Page 69 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

which is unlikely, Merobaudes can only be referring to one of several oc-
casions, described by Hydatius, on which Aetius sent envoys to negotiate
a cessation of hostilities between the Sueves and the Spanish provincials. 23
Merobaudes’ transformation of negotiated peace into military victory is
characteristic of the ‘victory ideology’ permeating late antique political
24
rhetoric, and may reflect Aetius’ own representation of events. Hydatius
was free from the need to present the general’s actions in this light, and,
in this instance, received information locally rather than through im-
perial propaganda. As a leading figure in a provincial community, he
was conscious that peaceful conditions in Gallaecia depended on the
constant maintenance of relations between imperial authorities, Suevic
rulers, and provincials, not upon any single military or diplomatic suc-
cess. This awareness informed Hydatius’ attention to the mechanics of
communication which sustained these relations.
Hydatius had personal experience of the business of political com-
munication. The first embassy which he records in the section of the
Chronicle not dependent on written sources was undertaken by himself
in 431–2. Hydatius, as bishop, sought aid for the Gallaecian provincials
25
against the Sueves, who had broken a recently negotiated pax. He ap-
proached the general Aetius, then campaigning against the Franks in
Gaul. Hydatius’ embassy was the first of several occasions on which the
provincials sought such intervention, first from the Roman authorities in
Gaul and subsequently from the Gothic kings of Toulouse.
Success was mixed. Once Aetius had subdued the Franks and could
spare resources, he sentthe comes Censorius to the Suevic king Hermeric.
Hydatius, apparently having wintered in Gaul, returned to Gallaecia with
Censorius. He does not state whether he was also involved in Censorius’
discussions with the Suevic king, but his participation appears probable.
While Censorius was in Gallaecia, fighting broke out in Italy between
Aetius and his rival, the magister utriusque militiae Boniface. Censorius
abandoned his mission and leftSpain, giving civil war priority over

23
PLRE ii, ‘Aetius 7’, 25, citing Merobaudes, Panegyric i Fr. iia, 22–3 (ed. F. Vollmer, MGH AA
14), probably delivered in 439 (PLRE ii, 25–6); cf. Jordanes, Get., 176 (a victory over the Sueves
by Aetius before 436). Embassies from Aetius to the Sueves: Table 1 nos. 3, 5,and 6. The only
recorded Roman military campaign against the Sueves in Aetius’ time was that of 446 (Hyd.,
c. 134 [125]), a disaster for the Romans.
24
On ‘victory ideology’ in late antiquity: Michael McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership
in Late Antiquity,Byzantium,and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge and Paris, 1986), esp. 47–64
on the increasing frequency of victory celebrations in the early fifth century, despite declining
military success. Of course, such sleight-of-hand had a long tradition, as commemorations of
Augustus’ ‘victory’ over the Parthians in 20 bc show.
25
Table 1 no. 1;cf. Hyd.,c. 91 [81]. Hydatius also appears earlier in his narrative: cc. 40 [33], 62b
(omitted by Burgess, but cf. Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997), 313); cf. Muhlberger, Fifth-Century
Chroniclers, 196–9.
43