Page 127 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The hero as envoy: Sidonius Apollinaris

set-piece, describing an incident which occurred in 437, Avitus avenges
the death of a servant by defeating a marauding Hunnic auxiliary in single
combat. These two episodes present Avitus as an experienced military
commander, a claim which could not be made for either Valentinian III
or Petronius Maximus, and a counterpoint to Avitus’ oratorical skills.
The military episodes are more carefully crafted than first appears. The
anecdote of the single combat lends itself to heroic treatment, suitable to
the epic tenor of the poem. Sidonius digresses to compare his hero to
Achilles avenging Patroclus. Yet in itself, the fight is a minor incident in a
career which had seen several major wars and three military appointments
in less than a decade. Sidonius does not expand upon any of the campaigns
which Avitus undertook with Aetius, nor mention any of the three mili-
tary offices held by Avitus in the 430s, stating only that he is now vir
71
inlustris. The poet’s purpose becomes evident only with the realisation
that at this point Sidonius is guilty of an inconsistency. Though the nar-
rative appears to follow ‘un ordre rigoureusement chronologique’, in fact
72
Sidonius did not relate all events in correct sequence. The Hun whom
Avitus defeated was one of the auxiliaries attached to the comes Litorius
73
as he advanced on Narbo, then besieged by the Goths, in 437. Together
with Aetius, Litorius relieved the seige. Avitus also was involved in the
74
relief of Narbo, convincing Theoderic I to withdraw from the city. The
Panegyric mentions Avitus’ participation, not in chronological sequence,
following his fight with the Hunnic soldier in the fourth episode, but
later, in the speech which he later delivers at Toulouse in 455,inthe
seventh episode of the poem. There Avitus’ involvement is assimilated
with other peaceful ties between himself and the Goths. Yet his actions
at Narbo were undertaken in a military capacity, for at the time Avitus
held the last of his three military appointments under Aetius. 75 The re-
ordering of events, and the epic treatment of the single combat with the
Hun, conceal Avitus’ actions in a military capacity against the Goths.
The third and fourth episodes praise Avitus’ military abilities, but with-
out associating the Goths with his military career. Avitus, in the Panegyric,

71
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 241; the three military posts of the 430s are mentioned at line 462, during
events of 455. Though little is known of the campaigns against the Nori and Iuthungi (lines
233–5), they were significant enough to be recorded by Hydatius (cc. 93, 95 [83, 85]); in the
Chron. 452 (c. 106); and probably in the extant inscription of the statue of the comes Merobaudes
(Dessau, ILS i, 2950: inter arma litteris militabat et in Alpibus acuebat eloquium). For the Burgundian
campaign: Loyen, Recherches, 44.
72 73
Loyen, Recherches, 40. Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 246–8; Hyd., c. 110 [101]; Stein i, 323.
74
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 475–80. Siege: Prosper, Chron., s.a. 436; Hyd., cc. 107, 110 [98, 101].
75
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 255,cf. 462. PLRE ii, 197 suggests that Avitus was magister utriusque militiae
per Gallias in 437, explaining his inlustris rank (Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 241); he was notonly ‘a local
leader’; Harries, Sidonius, 75.
101