Page 188 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

as the legends of Pope Leo elevate his role in dealing with Attila by eras-
ing all other participants. In fact, Epiphanius’ missions took place in a
context in which provincial and palatine embassies were very common.
Ennodius’ narrative misleads. Other embassies between Nepos and Euric,
employing palatine officials, are known. Ennodius makes Theoderic se-
lect Epiphanius from amongst other bishops for the mission to Gundobad,
giving the impression that the king considered only bishops when choos-
ing an envoy, whereas in factTheoderic freely chose representatives from
a wide range of positions: senior and junior palatine officials, aristocrats
from the leading families of Rome, as well as clergy including, famously,
a pope. 199 Epiphanius, rather than Laurence of Milan, is portrayed as
being the principal envoy of the legation to Theoderic to appeal for
restoration of legal rights, but the reverse may have been true. An appeal
from Laurence would have been weighty: not only was he a metropoli-
tan bishop, but he himself had been exiled from Milan by Odoacer for
supporting Theoderic; a petition for clemency from Odoacer’s victim
would have been hard to dismiss. 200 Ennodius’ selective presentation ar-
tificially boosts Epiphanius’ credit. Taken out of their literary context,
Epiphanius’ embassies appear rather less exceptional. The prime impor-
tance of his missions was at a local level, to their beneficiaries.
This relevance at the local level suggests the milieu in which Ennodius
wrote the work. Though Epiphanius acts against a broad landscape
stretching from central Italy to western Gaul, it is the province of Liguria
which is the focal concern of each mission. An assembly of Ligurian
nobles, eager to prevent the destructiveness of civil war, initiates the
peace overtures from Ricimer to Anthemius and selects Epiphanius as
envoy; another consilium of Ligurian magnates, summoned by Nepos,
chooses Epiphanius to travel to Euric. 201 Epiphanius is motivated not,
as Germanus, by the desire to labour for God, but by ‘the love I owe
to my homeland’. 202 The embassies for taxation relief are undertaken
on behalf of either the bishop’s see, Pavia, or the province of Liguria;
199
Envoys from Nepos to Euric: Sid. Ap., Epp. iii, 7.2–4 (the quaestor Licinianus); vii, 6, 7 (the
bishops Basilius of Aix, Leontius of Arles, Faustus of Riez, and Graecus of Marseilles). Theoderic:
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 136; his envoys: below, chapter 5,atnn. 24, 26.
200
Ennodius, Dictio i, 15; Courcelle, Histoire litt´ eraire, 203.
201
Anthemius: Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 53 (collectio Ligurum nobilitatis), 54–5 (selection); cf. 64
(Epiphanius casts himself as representative of Italy as well as Ricimer before the emperor). Euric:
81–2. Cf. the Gallic council assembled by Aetius which chooses Avitus to approach the Goths
for support against Attila; above, chapter 3,n. 80. On Liguria: Andreas Schwarcz, ‘Die Liguria
zwischen Goten, Byzantinern, Langobarden und Franken im 6. Jahrhundert’, in Laura Balletto
(ed.), Oriente e occidente tra medioevo ed et` a moderna, ed. (Genoa, 1997), 1109–31. On the Ligurian
provincial council: Cesa, Commentary to Vita del Epifanio, 151–2, 169.
202
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 57.Cf. N¨ af, ‘Die Zeitbewusstsein des Ennodius’, 121.
162