Page 220 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

Senarius is praised for the eloquence he displayed as exceptor; his compo-
sitions refreshed the minds of court officials as quickly as their duties tired
them. His humilitas, praised in general terms in the letter to the Senate, is
here more explicitly described as probity in dealing with the court secrets
to which he had access. 62
Allowing for brevity and the abstract style of the Variae, the letter to
Senarius is unexpectedly precise in describing his experiences and talents.
The features which Cassiodorus praises are not topoi but the characteris-
tics of an individual court official. The letter proclaims Senarius’ appoint-
ment and emphasises the bond of patronage between court and officer;
but it also has every appearance of being a communication between two
members of the same part of society, shaped to gratify its recipient by
dwelling on just those features of Senarius’ service in which he would
have taken the most pride.
By a happy chance, this impression can be confirmed by a short, auto-
biographical text of Senarius’ own. Senarius’ epitaph has been preserved,
one of a small number of epitaphs of secular office holders to survive
from Ostrogothic Italy. 63 The epitaph is in poetic form, written in the
firstperson. There is no reason to doubtthatitis from Senarius’ own
pen; composing one’s epitaph was a Roman tradition of long standing,
and Senarius’ eloquence is amply attested by Cassiodorus.
Following is the text of the epitaph with a translation: 64

Cf. Cyprianus’ letters of appointment as comes sacrarum: his embassy to Constantinople is
mentioned in the letter to Cyprianus, but not in the letter to the Senate; Variae v, 40.5, 41. The
imagery of withstanding enraged and unjust barbarian kings is similar to the description of the
embassy of Cassiodorus’ grandfather to Attila; Variae i, 4.11–12.
62
Eloquentis ingenium: Cass., Variae iv, 3.3, lines 28–32; humilitas: lines 32–4.
63 Other epitaphs: Praetextatus Salventius Verecundus Traianus, nominated prefect of Rome when
he died in 533 (CIL vi, 32038; PLRE iii, 1333); Liberius, former praetorian prefect of Italy
and the Ostrogothic province of Gaul, and patricius (CIL xi, 382; PLRE ii, 677–81; James J.
O’Donnell, ‘Liberius the Patrician’, Traditio 37 (1981), 70–1); Seda, cubicularius of Theoderic
(CIL xi, 310; PLRE ii, 987); Florentius, pater pistorum of Theoderic (and his wife Dominica
and their son Apolenaris, cancellarius of the Byzantine praetorian prefect of Italy Longinus
c. 568–74/5; CIL xi, 317; PLRE iii, 100, 410, 489); Iulius Felix Valentinianus, comes domesti-
corum (CIL vi, 32003; PLRE ii, 1137–8); possibly Decoratus, former quaestor (PLRE ii, 350–1).
For Burgundian and Frankish Gaul, there are two epitaphs of former court officials, both po-
etic and both of men named Pantagathus, one a rector of Provence (CIL xii, 1499; PLRE iii,
963–4), the other a quaestor before becoming bishop of Vienne (MGH AA vi.2,p. 187; PLRE iii,
964–5).
64 Textfrom Pierre Pithou (ed.), Epigrammata et poematia vetera (Paris, 1590), 108; minor amendments
have been included from Mommsen, ‘Index personarum’ to Cass., Variae, 499. For bibliography
and transmission of the text, see appendix iv.

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