Page 38 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

phenomena in the classical Greek states. The multiplicity of Greek pow-
ers, their alliances and leagues, the extension of the Athenian empire, and
contacts with Persia, Macedonia, and Rome necessitated a constant inter-
change of emissaries. Greek historical writing after Thucydides evolved
into ‘diplomatic history’ in order to embrace the development of the
whole Hellenistic world. 30
The practices for dispatching and receiving embassies, ,in
Athens are naturally the best recorded. Like most public business, foreign
affairs were first considered by the Athenian council, before being put
to the general assembly. Foreign envoys arriving in Athens were received
by the city council; after consideration of the issues raised, they were
permitted to address the general assembly. The council provided recom-
mendations for a response, which, though not binding on the general
assembly, usually were followed. For reasons of expediency, formation of
foreign policy and the selection of envoys to represent the city were often
delegated by the assembly to the council. The envoy, ‘authorised by the
council and the people’, executed the formal decrees of these bodies.
Consequently, envoys were subject to public audit, and to punishment
for failure to adhere faithfully to their briefs or for corruption. 31
The legal position of the envoy was customary but extraordinary.
Few statutory requirements other than a minimum age (usually thirty)
See also: Coleman Phillipson, The International Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome, 2 vols.
(London, 1911); V. Serguiev, ‘La diplomatie de l’antiquit´ e’, in M. Potiemkine (ed.), Histoire de
la diplomatie, trans. X. Pamphilova and M. Eristov, i (Paris, 1953), 7–76; a series of articles by
D. J. Mosley, including ‘The Size of Embassies in AncientGreek Diplomacy’, Transactions of the
American Philological Association 96 (1965), 255–66; ‘Greeks, Barbarians, Language, and Contact’,
Ancient Society 2 (1971), 1–6; ‘Diplomacy and Disunion in AncientGreece’, Phoenix 25 (1971),
319–30 (a number of Mosley’s articles are collected and translated into German in Antike Diplo-
matie); E. Fr´ ezouls and A. Jacquemin (eds.), Les Relations internationales (Paris, 1995); Anthony
Bash, Ambassadors for Christ: An Exploration of Ambassadorial Language in the New Testament
(T¨ ubingen, 1997); and Jones, Kinship Diplomacy, 17–80.
30 Charles William Fornara, The Nature of History in Ancient Greece and Rome (Berkeley, 1983), 33–4.
31 Pierre Briant, ‘La Boul` eetl’´ election des ambassadeurs ` aAth` enes au IVe si` ecle’, Revue des Etudes
Anciennes 70 (1968), 7–31; Adcock and Mosley, Diplomacy in Ancient Greece, 165–70; Matthews,
‘Gesandtschaft’, 656. On the passage of topics for debate from the Athenian boul´ e tothe ekklesia:
P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule (Oxford, 1972), 52–81; Mogens Herman Hansen, The Athenian
Assembly in the Age of Demosthenes (Oxford, 1987), 35–7. Delegation of responsibility for foreign
affairs to the boul´ e: Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Oxford, 1991), 264–5.
On public audit(euthynai) and charges of corruption during an embassy (parapresbeia): Mosley,
Envoys and Diplomacy, 39–42; Kienast, ‘Presbeia’, 577–8; Mogens Herman Hansen, ‘Rhetores and
Strategoi in Fourth-Century Athens’, Greek,Roman,and Byzantine Studies 24 (1983), repr.inhis
The Athenian Ecclesia ii (Copenhagen, 1989), cited here, 28–9; Hansen, Athenian Assembly, 69.
The prosecution and (successful) defence speeches in a charge of parapresbeia are preserved in
Demosthenes, Oration 19: De falsa legatione,in Demosthenes ii, trans. C. A. Vince and J. H. Vince
(LCL; London, 1926) and Aeschines, Oration 2: De falsa legatione,in The Speeches of Aeschines,
trans. Charles Darwin Adams (LCL; London, 1919); see also Hyperides, Oration 4: In Defence of
Euxippus,in Minor Attic Orators ii, trans. J. O. Burtt (LCL; London, 1954), cc. 29–30, summarising
a charge of parapresbeia, related to thatbroughtagainstAeschines, againstPhilocrates.
12