Whatever the local details, it was from this feature that the house took its name, Monasterium Vivariense.
Here, then, I stood in full view of the spot which I had so often visioned in my mind's eye.

Much of the land hereabout--probably an immense tract of hill and valley--was the old monk's patrimonial estate.

We can trace his family back through three generations, to a Cassiodorus, an Illustris of the falling Western Empire, who about the middle of them fifth century defended his native Bruttii against an invasion of the Vandals.

The grandson of this noble was a distinguished man all through the troubled time which saw Italy pass under the dominion of Odovacar, and under the conquest of Theodoric; the Gothic king raised him to the supreme office of Praetorian Prefect.

We learn that he had great herds of horses, bred in the Bruttian forests, and that Theodoric was indebted to him for the mounting of troops of cavalry.