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administration and politics in the west 231
or Breviarium Alarici. This essentially consists of extracts from earlier
Roman collections of laws, especially the Codex Theodosianus and the Novels
of Theodosius and his immediate successors. Most of the extracts are
accompanied by an interpretatio which is not simply a paraphrase of the legal
text but introduces modifications adjusting the law to changes in society. 183
As a source for the social history of Visigothic Gaul, the Breviarium of
Alaric has the serious disadvantage that, while we are provided with information
about surviving Roman institutions and, thanks to the interpretationes,
about the modifications which they have undergone, we are not
informed about institutions introduced by the Gothic kings themselves. It
is nevertheless possible to recognize some important developments. There
has been a reduction in the administrative importance of the province and
its governor, and a corresponding increase in that of city-based officials.
Vicars and dioceses have disappeared. The Visigothic kings did not appoint
a praetorian prefect. Provincial governors survive. They continue to exercise
jurisdiction and are closely associated with the collection of taxes. But
the ruler now has a representative in the city itself, the comes civitatis, 184 who
also acts as a judge. 185 In Visigothic Gaul, comites were appointed by the
Visigothic king but were not necessarily Goths. 186
In the city decurions still had an essential role. The Breviarium retains
many laws designed to prevent decurions from evading their duties. That
decurions might escape into the imperial – or now the royal – service has
become much less of a problem, but decurions might go into hiding, move
to another city, 187 marry their daughters to non-decurions, 188 refuse to have
legitimate children, 189 or enter the service of a magnate. 190 It seems that all
decurions now had the rank of honorati and enjoyed the associated privilege
of sitting with the judge when he was hearing a case. 191 The proliferation
and devaluation of official titles was, of course, a characteristic of late
Roman society. Since the rank of an honoratus recognized service to the
empire, it had become meaningless in the territory of a Gothic king. But the
use of senatorial titles by men who were not senators and lived in a provincial
city was introduced in the east, too, sometime after 450 192 – yet another
example of parallel development in the east and west of the divided empire.
183 The interpretationes are cited below by page references to Conrat (1903) and then by the laws as
numbered in Mommsen’s edition of the Theodosian Code and the associated Novellae.
184 Declareuil (1910); Spandel (1957); Claude (1964).
185 It is often not clear whether a iudex mentioned in the interpretatio of a law is a governor (iudex ordinarius)
or a civic judge (iudex civitatis), who might be the comes or the defensor.
186 E.g. Attalus, comes of Autun: Sid. Ap. Ep. v.18. 187 Conrat (1903) 736: C.Th. xii.1.2.
188 Conrat (1903) 737: C.Th. xii.1.7. 189 Conrat (1903) 737: Novellae of Theodosius xi.1.5–9.
190 Conrat (1903) 239–40: Novellae of Majorian i.1.4–5.
191 Conrat (1903) 773–4: i.15.1; i.71; on the privilege, see Liebeschuetz (1972) 190.
192 Roueché, Aphrodisias 131; Jones, LRE 528–9. Both east Roman and Visigothic governments were
anxious that lower-ranking honorati should return to the service of their city (C.Th. xii.1.187 (436); CJ
xii.1.15 (426–42)).
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