Page 158 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

to unify. 66 The reverberating cry which frightens off the Picts and Sax-
ons in the ‘Alleluia victory’ is reminiscent of the Indian expeditions of
Dionysus, the war-cries of whose followers puts an ambush to panic. The
story is related in the Dionysiaca, the fifth-century Greek mythological
epic of Nonnos of Panopolis, and Dionysus’ Indian campaign formed
part of the legendary cycles exploited by contemporary Gallic poets. 67
From what, if any, sources Constantius derived these stories is unclear,
but it is evident that he wrote with attention to literary genres besides
earlier Latin hagiography.
Constantius’ preface to Vita Germani does nothintthatthe work would
differ from previous western saints’ Vitae.Towritethe vita gestaque of
Germanus, Constantius says, was a fearful task, because of the miraculo-
rum numerositate, ‘the great number of his miracles’. 68 Miracles are the
main emphasis of Constantius’ prefatory remarks, and indeed miracle-
narratives constitute the greater part of the Vita. Yet Constantius chose
to write his work using a structure and devices of literary characterisa-
tion which clearly emphasise Germanus’ travels, the legatine nature of
those journeys, and an aspect of Germanus’ deeds which was heroic in a
secular sense, not in the Christian sense of martyrdom or ascesis. As the
imagery of Germanus’ dream vision indicates, the journeys are not merely
a framing device for the miracle accounts, but are central to a carefully
69
constructed representation of the saint. This image is notsuggested in
the preface. It is the emphasis on Germanus’ travels which most firmly
66 Theodoros Anagnostes, Kirchengeschichte, ed. G. C. Hanson, 2nd edn (GCS n.s. 3; Berlin, 1995),
216; followed by Theophanes, Chron.AM 5870. The confrontation between Isaac and Valens
appears in several of Theodore’s main sources (Sozomen, HE vi, 40; Theodoret, HE iv, 34;but
notSocrates, HE) and in Cassiodorus/Epiphanius, Historia tripartita, PL 69, 1119; butwithout
the detail of Isaac seizing Valens’ reins. (Unlike Germanus, Isaac does not win respect for his
boldness, but is cast into prison, where he has the satisfaction of miraculously smelling burning
when the defeated Valens is consumed in a blazing hut.)
67 War-cry: Nonnos, Dionysiaca, ed. and trans. N. Hopkinson and F. Vian, viii (Paris, 1994), xxi,
315–xxii, 70, xxiv, 147–61 (the cry ‘alleluia’ of the Naiads is eye-catching though probably
coincidental; xxii, 8, xxiv, 156); cf. Diodorus Siculus, ii, 38.6. Dionysus’ Indian campaigns
featured in imperial iconography of the second century ad: Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae
classicae iii, 1 (Zurich, 1986), 565. Dionysus’ Indian expedition in late epic: Rudolf Keydell,
‘Nonnos von Panopolis’, RE xvii.1, 905; in fifth-century Gallic literature: Sid. Ap., Carm. xxii,
ep. 2, carm., 22–63 (not mentioning the scene of the war-cry).
68
Constantius, Vita Germani, Praef.; cf. further in the same passage: religionis contemplatio et innu-
merabilium miraculorum, and the letter to Patiens: sanctum virum inlustrare virtutibus suis desideras
et profectui omnium mirabilium exempla largiris. Heinzelmann, ‘Neue Aspekte’, 38–9; Christensen,
‘Germanus and Fifth-Century History’, 224.
In his letters and preface, Constantius does not invoke any precedents to the writing of a vita,
as earlier Latin hagiographers had, e.g. Sulpicius, Vita Martini, Praef. (pagan de viris illustribus);
Sulpicius, Dialogi passim (accounts of the Egyptian monks); Paulinus, Vita Ambrosi, Praef. (the
Vita of Anthony; Jerome’s Vita of Paul; Sulpicius, Vita Martini); Possidius, Vita Augustini (earlier
Christian biographies in general).
69
Journeys as framing device: Christensen, ‘Germanus and Fifth-Century History’, 224.
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