The Senate at Rome in Ostrogothic Italy 137
group seems to have worked, as evidenced in the willingness of the senatorial
elite to play along. Together with the clergy and the people of Rome, senators
approached Theoderic on his way into the city to welcome him. The participa-
tion of the Senate signalled the success of Theoderic’s adventus in Rome and a
similar assessment can be made for the adventus of Eutharic in late 518 and for
his consular games, held in the Colosseum in 519.107
Senatorial Conflicts Toward the End of Theoderic’s Reign and
under His Successors
The situation changed, however, in the second part of Theoderic’s reign. What
had become problematic over the years was a tension between some members
of families regarded as homines novi influential at the court in Ravenna and
those established old families who had long been courted, but who had some-
what lost their former position. Often these political tensions resulted from
economic causes or, in some cases, from political activity that had an impact
on economic viability.108 To these two dimensions of possible tension a third
can be added, regarding the relation of many old senatorial families to the
eastern Roman sphere and especially to the imperial court at Constantinople.109
A mixture of these various and often hardly distinguishable developments
led to frequent conflicts between members of the senatorial elite themselves
and between the elite and the Amal kings towards the end of Theoderic’s
reign and especially after his death.
The Affair Concerning Boethius
In the late period of Theoderic’s reign several issues remained unresolved con-
cerning Theoderic’s political position, when Boethius’ famous treason case
occurred. After the resolution of the Acacian schism (itself a source of senato-
rial friction), which had brought a rapprochement between the churches of
107 Anonymus Valesianus 65 and 80, ed. König; Cassiodorus, Chronica 518–519, ed. Mommsen.
108 As an example of such a case the fight for the estates of Paulinus (PLRE II, p. 847) can
be mentioned in which Boethius claims to have saved Paulinus’ estates from “canes
Palatinae”, here possibly a disparaging expression for members of the northern Italian
senatorial elite; see Boethius, Philosophiae Consolatio. 1.4.13, ed. Bieler and Schäfer,
Der weströmische Senat, pp. 145ff.
109 Burgarella, “Il senato”, p. 138.