CASSINO

From Agepedia

CASSINO ; a game at cards, in which four are dealt to each player, four being also placed on the board. The object is to take as many cards as possible, by making combinations. Thus a ten in the player's hand will take a ten from the board, or any number of cards which can be made to combine into tens. The greatest number of cards reckons three points, and of spades, one; the ten of diamonds, two; the two of spades, one and each of the aces, one. CASSIODORUS, Marcus Aurelius, g learned Roman, lived at the time of the dominion of the Ostrogoths, and contributed to the promotion and preservation of learning. He was born at Squillace (Scylaceum), 480 A. D., or, as some say, 470, filled several public offices in Rome, and became secretary of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric, but, in 537, voluntarily retired to a monastery in Calabria, where he died, 577. He made the monks of his convent copy the manuscripts of the ancient authors, and his book De Septem Disciplinis liberalibus," in which he treated of the trivium and quadrivium, and inserted extracts from the ancient classic literature, was of much value in the middle ages. For Theodoric he also wrote his compilation of letters, Variorum Epistolarum Li^riXII. He likewise composed Historia Gothorum (a History of the Goths), of which we have an epitome by Jornancles, and several theological works of little importance. His works have been collected by J. Caret (Venice, 1679, fol.; new edit. 1721).