Page 234 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

conflict between the Franks and the Visigoths was impending, the letters
to Alaric II and Clovis attempt to dissuade the antagonists from conflict.
Concerned that the neighbouring tribes might encourage the strife in
the hope of profiteering, Theoderic wrote to them to enlist their aid in
deterring Clovis from aggression. 117
Two envoys, anonymous in the Variae, carried these letters to all six
royal addressees, an arduous task which has received little attention. The
Variae preserves the order in which the letters were to be delivered. The
envoys were first to travel to Alaric II in southern Gaul, then to turn
north-east to Gundobad, next to visit the courts of the Heruli, Warni,
and Thuringians, and finally to approach Clovis. It was hoped that when
the envoys reached the Frankish court, representatives of the Burgundians,
Heruli, Warni, and Thuringians would accompany them to form a joint
deputation. Wisely, Theoderic’s letter to Clovis does not specify which
rulers would support the Italian legates; at Vouill´ e, the Burgundians joined
forces with the Franks, not the Visigoths. 118

not(Cass., Variae iv, 2; v, 1). On the letters: Salvatore Pricoco, ‘Cassiodore et le conflit franco-
wisigothique: rh´ etorique et histoire’, in Michel Rouche (ed.), Clovis: Histoire et m´ emoire (Paris,
1997), i, 739–52.
117
Date: there is no internal evidence for the date of these letters. The length of the envisaged
journey of the envoys (see below) assumes that open conflict, though brewing, is not immanent;
otherwise Theoderic could have dispatched envoys directly to Clovis. The letters were probably
written in late 506 or early 507, before the onset of summer made large-scale campaigning likely;
Mommsen, Prooemium to Cass., Variae, xxxiv; Krautschick, Cassiodor, 57, 75. Other evidence
supports late 506; below, atn. 130. The battle itself is securely dated to 507, butthere is no
evidence of the time of year at which it occured (Chron. Caesar., s.a. 507; Chron. Gall. 511, s.a.
XV Anastasii and cf. s.a. XIX Anastasii = 511 by consular and indiction dating – on this basis,
XV Anastasii is 507).
A date of late 506/early 507 for Cass., Variae iii, 1–4, and so for Variae i, 45–6; ii, 40–1,
implies either that Cassiodorus’ tenure as quaestor commenced in the indiction year beginning
September 506, notSeptember 507 as is usually accepted, or that he drafted important diplomatic
correspondence before holding the quaestorship, while still consilaris to his father, at the time
praetorian prefect of Italy; Mommsen, Prooemium to Cass., Variae, xxvii–xxviii; A. van de Vyver,
‘La victoire contre les Alamans et la conversion de Clovis’, Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 16
(1937), 35, 50; PLRE ii, 55–7. The latter explanation is unsatisfactorily urged by Krautschick,
Cassiodor, 55–7.
118
Route of the envoys: Cass., Variae iii, 1.4: Theoderic’s envoys ‘will both sufficiently intimate our
instructions to you and hasten to our brother Gundobad and the other kings with your desires’
(uobis et mandata nostra sufficienter insinuent et usque ad fratrem nostrum Gundibadum uel alios reges
cum uestra uoluntate deproperent); cf. 2.3. The kings of the Heruli, Warni, and Thuringians are
enjoined: ‘send your envoys together with my own and those of our brother King Gundobad to
Clovis the king of the Franks’ (legatos uestros una cum meis et fratris nostri Gundobadi regi ad Francorum
regem Luduin destinate), 3.2. Itis clearly the same pair of envoys who are to visitall the kings: 1.4
(above); 4.4: ‘we have seen fit to send to your excellency our envoys A and B, through whom
we have also sent our writings to your brother, our son King Alaric’ (ad excellentiam uestram illum
et illum legatos nostros magnopere credidimus dirigendos,per quos etiam ad fratrem uestram,filium nostrum
regem Alaricum scripta nostra direximus). Ludo Moritz Hartmann, Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter i
(Leipzig, 1897), 157–8.
208