Page 277 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

Ceremonial
Leo’s firstappearance in Vita Epiphani, more informative of actual proto-
col, is as the only palatine official named in association with the reception
of an embassy: ‘[Leo] with great joy proclaimed to public notice the ar-
rival of the bishop.’ 137 The passage is an explicit reference to the public
announcement of the reception of an envoy. There are other indica-
tions that the arrival and departure of embassies was a publicly observed
event, attended by ceremonial akin to the adventus liturgies for the re-
ception of the emperor and other public figures. 138 The hagiographi-
cal embassy-narratives repeatedly describe the occursus of populations of
towns meeting bishops both during their journeys and at their destina-
tion, prompting Germanus of Auxerre to attempt to hide his identity
when entering towns; in Arles, a watch is maintained for the expected
arrival of his legation. 139 Constantius also mentions the ‘regular practice’
of the praetorian prefect of Gaul in meeting a provincial embassy at some
distance outside the city; as was traditional with ceremonies of reception,
the distance at which the recipient meets the embassy is an indicator of
honour. 140 Malchus records the ceremonial reception, outside the city,
of envoys from the emperor Zeno by the ‘men of rank’ and other inhab-
itants of the provincial city of Lychnidus in Macedonia. 141 The record
of the arrival of Persian envoys into Constantinople in sources derived
from the putative Constantinople city chronicles suggests that these were

137 Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 85: qui cum summo gaudio adventum pontificis indicavit notitiae publicae. The
phrase summo gaudio may reflect the phraseology of public proclamation.
Reception by officials: in Rome, Epiphanius is ushered in to his audience with Anthemius
by officia palatina tota; Vita Epiphani, 61.
138 On imperial adventus: S. MacCormack, ‘Change and Continuity in Late Antiquity: The Cer-
emony of the adventus’, Historia 21 (1972), 721–2. Imperial ritual was an extension of ubiquitous
aristocratic practices celebrating the arrival or departure (discessus) of magnates: McCormick,
Eternal Victory, 252–8; Thomas F. Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian
Art, 2nd edn (Princeton, 1999), 24–5;David Noy, Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers
(London, 2000), 142.
139
Occursus: e.g. Constantius, Vita Germani, 21, 23, 30, 35; cf. Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 59, 85,
149 (fama of Epiphanius draws crowds from the cities he approaches on his journeys). Secrecy
and watch: Constantius, Vita Germani, 32, 35. From at least the late fourth century, adventus
rituals greeted bishops entering or re-entering their own sees (McCormick, ‘Analyzing Imperial
Ceremonies’, 15 n. 47; J. George, Venantius Fortunatus,a Latin Poet in Merovingian Gaul (Oxford,
1992), 74–7); the receptions described by Constantius and Ennodius may have been extensions
of these practices to visiting bishops.
140
Praetorian prefect meets embassies: Constantius, Vita Germani, 24: Ingrediente longissimo praeter
consuetudinem famulatur occursu (cf. the late evidence of Stephanus Africanus, Vita Amator, 5:Am-
ator is received by the praetorian prefect of Gaul Julius; PLRE ii, 642). Tradition: McCormick,
Eternal Victory, 211 and n. 102 (citing Augustus, Res gestae xii, 1). Distance: in addition to the
last citation from Vita Germani: Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 151 stresses that Bishop Rusticius of
Lyons crosses the Rhˆ one to greet the Italian legation.
141
Malchus, Fr., 20 (Fr. Class. Hist., 443).
251