Alcuin's[4] occurs the line

'Cassiodorus item Chrysostomus atque Johannes,'

showing that the termination _rus_ was generally accepted as early as
the eighth century. It is therefore to be hoped that this is the form
which may finally prevail.

[Footnote 4: De Pontificibus et Sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracensis, p. 843
of Migne's Second Volume of Alcuin's Works. I owe this quotation to
Adolph Franz.]

[Sidenote: Senator.]

Senator, it is clear, was part of the original name of Cassiodorus,
and not a title acquired by sitting in the Roman Senate. It seems a
curious custom to give a title of this kind to an infant as part of
his name, but the well-known instance of Patricius (St. Patrick) shows
that this was sometimes done, and there are other instances
(collected by Thorbecke, p. 34) of this very title Senator being used
as a proper name.

It is clear from Jordanes (who calls the Gothic History of Cassiodorus
'duodecem Senatoris volumina de origine actibusque Getarum[5]'), from
Pope Vigilius (who speaks of 'religiosum virum filium nostrum
Senatorem[6]'), from the titles of the letters written by
Cassiodorus[7], and from his punning allusions to his own name and the
love to the Senate which it had prophetically expressed, that Senator
was a real name and not a title of honour.