Governmental Administration 63
could at times extend to the collection of regular taxes from a province (again,
the purview of the praetorian prefect).75 In turn the praetorian prefect was
at liberty to requisition provisions for the Gothic court through his agent (a
canonicarius), as opposed to acting through the comes patrimonii. Finally, the
magister officiorum, who formally held authority over the cursus publicus, reg-
ularly found that role assumed by the praetorian prefect and saiones.76 The
special competence that the magister officiorum had in controlling the prices
of goods at the marketplace of the Gothic residence similarly could become
subject to the authority of the praetorian prefect.77
This tendency for high ministers of the palatine bureaucracy to exercise
broader administrative powers than might have been the case in a traditional
Roman administration represents the ad hoc appointment of ministers to
administrative needs by the Gothic ruler on the basis of the most suitable
personality available at a given moment. A natural extension of this tendency
is visible in the provinces with the range of authority available to Gothic
comites.78 Rather than a separate branch of specifically military authority, the
Gothic comites are better understood as an additional layer of administra-
tive authority representing the Gothic court in various regions under Gothic
control. A distinctly separate branch of military authority seems to have per-
tained to the pre-Gothic period, concerning which the Anonymus Valesianus
mentions Odovacer’s military commanders holding the office of magister
militum.79 Notably by contrast, the Valesianus describes Theoderic’s military
commanders as comites or duces even after the war with Odovacer, reflecting
what had become administrative reality by the end of the Gothic period in
Italy.80 The Variae similarly describe Gothic comites, particularly in the formu-
lae, where several distinct competences appear.81 In each case these comites
are described in terms of legal and judicial authority combined with military
power. Variae 7.25, 7.27, and 7.28 in particular are formulae announcing to the
local municipal administration (honorati, defensores, curiales) the judicial
competence of the Gothic comites assigned to them. Attention to the role of
75 On the collection of taxes in Dalmatia and Savia: Variae 9.9.3, ed. Mommsen, with Arnold
in this volume; cf. formula for this office at Variae 6.9.
76 Cf. the formula for the magister officiorum: Variae 6.6, ed. Mommsen; for the cursus publi-
cus being managed by other officials: Variae 4.47, 5.5, 11.12, 11.14, 12.15, 12.18.
77 Variae 11.11, ed. Mommsen.
78 On this phenomenon: Tabata, “I comites Gothorum”, pp. 67–78.
79 Anonymus Valesianus 11.51 and 11.54, ed. Moreau.
80 Anonymus Valesianus 12.68, ed. Moreau.
81 Variae 6.22, 6.23, 7.1, 7.3, 7.26, ed. Mommsen.