68 Bjornlie
safety in the countryside, and even managing local aspects of the annona and
cursus publicus.99 This tendency to ‘outsource’ legal and administrative duties
was not limited to the secular elite. It is evident that the same relationship that
depended upon the reciprocal acknowledgement of status and prestige was
also operative between the court and the local bishops who, at the bequest of
the court, could be found involved in the distribution of largesse and in the
repair of urban infrastructure such as aqueducts.100 With respect to ex officio
administrative assignments delegated to lay persons, it may be the case that
some letters of the Variae address individuals who have actual offices that for
various reasons have not been recorded. In the majority of cases, however, it
is clear from the context described in the letter that the court had developed a
habit of delegating specific administrative duties to individuals who required
only the prestige of acknowledgement by the government as payment.
Conclusion
Rather than attempt to assay the full spectrum of administrative activities in
Ostrogothic Italy, this chapter has instead directed attention to what was dif-
ferent about the administration in relation to its eastern imperial neighbour.
Ostrogothic governmental administration is best understood in its 6th-century
context as a consequence of the steady contraction of the western imperial
economy over the course of the 5th century.101 As noted above, the basic struc-
ture (in terms of kinds of offices employed) and activities (financial and judi-
cial) remained the same as the earlier Roman administration, but operated on
a much smaller scale and with certain definite consequences to administra-
tive culture. Public officials frequently operated outside of what would have
been standard competences in earlier Roman government and usually did
so at the discretion of the Gothic ruler, as opposed to through institutional
sanction. More dramatically, the use of provincial governors as a system for
extending the reach of the administration beyond the court appears to have
been supplanted, not entirely but in large part, by Gothic comites and ad hoc
appointments such as represented by saiones, comitiaci, and prefectural can-
cellarii. What this means is that Ostrogothic administration represents a stage
99 Variae 1.2, 1.15, 1.18, 1.19, 1.20, 1.21, 1.23, 1.25, 1.27, 1.39, 2.7, 2.14, 2.22, 2.35, 3.10, 3.13, 3.36, 3.52,
4.6, 4.41, 8.29, 8.30, 8.31, 8.32, 8.33, 12.18, ed. Mommsen.
100 Variae 2.8 and 4.31, ed. Mommsen; note also the level of interaction between Epiphanius,
the bishop of Pavia, and Theoderic’s court in Ennodius, Life of Epiphanius 109, 122–46,
182–89, ed. Vogel; on bishops more generally, see contributions by Rizzi in this volume.
101 As noted by Marazzi, “Destinies”, pp. 119–59, and Bjornlie, “Law, Ethnicity and Taxes”.