Page 271 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

fifth- and sixth-century passages of De ceremoniis. 106 Similarities in pro-
cedure are probably not examples of western kings imitating the trappings
of the imperial court, but represent the continuity of procedures main-
tained in the praetoria of senior provincial magistrates, together with a
degree of inevitability as to how arrangements for receiving representa-
tions are to be made. 107
Ennodius’ embassy narratives present a more or less consistent outline
of procedures for the stages of the reception of an embassy and an au-
dience, somewhat compressed for literary effect. In each narrative, after
the emperor or king receives advice of the arrival of the legation, court
servants are sent to greet the envoys, who are then summoned to court. 108
Ennodius mentions the formal grant of licentia within the consistorium for
the envoy to speak to the ruler. 109 Following this permission are Epipha-
nius’ speeches and the rulers’ replies, Ennodius’ oratorical set pieces. 110
Upon the satisfactory conclusion of discussions, action is taken immedi-
ately to put agreements into effect: Anthemius makes an oath; a pact is
formed with Euric; Theoderic and Gundobad delegate the administra-
tion of their decisions to court officials. 111 After the journey home, it is
conventional for a legate to report in person to court, even if he is not a
palatine official. 112
This sequence of events conveys an impression of immediacy, but there
are indications of a more leisured pace, allowing time not only for rest
from the exertions of travel, but also for informal contacts. 113 Though
each scene usually progresses directly from the embassy’s arrival to its
reception by the ruler, Ennodius once indicates that some period of time
passes between the arrival of the embassy in its city of destination and
its audience, when Gundobad dispatches court officials to determine on

106 Brief butconsistentdescriptions of procedure are given also in Gregory of Tours, Hist. vi, 31,
34; viii, 13, 44; ix, 1; at greater length: ix, 20 (Gregory’s own embassy to King Guntram).
107 Continuity of provincial practice: McCormick, Eternal Victory, 231–59. Inevitable procedures:
cf. the expectations of the Constantinopolitan envoys to Attila in 448 (Priscus, Fr., 11.2
(Fr. Class. Hist., 251)) and to the shah Hormisdas in 579 (Menander Protector, Fr., 23.9 (Blockley,
209–11)) that failure to observe familiar protocol constituted a calculated insult.
108
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 60–1 (received by officia palatina tota); 86; 123 (suscepti reverenter); 152
(omnis Christianorum principi adsistentium turba).
109
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 62 (licentia); 124 (agendi aditus). Cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. vi, 31
(Quibus intromissis ad regem,data suggestione,dixerunt).
110
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 63–71, 86–91, 124–34, 154–67, 185–9.
111
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 72 (accepto etiam pro concordiae firmitate ab Anthemio sacramento); 91 (initio
etiam pactionis vinculo); 135 (Urbicus, presumably quaestor to Theoderic); 168–71 (Laconius,
perhaps consiliarius to Gundobad). Only Epiphanius’ final embassy, to Theoderic in Ravenna
in 496, lacks narrative confirmation of the decision reached; most other elaborations of detail
are also absentfrom this scene.
112
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 75, 95, 179–80; above, chapter 4 atnn. 232–4.
113
Exertions of travel: cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. vii, 9.
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