Bjornlie (2013), p. 17.