Page 165 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

was perhaps influenced by Pelagian moral teaching (mollia securis ducentes
otia rebus/pro merito vivunt nunc bene,post melius). His gloomy description
of the devastation of Gaul after barbarian raids (presumably the Vandals,
Alans, and Sueves, 406–9) is much cited. 96
Vita Orientii, however, does not reflect the literary, moral, or historical
milieux of the Commonitorium. The bishop of hagiography is active in the
world, prosecuting his pastoral duties with zeal, and confronting generals
and kings with secular issues. Following is a summary of the brief text:
1 Introduction; Orientius’ learning and pastoral care, especially his con-
version of pagans among the people of Auch.
2 Exorcism of a pagan temple on a mountain.
3 Embassy on behalf of the Gothic king of Toulouse to the magistri
utriusque militiae Aetius and Litorius [439].
4 Praise of Orientius.
5 Embassy to the royal court of Toulouse.
6 Posthumous healing miracle.
7 Concluding invocation.
Orientius undertakes two embassies (§§ 3 and 5). The first, during
the penultimate stages of the conflict between the Gothic kingdom of
Toulouse and the western empire from 436 to 439, is prior to Litorius’
fatal attempt to capture Toulouse with the aid of Hunnic auxiliaries. 97
The homilist Salvian, a Gallic contemporary of these events, laments that
prior to Litorius’ assault on Toulouse, the Goths sent Catholic bishops
to negotiate for peace, but these overtures were rejected by the impe-
rial commanders. 98 These events are dramatised in Vita Orientii.The
unnamed Gothic king (Theoderic I), terrified by the army of Aetius
and Litorius, asks Orientius to undertake an embassy to the generals.
Aetius, approached by the bishop, dismounts and asks Orientius to pray
for him; Litorius disdains to reply to Orientius and continues his as-
sault on Toulouse. Captured by ‘the Toulousians’, Litorius is executed;
Aetius and his army, who seem also to have been captured (a detail not in
any other source), are freed unharmed because of Orientius’ prayers and
99
interventus. As with Pope Leo’s embassy to Attila, there is a misleading
exclusiveness in the narrative of Orientius’ embassy, making him the sole

96
Quotations: Orientius, Comm. ii, 192, 339–40. Monastic response: ibid., ii, 321–40. Destruction
of Gaul: ibid., ii, 165–84. Pelagianism: Patrology iv, 327–8.
97
See above, chapter 3,atn. 77. Sources for Litorius’ capture and death: Prosper, Chron., 1335;
Hydatius, Chron., 116 [108]; Cassiodorus, Chron., 1232; Jordanes, Get., 177;Sid.Ap., Carm. vii,
300–1; Salvian, De gubernatione Dei vii, 9–10.
98
Salvian, De gubernatione Dei vii, 9.L´ ecrivain, ‘La Vie de SaintOrientius’, 257–8, sees Vita
Orientii, 3, as a fiction constructed from Salvian and chronicle sources; Courcelle, Histoire litt´ eraire,
347 n. 1, sees Salvian as an analogue, nota source.
99
Vita Orientii, 3.
139