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In the cliff-side where Mons Moscius breaks above the shore are certain rocky caves, and by some it is thought that, in speaking of his fish-preserves, Cassiodorus refers to these. 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.
On my left hand stretched a long fiat-topped mountain, forming the southern slope of the valley we ascended; steep, dark, and furrowed with innumerable torrent-beds, it frowned upon a river that rushed along the ravine at its foot to pour into the sea where the mountain broke as a rugged cliff. This was the Mons Moscius of old time, which sheltered the monastery built by Cassiodorus.
There is no doubt, fortunately, as to the position of the religious house founded by Cassiodorus; it was in the shadow of Mons Moscius, and quite near to the sea. I had marked the spot during my drive up the valley, and now saw it again from this far height, but I could not be satisfied with distant views.
I remember his human face, and his smile of pleasure when I declared all he modestly set before me good and good again. His hospitality sent me on my way rejoicing glad that I had seen the unspeakable little mountain town, thrice glad that I had looked upon Mons Moscius and trodden by the river Pellena. Rain fell in torrents, but I no longer cared.
The ninth century saw Saracen invasion, and then it was, no doubt, that the second religious house under Mons Moscius perished from its place. Thinking over this, I walked away from the cave and climbed again to the railway; my friends also were silent and ruminative.
But high up on the mountain is a church known as S. Maria de Vetere, a name indicating an ancient foundation, which perhaps was no other than the anchorite house of Castellense. About a mile beyond Squillace the line passes by a tunnel through the promontory of Mons Moscius.
That the copyists might write correctly, he digested the works of half a dozen grammarians into a treatise on orthography. There, at the foot of Moscius, did these brethren and their founder live and work.
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