Page 78 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

embassies was precisely to proclaim news publicly. This is the case with
the only two incoming embassies recorded by Hydatius from which he
drew information: the mission of the tribune Hesychius to Theoderic II
in Gallaecia, and of the imperial and Gothic envoys to Gallaecian provin-
cials and the Suevic and Vandal courts, announcing the new pax be-
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tween Majorian and Theoderic II. The information was gathered from
a public source, not personal interview; Hydatius reproduces official
propaganda, not inside information. Elsewhere, Hydatius relates news
‘announced’ without reference to envoys, possibly indicating less formal
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dissemination of information. Several envoys and messengers from the
emperor Avitus visited Gallaecia; Hydatius’ sparse account of the Gallic
usurper’s reign in Italy gives no indication that he had interviewed the
visitors for information. 61

on the use of aliquantorum relatus and relationes indicantum, Praef ., 5, 6, though relationes could
include written material, e.g. episcopal letters.
Other examples of authors citing envoys as sources of information include The Chronicle of
Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, trans. Frank R. Trombley and John W. Watt (TTH 32; Liverpool, 2000),
25 (unnamed envoys to the eastern emperor and the Persian shah among sources of Pseudo-Joshua’s
accountof recentaffairs); Gregory of Tours, Hist. v, 43; vi, 18, 40 (Gregory speaks personally
with both visiting and Frankish envoys, mainly however about the state of Trinitarian belief in
Gothic Spain); vi, 33, possibly iv, 28 (items of news explicitly reported by returning envoys).
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Hyd., cc. 177, 197 [170, 192]. Another possible example of embassies used for official proclama-
tions is c. 226 [222]: in 464/5, Theoderic II sends envoys to Remismund, the Gothic nominee
as ruler of the Sueves, conveying weapons, gifts, and Remismund’s wife, kept in Gaul while
Remismund established his power in Gallaecia. The bestowal of munera, and Hydatius’ very
knowledge of this transaction, suggest that the reception of the embassy was staged as a public
statement of the Gothic king’s support for the Sueves’ new ruler (cf. the munera sent by Avitus to
Theoderic II in c. 177 [170]).
60 Hyd., cc. 176 (magna multitudo Vandalorum . . . regi Theudorico nuntiatur occisa per Avitum), 186
(Theudoricus adversis sibi nuntiis territus ...de Emerita egreditur)[169, 179]. In both cases, news is
given to Theoderic II while in Gallaecia, without reference to envoys or the original source of
the information (cf. preceding note). The message of c. 176 [169] appears to have been separate
from the later formal victory legation of the tribunus [et notarius] Hesychius, sentto Theoderic
by Avitus (c. 177 [170]; Table 1 no. 13), contra Ralph W. Mathisen, ‘The Third Regnal Year of
Eparchius Avitus’, Classical Philology 80 (1985), 330 = his Studies in the History,Literature and
Society of Late Antiquity (Amsterdam, 1991) (making the two messages refer to two different naval
victories) and Tranoy ii, 105–6 (seeing cc. 176 and 177 [169, 170] as a doublet, reporting the same
victory and the same announcement twice); cf. Burgess, ‘Reply’, 337–8 and n. 11.
The news of Euric’s accession also seems to have reached Gallaecia before he dispatched envoys
there; Hyd., cc. 237–8 [233, 234], Table 1 nos. 33, 35.
The bearers of episcopal correspondence recorded in the Chronicle are similarly anonymous:
cc. 109, 133, 135, 145, 151 [100, 125, 127, 137, 143]; cf. Muhlberger, Fifth-Century Chroniclers,
207–9.
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Envoys and messengers from Avitus: Hyd., cc. 170, 176, 177, possibly 186 [163, 169, 170, 179].
Details of Avitus’ rule: proclamation in Gaul; ‘summons’ and acknowledgement in Rome; al-
leged recognition by the eastern emperor Marcian; commission and reward of Theoderic II for
supression of Sueves; naval victory by Ricimer over the Vandals; departure from Italy and (inten-
tion to reach) Arles (Burgess, ‘Reply’, 339). All these details appear to reflect Avitus’ own public
propaganda rather than inside reports from Rome; Hyd., cc. 163, 166, 169, 173, 176–7 [156, 159,
162, 166, 169–70].
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