La « mémoire privée » dans le carm. 1, 6 (= 2 Vogel) d’Ennode de Pavie. Problèmes méthodologiques et essai de reconstruction des circonstances du voyage

After his return from the Roman synod of November 502, which recognized the legitimacy of Pope Symmachus in the Laurentian schism, Ennodius of Pavia composed a dicitio (carm. 1, 6 = 2 Vogel) in which he sings his safe return to his homeland, i.e. Milan. This poem, composed to be declaimed in front of a scholarly audience, is emblematic of the difficulties involved in reading, several centuries after their composition, epidictic discourses that were not written for posterity. In fact, the highly stylized account of his journey tells us almost nothing about the motivations and the conditions of the journey. However, the reasons for this silence are not only that the audience was aware of these factual data : Ennode is situated on another plane, elevating the narrative to an allegorical level. So the fears – real or fictitious – that he would have experienced during his journey (at sea?) suggest the fragility of the victory won by Symmachus.