468 Lizzi Testa
protection and rural Christianity developed along the same model, as
6th-century Gothic Arian rulers believed that granting privileges to the Nicene
churches would obtain, in addition to their terrestrial support, God’s mercy.
As Roman emperors had never (except in very rare cases) gone too far in
their policy of privileges to bishops, clergy, and churches, so, too, Ostrogothic
kings took great care in dealing with requests for exemptions.78 Justinian
appreciated this attitude, as evidenced by a letter to the emperor from King
Theodahad in 535. The latter, in the face of complaints from God’s servants,
did not immediately grant the requested tax exemption, but sent an inspector
to the monastery.79 The countryside in Ostrogothic Italy was also populated
by female estate managers (dominae), in this case not lay owners but famulae
Dei (God’s servants) who were treated as dominae in fiscal matters because the
monastery was maintained through revenues of the land they had been given.
It must be assumed that even the properties of viri Dei and those of male mon-
asteries in Ostrogothic Italy were governed by those relations of ‘convenient
taxation’ that Theodahad wanted to preserve as evidence of the ability of the
Ostrogothic king to ensure a society functioning on a rational and civil basis.
In fact the Christianity of Ostrogothic Italy remained a favoured Christianity,
but legal limits to the enrichment of the churches were the same as those for-
merly established in imperial legislation. This continuity is demonstrated by
the harsh response of Theoderic to a bishop, who assumed he would enjoy
the unlimited benevolence of the king: “the landowner will be satisfied with
a reduced rate of tax; tribute belongs to the purple, not to prelates wearing
rich robes”.80 The Thesaurus linguae Latinae suggests an explanation of the
phrase attributing metonymic value to the two terms: as purpura indicates
the Roman emperor who wore robes with a purple hem, thus the lacerna as
a common garment could be a reference to ordinary citizens. The expression
could essentially be translated as “tribute belongs to the king, not to private
citizens”.81 Yet while the metonymy expressed by purpura appears obvious, less
clear is the meaning implicit in lacerna, which does not seem to have been
a common enough item of clothing in Ostrogothic Italy so as to identify it
78 Constantine himself recalibrated exemptions to churches after 329. See Lizzi Testa,“The
Bishop, Vir Venerabilis”, pp. 132–6. On the behaviour of Roman emperors toward eco-
nomic issues see Vera, “Una carità razionale”, pp. 187–90.
79 Cass., Va r. 10.26, ed. Fridh, pp. 407–8, lines 7–18. Translation by Barnish, The Variae of
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, p. 141.
80 Cass., Va r. 1.26, ed. Fridh, p. 34, lines 18–20.
81 TLL, s. v. lacerna, cc. 823–4.