Page 189 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

when dealing with the Roman, Gothic, and Rugian armies occupying
Pavia, Epiphanius acts for his city. 203 Somewhatmore equivocal are the
embassies to Theoderic for restoration of legal rights, and the mission
to Gundobad. The former is introduced as a representation on behalf of
a class, those who had not supported Theoderic during the war with
Odoacer; supportfor Odoacer and Theoderic was divided throughout
the whole of Italy. 204 Yetthe speech Ennodius makes Epiphanius deliver
before Theoderic presents the province of Liguria as the suppliant. 205
Similarly, though the mission to Gaul to ransom captives is commis-
sioned by Theoderic, who refers to ‘the whole of Italy’ as ravaged by the
Burgundians’ plunder, the sequence as a whole strongly emphasises the
restoration of Liguria through the legation. 206 Ennodius gives attention to
Epiphanius’ relations with the province of Liguria also through repeated
reference to Milan, the capital and metropolitan see of the province;
as Ennodius was attached to the church of Milan at the time of com-
position, this attention is not surprising. 207 Like the Gallic and Spanish
sources discussed in earlier chapters, imperial and royal issues in Vita
Epiphani are seen through a provincial focus. Regional concerns animate
the provinces’ main political voice, embassies.
In the dictio for Epiphanius’ episcopal anniversary, the embassy to re-
deem the Italian captives is the only deed mentioned from Epiphanius’
thirty-year episcopate. The equivalent account in the Vita, by far the
longest single section, is also the most developed narrative, comprising
four long speeches; several other passages of direct dialogue; substantial
rhetorical descriptions utilising biblical and classical imagery; the most
references to persons of influence in any section; one of the few miracles

203 §§ vi, vii, ix, xii, xiii. Cf. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 156.
204 Divided support: Cassiodorus, Variae i, 3.3–4 (supportfor both Theoderic and Odoacer in
Sicily); Gelasius, Ep. 95 (PL 59, 63) (resistance to Odoacer in Rome; cf. Courcelle, Histoire
litt´ eraire, 203). Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 109–10; Ennodius, Dictio i, 15 (both Epiphanius and
his metropolitan, Laurence of Milan, supported Theoderic). Theoderic threatened reprisals in
regions other than northern Italy: Sicily (Cassiodorus, as above); possibly Rome (if H. Useners’
interpretation of the circumstances of the delivery of the speech pro allecticiis by Q. Aurelianus
Memmius Symmachius is correct; cited Schanz-Hosius iv, 2, 84; Courcelle, Histoire litt´ eraire,
204; Moorhead, Theoderic, 31). See Cesa, Commentary to Vita del Epifanio, 189.
205
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 130: Liguria vestra nobiscum profusa supplicat.
206
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 138 (universa Italiae loca), cf. 141, 157; 138–9, 141, 162 (Liguria).
207
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 36–8 (Epiphanius’ predecessor Crispinus seeks the approval of Rusticius,
bishop of Milan, for Epiphanius to be his successor); 53, 75 (Ricimer atMilan); 123–4 (bishop
Laurence of Milan accompanies Epiphanius to Theoderic to plead for restoration of legal rights).
Vogel, Introduction to Ennodius, Opera, xviii, doubts that Ennodius wrote the Vita in Milan
as his bishop Laurence is described with ieiunis verbis, but cf. the similarly jejune references to
Lupus of Troyes in Constantius, Vita Germani, 12–19: to Constantius’ contemporary Sidonius,
Lupus was a leading lightof the Gallic church; e.g. Sid. Ap., Epp. vi, 1; ix, 11.
163