appears a very short anonymous tract on the method of determining
Easter, called 'Computus Paschalis,' and composed in 562. In the
'Orthographia,' which was undoubtedly written by Cassiodorus at the
age of 93, and which contains a list of his previously published
works, no mention is made of this 'Computus.' It must therefore, say
the supporters of the theory, have been written after he was 93. He
must have been at least 94 in 562, and the year of his birth must be
put back at least to 468. In this argument there are two absolutely
worthless links. There is no evidence to show that the 'Computus
Paschalis' came from the pen of Cassiodorus at all, but much reason to
think that Pithoeus, the editor who first published it under his name,
was mistaken in doing so. And if it were his, a little memorandum like
this--only two pages long, and with no literary pretension
whatever--we may almost say with certainty would _not_ be included by
the veteran author in the enumeration of his theological works
prefixed to his 'Orthographia.'

The reason why a theory founded on such an absurdly weak basis has
held its ground at all, has probably been that it buttressed up
another obvious fallacy. A whole school of biographers of Cassiodorus
and commentators on his works has persisted, in spite of the plainest
evidence of his letters, in identifying him with his father, who bore
office under Odovacar (476-493). To do this it was necessary to get
rid of the date 480 for the birth of Cassiodorus Senator, and to throw
back that event as far as possible. And yet, not even by pushing it
back to 468, do they make it reasonably probable that a person, who
was only a child of eight years old at Odovacar's accession, could in
the course of his short reign (the last four years of which were
filled by his struggle with Theodoric) have held the various high
offices which were really held during that reign by the father of