132 Radtki
their performance of particular offices. Cassiodorus is the best example of
this type of relationship between Senate and court. Cassiodorus served the
Ostrogothic kings for decades in various positions, and can be regarded as their
mouthpiece.64 Lastly, members of the senatorial elite, or rather, individuals as
representatives of senatorial families, played an important economic role.
Senatorial Economic Relevance
For around half of the 110 identifiable senators, it is possible to determine the
geographical site of their estates—their economic basis and the prerequisite
for their political and social engagement. Two major economic centres can
be identified. First, as might be expected, there was a high concentration of
senatorial estates in areas surroundings Rome, with a focal point in Campania,
where a large number of illustres had settled. Among them we find, for exam-
ple, Caecina Mavortius Basilius Decius65 and his son Flavius Vettius Agorius
Basilius Mavortius,66 two members of one of the most important senato-
rial families. Also the patricius Flavius Rufius Postumius Festus and Anicius
Manlius Severinus Boethius seem to have owned land there. Although they
were involved in several political actions of the Ravennate court, such as
embassies, the centre of their political activities had been Rome. Campania
had great importance as a substitute production zone for the food supply,
after Africa and Sardinia had been lost to the Vandals.67 In the province of
Samnium another branch of the aforementioned Decii can be found in the per-
sons of Basilius Venantius Iunior68 and his sons Flavius Decius69 and Flavius
Paulinus,70 which strengthens the impression that this important family had
its base in very close proximity to their political home at Rome. The same can
be said for the province of Valeria to the north-east of Rome; here a further
branch of the Decii found its home, represented by the consul and praefectus
praetorio Flavius Theodorus.71 Finally the province of Tuscia Suburbicaria et
64 Cassiodorus himself describes the position of the quaestor sacri palatii held by him for a
couple of years as such; see Cassiodorus, Variae 6.5.1, ed. Mommsen.
65 PLRE II, p. 349.
66 PLRE II, pp. 736f.
67 See in this context a heavy dispute about the distribution and purchase of grain in
Boethius, Philosophiae Consolatio. 1.4, ed. Bieler; Schäfer, Der weströmische Senat, pp. 123ff.
68 PLRE II, pp. 1153f.
69 PLRE IIIa, p. 391.
70 PLRE IIIb, pp. 973f.
71 PLRE II, pp. 1097f.