formulas dictionum, quas in duodecim libris ordinavit et
Variarum titulum superposuit] scripsit praecipiente
Theodoricho rege historiam Gothicam, originem eorum et loca
moresque XII libris annuntians.'

This memorandum, for it is hardly more, is a vestige, and the only
vestige now remaining, of a short tract by Cassiodorus on the literary
history of his family and kinsmen. The 'Excerpta' have been made by
some later hand--perhaps that of a monk in the Vivarian convent. To
him undoubtedly we owe the words 'monachi servi Dei' as a description
of Cassiodorus; probably also the 'ex-Patricio,' which is perhaps an
incorrect designation. 'Vir eruditissimus,' in the last paragraph, is
probably due to the same hand, as, with all his willingness to do
justice to his own good qualities, Cassiodorus would hardly have
spoken thus of himself in a work avowedly proceeding from his own pen.
The clause which is placed in brackets [et ... superposuit] is
probably also due to the copyist, anxious to supply what he deemed the
imperfections of his memorandum. In short, it must be admitted that
the fragment cannot consist of the very words of Cassiodorus in
however abbreviated a form. Still it contains so much that is
valuable, and that could hardly have been invented by any writer of a
post-Cassiodorian age, that it is well worthy of the careful and, so
to speak, microscopical examination to which it has been subjected by
Usener.

[Sidenote: Date of the fragment.]

[Sidenote: Persons to whom addressed.]

The work from which these 'Excerpta' are taken was composed, according