Page 217 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

Both Greek subtlety and barbarian irrationality are commonplaces,
employed to provide a context for the praise of former envoys’
eloquence.
The most informative of the letters of appointment are two written
in the name of Theoderic concerning the elevation of a palatine officer
47
named Senarius to the financial position of comes patrimonii. Senarius had
many times undertaken embassies for Theoderic. Several other sources
relating to Senarius are extant which, together with Cassiodorus’ letters,
give a profile of a late Roman officer who specialised in the task of an
envoy.
Senarius’ appointment as comes was made for the indiction year com-
mencing 1 September 509. 48 Following the usual practice of the Variae,
two letters announce Senarius’ appointment: one to the appointee and
the other to the Senate of Rome. It is the only personal letter of appoint-
mentfor a comes patrimonii in the Variae; the other comites mentioned in
the collection might have received only a variant of Cassiodorus’ standard
formula for appointment to this office. 49 The comitiva of the patrimonium

47
Cass., Variae iv, 3–4. For full text and translation, see appendix iii.
On Senarius: Mommsen, ‘Index personarum’ to Cass., Variae, 499; Sundwall, Abhandlun-
gen, 153–4; PLRE ii, ‘Senarius’, 988–9; Roland Delmaire, Les Responsables des finances imp´ eriales
au Bas-Empire romain (IVe–VIe s.): ´ etudes prosopographiques (Collection Latomus 203; Brussels,
1989), 293–6, and Delmaire, Largesses sacr´ ees et res privata:l’aerarium imp´ erial et son administra-
¸
tion du IVe–VIe si` ecles (Ecole francaise de Rome, Collection 121;Rome, 1989), 692; Christoph
Sch¨ afer, Der westr¨ omische Senat als Tr¨ ager antiker Kontinuit¨ at unter den Ostgotenk¨ onigen (490–540 n.Chr.)
(StKatharinen, 1991), no. 92, 103–4;Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 413.Onthe
comitiva patrimonii, below nn. 103–5.
Senarius is styled comes privatarum in the inscription of Cass., Variae iv, 3, 7, 11,and 13, and the
respective entries in the Capitula of Variae iv in all manuscriptfamilies. He was, however, comes
patrimonii, not privatarum; Variae iv, 3.2 and 4.2 and Senarius, Epitaph, line 15, contra Otto Seeck,
‘Comes sacri patrimonii (c)’, RE iv.1, 676; Barnwell, Emperor,Prefects,and Kings, 148, 150. The
discrepancy does not occur with any of the other three comites patrimonii addressed in the Variae.
Though Theoderic’s officers sometimes performed the tasks of two posts simultaneously, only
one was held formally, and the dual responsibility draws comment from Cassiodorus; Cass., Variae
viii, 13.2–3 (Ambrosius as CRP, also fulfilling the task of quaestor), Praef ., 7 and ix, 24.6, 25.8
(Cassiodorus acting as quaestor while magister officiorum and praetorian prefect). The appearance
of comes privatarum in the inscriptions of the Variae appears to be a simple scribal error; Delmaire,
Les Responsables, 295.
48
Cass., Variae iv, 3.2: per indictionem tertiam. For the fifteen-year cycle of the indiction, beginning in
312: E. J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World (London, 1968), 78–9. The firstyear of the
indiction cycle fell on 507/8; as all letters in Variae i–iv were written between 506/7 and 511,the
third indiction to which Cassiodorus refers is that of 509/10. For the date: Krautschick, Cassiodor,
67–8 and Table 3, 76. Krautschick’s assumption, however, that Senarius’ tenure as comes lasted
longer than one year, is unsupported. On the duration of tenure in financial comitivae: Delmaire,
Largesses sacr´ ees, 113.
49
Other comites patrimonii: Julianus (Cass., Variae i, 16), Wilia (v, 18–20; ix, 13), Bergantinus (viii,
23; ix, 3), unnamed (iv, 15,cf. PLRE ii, ‘Anonymus 35’, 1225). Formula for appointment of comes
patrimonii: vi, 9.
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