Page 293 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Negotium agendum

intervention. 210 The maintenance of representatives in Constantinople
was a crucial element in relations between the bishops of Rome and the
empire. Pope Gregory I initially withdrew his apocrisiarius when Phocas
usurped power and killed Maurice. 211 The Frankish kings in the late
sixth century also sometimes maintained representatives at the imperial
courtfor periods of several years, and soughtto gain the supportof papal
apocrisiarii for the appeals of their own envoys to the emperors. 212

Embassy narratives from Merovingian Gaul

The Histories of Gregory of Tours give the clearest narrative indication of
the regularity of communications between Constantinople and a western
realm. Merovingian Gaul is the early medieval kingdom for which the
mostplentiful evidence is available. 213 Nevertheless, the chance survival of
a score of diplomatic letters between Merovingian rulers and the imperial
court in the letter collection known as Epistolae Austrasicae intimates a far
busier interchange than Gregory attests. 214 Embassies occupy a prominent
place in Gregory’s narrative. Among external communications, embassies
to and from Visigothic Spain are the most frequently recorded, though
Gregory also mentions legations from Lombard Italy, Breton Armorica,
Suevic Gallaecia, and a number of other regions and peoples. 215 Even
more frequent are the many legations between the multiple Merovingian
rulers. 216 Gregory makes no distinction in terminology or description
between these latter, ‘internal’ embassies and those to other courts. His
narrative is to a degree shaped by references to embassies: many chapters
of the Histories open with the dispatch or arrival of an embassy, which

210 Vigilius and Martin: Liber pont., 60; 76. Pelagius I: Procopius, Wars vii, 16.5; Liberatus of
Carthage, Breviarium, 22, 23. Gregory I: John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii magni (PL 75), 26;
Paul the Deacon, Vita Gregorii magni, 7 (apocrisiarii also appear at Liber pont., 75, 78).
211 Gregory the Great, Registrum xiii, 38.
212 Prolonged Frankish embassies at Constantinople: Gregory of Tours, Hist. vi, 2 (Chilperic’s envoys
to Tiberius II return after three years). Support of apocrisiarius for Frankish embassy: Ep. Austr.,
32 (Childebert II to the apocrisiarius Honoratus). Cf. Gregory the Great, Registrum xiii, 7, 9
(referring to appeal by Frankish rulers to assist in maintaining relations with the emperor).
213
Gregory of Tours, Hist.e.g. iv, 40; vi, 2; viii, 18; x, 2, 3, 4. On relations between the empire
and the Merovingians: Goubert, Byzance avant l’Islam, ii.1: Byzance et les Francs ; Ganshof, Middle
Ages, 1–55; E. Ewig, Die Merowinger und das Imperium (Opladen, 1983); Barnwell, ‘War and
Peace’.
214
Ep. Austr., 18–20, 25–48.
215
Visigothic Spain: Gregory of Tours, Hist. iv, 27, 28; v, 40, 43; vi, 18, 29, 33, 34, 40, 45; vii, 10;
viii, 28, 35, 37, 45 (crebro); ix, 1, 16, 28. Lombard Italy: ix, 25, 29. Bretons: v, 26; ix, 18. Suevic
Gallaecia: v, 41.Avars: iv, 23. Saxons: iv, 14. Also Burgundy and Visigothic Aquitania, before
Clovis’ conquests: ii, 28 (saepius), 32, 35; and Ostrogothic Italy: iii, 31.
216
Gregory of Tours, Hist. iii, 24; iv, 49, 50; v, 17; vi, 3, 11, 19, 31, 36; vii, 5–7, 14; viii, 13,
36, 44; ix, 20, 38; x, 15, 28. Also with Merovingian usurpers: iv, 16; vii, 30, 32–3. Ganshof,
‘Merowingisches Gesandschaftswesen’, 166, 168–9.
267