Page 57 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and political communication

which affected his presentation of earlier historical works, though less
drastically than in Constantine’s Excerpta.The Bibliotheca was compiled
at the request of Photius’ brother Tarasius shortly after Photius had been
chosen to participate in an imperial embassy to the ‘Assyrians’, probably
the Abbasid caliphate. 99 Thathis impending voyage was prominentin
Photius’ mind is indicated in his prefatory and concluding addresses to
his brother, mentioning not only the circumstance of composition and
the alacrity with which he had fulfilled his brother’s request prior to de-
parture, but also the possibilty of his dying during the journey. 100 Photius
had a particular interest in histories, the only genre of work he specifies
in his preface, and in accounts of voyages; his historical summaries dwell
on accounts of embassies and preserve the most picturesque details. 101
The selections of Photius and Constantine VII illustrate how contem-
porary geopolitical concerns informed readers’ use of the classical and
late Roman cultural heritage of Constantinople; they also valuably pre-
serve a huge proportion of our sources for late antique history. But their
predilections for diplomacy distort our image of their sources. The works
of those classicising historians which are fully extant, Procopius, Agathias,
and Theophylact Simocatta, also feature detailed accounts of embassies,
but their embassy narratives are set in a broader context of military his-
tory and imperial politics. 102 Sections of the fragmentary authors which
survive outside the Excerpta of Constantine VII indicate the range of their
concerns other than embassies and diplomacy; again, they concern impe-
rial dynastic affairs and military campaigns in particular. 103 The selections
of Procopius’ Wars in the Excerpta convey only a very partial representa-
tion of Procopius’ interests, and Photius’ summary of the first two books

99 Warren T. Treadgold, The Nature of the Bibliotheca of Photius (Washington, DC, 1980), 16–36,
51; for date (843/58 and likely 845): 25–36.
100 Photius, Biblioth` eque i, Praef ., p. 1; viii, fin. 214.
101 Treadgold, Nature of the Bibliotheca, 100–2; Henry’s note to Photius, Biblioth` eque i, 4 n. 2;Tomas
H¨ agg and Warren Treadgold, ‘The Preface of the Bibliotheca of Photius Once More’, Symbolae
Osloenses 61 (1986), 137, for the reading of the part of the preface mentioning histories. Details:
e.g. in Olympiodorus: fossils in the Egyptian oases, difficulties in sea travel, St Elmo’s fire, a
talking parrot, and emerald mines (Fr., 32, 35.1, 35.2 [33, 36, 37]); in Nonnosus: again dangers
in travelling, herds of elephants, climatic changes between north and central Africa, and pygmies
(Photius, Biblioth` eque i, codex 3).
102
Procopius, Wars; Agathias, Historiarum libri quinque, ed. Rudolf Keydell (Corpus fontium histo-
riae Byzantinae 2; Berlin, 1967); trans. J. D. Frendo (Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae 2a;
Berlin, 1975); Theophylact Simocatta, Historiae, ed. C. de Boor and P. Wirth (Leipzig, 1887;
repr. 1972); trans. M. Whitby and M. Whitby (Oxford, 1986).
103
E.g. Blockley, Fr. Class. Hist. i, 118–23, conspectus of fragments of Priscus: accounts of eastern
and western imperial dynastic matters, other court affairs, events in Constantinople, and many
military issues not involving embassies come from sources other than the Excerpta (Fr., 3, 7–8,
18, 19, 28–30, 32, 34–5, 42–3, 50, 54–66). Similarly ibid., 126–7, conspectus of fragments of
Malchus.
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