Page 85 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

with an authority representing the conventus. Nor is there any reference
to municipal magistrates acting as the principals of the embassies.
Hydatius does, however, mention other bodies which he called plebes.
Itwas one of these bodies, a plebs of inland Gallaecia, that the bishop
represented in 431. 86 The classical meaning of the word plebs has pre-
vented correct interpretation of Hydatius’ evidence. Plebs in Hydatius
has been read pejoratively, as socially or heretically divisive groups, but
this is inconsistent with the description of the plebs in the Chronicle. 87
The plebs of inland Gallaecia was able to dispatch envoys recognised by
88
imperial authorities, which suggests some official standing. Itcould also
treat with the Suevic king. Hermeric concluded paces with the plebs of
inland Gallaecia in 430, 431, and 438, the latter two times after imperial
persuasion. 89 In a parallel case in the 460s, a different plebs, called the
Aunonians, also dispatched and received envoys, and concluded a pax
with a Suevic king. 90 The negotiations of 431–2 between the plebs and
the Sueves were carried out by members of the Gallaecian episcopacy;
the plebs cannot have been opposed to either the church or the aristocracy
of the province. 91
Hydatius’ plebes represent officially recognised local authorities sepa-
rate from the conventus and cities. In later Latin, plebs was often used to

Nicola Mackie, Local Administration in Roman Spain AD 14–212 (BAR International Series 173;
Oxford, 1983), 8–9, 136–9. Isidore, Etymologiae, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911), xiv, 5.21
lists different examples of Spanish conventus. The town of Aquae Flaviae (probably Hydatius’ see)
appears to be described as a conventus in Hyd., c. 201 [196], in which an attack on it by the Sueves
is reported; cf. Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 170. Butin the early empire itwas partof the
conventus of Braga. It seems likely that Hydatius means that Aquae Flaviae was attacked as part of
a general Suevic assault on the eastern part of the conventus of Braga, differentiating this from the
attack on the conventus of Lugo mentioned earlier in the same entry.
86 Hyd., cc. 91, 96 [81, 86](Table 1 no. 1). The wording of c. 96 [86] indicates that the provincials
attacked by the Sueves in 431 and represented by Hydatius were the plebs of c. 91 [81]: the Sueves
breached the pax they had made the previous year with the plebs of the mediae partes Gallaeciae.
This plebs is described as quae castella tutiora retinebat.For castella as early imperial municipalities:
Mackie, Local Administration, 5–8, 14 n. 12, 22–4.
87
Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 271 n. 52, sees the plebs as Bagaudae; Tranoy ii, 74 as rural
Priscillianistheretics; Muhlberger, Fifth-Century Chroniclers, 249 as ‘lesser folk’ acting without
official authority.
88
I.e. by Aetius in 431 and probably 438. The Gothic king Theoderic II responded to the Aunonensis
plebs in 466.
89
The plebs of Hyd., c. 113 [105](Table 1 no. 5)appearstobethe pars plebis Callaeciae of cc. 91, 96
[81, 86]; cf. Tranoy ii, 74.
90
Hyd., cc. 233, 239, 249 [229, 235, 243](Table 1 nos. 32 and 40): in 466,the Aunonensis plebs
is attacked by the Sueves (the Aunonian region has not been identified). It sends envoys to
the Gothic king Theoderic II, who responds by dispatching envoys to the Sueves. In 469,the
Aunonians contract a pax with the Sueves.
91
Hyd., cc. 96 (Bishop Hydatius’ embassy), 100 (a pax made with king Hermeric sub interventu
episcopali), 101 (Bishop Symphosius is sent by Hermeric after concluding the pax)[86, 91, 92].
For Hydatius’ aristocratic background: Muhlberger, Fifth-Century Chroniclers, 196–8.
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