Page 235 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Cassiodorus and Senarius

The envoys’ route cannot be charted, as there is no record of the
residences of the kings of the Visigoths, Franks, and Burgundians at this
time; the very localities of the lesser tribes are unsure. The scale of the
journey, however, may be appreciated. Alaric II may have been in his
capital Toulouse, or perhaps further north, near the border of Visigothic
and Frankish territories on the Loire. 119 The capital of the Burgundian
kingdom at this time appears to have been at Vienne, though Lyons,
Geneva, and Valence were all used as royal residences in the early sixth
century. 120 The Thuringians occupied lands to the north-east, perhaps
modern lower Bavaria. The larger part of the Heruli lived at this time
on the middle Danube, where they were in contact with the Lombards
further to the east, but a smaller group had occupied part of the Belgian
coastline from the mid-fifth century. The little-known Warni probably
still dwelt on the North Sea littoral, beyond the Franks. Clovis may have
been in residence at Tours, where he later celebrated his victory over the
Goths. 121 The envoys’ journey circumscribed some half-dozen modern
European states. 122 Even allowing for the inland waterways and Roman
roads which made such travel possible, Theoderic must have assumed
that his agents would have a considerable period, perhaps months, before
hostilities could begin, to enable them to circulate among the five kings
prior to approaching Clovis.
A clear vision of dispute settlement procedure underlies the letters.
Though Theoderic warned of punitive action if Frankish aggression con-
tinued, he appealed to Clovis to accept arbitration. 123 The planned joint

For a comparable journey, accumulating envoys of three kings across four kingdoms: Fredegar,
Chron. iv, 31 (envoys of the Gothic king of Spain Witteric and of both the Frankish kings
Chlothar II and Theudebert II to the Lombard king Agilulf in Italy, c. 607); other journeys in
which embassies had to travel to successive courts, modifying their mission depending on their
reception at each court: Priscus, Fr., 39.1 (a Constantinopolitan envoy negotiating between the
rebel magister utriusque militiae Marcellinus of Dalmatia, Geiseric, and the western imperial court;
Fr. Class. Hist., 343); Gregory of Tours, Hist. ix, 16 (to accommodate different reactions of two
Frankish kings to a marriage proposal).
119 Cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. ii, 35.
120
Gregory of Tours, Hist. ii, 32–4; H. H. Anton, ‘Burgunden ii: Historisches’, in Reallexikon der
germanischen Altertumskunde, 2nd edn ed. J. Hoops et al., iv (Berlin, 1981), 243.
121
Locations of Thuringians, Heruli, and Warni: Schmidt, Ostgermanen, 2nd edn, 127–8, 549–53,
558–60; Westgermanen 28, 332–4; Wolfram, History of the Goths, 190, 258, 318–19. Clovis: Gregory
of Tours, Hist. ii, 38.
122
Cf. the itineraries of the Visigothic princess Galswintha, travelling from Narbonne to Rouen via
Marseilles, Poitiers, and Tours; and of Venantius Fortunatus who, after passing through northern
Italy, Noricum, and along the Danube, journeyed around Gaul along the Rhine, Moselle, Meuse,
Aisne, Seine, Loire, and Garonne river valleys; Venantius Fortunatus, Opera poetica, ed. F. Leo
(MGH AA 4.1), Carm. vi, 5 De Gelesuintha, 142, lines 214–15, 229–36; Vita Sancti Martini iv,
lines 630–80; Venantius Fortunatus, Opera pedestria, ed. B. Krusch (MGH AA 4.2), Praefatio 2,
lines 2–7. These journeys, however, were undertaken at a more leisurely pace than that of
Theoderic’s envoys.
123
Punitive action: Cass., Variae iii, 3.2, 4.4.
209