Governmental Administration 53
for their needs (albeit often at the direction of the Gothic court).31 Perhaps
even more interesting is that one-third of the proposed annual income (the
portion allotted to local municipal budgets) is quite close (22,500 solidi) to the
21,600 solidi that Theodahad proposed as annual tribute to Justinian as a con-
cession at the beginning of the Gothic War.32
The consumption of fiscal revenues at the local level obviously narrows the
resources available for palatine expenditures. Calculating two-thirds of the
hypothetical income of the state with the salaries of common soldiers, who
received a salary compatible with lower-level bureaucrats, may bring the scale
of the bureaucracy into better focus. Letters 5.10 and 5.11 stipulate the pay-
ment of 3 solidi per soldier in preparation for the campaign in Gaul in 507.
Unfortunately, it is not known whether this was merely a supplement for
the occasion, a monthly allowance, or an annual salary. A popular charioteer
received 2 solidi per month while sailors were offered a donative of 5 solidi
for enlistment.33 For the sake of argument, one might postulate the 3 solidi
a thrice annual payment, which would correspond to the traditional sched-
ule for payments to Roman soldiers. In this case the court’s annual income of
45,000 could support 5000 civil servants, a small group of officials by compari-
son to Constantinople but a respectable corps nonetheless. However, many
officials (such as the domestici of letter 9.13) will have received higher pay than
the average soldier. Using an estimate for earlier imperial bureaus, in which the
lower grades of palatine staff comprised three-quarters of the various officia
and drew salaries commensurate with that of Roman soldiers and the remain-
ing senior officials received considerably higher pay, the fiscal revenues of the
Ostrogothic court would have supported somewhat fewer than 4000 officials.34
This estimate only calculates the payment of annual salaries and not the
end-of-career pensions to civil servants or the cost of the military. Although
Gothic soldiers received land as compensation for their role as the military
caste of Italy, they also received annual distributions of a donative and supple-
mental pay from the annona when serving actively either on campaign or in
frontier garrisons.35 Keeping in mind the expenses of an active campaign (such
31 Variae 1.17.1–3, 2.34, 5.9.2, 10.27, ed. Mommsen; on the use of this fund at the municipal
level, see Marazzi in this volume.
32 Procopius, Wars 5.6, ed. Dewing.
33 Variae 2.9 for the charioteer; 5.16 for sailors.
34 For the estimate of three-quarters of an officium at soldiers’ pay see Jones, Later Roman
Empire, p. 591.
35 For the receipt of the annona by soldiers see Variae 2.5, 3.42, 5.11, 5.13, 5.23, 11.16, ed.
Mommsen; for the donativum, Variae 1.10, 4.14, 5.26–27, 5.36, 7.42, 8.26.