Page 110 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Chapter 3

THE HERO AS ENVOY: SIDONIUS
APOLLINARIS’ PANEGYRIC ON AVITUS

Will future races and peoples ever believe this?
– a Roman’s letter annulled a barbarian’s conquests.
Sidonius, Carm. vii, lines 310–11 1
The response of modern critics to Sidonius’ rhetorical question has been
remarkably positive. In 439, three years of hostilities between the Goths
of Toulouse and the empire ended through the intercession of Eparchius
Avitus, then praetorian prefect of Gaul, later, briefly, emperor of the
western half of the empire. Where the army had failed, Avitus succeeded
by exercising his personal influence over the court of Toulouse. This,
at least, is the version given by Sidonius in his Panegyric, delivered six-
teen years later to celebrate the imperial consulate of his father-in law,
Avitus.
With some reservations, Sidonius’ version of the events of 439 gener-
ally has been accepted – a small victory for a poem described as possessing
2
‘a very moderate portion either of genius or of truth’. This acceptance
reflects less Sidonius’ credibility than the rarity of well-informed testi-
mony of the relations between the empire and the barbarian settlers in
the West in the mid-fifth century. The Panegyric on Avitus is an almost
unique portrait of contacts between the Gallic aristocracy and the Gothic
monarchy of Toulouse. Most of the political elements active in Hydatius’
Gallaecia are present: regional aristocracy, civil and military imperial offi-
cers in the provinces, barbarian rulers and army, and the western imperial
court in Italy (but not the Church, which has no role to play in the genre

1
For editions, see ‘Note on Editions, Commentaries, and Translations’ below. For Sidonius’ life:
A. Klotz, ‘Sidonius 1’, RE ii a.2, 2230–8; Stevens, Sidonius; Harries, Sidonius; C. Sollius Apollinaris
Sidonius: Brief,Buch I, ed. and trans. Helga K¨ ohler (Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswis-
senschaften n.s. 2, 96; Heidelberg, 1995), 3–6; see too F. Pr´ evol, ‘Deux fragments de l’´ epitaphe de
Sidoine Apollinaire d´ ecouverts ` a Clermont-Ferrand’, Antiquit´ e Tardive 1 (1993), 223–9.
2
Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. David Womersley, 3
vols. (London, 1994), ii, 368 (c. 36); cf. 363 n. 12. Acceptance: e.g. by Bury i, 250; Stein i, 324.
Rejection of Sidonius’ account: Michel Rouche, L’Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes,418–781:
naissance d’une r´ egion (Paris, 1979), 28 (concerning related events of 437); Harries, Sidonius, 68–9.
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