Page 129 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The hero as envoy: Sidonius Apollinaris

in Gaul in 451. Before an assembly of Gallic nobles, Aetius seeks Avitus’
aid. 80
The speech placed in Aetius’ mouth reiterates Avitus’ authority over
81
the Goths. Avitus acts as an envoy, having no official post. Itis his first
journey to Toulouse as an imperial envoy, but Sidonius’ earlier descrip-
tions of the second and fifth episodes obscures this fact. The exemplum
at the end of the episode encapsulates the message: as ordinary birds flock
after the fabled Phoenix, so the Goths willingly follow Avitus. 82
The fifth and sixth episodes draw two contrasts: Avitus, with his per-
sonal authority over the Goths, is distinguished from the ineffective gen-
erals; and the self-defeating attempt to force the Goths into submission
through warfare is contrasted with the pursuit of peace through alliance.
Though a capable military commander, Avitus does not resort to battle
with the Goths, able instead to command their alliance.
The seventh and final episode occupies over a third of the total length of
the poem. It has the most complex narrative, shifting between Italy, Arles,
and Toulouse. Four speeches constitute the greater part of the episode,
which opens with the political turmoil of 454–5 in Rome and closes
with Avitus’ elevation at Arles. Avitus, appointed magister utriusque militiae
by the new emperor Petronius Maximus following the deaths of Aetius
and Valentinian III, makes peace with barbarian groups on the Rhine
border, then travels to Toulouse to prevent hostilities with the Goths.
Theoderic II surprises Avitus by urging him to take the throne which
has again, suddenly, become vacant with the death of Petronius during the
Vandal sack of Rome. Returning to Arles, Avitus is proclaimed emperor
by the Gallic magnates and army.
The established elements of Avitus’ character – his role as an envoy
for the empire and his relations with the Gothic royalty – become the
vehicle for his imperial elevation. Sidonius emphasises that, though Avitus
is magister utriusque militiae, he approaches the Goths not in a military
capacity but as an envoy of the empire, as he had in the earlier scenes:
‘Avitus, armed with an imperial writ, was already entering the home of

80
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 336–8. This Gallic assembly has attracted little attention. Possibly Aetius
convened a council of nobles of southern Gaul to select an envoy to be sent to Toulouse (Harries,
Sidonius, 70, suggests a meeting of the concilium septem provinciarum). Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 53–8
and 81–2, presents two Italian provincial councils, summoned by the magister utriusque militiae
Ricimer and the emperor Nepos, to select envoys; below, chapter 4,n. 201.Sid.Ap., Ep. v, 20,
refers to an assembly gathered to choose an envoy; Epp. vii, 6.10, 7.4 mention a southern Gallic
assembly, including bishops, with authority to oversee the exchange of embassies and agreements
between the empire and Toulouse; below, chapter 4,n. 224.
81
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 352–3.
82
Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 353–6. For negotiations with the Goths in 451: cf. Jordanes, Get. xxxvi,
186–90, and, in a lighter vein, Fredegar, Chron. ii, 53.
103