Page 187 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

one incident from his episcopate intrudes: Epiphanius’ mission to Gaul
to ransom the captive Italians, undertaken the year before Ennodius pre-
sented the dictio.The dictio presents in outline the story later developed
in full in the Vita: Epiphanius secured the return of his captured peo-
ple from Gaul through the effects of his prayers on a king. There are
strong verbal echoes between the accounts of the dictio and the Vita. 198
Butthe accountin the dictio is only eightlines long (in a work of 170
lines), and there is no context to suggest that the bishop had repeatedly
undertaken similar journeys. The incident seems to be included because
of its topicality. Although the dictio gives no temporal indication that this
event happened almost three decades after the bishop’s election, the sub-
ject both was recent and had current ramifications, for the disruption to
the economy of Liguria was not resolved by the return of the captives,
and would prompt Epiphanius’ final embassy to Theoderic for taxation
relief. The dictio and the Vita do not present contradictory portraits of
Epiphanius; the difference in emphasis between the two is in part because
the dictio was an occasional piece. But the divergence suggests a decision
by Ennodius, when composing the Vita some years after the dictio,to
take up an incident mentioned in the dictio only briefly and on account
of its current relevance, and to expand it into a fundamental theme. The
process is reminiscent of the contrast between Hydatius and other chroni-
clers in regard to the record or disregard of embassies: an occurrence so
common as to be generally passed over is chosen by an author at a specific
time as a useful theme or framework.
This literary decision by Ennodius begs the question, what is his pur-
pose in framing Vita Epiphani as he did? Mostobviously, portraying
Epiphanius as an envoy provides opportunity for many demonstrations of
the high respect in which he was held by other bishops, rulers, and the
general populace, through the testimonials of Epiphanius’ interlocutors
and brief dramatisations of ceremonial. Ennodius emphasises this respect
by his selectiveness in representing Epiphanius as acting in isolation, just

198 Ennodius, Carm. i, 9 = opus 43, lines 126–33:
Tu bene transmissum tibi censum possides, heres.
Res non parva docet triplicatis iuncta talentis:
Monstrat ab occidui revocatum partibus orbis
Quod supplex captum transmittit Gallia vulgus.
Effera te viso didicerunt pectora flecti,
Armatum precibus superasti, maxime, regem.
Sic pugnax gladios obtundit verbere lingua,
Sic ferrum expugnatverborum lammina fortis.
To the last two lines, cf. Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 176: quantum acutior fuit verborum quam ferri
lammina,hinc lector agnosce: expugnavit sermo cui se gladii subduxerunt.
161