162 Lafferty
A significant challenge for the Ostrogothic administration was that the sup-
ply of skilled judges and other magistrates who could effectively uphold the
law was extremely scarce. Concerning provincial governors, only twelve are
known for Italy between 476 and 553—a significant drop from the thirty-three
governors attested for the peninsula between 394 and 476.52 Over the course
of the 6th century military officers like the Gothic saio (plural saiones) and
comes (plural comites) began to supersede the traditional civil service (militia
Romana) in terms of importance in the overall administration of the courts.53
The jurisdiction of lesser officials was significantly curtailed as a result. The
defensor civitatis, for instance, once an important feature of late Roman gov-
ernment, was reduced to little more than a paper-pusher: rather than serving
as a local protector and representative of the central administration, by the
6th century this officer was mostly responsible for registering records in the
municipal archives (gesta municipalia).54
The number of civic magistrates seems to have declined also. In ET 52, we
read that transactions were to be witnessed and a record drawn up in the pres-
ence of a specified number of municipal officials, as had been done in the
empire. But the compilers acknowledged that the availability of such magis-
trates could pose a problem: “but if these [officials] are not available, the reg-
istering of the transaction shall be fulfilled in another municipality which has
these officers, or let a report of what was given be forwarded to the governor
of that province.”55
Just as important as the quantity of judges was their quality. As in the later
Roman Empire, officers of the royal bureaucracy were expected to fulfil any
number of functions on behalf of the king. Under this administrative preroga-
tive a judge was any officer who possessed executive authority, such as a count,
duke, governor, or prefect. In other words, there was no branch of government
dedicated exclusively to the maintenance of the law. This lack of a professional
judiciary meant that the majority of judges performed their duties without
the benefit of significant legal training or expertize. This was particularly true
of the military courts. The duces and comites, before whom cases involving
52 Martindale, PLRE 2, pp. 1278–9; Barnwell, Emperor, p. 158.
53 Sinnigen, “Administrative Shifts”, pp. 456–67; Brown, Gentlemen and Officers, pp. 61–81,
93–101; Lafferty, Law and Society, ch. 3; Bjornlie in this volume.
54 ET 52. On the decline of the office of defensor civitatis in Late Antiquity, see Frakes, “Some
Hidden Defensores Civitatum”, pp. 526–32; id., “Late Roman Social Justice”, pp. 337–48,
where he argues that the office existed as early as 319; id., Contra Potentium Iniurias.
55 ET 52: “... qui si defuerint, in alia civitate, quae haec habuerit, allegationis firmitas
impleatur, aut apud iudicem eiusdem provinciae, quod donatum fuerit, allegetur.”