Page 249 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

attributed in the text to the patricius Peter, who had twice served as envoy
from Justinian to Theodahad on the eve of the war in Italy, and was subse-
quently appointed magister officiorum from 539 until his death in 565; twice
while in this office, Peter undertook legations to the shah Chosroes. The
data seem to have been excised from a history of the post of the magister
8
officiorum which Peter wrote during his lengthy tenure. This section of
De ceremoniis includes two pairs of chapters detailing procedures for the
reception, first, of envoys sent by a western imperial colleague who is to
be recognised at Constantinople, and second, of envoys from the Persian
shah.
Though the account of procedures for the reception of western impe-
rial envoys is prescriptive, the text includes brief descriptions of two spe-
cific western embassies to Constantinople, from the emperor Anthemius
9
in 467 and from the Gothic king of Italy Theodahad in 534. The de-
scription of the embassy from Anthemius cites verbatim the proclamation
of the eastern emperor Leo recognising Anthemius as his colleague. The
embassy from Theodahad is one of the very few embassies attested by
10
two different sources. Throughout the prescriptive account, the magister
officiorum is assigned responsibility for receiving the envoys and for arrang-
ing their audience; he ensures that the envoys are met(whether attheir
entry into Constantinople or earlier is not specified), and that lodgings
and money for expenses are provided. The focus of the two chapters is

8 Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De cerimoniis i, 84–95. I am most grateful to Ann Moffatt
of the Australian National University for providing me with an extract of her forthcoming
translation and commentary on De cer. for the series Byzantina Australiensia. On sources for
Byzantine court ritual: M. McCormick, ‘Analyzing Imperial Ceremonies’, Jahrbuch der Osterre-
ichischen Byzantinistik 35 (1985), 1–20. On Constantine VII: I. ˘ Sevcenko, ‘Re-reading Constantine
Porphyrogenitus’, in Shepard and Franklin, Byzantine Diplomacy, 167–95, with detailed review of
earlier literature. On De cer.: J. B. Bury, ‘The Ceremonial Book of Constantine Porphyrogenitus’,
English Historical Review 22 (1907), 209–27, 417–39; AlbertVogt(ed.), Constantin Porphyrog´ en` ete:
le livre des c´ er´ emonies,Commentaire,vol. i only to date (Bud´ e; Paris, 1935;repr. 1967), xv–xxxiii;
Averil Cameron, ‘The Construction of Court Ritual: The Byzantine Book of Ceremonies’, in
D. Cannadine and S. Price (eds.), Rituals of Power: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies
(Cambridge, 1987), 106–36; Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium i, 595–7; Franz Tinnefeld, ‘Cer-
emonies for Foreign Ambassadors at the Court of Byzantium and their Political Background’,
Byzantinische Forschungen 19 (1993), 193–213.On De cer. i, 84–95: Bury, ‘Ceremonial Book’, 212–13;
Arthur E. R. Boak, ‘The Master of the Offices in the Later Roman and Byzantine Empires’, in
Arthur E. R. Boak and James E. Dunlap, Two Studies in Later Roman and Byzantine Administration
(London, 1924), 93–6;Vogt, Commentaire i, xxii–xxiii. Only De cer. i, 84–5 is explicitly attributed
to Peter patricius.
On Peter patricius and his history of the magister officiorum: John Lydus, De mag. ii, 25–6; Stein ii,
723–9; PLRE iii,‘Petrus 6’, 994–9; P. Antonopoulos, ‘The Less Obvious Ends of Byzantine Diplo-
macy’, in Shepard and Franklin, Byzantine Diplomacy, 315–19. Ceremonial occasions described
in De cer. i, 84–95 include: appointment of various palatine officers; recognition of a western
colleague and reception of his envoys; reception of Persian envoys; and imperial proclamations.
9
De cer. i, 87, naming Anthemius’ envoy Heliocrates, and Theodahad’s Liberius.
10
Cf. Procopius, Wars v, 4.15–24.
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