Page 268 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

breakdown of the western cursus publicus after the end of imperial adminis-
tration, though its appearance in Ostrogothic Italy, where the cursus publi-
cus was apparently healthy enough to be abused by officials as it had been
in imperial times, underscores its descent from imperial administrative
practices. 89
Embassies generally travelled along well-established routes, whether by
road, river, or sea. The accountby Sidonius Apollinaris of his journey
in 467 from southern Gaul to Rome by road and river, in order to
petition the emperor Anthemius, is one of the best extant descriptions
90
of the conditions of travel in late antique Italy. Attimes of crisis, when
many legations passed back and forth between protagonists, the use of
the main viae could lead to embassies from the different parties meeting
en route and exchanging information which modified their purposes or
necessitated new instructions. 91 The duration of embassies could vary
enormously, depending not so much on travel time as how protracted the
actual negotiations were. 92 De ceremoniis indicates that the eastern court
expected to entertain some Persian envoys for the better part of a year,
and Gregory of Tours mentions envoys of the Frankish kings return-
93
ing to Gaul from Constantinople in 581 after a three-year absence. By
contrast, Senarius boasts of visiting volucer both Constantinople and ‘the
shores of Ocean’, presumably Toulouse, twice within a year. 94 When,
in late 537, Belisarius and Vitigis agreed to an armistice while Gothic
envoys were sent under Roman safeguard to Justinian, three months was
considered sufficient time for the journey to Constantinople and back;

89 Abuses in Ostrogothic Italy: e.g. Cass., Variae iv, 47; v, 5; v, 39.14; in imperial times: CTh viii,
5 (one of the longest titles in CTh).
90 Sid. Ap., Ep. i, 5; cf. Rutilius Namatianus, De reditu suo.
91 Hyd., 219 [215] = above chapter 2, Table 1, nos. 25–6; Procopius, Wars v, 4.20–1 (Peter patricius,
en route to Italy, meets the embassies to Justinian first of Amalasuntha, then of Theodahad);
Menander Protector, Fr., 9.3 (the possiblility of embassies crossing paths is intentionally exploited).
92 Cf. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 470–4. On travelling times, at least for
government-sponsored voyages: A. M. Ramsay, ‘The Speed of the Roman Imperial Post’, Jour-
nal of Roman Studies 15 (1925), 60–74; Duncan-Jones, Structure and Scale, 7–29; cf. McCormick,
Origins of the European Economy, 469–500.
93
De cer. i, 89 (Reiske 400); Gregory of Tours, Hist. vi, 2. Two fourth-century sources for Roman
journeys to barbarian neighbours appear to suggest similar time scales, but in fact may not. CTh
xii, 12.2 (?357) permits Roman envoys to barbarian groups in Ethiopia and Arabia to reside
atAlexandria for up to a year en route; this attests not the length of time taken by the actual
journey to these buffer states, but presumably of preparations before departing Roman territory.
The Egyptian protector Abinnaeus spent three years after 336 escorting Blemmye envoys from
Constantinople to their patria before reporting back to the court in Asia Minor; The Abinnaeus
Archive: Papers of a Roman Officer in the Reign of Constantius II, ed. H. I. Bell et al. (Oxford, 1962),
p. i, lines 5–10; PLRE i, 1; T. D. Barnes, ‘The Career of Abinnaeus’, Phoenix 39 (1985), 368–70.
The Blemmyes, however, had arrived in Roman territory as refugae, and the task of returning
them to their homeland may have involved more than mere travelling.
94
Senarius, Epitaph, lines 11–13.
242