Page 195 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

bringing war against a rebel subject in northern Italy. All strive to protect
provincial communities from suffering violence in the course of imperial
military action. These rare attested embassies, and the meetings of provin-
cial councils which often precede them, are small fragments among the
many unattested communications which shaped the course of events. 230
They are recorded in works written for provincial audiences, because
they concern the security of those communities.
Ennodius’ Vita Epiphani has long been highly regarded as a histori-
cal document of the fifth century, on account of the political situations
dramatised in the narratives of Epiphanius’ embassies. But the work must
be used with caveats. Despite the bishop’s meetings with emperors, kings,
and senior officials in Italy and Gaul, the focus of the work, and presum-
ably Ennodius’ intended audience, was local: the province of Liguria, and
specifically the two leading cities of Milan and Pavia. Notwithstanding
Ennodius’ contacts with the papal court in Rome and the royal court in
Ravenna, Vita Epiphani reflects the views of the provinces, like Hydatius
and Sidonius, not of the central government. The narrative structure of
the work was consciously chosen, using the distinctive and highly lit-
erary model of Constantius’ Vita Germani to portray the bishop’s career
as a ceaseless series of journeys undertaken for others’ sakes. Two sug-
gestions, neither exclusive, may be made as to why Ennodius chose this
model to represent his late bishop. Epiphanius’ mission to Gaul to redeem
captives taken by Burgundian raids was clearly felt to be an outstanding
achievement, both during the bishop’s lifetime, and some years later when
Ennodius composed the Vita; the young Ennodius had been personally
involved. The model of Constantius’ Germanus may have suggested itself
to the Gallic-born Ennodius as a way to provide a suitable context and
background for Epiphanius’ deed. Secondly, to provincials of the empire,
the task of undertaking a legation, always prestigious, had grown even
more important within local communities during the new circumstances
of the fifth century. At the same time, as the next chapter explores, the
completion of embassies for imperial and royal courts also rose in social
capital. Ennodius, a member of the local aristocracy and church of Lig-
uria enjoying strong connections to senior officials and career servants of
the court of Theoderic, sought to exploit the prestige from both these
milieux for his hero.

The Vitae of Germanus, Orientius, Vivianus, and Epiphanius share the
same literary vehicle to praise their subjects. The presentation of the
bishops as effective envoys requires omission and exaggeration: ignoring

230
Cf. Procopius, Wars v, 8–10 (negotiations between citizens of Naples and Belisarius).
169