Bishops, Ecclesiastical Institutions, and the Ostrogothic Regime 455
group of Jews, and imprisoned at the royal palace.14 The bishop was finally
released when an intercepted letter thrown to the besiegers by a Jew revealed
plans to betray the city in exchange for the protection of property and the per-
sonal safety of members of the local Jewish community.15
One can imagine that, like the Jews of Arles, the clergy of Aosta had accused
their bishop of collusion with the Burgundians in order to dissociate them-
selves from the careless posturing of the prelate, and to prevent the victori-
ous troops of the general Ibba upon return from Provence from dispossessing
the church of its possessiones.16 Such episodes are variously described in the
letters that Theoderic sent to churches and private individuals during the
months of war in Provence. The sum of 1,500 solidi was sent to Severus, bishop
of a region through which the Ostrogothic army passed on the way to Gaul,
to be distributed to landowners who had suffered damage. The compensation
was paid in 508, the same year in which the looting had occurred.17 Not long
afterwards Theoderic ordered Gemellus, the vicarius praefectorum in Gaul,
to reinstate the lands and possessions of the spectabilis Magnus who, having
sided with the Franks during the war, decided to return to Ostrogothic rule.18
Around 509, Ibba was also commissioned to return to the church of Narbonne
properties that Alaric II had acknowledged as pertaining to it, and to protect
these properties from misappropriation.19
As Narbonne was also fought over by the Visigoths, Burgundians, and the
Ostrogoths the appropriation of a Nicene church’s possessions may have been
a retaliatory measure against a bishop who was too quick to side (or was so
accused) with the Burgundians. In this situation, the clergy sought the patron-
age of Ibba, the same Gothic (and Arian) general to whom Theoderic had sent
the letter. This is confirmed by the commendation for an act of religious piety
which, according to the king, would have earned his army the helpful support
of the divinity and, as an expression of civilitas, would have added to the dis-
tinction he already enjoyed for his military virtue: “Therefore, be extremely
14 Vita S. Caesarii 1.29–30, ed. Bona, pp. 94–6; Klingshirn, Cesarius of Arles, pp. 108–10.
15 Vita S. Caesarii 1.31, ed. Bona, p. 96.
16 For Ibba and the Gallic campaign, see Delaplace, “La ‘Guerre de Provence’ (507–11)”, p. 84
and Arnold in this volume.
17 Cass., Va r. 2.8, ed. Fridh, p. 61: “praesenti anno exercitu nostro transeunte”; cf. Sirago, “Gli
Ostrogoti in Gallia”, pp. 67–9.
18 Cass., Va r. 3.18, ed. Fridh, p. 110, line 8: “ad Romanum repatriavit imperium.”
19 Cass., Va r. 4.17, ed. Fridh, p. 154, lines 6–13.