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CHAPTER 10
Urban Life and Culture
Deborah M. DeliyannisIntroduction
When examining urban life in the Ostrogothic period, we are faced with
contradictory sources of information. On the one hand, there are many writ-
ten sources that report ideals about cities that Theoderic and his successors
wished to promote. On the other hand, archaeology, inscriptions, and docu-
mentary sources sometimes provide a countervailing picture. For example, the
letters recorded by Cassiodorus in the Variae heavily promote the idea that
Roman cities are being revived and even improved by Theoderic, with the full
range of amenities enjoyed by Romans. There is some archaeological evidence
to support that this was happening, especially in Ravenna and Rome, but in
other cities there is material evidence that it was not happening.1
The most ironic testimony to the divergence between ideal and reality is
Variae 8.31. In it, Cassiodorus praises cities as the location of education, cul-
ture, and government:
Let the cities return, then, to their original glory; let no one prefer the
delights of the countryside to the public buildings of the ancients. How
can you shun in time of peace a place for which wars should be fought to
prevent its destruction? Who does not welcome a gathering of noblemen?
Who does not enjoy conversing with his peers, visiting the forum, looking
on at honest crafts, advancing his own cases by the laws, or sometimes
playing at checkers, going to the baths with his fellows, exchanging splen-
did dinner parties? He who wishes to lead his life in the constant company
of his slaves will assuredly lack all these things. (trans. Barnish, 1992)The point of the letter, however, is to require that the possessores (landowners)
and curiales (town councillors) return to their cities, and to pay a fine if they
1 For an excellent synthesis of this topic see Fauvinet-Ranson, Decor civitatis, especially
pp. 197–300.