Page 259 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

carried out the embassy of Christ, as he was His servant’, by bring-
ing about the excommunication of the Patriarch of Constantinople,
44
Anthimus. Perhaps the most important reason for the use of bishops as
envoys was to serve as oath-takers. At the conclusion of successful nego-
tiations, oaths were sworn between the recipient of the embassy and the
envoys, to whom their principal had delegated this right; the office of
bishop constituted a trustworthy proxy. 45 As with provincial embassies,
ecclesiastical sources give the misleading impression that clergy domi-
nated palatine legations; the random prosopographical evidence suggests
that this is not true. 46
Like provincial bodies too, rulers employed leading private citizens
as their envoys. This was particularly the case with rulers of Italy, both
emperors and kings, who employed members of the Roman Senate in
their intercourse with the eastern imperial court; the imperial court of
Constantinople also employed members of the eastern Senate. 47 There

44
Liberatus of Carthage, Breviarium, 21: Imperator autem pro multis fisci expensis ab Italia destinatum
exercitum avertere nolens,supplicationes papae noluit audire. At ille,quod suum fuit,Christi legatione
fungebatur.
45
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 72, 91; Ep. Austr., 42 (the emperor Maurice to the Frankish king
ChildebertII): in scriptis pollicita atque per sacerdotis firmata et terribilibus iuramentis roborata.
46
Contra Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 136. Several times, Gregory of Tours mentions that an embassy
consists of both bishops and leading officials or nobles, but names only the former (Hist. vi, 3;
vi, 31; x, 19: Egidius of Rheims (butcf. vii, 14: Egidius’ companions are named, probably to
implicate him in the treason of which he is ultimately accused; one of his companions is the dux
and trouble-maker Guntram Boso, see PLRE iii, 571–4); ix, 18: Namatius of Orl´ eans, Bertram of
Le Mans, cum comitibus et aliis viris magnificis; ix, 38:[legati] inter quos episcopi erant). For other sixth-
and seventh-century Gallic embassies combining bishops and palatine officials: Ep. Austr., 25–39
(the bishop Ennodius, the spatharius Grippo, the cubicularius Radan, and the notarius Eusebius),
42 (the bishop Iocundus and the cubicularius Chotro); Fredegar, Chron. iv, 30 (bishop Aridius of
Lyons, Rocco, and the comestabuli Eborinus; c. 607), 85 (Bishop Chanibertof Cologne and the
maior domus Pippin; a. 641).
Named bishops who undertake embassies in Gregory of Tours include: Hist. v, 40: Elafius of
Chˆ alons-sur-Marne; v, 26, 29, 40: Eunius of Vannes; vi, 3: Leudovald of Bayeax; ix, 20: Gregory
himself, and Felix, possibly bishop of Chˆ alons-sur-Marne, cf. ix, 41 (signature list) and PLRE iii,
‘Felix 7’, 482. Abbots: vii, 30: abbotof Cahors and another clericus; x, 31 § 17: Gunthar, abbot of
StVenantius. Cf. M. Weidemann, Kulturgeschichte der Merowingerzeit nach den Werken Gregors von
Tours (Mainz 1982), i, 133–4.
For secular envoys in Gregory of Tours, see below, n. 49.
47
Western emperors: e.g. Rufius Antonius Agrypnius Volusianus, sent by Valentinian III to Theo-
dosius II concerning arrangements for the dynastic wedding of 437 (Vita Melania ii, 19–24);
Anicius Olybrius was possibly sent by Valentinian III to Constantinople; he was certainly sent
by the emperor Leo I to Geiseric (Malalas, Chron. xiv, 45; Chron. Pasch., s.a. 464); Gennadius
Avienus, sent by Valentinian III to Attila (Prosper, Chron., 1368); the deposed emperor Romulus
sends envoys from the Senate on behalf of Odoacer to Zeno (Malchus, Fr., 14; this seems to
be a separate embassy from the one sent by Odoacer himself, to which Zeno gives a separate
reply, cf. Candidus, Fr., 1: another embassy from Odoacer to Zeno). Italian kings: Theoderic:
the caput senatus Fl. Rufius Postumius Festus, twice, in 490 and c. 497 (PLRE ii, 467–9); the viri
inlustris Fl. Anicius Probus Faustus Niger and Iranaeus (PLRE ii, 454–5, 625); possibly the caput
senatus Symmachus (PLRE ii, 1045); the former prefect of Rome and patricius Fl. Agapitus (Cass.,
233