Philological and Historical Notes on the Introduction of a Letter Sent by the Emperor Honorius to the Army (Epistula Honorii)

A tenth-century manuscript, composed in the King-dom of Pamplona's courtly circle, transmits a letter by the emperor Honorius to the troops stationed in the city of Pamplona. The brief introduction that precedes the letter features information crucial to the understanding and interpretation of the rest of the text. This article seeks to reevaluate existing scholar-ship on its content, firstly, by analysing the function of the whole text within the manuscript's conception and tradition and, secondly, by looking at other Late Antique and Early Medieval sources, to try to re-contextualise the prefatory text. My main argument is that an anonymous author from the Kingdom of Pamplona wrote it, or the compilers of the code modified it to suit their own interests.