122 Radtki
illustres. This administration was presided over by the magister officiorum, who
exercised jurisdiction over subordinate officers and functioned as master of
ceremonies. At his side worked the quaestor sacri palatii who was in charge
of diplomatic correspondence and of issuing laws, edicts, and letters of appoint-
ment. The provincial administration presided over by the praefectus praetorio
remained without major alterations of competence.6 Because of Theoderic’s
wish to continue Roman tradition, the dignity and power of the oldest political
committee, the Senate, was preserved, even if in restricted fashion. According
to the Variae, Theoderic intended to involve the Senate with his decisions,
thereby presenting himself as a respectful preserver of the political and insti-
tutional order (vindex libertatis) that envisioned a participatory Senate.7
Before covering the political, economic, and cultural role of the Senate and
its members in the Ostrogothic period, a brief examination of the Senate’s
development in Late Antiquity and under Theoderic’s predecessor, Odovacer,
is provided in order to clarify who constituted the ‘Senate’ and what differ-
entiated a more general elite with senatorial status, the ordo senatorius, from
members of the Senate.
The Late Antique Senate
With regard to the Senate’s political position and its constitution, the devel-
opments of Late Antiquity continued a set of processes that had begun in
the early principate. Already at that time the Senate had lost a considerable
amount of power and influence to the newly installed princeps, but nonethe-
less kept its social prestige and its role as the central decision-making body.
Within Late Antiquity further changes occurred. Although Constantine
valued the Senate, he changed its composition in a crucial way by install-
ing the clarissimate as a new broadened upper class involving the eques-
trian elite and the municipal aristocracy.8 Furthermore, he created a second
Senate in Constantinople.9 Instead of the classical hierarchy of offices, a new
6 Ausbüttel, Theoderich, p. 80.
7 See e.g. Cassiodorus, Variae 1.3, 1.4, 1.12, 1.13, 1.30, 1.42–44, ed. Mommsen or for more examples
Arnold, Theoderic, pp. 209f.
8 Panegyrici Latini 2(12).20.1, ed. Müller-Rettig.
9 There is considerable scholarship on this aspect, but given this chapter’s focus on the
6th century, the references here are limited to general introductions on the Senate under
Constantine, such as Heather, “New Men” and “Senators and Senates”.