Cassiodorus

(c. 490 - c. 585)

Born around 490 in present-day Italy, Cassiodorus served as a civil servant under Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great and other rulers. In 537 he published his twelve-book Variae, a collection of his official writings, and around 540 he retired to found a monastery, which he named Vivarium, creating there a grand library that conserved many Greek and Roman texts.