Page 169 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

civilian residents of Toulouse and its environs would be harmed by the
terribilis impetus of the imperial army. 117 Even if the author did not have
personal knowledge of the destruction wrought on provinces by impe-
rial armies and their barbarian auxiliaries, one of his sources, Sulpicius’
Dialogi, offers eloquent testimony of the wholesale destruction which
could be expected from imperial punitive action. 118 Vita Orientii offers
a realistic insight into civilian trepidation at the prospect of warfare, to
which political allegiances are quite secondary.
The details of the embassy to Aetius and Litorius in the Vita beg
consideration whether its report is true, notwithstanding the materials
reworked from earlier hagiographies, and whether the author was near-
contemporary to the subject. 119 Recent commentators have tended to put
trust in the Vita, in part because Salvian offers approximate corroboration,
in part because of the possibility (surely dubious) that ‘oral tradition’
accurately preserved details from the 430s until the putative early sixth-
century composition of the work. 120 Tentative support for a relatively
early date may come from the hagiographer’s borrowing of the image
of the saint as an effective envoy from Vita Germani. Writings associated
with the cult of St Germanus of Auxerre suggest that the appeal of this
image had been lost by the late sixth century. Imitation of that aspect of
Constantius’ work is more probably early than late.

Vivianus of Saintes
The Vitae of Orientius of Auch and of Vivianus (or Bibianus) of Saintes
are often paired in modern studies. The two works have in common not
only dramatic scenes involving Visigothic kings of Toulouse, but also par-
ticular literary motifs which concern embassy narratives. 121 Thereisno
117 Vita Orientii, 3.
118 Sulpicius, Dialogi iii, 11 (Martin anticipates that anti-Priscillianist tribunes to be sent into Spain by
Magnus Maximus would not distinguish between heretics and others). For fifth-century examples
of wide-scale destruction by imperial forces and auxiliaries: above, n. 78; cf. Ennodius, Vita
Epiphani, 53, discussed below, atn. 201. Violence to provincials by Litorius’ Hunnic auxiliaries
is the background for Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 241–94; see chapter 3 above, atnn. 73–74.
119
L´ ecrivain, ‘La Vie de SaintOrientius’, 258 considers the Vita erroneous as itis the only source
which locates Aetius as well as Litorius at Toulouse at the time of the defeat of the imperial
forces in 439. ButSid. Ap., Carm. vii, 299–300, strongly implies Aetius’ involvement in the final
stages of the conflict; cf. also Hydatius, Chron., 112 [104]: Aetius wins a major battle in 438.
Aetius must have been involved in the settlement reached by the Goths and the empire later in
439 (Prosper, Chron., 1335;Hyd.,c. 117 [109]; Jordanes, Get., 177). The sources concentrate on
Litorius because of the shock, and moral exemplum, of his defeat.
120
Courcelle, Histoire litt´ eraire, 347 n. 1 (Salvian is confirmation butnota source); Griffe, La Gaule
chr´ etienne ii, 69–71 nn. 13 and 16 (oral tradition); Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 265 n. 3;
Wolfram, History of the Goths, 176.
121
For edition, see ‘Note on editions, commentaries, and translations’ below. On Vivianus and
the Vita:C.L´ ecrivain, ‘Un ´ episode inconnu de l’histoire des Wisigoths’, Annales du Midi 1
143