Page 286 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

envoys from or associated with usurpers in particular could not expect to
travel with impunity. 182 Yet by and large, embassies seem to have travelled
without molestation in late antiquity. The great majority of legations
throughout the West, supplications for tax relief or other petitions, faced
no greater threats than the vicissitudes of travel. In times of tension,
practical considerations were paramount in safeguarding legations: the
necessity to maintain channels of communication outweighed the urge
to give way to pique. Escorts could be provided to ensure the safe conduct
of envoys sent by an antagonist, either by force of arms or by the moral
force of priests. 183 But the office of envoy carried its own degree of
protection. A scene from the Histories of Gregory of Tours dramatically
shows the potential ramifications of assaulting members of an embassy.
Grippo, an experienced Frankish envoy stopping over in Byzantine North
Africa en route to Constantinople, faces down an angry mob which has
already killed his two fellow legates over a misunderstanding, saying:
We don’t know what’s supposed to have happened, but look! my companions
on this journey, who had been sent to the emperor, cut down by the sword!
God will judge our injuries and their death by your destruction, since you have
butchered us, innocent as we are and coming in peace. Nor will there any longer
be peace between our kings and your emperor, for we came in peace and to give
aid to your empire. Today I call God as witness that your crime is to blame that
the promised peace between our leaders will not be kept. 184

emperor Heraclius. Insurance: Procopius, Wars v, 7.22; vi, 22.23–4: Theodahad imprisons Peter
patricius and Athanasius for the first three years of hostilities with Constantinople, cf. vi, 22.23;
possibly Ep. Wisigoticae, 13: the Frankish king Theuderic II captures envoys of the Gothic king
Gundemar during a period of border conflictbetween Gaul and Spain, c. 610–12.
182 War: e.g. Hyd, c. 224 [220]: envoys from Aegidius to the Vandals travel via the Atlantic, pre-
sumably to avoid hostilities from the Goths of Toulouse or their allies the Sueves (cf. Gregory of
Tours, Hist. viii, 35: ships from Gaul to Gallaecia attacked by orders of the Gothic king Leuvig-
ild); Gregory of Tours, Hist. v, 26, 29, 40: envoys of Bretons held by Frankish king Chilperic;
ibid., vi, 2: envoys of the Frankish king Chilperic, shipwrecked when returning from Con-
stantinople, find it safer to enter Gothic territory in Spain than lands controlled by Chilperic’s
cousin Guntram.
Usurpers: fourth-century examples in Elton, Warfare in Roman Europe, 193–4 and nn. 50–1.
Olympiodorus, Fr., 39.2 = Philostorgius xii, 13: Theodosius II and envoys of the usurper John;
Eunapius, Fr., 37: Valens and Gothic envoys, sent in association with pact between Goths and
the usurper Procopius; Malalas, Chron. xviii, 57: Justinian abuses and dismisses envoys of Vandal
usurper Gelimer; Gregory of Tours, Hist. vii, 30, 32, 33: Frankish king Guntram imprisons
and tortures envoys of the usurper Gundovald. Note especially ibid. ix, 28: Guntram imprisons
envoys on suspicion of travelling to the usurper Gundovald, but on learning that they in fact
are travelling to the Gothic king Reccared on behalf of Brunhild, mother of king Childebert II,
Guntram releases the envoys; yet at the time, Guntram was in a state of inimicitia with Reccared
and refused to receive Gothic embassies; cf. ibid. ix, 1, 16, 20.
183
Soldiers: Zosimos, v, 45.5; Procopius, Wars vi, 7.15. Priest: Priscus, Fr., 20 (Fr. Class. Hist., 443).
184
Gregory of Tours, Hist. x, 2: Quae gesta fuissent,nos ignoramus,et ecce! socii iteneris mei,qui ad
imperatorem directi fuerant,gladio sunt prostrati. Iudicavit Deus iniuriam nostram et mortem illorum de
interitu vestro,quia nos innocentes et in pace venientes taliter trucidatis. Nec ultra erit pax inter regis nostros
260