Page 281 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

envoys themselves, or an equivalent of the modern refusal of diplomatic
recognition; this was a reaction recorded particularly for representatives of
usurpers. 158 The ramifications of insulting an envoy were pertly exploited
by Gregory of Tours when King Guntram was proving particularly in-
tractable on a domestic issue. Gregory reports: ‘ “Listen, O King! I have
been sentby my lord on an embassy to you. And whatwill I answer him
who sent me, when you refuse to give me a response?” Stupefied, [the
king] said, “And who is your lord who sentyou?” Smiling, I said to him,
“The holy Martin sent me.” ’ Guntram acceded to Gregory’s petition. 159
On the other hand, ritual also displayed to visiting envoys the scale
of resources and strength of the host’s forces. Cassiodorus’ formulae stress
that the ostentation of meals and convivia, and of palace architecture, were
vehicles for important political messages. 160 Similarly, hosts ensured that
envoys witnessed public ceremonies other than those put on specifically
for their benefit. The patricius Symmachus, sent by the eastern imperial
court to Italy during the consulate of Theoderic’s nominated succes-
sor Eutharic in 519, was ‘amazed at the riches given to the Goths and
the Romans’ during the consular celebrations. 161 Military parades were

of their mission before reaching Attila’s court; Fr. Class. Hist., 249, 251); Gregory of Tours, Hist.
ix, 20 (Guntram’s warmer reception of envoys from Fredegund than of Childebert II is noted by
the latter’s legate); Menander Protector, Fr., 9.3 (the emperor Justin II throws the Persian envoy
Mebodes into confusion by his cold reception, in direct contrast to that given to his predecessor,
Isdigousnas).
158 Priscus, Fr., 23.3, 41.2 (Fr. Class. Hist., 317, 347); Procopius, Wars vii, 37.6–7; Gregory of Tours,
Hist. ix, 1, 16 (the Frankish king Guntram refuses to receive envoys from the Gothic king Rec-
cared, but sends messengers to them to learn their mission). Withdrawal of recognition: Malalas,
Chron. xviii, 57 (Gothic king Athalaric refuses to receive Gelimer’s embassies, on Justinian’s
instructions); usurpers: below, n. 182.
159 Gregory of Tours, viii, 6: ‘Audiat,o rex,potestas tua. Ecce! a domino meo in legatione ad te directus
sum. Vel quid renuntiabo ei qui me misit,cum nihil mihi responsi reddere vellis?’ At ille obstupefactus ait:
‘Et quis est dominus tuus qui te misit?’ Cui ego subridens: ‘Beatus Martinus’,inquio,‘misit me.’
160 Convivia: Cass., Variae vi, 3.6, 6.4, 9.7–8; vii, 5.1, 33; architecture: vii, 5.1; cf. Priscus, Fr., 11.1
(Fr. Class. Hist., 245). Gregory of Tours, Hist. ix, 20 gives a characteristic perspective on the
effectof a royal convivium on himself as an envoy: ‘he invited us to his dinner, which was not
more weighed down with dishes than lavish with gaiety’ (convivio nos adscivit,quod fuit non minus
oneratum in fercolis quam laetitia opulentum); cf. Sid. Ap., Ep. i, 2.6.
Priscus, Fr., 13.1 [8] shows an alternative exploitation of conventions of display: at a lavish
dinner for leading nobles as well as envoys from Constantinople, Attila ostentatiously eats simple
food with wooden plates and cups, and eschews the ornamentation of clothes and weapons
which mark other Hunnic leaders’ claims to status; the Roman envoys are suitably impressed.
Similar acts of signal restraint appear as exempla of humility in hagiography, e.g. Sulpicius, Dialogi
ii, 6; Constantius, Vita Germani, 35.
161
Cass., Chron., 1364: stupente etiam Symmacho Orientis legato divitias Gothis Romanisque donatas.Cf.
Zacharias Rhetor, Historia ecclesiastica ix, 17, cited by Lee and Shepard, ‘Peri Presbeon’, 35 (Persian
envoys witness Belisarius’ triumph parade in Constantinople after the defeat of the Vandals). For
a later period: McCormick, ‘Analyzing Imperial Ceremonies’, 9 n. 25. AtProcopius, Wars vi,
29.7–15, 22, 30, Belisarius addresses his army in the presence of two senatorial envoys from
Justinian, in order to preclude any suspicion of secret dealing with the Goths on his part.
255