At this time the Ostrogothic kingdom, founded in Italy by Theodoric the Great, was shaken by internal dissensions, of which Justinian resolved to avail himself.
From the 6th century, after the fall of the Ostrogothic power, and the establishment of that of Byzantium in its place in south Italy, the name Calabria was applied to the whole of the south Italian possessions of the Eastern empire, and the name-of the Brittii entirely disappeared; and after the eastern peninsula (the ancient Calabria) had been taken by the Lombards about A.D.
His contemporary, Cassiodorus (c. 480-c. 575), after spending thirty years in the service of the Ostrogothic dynasty at Ravenna, passed the last thirty-three years of his long life on the shores of the Bay of Squillace, where he founded two monasteries and diligently trained their inmates to become careful copyists.
This latter event was soon followed by the overthrow of the Ostrogothic kingdom; but not many years later Italy was again invaded by the Langobardi (Lombards), the last of the great Teutonic migrations.
Being attacked there by two Ostrogothic chiefs he also, in 381, sought the protection of the Roman emperor.