Wahrnehmungen und Konstruktionen von „Natur“ in den enkomiastischen Prosawerken des Magnus Felix Ennodius

This paper focuses on the question how the natural environment of the protagonists had been described and constructed in the Panegyricus Theoderico regi dictus, in the Vita beatissimi viri Epifani episcopi Ticinensis ecclesiae and in the Vita beati Antoni monachi. All three prose works can be described as encomium to glorify the Ostrogothic king Theoderic, the bishop of Pavia Epiphanius and a lessknown blessed monk called Antonius. “Nature” is not only a setting for the story told, but the author attributes specific functions to an inhospitable or fertile or even pleasant environment in the sense of a literary locus amoenus. Examples are among others the description of the battle at the Ulca River against the Gepids and the threatening gorges of the Adige River north of Verona in the Panegyricus, the major battlefield place between Theoderic and Odoacer; the natural circumstances of Epiphanius’ diplomatic travels; Antonius’s perception of the Valtellina Valley when transcending the Alps from Noricum and of the mountainous landscape around Lake Como serving as place for hermitage. The paper also examines to what extent Ennodius referred to authorities of classical and late antique literature, and in which parts we might presume even a personal knowledge of the landscape described.