Page 66 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

the embassy from Constantinople to Italy in 519 of one Symmachus,
possibly the current eastern magister officiorum. Cassiodorus mentions the
eastern envoy’s presence as part of his description of the lavish celebrations
attending the consulship in that year of Theoderic’s nominated successor,
Eutharic, whose colleague in the consulate was the emperor Justin I and
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to whom Cassiodorus’ consular list was dedicated. In the chronicles of
both Prosper and Cassiodorus, embassies are mentioned as elements of
praise, either of the recipient or of the legate himself.
There is a limited number of embassies recorded in chronicles as in-
dividual, politically significant events. Marcellinus comes mentions im-
portant embassies sent by the emperor Theodosius I, by Attila, and by
Justinian. The chronological spread of these embassies – 385, 448, 533 –
highlights the irregularity of Marcellinus’ attention to diplomatic traffic. 14
The anonymous account of the reign of Theoderic which forms the
second partof the Anonymus Valesianus, and which draws upon Italian
chronicle sources, records three embassies to Constantinople between 490
and 497, headed by leading senators of Rome; they represent Theoderic’s
protracted attempts to gain recognition of his rule in Italy from the em-
peror Anastasius. 15 The enforced embassy of Pope John I to Justin is
also described, as part of the invective which the latter part of the work
constitutes. 16 Other important embassies received or dispatched during
Theoderic’s rule and attested inter alia by Cassiodorus’ Variae are not
mentioned, though the author does describe the outcomes of such com-
munications, including marriage alliances with western kings, changing
relations with the emperors, and resolution of ecclesiastical conflicts. Few
other individual embassies are recorded in western chronicles. 17
Altogether, this list of embassies in fifth- and sixth-century chronicles
is very short: a score of references, about half the number Hydatius gives.
Two features are striking. First, embassies were not regularly recorded by
any of these sources, but only sporadically inserted for specific reasons
arising from the purposes of the individual source. Reciprocal exchanges
of embassies are not described; the embassies appear as isolated, cer-
emonial occasions. Secondly, for the most part, the value and function of

13
Cassiodorus, Chronica (MGH AA 11), c. 1364,cf. PLRE ii, ‘Symmachus 4’, 1043.
14
Marcellinus comes, Chron., s.aa. 385: Theodosius I subdues eastern regions per legatos suos (see The
Chronicle of Marcellinus: Translation and Commentary, trans. Brian Croke (Byzantina Australiensia 7;
Sydney, 1995), p. 59, s.a. 385); 448.1: Attila sends envoys to Theodosius II to protest the curtailment
of payment of tribute to the Huns; 533: envoys sent to the Persians to conclude the ‘Endless
Peace’. Cf. Additamentum to Marcellinus, s.aa. 535.2: Pope Agapitus sent to Constantinople by
Theodahad; 547.1: the besieged Goths in Italy send an envoy to Justinian.
15 16
Anon. Val. xi, 53; xii, 57, 64 (s.aa. 490, 492, 497). Above, n. 11.
17
John of Biclar, Chron., s.a. 576.3: the Suevic king Miro sends envoys for peace to the Gothic king
Leuvigild.
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