Page 239 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

in office, a minor indication of Senarius’ relative importance still in Cas-
siodorus’ mind at the time of editing his collection. 138 He was awarded
the patriciate at some time after his tenure as comes, since he is notad-
dressed as patricius by Cassiodorus. 139 Ennodius’ last letter to Senarius was
written early in 510, and itmay be assumed thatSenarius served only
one year as comes patrimonii and was notin residence in Ravenna between
the expiry of his office and the end of Ennodius’ extant letters in early
513. 140 His epitaph indicates that he held no further high office after the
comitiva patrimonii.
Senarius nevertheless remained in contact with Ennodius and the royal
court. In 515/16, Bishop Avitus of Vienne wrote to Senarius to ask for
news of an embassy led by Ennodius to Constantinople. The legation had
been dispatched by Pope Hormisdas in an attempt to resolve the Acacian
schism which had estranged the churches of Rome and Constantinople
since the 480s. Senarius appears to have been in Ravenna at the time;
Avitus also wrote to the bishop of the city on the same issue. Avitus might
have written to Senarius as much for his contacts with the court as for
his personal ties with Ennodius, for the embassy had been commissioned
by Hormisdas after consultation with Theoderic. Avitus claimed to have
often benefited from Senarius’ assistance in the past. 141

138 Cass., Variae iv, 7, 11, 13. See also iv, 15 and PLRE ii, ‘Anonymus 35’, 1225; the arrangement
of letters in the Variae favours the identification of this unnamed comes with Senarius rather than
his predecessor Julianus, as all the letters to Senarius are contained in Book iv; cf. Cass., Variae i,
16 to Julianus; Delmaire, Les Responsables, 295.
139 Epitaph, line 16. The title, however, is not used in either the letter of Avitus of Vienne to
Senarius, c. 515/16, or that of John the Deacon, c. 509/23, discussed below. On patricii under
Theoderic: Mommsen, ‘Ostgothische Studien’, 422–3; Wilhelm Heil, Der konstantinische Pa-
triziat (Basel and Stuttgart, 1968), 52–3, 128–32; Wilhelm Ensslin, ‘Aus Theoderichs Kanzlei’,
W¨ urzburger Jahrb¨ ucher f¨ ur die Altertumswissenschaft 2 (1947), 75–85; Evangelos K. Chrysos, ‘Die
Amaler-Herrschaft in Italien und das Imperium Romanum: Der Vertragsentwurf des Jahres 535’,
Byzantion 51 (1981), 461–2. Theoderic’s policy on the appointment of patricii did notfollow the
provisions of Cod. Just. xii, 3.3 (Zeno), limiting the grant of the patriciate to former praetor-
ian prefects, prefects of Constantinople, magistri utriusque militiae,magistri officiorum, and consuls.
Instead he anticipated Justinian’s Nov. lxii, 2.5, extending candidacy to all holders of offices
with illustris rank (i.e. quaestors and the financial comites). Possibly this reflects late fifth-century
imperial practice in the West; Ensslin, ‘Aus Theoderichs Kanzlei’, 75. Nevertheless, award of
the patriciate to financial comites was rare in Italy. Of twelve financial officers known from the
Ostrogothic regime in Italy, only Senarius and Cyprianus, the accuser of Boethius, held the pa-
triciate under Theoderic (the patriciate of Bergantinus is not attested before 538; PLRE ii, 225).
Several eastern comites sacrarum largitionum held the patriciate in the late sixth century; PLRE iii,
‘Elias 2’, 437;‘Petrus 9’, 1000; ‘Fl. Se...’, 1118; ‘Theodorus 34’, 1256; ‘Fl. Victor 3’, 1372.
140
Ennodius, Ep. viii, 7; Sundwall, Abhandlungen, Table 81, 58.
141
Avitus of Vienne, Opera, ed. Rudolf Peiper (MGH AA 6.2), Epp. xxxix (Senarius), xl (bishop
Peter of Ravenna); xli–xlii. Cf. Ensslin, Theoderich, 298; Danuta Shanzer and Ian Wood
(trans.), Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose (TTH 38; Liverpool, 2002), 123–5. Delmaire,
Les Responsables, 289, considers that Senarius had retired to Rome when he received the letter
from Avitus. On the Acacian schism: Jedin and Dolan, 429–36, 616–24; Chadwick, Boethius,
29–46; Moorhead, Theoderic, 54–60, 194–200.
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