Page 225 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

etymology of his name in the choice of metre for his epitaph. More-
over, Senarius’ title of patricius, which he attests in his epitaph, precludes
Gothic ethnicity. Theoderic was scrupulous in ensuring that the patrici-
ate, like the consulate and the highest civilian offices, was awarded only to
Romans. 77
Senarius can be placed in his proper context with the aid of the letters
written by Ennodius as deacon of Milan in the 500s. Senarius appears
in Ennodius’ letters as part of the circle of high-born Italian aristocrats
who dominated the most important offices of the court in Ravenna in the
early part of Theoderic’s reign, as their ancestors had done in the previous
78
century. Some ten letters of Ennodius to Senarius are extant. All appear
to have been written while Senarius was at court in Ravenna. 79 Some
are purely letters of friendship, maintaining the formal ties of amicitia,
while others contain specific requests – for news, or for aid to a client. 80
Ennodius claimed Senarius as a relative, and letters of friendship outweigh
those explicitly conveying requests, but it is clear that Senarius was a part

1963), 78–83, 125–37, ‘Index of Personal Names’ (including Sextilius and other names based on
primus to septem).
Late antique names: signa and other supernomina were often formed with -ius endings (e.g.
Senarius), like earlier family nomina; ErnstFraenkel, ‘Namenwesen’, RE xvi.2, 1663; Iiro Kajanto,
‘Les noms’, in H. Zilliacus (ed.), Sylloge inscriptionum Christianarum veterum Musei Vaticani (Acta
Instituti Romani Finlandiae 1.1, 1.2; Helsinki, 1963), 40–72, esp. 47, 65–6; Kajanto, Onomastic
Studies, 31–49; Benet Salway, ‘What’s in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onamastic Practice from
c. 700 bc to 700 ad’, JRS 84 (1994), 136–7.
Senarius may have possessed more names than the one by which he is addressed in the extant
sources. It was conventional for individuals with traditional names, whether in the tria nomina
system or not, to be addressed by only one name; this is attested specifically for both imperial
correspondence and personal letters, two categories by which Senarius’ name is attested; Alan
Cameron, ‘Polynomy in the Late Roman Aristocracy: the Case of Petronius Probus’, Journal of
Roman Studies 75 (1985), 171–7;Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 264. Verse epitaphs
were unlikely to preserve more than the one, conventional name; cf. the epitaph of the praetorian
prefectof Gaul and patricius Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius, CIL xi, 382 (called only ‘Liberius’).
77 Mommsen, ‘Ostgothische Studien’, 402 n. 2. The only Gothic patricius in Theoderic’s Italy was
the king himself, who had been granted the title by the emperor Zeno in the 470s, when the
Ostrogoths were still in the Balkans; ibid., 422 n. 2. Under Athalaric the general Tulvin was made
patricius praesentalis, as was the praetorian prefect of Gaul Liberius; Cass., Variae viii, 9–11; xi, 1.
78
Ennodius, Epp. i, 23; iii, 11, 34; iv, 27, 33; v, 15; vi, 8, 27; vii, 5; viii, 7;cf. v, 16 (Senarius
mentioned). Dates: Sundwall, Abhandlungen, 1–83.
79
Sundwall, Abhandlungen, 11–12, 21, 25, 31–2, 32–3, 37–8, 44–5, 47, 51, 58. References to court
service: Epp. iii, 11, esp. lines 7–9; v, 15; vi, 27, lines 17–19; vii, 5; viii, 7; cf. the titles of address
employed by Ennodius to Senarius, e.g. sublimitas tua, Epp. i, 23, line 2; iii, 11, line 34.
80
Amicitia: Epp. i, 23; iii, 11, 34; iv, 33; vi, 8; viii, 7 (conventional rebukes for not writing); v,
15–16 (invitation to Senarius to visit Ennodius); vii, 5: religio amicitiae.News: iv, 27; vii, 5.Aid: iv,
33 (concerning a disputed episcopal succession for the see of Aquileia; Sundwall, Abhandlungen,
32–4); vi, 27 (arranging a hearing of a dispute before Theoderic; Sundwall, Abhandlungen, 45–7,
49). On amicitia in late antique epistolography: Matthews, Western Aristocracies, 5–9; ibid., ‘The
Letters of Symmachus’, 58–68; more generally, Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman
Antiquity (Philadelphia, 1986), 28–31, 58–70; Caroline White, Christian Friendship in the Fourth
Century (Cambridge, 1992), 13–44; Conybeare, Paulinus Noster.
199