Page 209 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

so consistently as the envoys in the diplomatic letters. 23 The potential
prosopographical listof envoys serving the Ostrogothic court of Italy is
thus substantially reduced. This is a significant loss, and not just statis-
tically but qualitatively. Several narrative sources record embassies dis-
patched by the Ostrogothic kings, and give the names of the envoys, but
the narratives record only embassies led by optimates of Italian society, in-
cluding members of the Senate of Rome (in particular the caput senatus)
24
or by the bishops of Rome. The activity of embassies led by less pres-
tigious figures is thus almost hidden from view. It is not the diplomatic
correspondence in Cassiodorus’ Variae but the edicts and encomiastic let-
ters of appointment that record the function of non-senatorial servants
of the court of Ravenna as envoys.
The substitution of ille for the envoys’ names in the diplomatic corre-
spondence is not made to conceal the identity of the individuals at the
time of the Variae’s publication, for envoys are named several times in the
25
other categories of letters. Nor were envoys of insufficientrank to war-
rant commemoration with other high officials named in the Variae.Many
of Theoderic’s envoys held high office and were of aristocratic back-
ground, and some of less impressive origin were advanced to high office in
26
part because of their services on legations. Rather, the deletions reflect
the literary and bureaucratic milieu of the Variae. Cassiodorus intended
his collection to provide stylistic models for his successors in office, not
only in the two books of formulae, but in the individual letters also. In the
preface, Cassiodorus indicates that he considers his letters to rulers as one
23 Traube, ‘Index rerum etverborum’ to Cass., Variae, 546–7, s.v. ille, usefully distinguishes the use
of ille as a substitution for individuals, times, places, and other subjects. Almost all occurences of
ille other than for persons are in the formulae of Books vi and vii. Nine times ille stands for private
citizens who receive royal assistance; in all other occasions, ille represents court functionaries. The
majority of these last cases are the envoys of the diplomatic letters; for no other type of court
office are the names of the office holders consistently replaced by ille. Cassiodorus also uses tot
to replace specific information in the letters. Such deletions of details occur also in other letter
collections, e.g. the Registrum of Pope Gregory I; Dag Norberg, In registrum Gregorii Magni studia
critica (Uppsala, 1939), ii, 6 n. 3.
24
The main extant source for names of envoys of the Ostrogoths is Anon. Val. pars II, which provides
six names of senators (see n. 26) and Pope John I, whose ill-fated mission in 525 is recorded in
many chronicle sources (see chapter 2 above, n. 11).
25
Envoys are named in edicts (Cass., Variae i, 15 Agnellus; ii, 6 Fl. Agapitus; xii, 20 Pope Agapitus),
and in eulogies (i, 4 Cassiodorus’ father; iv, 3–4 Senarius; v, 40–1 Cyprianus). Envoys received
at Ravenna from the Senate or the province of Dalmatia are also named (viii, 12 Arator; 15
Publianus).
26
Commemoration of officials: Cass., Variae,Praef ., 9. Envoys of high rank: e.g. Fl. Rufius Postumius
Festus (Anon. Val. xi, 53; xii, 64; PLRE ii, 467–9); Fl. Anicius Probus Faustus iunior Niger (Anon.
Val. xii, 57; PLRE ii, 454–5); the senators Theodorus, Inportunus, Agapitus, and Fl. Agapitus,
mostof whom were members of the Decii family (Anon. Val. xv, 90; PLRE ii, 30, 32, 592, 1098;
John Moorhead, ‘The Decii under Theoderic’, Historia 33 (1984), 107–15). Advancementfor
diplomatic duties: Senarius (below), Cyprianus: Variae v, 40.5; Agnellus: Variae i, 15 (PLRE ii,
35–6).
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