Religious Diversity 517
‘Arians’.73 However the original intent of this law was almost certainly to pro-
vide legal sanction for the faith of many of the foederati who were important
members of the Roman army.74 Indeed in the second half of the 5th century
Italy was dominated by the non-Nicene magister militum Ricimer (died 472)
and his successor Gundobad.75 Ricimer in particular is thought to have patron-
ized the Homoian Church and was likely responsible for the decoration of
Saint Agatha in Rome.76 Yet our textual evidence is silent on the supposed reli-
gious deviance of these two men. Ennodius’ Vita Epiphanii omits any mention
of Ricimer’s faith.77 This same text also presents relatively positive portraits
of both Odovacer and Gundobad.78 Indeed Odovacer managed to rule Italy
with little comment about his religion for thirteen years. He is not called an
Arian by Eugippius in his Life of St Severinus, a text written around 511 in which
73 Palladius of Ratiara, for example, who was deposed by Ambrose in 381, denied any formal
connections to Arius. Like many bishops at this time, Palladius opposed the term homo-
ousios on the grounds that it was not scriptural. On Palladius’ rejection of the term ‘Arian’
see Barnes/Williams, “Introduction”, p. xv, n. 7.
74 Mathisen, “Ricimer’s Church”, p. 310; Gwynn, “Archaeology and the ‘Arian Controversy’ ”,
pp. 258–9; Heather, Goths and Romans, pp. 182–4.
75 PLRE, vol. 2: Flavius Ricimer 2. PLRE, vol. 2: Gundobadus 1. According to Gregory of Tours,
libri historiarum X, 2.32, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, Monumenta Germaniae Historica,
Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, Hannover 1951, vol. 1.1, p. 78, Gundobad (and “the peo-
ple”) were Arians. Avitus of Vienne may well have convinced Gundobad to convert to
Catholicism after he assumed the kingship of the Burgundians, although he refused to
confess his new faith in public. His son and successor Sigismund, on the other hand, was
a professed Catholic. For the context of Gundobad’s rule see Heil, Avitus von Vienne und
die homöische Kirche der Burgunder, pp. 15–23.
76 Ricimer decorated the church (today, Sant’Agata dei Goti) with mosaics and the ILS
(inscriptiones latinae selectae) 1294, preserves the inscription: “Fl. Ricimer v.i. magister
utriusque militae patricius et ex cons. ord. pro voto suo adornavit.” Ward-Perkins, not-
ing epigraphical evidence from the Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae (vol. 2, p. 438,
no. 127 = Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres 1637) states that Ricimer not only deco-
rated but actually built “the Arian church of S. Agata dei Goti (459/70).” Ward-Perkins,
Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, appendix 2, p. 240. On St Agatha see also Zeiller,
“Les Eglises ariennes”, pp. 19–23. St Agatha was re-dedicated to Nicene Christianity by
Gregory the Great in 591 or 592. See Gregory the Great, Dialogi 3.30, ed. A. de Vogüé,
Sources Chrétiennes, Paris 1978–80, vols. 251, 255, 265.
77 Ennodius does not, however, hesitate to have a group of Ligurian nobles derisibly call
Anthemius, the Western Roman Emperor who had been appointed by Leo I, graeculus.
See Ennodius, VE 54, pp. 52–3.
78 Odovacer: Ennodius, VE 101, pp. 72–3; Gundobad: VE 152–67, pp. 93–101.