Page 141 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

5
often undertaken by bishops in time of war. Later redactions of the story
went further than Prosper, not only in introducing miraculous aid to the
Roman embassy, but in erasing altogether the presence of Trygetius and
Avienus, along with Leo’s imperial commission. 6
This is an instructive literary evolution. Even stripped of legendary
qualities, later versions of Leo’s embassy portray him as the sole and self-
motivated protector of Rome. Prosper’s original version, though written
in Leo’s favour, better displays the real historical context: embassies under-
taken on behalf of a secular authority by optimates whose social standing
was derived from a range of backgrounds – in this case, a senior palatine
official, a member of the highest Roman aristocracy, and a patriarch – at
least two of whom had experience with embassies of similar importance
previously. The later hagiographical portrait of Leo as sole protector of
his community, acting without reference to secular authority, is a literary
construct, which retains functions to which social prestige adheres, while
washing away the historical residue. A similar selectivity in other hagio-
graphic sources also has the effect of making the actions of bishops appear
egregious, by isolating the deeds of saints from the context of common
provincial political communications.

‘the hero worn out by his labours’: constantius,
life of germanus of auxerre
A cluster of four texts from late fifth- and very early sixth-century Gaul
and Italy share images and narrative structures in which the undertaking
of embassies is central to the presentation of a bishop. They include
Constantius’ account of Germanus of Auxerre; the anonymous Vitae of
Orientius of Auch and of Vivianus of Saintes; and the Vita of Epiphanius
of Pavia by Ennodius. The Vita of Germanus of Auxerre seems to be the
earliest of these texts; in view of the literary ingenuity displayed by the
author, Constantius, it is very likely that this image was his creation. This
new aspect of hagiographic portraiture was added comfortably to existing
saintly types, of the saint as ascetic and as thaumaturge, though it was not
easily compatible with one established mode of sanctity, the prophet in
Old Testamentmould. The aspectof the saintas a busy and frequent

5
Leo’s role: Ep. orien. episc. ad Symm., PL 62, 59–60. Bishops ransoming captives: William Klingshirn,
‘Charity and Power: Caesarius of Arles and the Ransoming of Captives in Sub-Roman Gaul’,
Journal of Roman Studies 75 (1985), 183–203, esp. 184–7.
6
E.g. Victor of Tunnuna, Chron., s.a. 449; Liber pont., 47; Jordanes, Get., 223 (with details of location
notin Prosper); Paul the Deacon, Hist. Rom. xiv, 11–12. Later legend: Maenchen-Helfen, Huns,
141; Joaqu´ ın Mart´ ınez Pizarro, Writing Ravenna: The Liber pontificalis of Andreas Agnellus (Ann
Arbor, 1998), 117.
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