462 Lizzi Testa
bishops in fact managed to sustain a certain equilibrium on both sides of the
Alps, which Theoderic had hoped to achieve through a sophisticated network
of marriage alliances, but which failed miserably at Vouillé.50
The new equilibrium was realized by means of highly intense diplomatic
activity, effectively managed for the most part by deacons. While mention is
hardly ever made of them in sources, these lower figures were very often the
real agents of lateral mediation between the various churches and vertical
mediation between the centre and the periphery. In the case of Caesarius’ trial,
it is not difficult to believe that reconciliation with Theoderic was achieved
thanks to Ennodius, then a deacon but later a bishop,51 whose activities in
those years are especially well evidenced by his correspondence, including
an epistle directed to Caesarius himself shortly after his exoneration.52 Nor is
it unlikely that Ennodius likewise had intervened in support of the bishop of
Aosta, as he was then deacon at the church in Milan governed by Eustorgius,
to whom Theoderic’s letter was sent. It may be assumed that the Ostrogothic
king, assisted by his quaestor Cassiodorus, adopted the same criteria used by
Roman emperors (as is now clear from the study of recipients of constitu-
tions in the Theodosian Code) in addressing their decisions to those who had
actually solicited them. The intervention of Ennodius and Theoderic, which
absolved the bishop of Aosta from proditio patriae, is all the more credible
as the bishop can be identified with the episcopus ecclesiae Augustinae (var.
Augustanae) named Iucundus (var. Iocundus). This Iocundus signed the synod
of 23 October 502 at the end of the habita Romae Palmaris session of the Roman
council, which had been convened by an edict of Theoderic to adjudicate the
Laurentian schism (498–506/7).53 He can also be identified in connection with
the council that met under the chairmanship of Bishop Symmachus in basilica
Petri on 6 November 502.54
50 Perhaps the best example is bishop Epiphanius of Pavia who had served earlier as emperor
Nepos’ envoy to the Visigothic king Euric and who later helped to broker Theoderic’s
failed marriage alliance with the Burgundian king Gundobad. See Ennodius, Vita Epifani
82–91 and 136–76, pp. 94–5 and 101–6.
51 Ennodius was a member of the Milanese clergy from 495; after 502 he became a deacon
serving the bishop Laurentius until he was elected bishop in Pavia ca. 513. See “Magnus
Felix Ennodius”, in Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire (cited as PCBE hereafter) II,
pp. 621–2.
52 Ennodius, no. 169 (Ep. 9.33), p. 321, ll. 3 and 24.
53 For the Laurentian Schism see Sessa’s contribution to this volume.
54 In both the first and the second signature lists from the council Iucundus appears next
to Tigridius of Turin respectively at the fifty-fifth place (with Tigridius at fifty-sixth); and