Page 73 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

The frequency of embassies recorded by Hydatius increases as the
Chronicle progresses. The work falls into two parts, distinguished by many
changes, including the regularity of record of embassies. The first part
reaches to 456, the year of a devastating Gothic assault on the Suevic king-
dom, which Hydatius clearly found traumatic but which passed with little
attention in other extant sources; the second consists of the final dozen
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years. Thirteen embassies are recorded in the first part, within the three
decades from Hydatius’ advancement to the episcopacy and the beginning
of his independent historical account, to 456. Most belong to one of two
clusters, the first concerning disputes between the Sueves, Gallaecians,
and imperial authorities in the 430s, the other as part of the prelude to the
Gothic assault of 456. No embassies atall are recorded for over a decade
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between these two clusters, from 440 and 453. For the second section
of the Chronicle, 457 to 468, some twenty-seven embassies are recorded,
all but two directly or indirectly concerning Gallaecia. 41 The record of
legations is more evenly spread in the second half than in the first: almost
every year entry features at least one mission, and the Chronicle records
more or less consistent reciprocal exchange of embassies, rather than clus-
ters of accounts. Statistically, embassies appear four times more frequently
in the second part of the work than in the first.
This abruptincrease in the frequency of embassies recorded by
Hydatius is best explained by the structural composition of the Chronicle.
Theeventsof 456 are a dividing point of the work. Hydatius’ narrative of
the Gothic attack is much lengthier than previous entries, and his descrip-
tion of events is fuller and more detailed. The length of entries for each
year expands again for the final few years of the Chronicle, butwithouta
sustained narrative equivalent to that of the Gothic assault on Gallaecia.
This expansion and contraction of detail, together with the shift to al-
most annalistic record of embassies concerning Gallaecia, suggests that
the account of 456 marks a juncture in the composition of the Chronicle.
Other technical and thematic differences, too, distinguish the latter part
of the Chronicle: a severe restriction in non-Spanish material and ecclesi-
astical reports, and irregularities with the chronology. 42 Hydatius makes

39
Goths in Gallaecia: Hyd., cc. 168–86 [161–79]. Other sources: Auctarium Prosperi Hauviensis (MGH
AA 11, 305), s.a. 457.1–2; Jordanes, Get., 229–34. Cf. Burgess, ‘Hydatius’, 229–40, esp. 237.
40
Table 1 nos. 1–13. Cluster in 430s: nos. 1–4 (431–3), 5, 6 (437–8, 440); cluster leading up to 456:
nos. 9–13.
41
Table 1 nos. 14–41; exceptions: nos. 23 (Geiseric to Majorian), 27 (Aegidius to Vandals). Other
legations not directly involving the Sueves form part of multiple embassies which do concern
Gallaecia (e.g. nos. 17–20,cf. 16;no. 39,cf. 34–8).
42
Burgess, ‘Hydatius’, 87, 93 (though thoroughly dismissing the view that Hydatius’ chronology
is basically accurate to 455 and confused thereafter; Mommsen, Introduction to Hyd., 4–6),
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