Page 303 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Conclusion

The developments of the fifth century wrought significant changes on
the former Roman West, as former provinces and prefectures separated
or fragmented into autonomous kingdoms. Royal courts inserted a new
layer of authority into the complex of governmental, civic, and ecclesiastic
administration. These changes, however, occurred within the context of
an active tradition of internal political communication within the Roman
empire, flourishing in the late fourth century. The flexible conventions
of formal embassies readily adapted to new circumstances. Provincial
embassies, which before primarily conveyed expressions of loyalty to the
imperial government or petitioned for minor adjustments to taxation
regimes, now sought to ameliorate kings and emperors seeking to annex,
plunder, or punish their cities. Central courts, formerly the recipients and
dispensers of decisions to embassies, now regularly dispatched palatine
functionaries or grandees to represent their own interests. The traffic
in embassies within and among the western kingdoms and the empire
evident in the late sixth century is a visible element of continuity from
the imperial past; and indeed, this traffic and its conventions maintained
a kind of unity within the ‘diplomatic bloc’ of the Mediterranean world.
The framework for the political changes of the late antique West was
formed by the largely unrecorded travails and persuasions of countless
envoys.

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