Page 308 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Appendix i

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have been renowned. Other unsupported assumptions marr Scharf’s argument: the
Armorican rebellion is linked with Aetius’ settlement of the Alans in northern Gaul
and therefore dated to 437, though Goar’s army appears in Vita Germani onlyasa
punitive force employed by the western army with no clear association with the
27
settlement; the reference to the patriciate of the magister utriusque militiae Sigisvult,
anachronistic for 436/7, is dismissed because the only other text to mention it is the
forged account of the trial of Pope Sixtus III – but the status of that work does not
implicate the validity of the unrelated Vita Germani; 28 Germanus’ alleged ‘second’
and fatal trip to Ravenna is made part of his support for Hilarius of Arles in the
Celidonius affair, with no evidence from either Vita Germani or Vita Hilarii. 29 The
liberties taken by this thesis, in order to reconcile Constantius’ account with fragile
prosopographical constructions and texts with which Vita Germani frankly cannot
be harmonised, are unwarranted.
Despite attempts at greater precision, the only firm dates for Germanus’ episcopate
continue to be the two long known: Prosper’s assignment of Germanus’ voyage to
Britain in 429 (presumably, though not necessarily, the first of the two trips to Britain
30
that Constantius attributes to Germanus ); and the death of the augusta Galla Placidia
in November 450.These are termini ante quam for Germanus’ ordination and death
respectively.

ii constantius’ composition of vita germani
The only internal evidence for the publication of Vita Germani is the two letters to
the bishops Patiens of Lyons, who commissioned Constantius to write the work,
and Censurius of Auxerre, who put it into circulation. Both Patiens and Censurius
were recipients of letters from Sidonius Apollinaris, written after his own accession
to the episcopate, perhaps c. 469. Patiens held the episcopate from 449 to before
31
c. 494; Censurius died before 511. Itis unclear from Vita Germani whether Lupus
of Troyes and Severus of Trier, Germanus’ companions on his two trips to Britain,
were still alive at the time of composition (Lupus held the episcopate from c. 426/7 to
32
between 476 and 511; Severus died some time before 477 ). These episcopal dates
provide only the termini c. 469–94.
The construction of a church dedicated to St Germanus, by Victorius, comes of
the Auvergne under Euric during the 470s, attests a growth of Germanus’ cult,
26
Volusiani: PLRE ii, 1182–5. Embassy: The Life of Melania the Younger, trans. Elizabeth A. Clark
(New York, 1984), c. 58. The ex-prefect’s embassy was part of many unattested contacts between
the western and eastern courts prior to the imperial wedding of 437; Gillett, ‘Date and Circum-
stances of Olympiodorus of Thebes’, 22 n. 96.
27
Scharf, ‘Germanus’, 8–9.
28
Scharf, ‘Germanus’, 10. Barnes, ‘Patricii under Valentinian III’, 164.
29
For the dubious evidence of Vita Hilarii:above,atn. 5. Scharf, ‘Germanus’, 18.
30
Chadwick, Poetry and Letters, 255–6, suggests that the second trip to Britain is a doublet of the
first. Chadwick is refuted by Wood, ‘End of Roman Britain’, 14, who cites the references to two
voyages in Vita Genovefa, 2–4, 9. But this is inconclusive: the references demonstrate only that
the author of Genovefa’s Vita had read Vita Germani, rather than Vita Lupi, which records only
the first journey to Britain.
31
Duchesne, Fastes ´ episcopaux ii, 163, 445.
32
Duchesne, Fastes ´ episcopaux ii, 453–4; iii, 36,with PLRE ii, ‘Arbogastes’, 128–9 for date.
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