Page 274 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

with legates during the audience, and some narrative accounts describe
such dialogues. 123
The actual speeches of Vita Epiphani appear to be all from Ennodius’
pen; the style however need not be excessively florid for a genuine ora-
tion. The only extant record of what purports to be the text of an actual
speech delivered by an embassy in late antiquity is Peter patricius’ oration
opening negotiations with the Persian envoy Isdigousnas atDaras in 561;
his address is no less ornate and structured than those Ennodius offers. 124
The stress on oratorical skills of envoys in panegyric, hagiography, and
other eulogistic sources indicates that a Sophistic presentation remained
the central element of audiences. One of Epiphanius’ speeches is con-
cluded with a genuflection, a flourish from the rhetor’s repertoire. 125
A framework of mutually assumed consent to convention enabled such
perorations to fulfil their role; if, however, one of the participants chose
to breach practice, the conventional bombast of formal speeches could
be curtly deflated. The emperor Maurice, in a letter reprimanding the
Frankish king Childebert II for his failure to undertake promised attacks
on the Lombards in Italy, wrote sharply: ‘Why then do you weary your
envoys, whom you think it so necessary to send across the vast distance
of land and sea, to no purpose? Boasting with their rash speeches, they
do nothing useful.’ 126
Mostof the embassies in Vita Epiphani end with an indication that
the newly wrought agreement would be immediately put into ef-
fect, Theoderic and Gundobad issuing instructions to court servants,
Anthemius and Euric making formal commitments to pactiones. Ennodius
refers to Anthemius’ oath (sacramentum); oaths to conclude pactiones im-
mediately following an audience are attested elsewhere. 127 Written treaty
documents, conveyed between signatory parties by envoys, are attested

123 De cer. i, 87 (Reiske 395). Dialogues: e.g. Procopius, Wars v, 7.13–25 (n. 30 above); Gregory of
Tours, Hist. vii, 14; ix, 20.
124
Peter patricius,apud Menander Protector, Fr., 6.1, 3 (Blockley 55–9), with Isdigousnas’ reply;
though, since Peter himself apparently preserved the document, perhaps as part of a report to
Justinian’s court, the speech could well be a polished version. Another text apparently derived
from a report by a Constantinopolitan envoy is Malalas, Chron. xviii, 56; Scott, ‘Diplomacy in
the Sixth Century’, 161.
125
Ennodius, Vita Epiphani, 164, notan actof obeisance: cf. De cer. i, 87, 89 (Reiske 395, 406):
envoys to the eastern emperor perform obeisance on entering his presence.
126
Ep. Austr., 42: Et si hoc est,quid per tanta spatia terrae atquae maris inaniter sine responsu necessarios
vestros ligatarios fatigatis,iuvenalis sermonis,qui nihil utilitatis induxerunt,iacantes? Cf. Blockley, History
of Menander, 11–12.
127
Procopius, Wars vi, 29.5; Gregory of Tours, Hist.e.g. vi, 3 (data susceptaque de pace sacramenta
pactionibusque firmatis), 31, 34; Ep. Austr., 42 (terribilibus iuramentis roborata).
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