Urban Life And Culture 251
Granaries and Warehouses
The contributions of Bjornlie and Marazzi in this volume consider government
in the Ostrogothic kingdom. Here we must simply observe that Ostrogothic
government, like Roman, was based in cities, and therefore any city that had
governmental offices and staff had also to maintain a population that could
support these functions. This could include housing for the officials and the
soldiers, warehouses to store supplies, and secure buildings for storing the local
tax income and money for outlays. The letters in the Variae clearly convey that
towns were expected to have these pieces of infrastructure. Government grana-
ries in particular are said to have existed at Marseilles, Pavia, Dertona, Treviso,
Trent, Rome, and Ravenna, and they are frequently mentioned in the context
of royal provision of grain to areas experiencing hardship or famine.107 The
praefectus annonae of Rome was expected to regulate the activities of bakers
and distribute portions appropriately in order to please the people.108
The Urban Population
How large were Ostrogothic cities? In the absence of any definite surveys,
all we have are estimates. Rome’s population, which may have once been as
high as 1,000,000, might have been down to 300,000 in the late 4th century and
down to 100,000 by 500, but it was still by far the largest city in Italy.109 Under
Theoderic the population of Ravenna swelled to its largest size, perhaps as
large as 10,000.110 Naples, too, may have had a population as large as 10,000 at
this time.111 We know little about the cities of northern Italy, except that the
most notable—Aquileia, Pavia, and Milan—and doubtless others had been
sacked by the Huns in 452.112 What this might have done to their infrastruc-
tures and populations is not entirely clear, but certainly Theoderic at least did
much to rebuild Pavia.
107 Variae 2.20 (Ravenna), 3.29 (Rome), 3.41 (Marseilles), 3.44 (Arles), 10.27 (Pavia, Dertona,
Treviso, and Trent), 10.28 (Rome, Ravenna, Pavia, Piacenza), and 12.27 (Pavia, Dertona).
108 Variae 6.18.
109 Bavant, “Cadre de vie”, pp. 473–6.
110 Cosentino, “L’approvvigionamento annonario di Ravenna”, p. 411.
111 Arthur, Naples, p. 22.
112 Jordanes, Getica, 219–222. Paul the Deacon (Hist. Rom. 14.9–13) says that Concordia,
Altinum, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Brixia, and Bergamo were also all sacked by the Huns.