Page 68 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

of the Eusebian model he portrayed himself to be, particularly regarding
chronographic technicalities. Yet he wrote a much lengthier narrative
than his model, more clearly shaped by authorial aims and expressing
sharper judgements on his miserabile tempus. He shows the beginning of
the early medieval trend to employ the chronicle format as a structure for
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a full historical narrative, seen for example in Fredegar. Hydatius is an
autonomous voice, using but adapting the dominant Christian genre of
historiography to offer an independent view of public and spiritual life.
The difference between Hydatius and other writers in the same genre
in treatment of embassies is partially the result of circumstances. Most
of the embassies recorded by Hydatius passed to or from Gallaecia. The
Suevic kingdom is almost invisible in other fifth-century sources; it is
not surprising that few other records of missions between Gallaecia and
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Roman or Gothic authorities have survived. Nevertheless, the essential
difference between Hydatius and other chroniclers is one of selection,
not of available information. Contacts between imperial authorities, bar-
barian rulers, and provincial elites occurred in all the western kingdoms.
Hydatius alone regarded these contacts as a topic for inclusion in a chroni-
cle. The attention he gives to diplomatic communication is on par with
that given to battles of armies, or conflicts between the Sueves and Spanish
provincials. Embassies have an intrinsic part in Hydatius’ understanding
of western politics.
The bishop’s individual perception is largely attributable to his provin-
cial position. This can be seen in the differences between his account of
events and that of other writers more closely attached to the imperial
authorities. Merobaudes, a panegyrist of the western imperial court,
mentions a victory over the Sueves won by a subordinate of the magister
utriusque militiae Aetius. Unless this event passed unnoticed by Hydatius,

only in the reigns of Justin I and Justinian, and his treatment is irregular: he provides a detailed
accountof Roman/Persian embassies of 529–33, and one lengthy entry on embassies prior to
Justinian’s war against the Vandals; but he includes no account of embassies prior to the com-
mencement of Justinian’s war in Italy (cf. Chron. xviii, 88, 97, 110, 116) or the recommencement of
Roman/Persian hostilities in 540 (cf. Chron. xviii, 87 and 147). Malalas’ world chronicle is in
many respects, notably length and literary treatment, more similar to Gregory of Tours’ Historiae
and Fredegar’s Chronica than the brief chronicles of e.g. Prosper, Hydatius, or Marcellinus comes.
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Hydatius and his model: Hyd., Praef ., 1–5; Burgess, Chronicle, 6–9,and 31–3 on possible apoca-
lyptic themes; cf. on other early chroniclers’ treatment of Eusebius/Jerome: Muhlberger, Fifth-
Century Chroniclers, 19–23, 60–73, 138–40.
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Conversely, Hydatius was often unaware of embassies outside Gallaecia. He seems not to have
known that the Gallic noble Avitus, when proclaimed emperor by the Goths at Toulouse, was
there as envoy of the emperor Petronius Maximus; Hyd., c. 163; cf. Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 375–418.
Other records of embassies in Gallaecia: Jordanes, Get., 231 (presumably = Table 1 no. 12), 234
(Gallaecian bishops sent to Theoderic II after the death of Aioulf, cf. Hyd., cc. 180, 187 [173, 180]).
The latter, if factual, is not recorded by Hydatius.
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