Editing Dionysius Exiguus (section)

==Origins==
According to his friend and fellow-student, [[Cassiodorus]], Dionysius, although by birth a "[[Scythian]]", was in character a true Roman, most learned in both tongues (by which he meant Greek and Latin).<ref>''Dionysius Monachus, Scytha natione, sed moribus omnino Romanus, in utraque lingua valde doctissimus''. {{cite book|title=De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum|author=Cassiodorus|language=la|chapter-url=http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0485-0585,_Cassiodorus_Vivariensis_Abbas,_De_Institutione_Divinarum_Litterarum,_MLT.pdf|chapter=Chapter XXIII}} At the ''[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/ Documenta Catholica Omnia]'' online library.</ref> He was also a thorough [[State church of the Roman Empire|catholic]] Christian and an accomplished Scripturist.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05010b.htm Dionysius Exiguus in the Catholic Encyclopedia.]</ref> The use of such an ambiguous, dated term as "[[Scythians|Scythian]]" raises the suspicion that his contemporaries had difficulties classifying him, either from lack of knowledge about him personally or about his native land, [[Scythia Minor (Roman province)|Scythia Minor]].<ref name="Amory-2003">{{cite book |first=Patrick |last=Amory |title=People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003}}</ref>{{rp|127}} By the 6th century, the term "Scythian" could mean an inhabitant of Scythia Minor, or simply someone from the north-east of the Greco-Roman world, centred on the Mediterranean. The term had a widely encompassing meaning, devoid of clear ethnic attributes.<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|127}} Even for the "Scythian monk" [[Joannes Maxentius]], friend and companion of Dionysius, the two monks are "Scythian" by virtue of their geographical origin relative to Rome, just as [[Faustus of Riez]] is a "[[Gallia|Gaul]]".<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|127}}

The dubious assertion, based on a single Syriac source, that the [[Eastern Roman|Eastern-Roman]] rebel general [[Vitalian (general)|Vitalian]], to whom Dionysius seems to have been related, was of [[Goths|Gothic]] extraction was the basis for labelling, without any further evidence, all of the [[Scythian monks]], Dionysius included, as "Goths".<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|128}} In Greek and Latin sources, Vitalian is sometimes labelled with the same ambiguous term "Scytha"; he is presented as commanding "Hunnic", "Gothic", "Scythian", "[[Bessi]]an" soldiers, but this information says more about the general's military endeavours, and bears little relevance to clarifying his origins. Furthermore, since none of the Scythian monks expressed any kinship, by blood or spiritual, with the [[Arianism|Arian]] Goths who at that time ruled Italy, a Gothic origin for Dionysius is questionable.<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|130}} Vitalian seems to have been of local Latinised [[Thracians|Thracian]] stock, born in Scythia Minor or in [[Moesia]]; his father bore a Latin name, Patriciolus, while two of his sons had Thracian names and one a Gothic name.<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|129}} By the time of the flourishing of the Scythian monks, the provinces from the Lower Danube, long since Latinised, were already a centre for the production of Latin-speaking theologians. Most likely Dionysius was also of local [[Thraco-Roman]] origin (romanized [[Getae|Geto]]–[[Dacians|Dacian]]), like Vitalian's family to whom he was related, and the rest of the Scythian monks and other Thraco-Roman personalities of the era ([[Justin I]], [[Justinian]], [[Flavius Aetius]], etc.).<ref name="Amory-2003"/>{{rp|130–131}}