Page 211 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

them among letters relating to other duties. He thus displays the variety,
asserted in his preface, both of his correspondence and of his functions
in office. 33
Cassiodorus chose to give the letters to rulers emphasis by the promi-
nent position they have in each book. This placement also draws attention
to Cassiodorus’ role, in the capacity of quaestor, in diplomatic exchange.
As with the other functions of the quaestor, this role centred on eloquence.
The diplomatic letter, though only one part of communication between
powers, served as a formal introduction to negotiations of great moment.
It was essential, therefore, that letters to rulers displayed skilled command
of the forms of communication, that is to say, of rhetoric. Rhetorical skill
is the common factor between the function of the quaestor and the duties
of envoys. The oratorical talents of envoys were crucial to the success of
their missions; Sidonius establishes eloquence as the defining character-
istic of Avitus in order to cast him as a legate. 34 Eloquence is also the
foremost feature of diplomatic correspondence, conveying a mystique of
35
authority. It is this lesson which Cassiodorus offers to his successors in
office, and for this reason he draws attention to his letters to emperors
and kings in the monument to his public career.

Diplomatic affairs do not bulk large in the dispositive letters, the edicts
and rescripts, of the Variae. Only one letter commissions an individual to
undertake a mission on the court’s behalf. At some date between late 509
and 511, the senator Fl. Agapitus was directed by Theoderic to travel to
Constantinople. Agapitus, already a mature figure, had held high office
in Ravenna since c. 502, had been prefectof Rome in 508/9, and had
recently been raised to the rank of patricius. At least twice in the two years
after completing his tenure as prefect of Rome, Agapitus had received
instructions from Theoderic, in both cases to act as a civil magistrate. The
direction to travel to Constantinople was a further instance of Theoderic
exploiting the services of this senior member of the Senate of Rome to
complete a specific commission, which was not part of the duties of any
palatine office. It was customary for the court under Theoderic to de-
ploy former holders of office and other senior figures in this way, and the
tone of the letter is similar to others in the Variae which directex-officials
(including Cassiodorus’ father) to return to Ravenna in order to attend the
king’s comitatus or to perform certain unspecified duties without office. 36
Similar written summonses might have been issued when Theoderic sent

33 34
Cass., Variae,Praef., 15–17. Above, chapter 3 atn. 62.
35
Macpherson, Rome in Involution, 71–4.
36
Cass., Variae ii, 6; Mommsen, Prooemium, xxxii; Sundwall, Abhandlungen, 84–5; PLRE ii,
‘Fl. Agapitus 3’, 30–2. Krautschick, Cassiodor, 60–1, dates Agapitus’ tenure as prefect of Rome
185