Page 179 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

coemptiones imposed by the praetorian prefect of
Italy. 106–8
viii Brief account of embassy: to Theoderic in Milan (489)
(principal and purpose notmentioned). 109–10
ix Siege of Theoderic in Pavia. 111–17
Occupation of Pavia by Rugian troops. 118–19
Epiphanius repopulates Pavia after these events. 120–1
x 4th embassy: on behalf of province of Liguria, with bishop
Laurence of Milan, to king Theoderic in Ravenna
(restoration of legal privileges to former supporters of
Odoacer; 494). 122–35
xi 5th embassy: on behalf of Theoderic, with bishop Victor of
Turin, to king Gundobad in Lyons (ransoming of captives;
494). 136–77
xii Letter to Theoderic on behalf of returned captives
(financial aid). 178–81
xiii 6th embassy: on behalf of province of Liguria to King
Theoderic in Ravenna (tax relief; 496). 182–9
xiv Return to Pavia; illness and death (496); concluding
invocation. 190–9
The following is the most likely chronology for Epiphanius’ career,
based on references in Vita Epiphani to Epiphanius’ age as he progresses
through his clerical career: 158
438: birth
446: entry to the church of Pavia, as Lector, under Bishop Crispinus (aged
eight)
456: becomes subdeacon (aged eighteen)
458: becomes deacon (aged twenty)
466: becomes bishop (aged twenty-eight)
496: death (aged fifty-eight).
Constantius’ Vita Germani provided the template on which Ennodius
modelled his portrait of Epiphanius. Vita Germani was published in En-
nodius’ youth, and certainly circulated, at least in southern Gaul, through-
out his lifetime. Ennodius could have encountered the work before mov-
ing to Italy, or, perhaps more likely, learnt of it in Milan through Gallic
contacts; he had access to other recent literature from southern Gaul. 159

158
For the construction of this chronology, see appendix ii.
159
Other recent Gallic literature: poems and letters of Sidonius Apollinaris; Vogel, Index auctorum
profanorum quos citavit aut imitatus est Ennodius, 332; Cook, Life of St Epiphanius, 129–30.
Sidonius was introduced in Ravenna by Gallic ´ emigr´ es: Arator, Epistula ad Parthenium, lines 48
(PL 68, 251); Rich´ e, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, 26.
153