Cyprianus, of Sacred Largesses

Cyprianus was a high official at the Ostrogothic court of Theoderic the Great in early sixth-century Italy, where he served in fiscal and judicial roles and, by the title attached to him here, held the office of comes sacrarum largitionum (Count of the Sacred Largesses), the minister responsible for the imperial treasury, mints, and state largesse. He is well attested in Cassiodorus's Variae, the collection of official letters drafted for the Gothic kings, where he appears as a trusted agent: a skilled financial administrator and a man known for his command of both Latin and Gothic who had his sons educated alongside Gothic boys. He is also remembered, less favorably, for his role in the prosecution that led to the downfall and execution of the senator Boethius around 524, having brought the accusations against Albinus that drew Boethius into the affair. His career exemplifies the Roman bureaucratic class that staffed and sustained the Gothic regime in Italy.