Page 101 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

attempts to avert open conflict. 152 Only in Hydatius’ Chronicle do we see
the busy network of communication which formed the infrastructure for
all developments in the late and post-imperial West. This infrastructure
is revealed not only in the legations heralding specific wars or treaties,
but also in less conclusive, regular contact: when the Sueves and Vandals
consult each other as a matter of course following significant actions by
the Goths, or in the multiple embassies dispatched by rulers’ courts to an-
nounce shifts in domestic power politics. The regularity of such contact
contributed to its absence from most records.
The political structures of the fifth-century West were very complex.
Neither the old centres of imperial authority nor the new barbarian
courts formed exclusive centrepoints for political activity. Participation
in political affairs was open to senior civil and military officials, mem-
bers of municipal or other provincial bodies, and clergy, acting for their
local communities or for the Church. The interaction of many levels of
authority characterises political communication in the fifth century.
Each barbarian kingdom maintained multiple, bilateral relations with
neighbouring and distant powers. Policies regarding other states might be
interdependent, as with the tripartite relations between Sueves, Goths,
and empire in the 410sand 450s; or relations could instead be separate
and simultaneous. Long distances did not preclude diplomatic relations.
The division of the western half of the Roman empire into autonomous
kingdoms did not result in isolationism. Constant, complex interchange
replaced imperial rule as a political force binding the West together into
a diplomatic system.
The ‘external’ and ‘internal’ affairs of each state had no clear demarca-
tion. The geographical borders of the barbarian kingdoms were overrid-
den by patterns of communication which survived the Roman empire.
Gallaecian envoys to Gothic rulers in Gaul travelled the routes that their
forefathers had taken to the courts of the senior imperial magistrates in
the provinces. Regional communities had an acknowledged role to play
in relations between states. In Hydatius’ record, provincial authorities un-
mentioned in other sources, the plebs, not only dispatch representatives to
imperial and barbarian courts, but are paid the respect of receiving em-
bassies from these bodies to inform them of recent developments. The
assumption of responsibility for the welfare of neighbouring provincials

152
Pre-marital negotiations: for the fifth century, evidenced only for the marriage of Valentinian
III and Licinia Eudoxia; The Life of Melania the Younger, trans. Elizabeth A. Clark (New York,
1984), 50–5; sixth century: Gregory of Tours, Hist. ii, 28; iv, 27–8; vi, 29, 33–4, 45; ix, 16, 20,
28, 25, 28. Embassies prior to conflict: e.g. Theoderic of Italy’s letter to Clovis in 506/7; Cass.,
Variae iii, 4.3 (discussed below, chapter 5 atnn. 123–39); Procopius, Wars iii, 9–10; v, 3–7.

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