Page 275 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

also. 128 Most known cases of written treaties involve the eastern imperial
court from the mid-sixth century. Whether this reflects the development
of diplomatic protocol between the eastern imperial court and Persia and
subsequently applied to the West, or whether documentary treaties were
used throughout the West as a natural extension of Latin written culture,
is unclear. 129

Court personnel
Ennodius’ accounts are by no means full. Whereas the formulae of Cas-
siodorus’ Variae agree with De ceremoniis that the magister officiorum has
oversight of visiting envoys, Ennodius’ narrative makes no mention of a
magister officiorum in association with Epiphanius’ embassy to Anthemius
in Rome or his two legations to Theoderic in Ravenna. Neither does
Pope Hormisdas in his Indiculi, though he understood the role of the
magister officiorum in regard to overseeing envoys. 130 The absence from
the accounts of Ennodius and Hormisdas of any reference to the palatine
official who mostclosely supervises visiting envoys stems in part from
their literary emphases; it may also indicate that palatine officials did not
intrude on the actual conduct of court business as much as seems to be
suggested by the writings of Cassiodorus and Peter patricius who were,
after all, writing for fellow bureaucrats.
Ennodius does mention three palatine officials, one each at the courts
of Euric, Theoderic, and Gundobad: Leo, Urbicus, and Laconius re-
spectively. Their inclusion has been interpreted as an indication that they
held pre-eminent places at the kings’ courts as Roman administrators and
ameliorators of their barbarian lords, a role comparable to that sometimes
supposed for Cassiodorus. 131 The text of Vita Epiphani itself suggests dif-
ferent functions. The three officials serve to dramatise pertinent aspects

128 Procopius, Wars vi, 29.5–6 (treaty between Justinian and Vitigis, partitioning Italy, to be signed
by Belisarius); Gregory the Great, Registrum ix, 229 (treaty between Justinian and an un-
named Gothic king of Spain); Gregory of Tours, Hist. ix, 20 (treaty of Andelot between
Guntram and Childebert II); cf. Menander Protector, Fr., 6.1 (full text plus details of reproduc-
tion and verification of treaty of 561 between Justinian and Chosroes). M. Wielers, Zwischen-
staatliche Behiehungsformen im fr¨ uhen Mittelalter (Pax,Foedus,Amicitia,Fraternitas) (diss., M¨ unster,
1959).
129
Development of protocol between Constantinople and Ctesiphon: Blockley, History of Menender,
17–18.
130
PLRE ii, ‘Symmachus 4’, 1043.Onthe magister officiorum: Cass., Variae vi, 6.4; Blockley, East
Roman Foreign Policy, 134–7.
131
E.g. Reydellet, La Royaut´ e, 151–2; E. Ewig, ‘Residence etcapitale pendantle hautmoyen ˆ age’,
in his Sp¨ atantikes und Fr¨ ankisches Gallien: Gesammelte Schriften, ed. H. Altsma (Munich, 1976),
367 n. 29.
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