Provincials Residing in Gaul

Not an individual but a collective addressee in the official correspondence (Variae) of Cassiodorus, drafted on behalf of the Ostrogothic kings in early-sixth-century Italy. The 'Provincials Residing in Gaul' were the Roman provincial population of the part of Gaul (Provence and the region around Arles) that Theoderic the Great brought under Ostrogothic control around 508-510 AD after intervening against the Franks and Burgundians. Like other group recipients in the Variae (senators, possessores, curiales, the provincials of a given province), they received administrative edicts and announcements in the form of letters from the Ravenna court rather than personal correspondence; the five 'letters received' here reflect such collective dispatches concerning taxation, governance, and the restoration of order in the newly held Gallic territory. No individual person, dates, or biography can or should be attached to this entry.