'Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi Flebilis, heu, moestos cogor inire modos.' We would gladly know something more of this 'Bucolic Poem' indited by the universal genius, Boethius. [Sidenote: Cassiodorus.] III. As for _Cassiodorus_ himself, the additional information furnished by this fragment has been already discussed in the foregoing chapter. That he was _Consilarius_ to his father during his Praefecture, and that in that capacity he recited an eloquent panegyric on Theodoric, which was rewarded by his promotion to the high office of the Quaestorship, are facts which we learn from this fragment only; and they are of high importance, not only for the life of Cassiodorus but for the history of Europe at the beginning of the Sixth Century, because they make it impossible to assign to any letter in the 'Variae' an earlier date than 500. CHAPTER III. THE GRADATIONS OF OFFICIAL RANK IN THE LATER EMPIRE. [Sidenote: Official Hierarchy introduced by Diocletian.] It is well known that Diocletian introduced and Constantine perfected an elaborate system of administration under which the titles, functions, order of precedence, and number of attendants of the various officers of the Civil Service as well as of the Imperial army were minutely and punctiliously regulated. This system, which, as forming the pattern upon which the nobility of mediaeval Europe was to a great extent modelled, perhaps deserves even more careful study than it has yet received, is admirably illustrated by the letters of Cassiodorus. The _Notitia Utriusque Imperii_, our copies of which must have been compiled in the early years of the Fifth Century, furnishes us with a picture of official life which, after we have made allowance for the fact that the Empire of the West has shrunk into the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy (with the addition of Dalmatia and some other portions of Illyricum), is almost precisely reproduced in the pages of the 'Various Letters.' In order that the student may understand the full significance of many passages in those letters, and especially of the superscriptions by which each letter is prefaced, it will be well to give a brief outline of the system which existed alike under Theodosius and Theodoric. [Sidenote: Nobilissimi.]