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232 8. administration and politics in the cities
The Code makes clear that apart from decurions there also existed a class
of powerful landowners who were not liable to curial duties but available
as patrons and protectors of fugitive decurions. These presumably
included Goths but also descendants of the great senatorial families who
had built up large estates in the last century of imperial rule, and were now
consolidating their position in the service of Visigothic kings. 193 These
men might still have town houses, but this does not mean that the city was
still their principal place of residence. On the other hand, they did not continue
to inhabit the spectacular late Roman villas. In Gaul as well as Spain,
most of the villas seem to have been abandoned quite early in the fifth
century. 194
Under the Visigoths the late Roman tax system survived, and, as long as
it continued, it was necessary that the tax, which was after all a land-tax,
should be collected not only from the built-up area, but from the whole city
territory. In this way, the system of taxation preserved the unity of urban
core and surrounding agricultural territory. There must have been great
difficulties. The greatest landowners were presumably no longer able to
claim privileges as members of the imperial senate – certainly, these privileges
have not been taken into the Breviarium – but their land-based power
of obstruction and resistance was undoubtedly greater than ever: they were
on the way to becoming medieval barons, even if landholding in return for
military service was still centuries away. So the public revenue diminished.
There is no reference to collection other than by curiales in Visigothic
Gaul, 195 but collection by officials eventually became the rule in Visigothic
Spain. 196
It is not surprising to find evidence that amenities provided by cities have
shrunk. Some laws of Book x1 of the Theodosian Code, dealing with
public works, aqueducts and public shows, have been included in the
Breviarium. The one law about public buildings shows that some public
buildings might be repaired, with the public fisc contributing a third of the
cost, but it also permits persons who have built homes on public land to
keep them. Some aqueducts are still functioning, since existing water rights
are confirmed, but the Code includes no provision for maintenance of
aqueducts. In fact, the most active form of secular building was the building
or maintenance of walls. The games have come to an end. The
Breviarium has no regulations for teachers or doctors or actors. Such literary
education as survived was evidently provided by private tutors in senatorial
houses. 197 The closing of schools and the declining prestige of
193 Rouche (1979) 327–32; Mathisen (1993). 194 Percival (1992); Gorges (1979).
195 Rouche (1979) 338–46.
196 Edict of Erwig of 683: Zeumer (1902) 479ff.; cf. Thompson (1969) 215.
197 A late-fifth-century private (?) teacher at Arles: Pomerius, PLRE ii.896. The end of secular rhetorical
culture as experienced by Gregory of Tours: Van Dam, Leadership and Community 221–6.
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