Page 123 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The hero as envoy: Sidonius Apollinaris

to give the impression of accuracy – Avitus’ offices; the presence of
the Gothic king’s brother in discussions in 455; the auguries taken after
Avitus’ elevation. But the events of the story, while presumably ‘true’, are
presented without regard for real historical significance. 56 Conflictand
alliance between Aetius and the Goths are shown only to demonstrate
Avitus’ superior abilities to reach concord with the barbarians; the causes
of conflict, or the conditions of alliance, are irrelevant to the narrative
development.
The plot follows the progress of Avitus’ relations with the Gothic court
of Toulouse. Behind this plot lie fundamental tensions. Avitus’ claim to
authority rested on his military strength, which in turn depended in
large part on the support given to him by the Goths, potentially the most
significant military force in the West. But Sidonius had to make clear that
the emperor controlled the Goths, not vice versa. Before the settlement
of the Goths in Aquitaine in 418, Gothic and Burgundian leaders in Italy
and Gaul had supported a series of imperial usurpers. 57 Memory of the
political turmoil this caused had not disappeared by Sidonius’ time. 58
Moreover, it was necessary that Avitus’ alliance with the Goths in 455
did not appear to have been cultivated for the purpose of seizing power.
Sidonius tried to resolve these tensions by showing Avitus’ contacts with
the Goths only in a context which was civilian and predominantly private,
not in military circumstances which would emphasise the realities of
power. Several generals in the fourth and fifth centuries had attempted
to usurp the throne with the aid of barbarian backing; Avitus’ similarity
to them was all too obvious. As an alternative model, Sidonius chose to
portray Avitus as an envoy, whose oratorical skill and personal qualities
command the unselfish following of the Goths.
A chronological accountof Avitus’ cursus honorum provides the struc-
ture of the plot. After the brief outline of Avitus’ patria and youth,
Sidonius relates Avitus’ public life, his gesta, in seven episodes. Four of
the episodes concern Avitus and the Goths, while two concentrate on

56
Truth: there are, however, many assertions in the poem which, merely for want of other evidence,
are assumed to be factual, e.g. the statement that no one tried to claim the imperial power after
the death of Maximus; Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 512–14. Yet after the death of Valentinian III, several
candidates had struggled for power; Priscus, Fr., 30.1 = John of Antioch, Fr., 201; above,
n. 50.
57
Attalus elevated (and deposed) by the Gothic leaders Alaric I, 409–10, and Athaulf, 414–15;
Jovinus supported by the Burgundian and Alan leaders Guntiarius and Goar, 411; supported (and
deposed) by Athaulf, 412/13. Matthews, Western Aristocracies, 295–9, 313–18; Michael Kulikowski,
‘The Visigothic Settlement in Aquitania: The Imperial Perspective’, in Ralph W. Mathisen and
Danuta Shanzer (eds.), Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul: Revisiting the Sources (Aldershot,
2002), 31–2.
58
Sid. Ap., Ep. iii, 12.5; v, 9.1 (with Harries, Sidonius, 28–30); cf. Narratio de imperatoribus domus
Valentinianae et Theodosianae (MGH AA 9, 630), 6, line 13 (written post-424).
97