Page 298 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

But ritual conventions framed all contact. Though differing degrees of re-
spect may be paid to different parties through varied ceremonial practices,
the right to engage in formal communication was open to all elements of
society. Exchanges of embassies between monarchs are the best-attested
examples of political communication, and those which draw the most
attention from moderns. But these exchanges, ‘diplomatic’ in the mod-
ern sense, are only one manifestation of wider practices. Exchanges of
embassies in late antiquity represent participation in formal patterns of
communication, not in constitutional structures of sovereignty.

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