Page 148 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

civilised behaviour of counsel’; while, in Ravenna, Germanus acquiesces
in the imperial decision ultimately to punish the rebellious Armoricans
without apparent protest. 27 Yet Constantius drew heavily from models
which presented a very different archetype of the bishop as prophet,
railing againstworldly rulers.
For all his borrowings from earlier works, Constantius’ narrative struc-
ture and its related portrait of Germanus is without real precedent in
late antique hagiography. To be sure, both the undertaking of interces-
sions and a saint’s association with powerful worldly figures were early
features of hagiography; St Anthony himself corresponded with the em-
peror Constantine and his sons, the caesares Constantius and Constans,
albeit reluctantly. 28 Vita Germani is often viewed in the context of the
western tradition of bishops’ Vitae, and regarded as closely adhering to
the influential antecedents of the Vitae of Martin of Tours by Sulpicius
Severus, and of Ambrose of Milan by Paulinus. 29 Constantius’ debt to
the miracle-narratives of Vita Martini is clear, and itis probable thathe
used elements of Vita Ambrosi. In their Vitae, Martin and Ambrose con-
front secular authorities, but, while these scenes are striking, they serve
a different narrative function from embassy scenes in Vita Germani.
Appeals by Martin to secular authority are mentioned in only one
scene of Vita Martini, describing relations between the bishop of Tours
and the imperial usurper Magnus Maximus. The purpose and persons
concerned in the appeals are not specified; most of the section con-
cerns a meal which Martin reluctantly attends at Maximus’ request. 30
Structurally, Vita Martini and Vita Germani are dissimilar. Vita Germani
is constructed with prolonged narrative sequences, whereas Vita Martini
comprises clusters of episodes with strong thematic links, underscoring
Martin’s spiritual and thaumaturgical prowess. The ‘action’ of any one

27 Auxiliaris: Constantius, Vita Germani, 24 (ambiuitque a beatissimo viro ut dignaretur accipere quod
querebat;cf. ibid., fin.: acceptis itaque ex voluntate beneficiis); 28 (apparatus bellicus armorumque commotio
ad consilii civilitatem,deposito tumore,descendit); Armoricans: 40 (intercessio sacerdotis evanuit).
28
Athanasius, Vie d’Antoine, ed. and trans. G. J. M. Bartelink (Sources chr´ etiennes 400; Paris, 1994),
81; see also 48, 57, 61, 86 for senior civil and military magistrates (on the authorship of the Life of
Anthony: T. D. Barnes, ‘Angel of Light or Mystic Initiate? The Problem of the Life of Anthony’,
Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 37 (1986), 353–69). Powerful worldly figures and intercessions:
among many analogues (including scenes in the vitae of Martin, Ambrose, and Severinus, discussed
below), cf. the very prominent role of the emperor Leo I and other court figures throughout
the Life of St. Daniel the Stylite,in Three Byzantine Saints, trans. Elizabeth Dawes and Norman H.
Baynes (New York, 1948); and note the passing reference in Vies des P` eres du Jura [Vita Lupicini],
ed. F. Martine (Sources chr´ etiennes 142; Paris, 1988), 63, to intercessions undertaken by the
abbots of Condat to the court of the Burgundian kings (dramatised at 92–5;cf. 96–110).
29
E.g. Borius, Introduction to Vie de Germain, 31–8, 42–3, 65; Heinzelmann, ‘Neue Aspekte’,
35–44; Stancliffe, St. Martin and his Hagiographer, 90–1; Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil i.
30
Sulpicius Severus, Vie de saint Martin, ed. Jacques Fontaine, 3 vols. (Sources chr´ etienne 133–5;
Paris, 1967), i, xx, 1–9.
122