Page 126 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

man that he wishes to make Avitus suus. Whatthis offer involves is
unclear – his friend, his follower? In any case, Sidonius implies that it
would compromise Avitus’ loyalty to the empire. 67 Avitus rejects the
proposition.
Sidonius emphasises this rejection. The poet concludes many of his
episodes with a short exemplum, often drawing upon a classical literary
image. The exemplum is nota mere rhetorical flourish, butencapsu-
lates the essential point of the preceding episode, summing up what
Sidonius wishes to communicate. 68 In the exemplum at the end of the
second episode, the poet compares the first meeting between Avitus and
Theoderic I to that of the Roman envoy C. Fabricius Luscinus and the
Epirotking Pyrrhus in 280 bc. Fabricius, who refused gifts offered by the
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king, is the classical model of incorruptibility. The comparison is an as-
sertion of Avitus’ independence from the power which supported his rise
to the throne. The first episode presents Avitus as a persuasive orator and
successful emissary. The second establishes Avitus’ personal connections
with the Gothic monarchy, while emphasising Avitus’ autonomy.
The following two episodes interrupt Avitus’ relations with the Goths
in order to relate his military career of the 430s. The firstbriefly men-
tions wars in which he engaged under the generalship of Aetius. Sidonius
avoids details, devoting half this passage to a catalogue of Avitus’ mar-
tial qualities. His virtues are contrasted with those of different barbarian
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races, some contemporary, others drawn from literary sources. The fol-
lowing, longer episode expands upon Avitus’ prowess. In this lengthy
67 Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 224. It is tempting to interpret Theoderic’s proposition as an indication of
Gothic recruitment of Roman administrative and military talent not otherwise attested before
the 450s; cf. Heather, ‘Emergence’, 89–91.
68 Cf. Portmann, Geschichte in der sp¨ atantiken Panegyrik, 99, for a less positive view, which considers
only historical exempla from the republican period, not mythic or other literary exempla
(e.g. the image of the Phoenix; below at n. 82). The proponderance of republican models among
the historical exempla (cf. ibid., 105) reflects the long-standing literary role of early Roman history
as a reservoir of moral instruction, catalogued by handbooks such as that of Valerius Maximus
and its epitomes; for historical exempla from the imperial period in the Pan.: Mause, Darstellung
des Kaisers, 51–2.
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On Sidonius’ use of exempla: Harrison, ‘Verse Panegyrics of Sidonius’, 162–7; Michael Roberts,
The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity (Ithaca, NY, 1989), 37. Fabricius: the locus
classicus is Plutarch, Pyrrhos xx, 1–3, in Plutarque, Vies, ed. and trans. Robert Flaceli` ere and Emile
Chambry, vi (Bud´ e; Paris, 1971). Fabricius was often cited by Latin writers, including Cicero;
cf. Eutropius, Breviarium ii, 12.2–4. On the danger posed to envoys in classical antiquity by the
acceptance of gifts: Adcock and Mosley, Diplomacy in Ancient Greece, 164–5; Mosley, Envoys and
Diplomacy, 39–40.
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Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 230–40.Cf. Loyen, Recherches, 43–4. Anderson i, 138 n. 3 is wrong to imply
that Avitus did not take part in the campaigns against the Iuthungi, Nori, and Vindelicians. Lines
231–2 imply that he did, and iunctus tibi in 235 is probably bestseen qualifying the whole of
232–5, notjust Belgam . . . absolvit. For barbarians as points of comparison for martial virtues:
Statius, Achilleis, ed. A. Marastoni (Leipzig, 1974), ii, 132–3; MGH AA 8, 397 (loci similes to
Carm. vii, 237ff).
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