Page 301 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Conclusion

earliest datable examples; the earliest extant diplomatic letters written
by western monarchs are those composed for Theoderic of Italy by
Cassiodorus, and for the Burgundian king Sigismund by Avitus of Vienne,
in the 500s and 510s. There is no reason to think that these attested
communications were innovations, or that administrative patterns of oral
and epistolary communication had suffered any substantial interruption
in the course of the fifth century. 1
Exchanges of communication throughout the West are rarely evi-
denced for the fifth century, not because of infrequency but because of the
nature of the sources which are, on the one hand, generally exiguous for
political events, and on the other, not concerned to record regular phe-
nomena. The only extensive narrative record of the exchange of embassies
is Hydatius’ Chronicle, which shows a constant exchange of embassies be-
tween many participants, particularly in the later part of the work; even
so, Hydatius gives most attention to the high politics of embassies be-
tween courts. It is Hydatius’ choice to record embassies, not the frequency
of traffic in Gallaecia, which is unusual. Sidonius Apollinaris refers with
complete familiarity to embassies between regional communities, Gothic
and Burgundian rulers, and imperial authorities, mainly in the context
of praising individuals who had undertaken embassies. Modern studies
often misinterpret the significance of individual embassies attested by the
sources by failing to realise the context of ubiquitous exchange.
The necessity for courts to employ emissaries only enhanced the tra-
ditional status accruing to those who undertook civic legations. Courts
employed leading citizens, including clergy, as envoys, to exploit their so-
cial status; courts also utilised the military experience of generals. When
communicating with Constantinople in particular, the royal court of
Italy sought to be represented by members of the highest Roman elites:
the presidents of the Senate, and the bishops of Rome. But rulers also
dispatched their own officials, perhaps in the great majority of cases.
Educated in rhetoric as part of their early training in order to secure gov-
ernment posts, palatine officials were naturally able to undertake the same
function that their counterparts in municipal posts performed. The im-
ages of professional orators, Sophists and philosophers, as upright and bold
defenders of communities were absorbed as one aspect of the professional
ethos of palatine officials, and are reflected in the letters of Cassiodorus
and the Epitaph of Senarius.
As an important part of the politics of the post-imperial world, em-
bassies participated in the public discourse of power. Ceremonial ritual

1 Note the casual reference to correspondence between the royal court of Toulouse and Pope Hilary
concerning the filling of a vacant see in 462; Epistolae Arelatenses genuinae, 15.
275