staff for Justinian, ending in 539. Cassiodorus' last ghost writing for the Gothic kings was done for Witiges, who was removed to Constantinople in 540. A number of token kings ruled from there while Belisarius established that the Goths were not going to reinvade and retake Italy (which was however taken again by the Lombards after Justinian's death). Cassiodorus retired in 540 to his home town of Squillace, where he used his wealth to build a monastery with school and library, Vivarium. Authors cited by Getica The events, persons and peoples of Getica are put forward as being up to many centuries prior to the time of Jordanes. Taken at face value, they precede any other history of Scandinavia. Jordanes does cite some writers well before his time, to whose works he had access but we do not, and other writers whose works are still extant. Mierow gives a summary of these, which is reviewed below, and also states other authors he believed were used by Jordanes but were not cited in Getica (refer to the Mierow source cited below). Mierow's list of cited authors is summarized as follows: Ablabius. Otherwise unknown historian, author of the work Gothorum gentis ("of the Gothic people"), now lost. Dexippus on the Vandals and the Heruli. Dio, either Dio Cassius or Dio Chrysostom, author of another Getica. Description of Britain in Jordanes. Fabius. Otherwise unknown, author of a work including the siege of Ravenna, now missing. Josephus in IV.29, brief mention of the Goths as Scyths. Livy, brief mention in II.10. Lucan on the Amali, V.43. Pompeius Trogus, now known only in Justinus' epitome of Historiae Philippicae. Pomponius Mela. Priscus. Events concerning Attila. Ptolemy on Scandinavia in Getica Part III. Strabo. Authority on Britain. Symmachus. Copies of his copies from Julius Capitolinus on Maximinus. Tacitus. Authority on Britain. Virgil. The Late Latin of Jordanes The early Late Latin of Jordanes evidences a certain variability in the structure of the language which has been taken as an indication that the author no longer had a clear standard of correctness. Jordanes tells us in Getica that he interrupted work on the Romana to write Getica, and then finished Romana. Jordanes states in Romana that he wrote it in the 24th year of the emperor Justinian, which began April 1, 551. In Getica he mentions a plague of nine years previous. This is probably the Plague of