Page 89 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

It seems that the Sueves needed peaceful relations with the provin-
cials in Gallaecia before attempting to expand. During the 440s and
450s, when the Sueves occupied most of Spain, no domestic conflict is
recorded in Gallaecia. Even in the confused conditions after the Gothic
attack of 456, Suevic leaders endeavoured to secure paces with the provin-
cials. Yet Hydatius never mentions embassies between the provincials and
the Sueves to negotiate these agreements. Hydatius may have viewed
contact between Sueves and provincials differently from other relations.
Terminology used for formal embassies may have been inappropriate to
describe communication and negotiation at a local level between the
provincials and their barbarian neighbours, precluded notleastbecause
of Hydatius’ bitter view of the Sueves.

Sueves and external affairs
The Sueves as well as the provincials communicated with imperial author-
ities and the Goths on the internal affairs of Gallaecia. But other issues
too generated Suevic diplomatic traffic: control of the Iberian penin-
sula, and military alliances between Braga, Toulouse, and the western
imperial court. In response to the Suevic expansion into Lusitania, Baet-
ica, and Carthaginiensis after 438,the comes Censorius undertook his
third journey to the Sueves, probably again sent by Aetius. Censorius
had previously brokered settlements between the Sueves and the Gal-
laecians, but Rechila, far from treating with the imperial envoy, took
Censorius captive. 105 A subsequent attempt in 446 to remove the Sueves
from southern and eastern Spain by force also failed, and when Rechila
died in August 448 in the Suevic-occupied city of M´ erida in Lusitania,
his son and successor Rechiarius immediately set out to subdue remain-
ing areas of resistance. 106 Nevertheless, the return of Carthaginiensis to
Roman authority was achieved through negotiation, probably in 453. 107
When Rechiarius attempted to reoccupy Carthaginiensis three years later,

nihilominus Lusitaniae partes... depraedantur)[186, 188]; Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 189;
contra R. W. Burgess, ‘From Gallia Romana to Gallia Gothica: The View from Spain’, in Drinkwa-
ter and Elton (eds.), Fifth-Century Gaul, 23–4.In 468, the Goths attacked the Sueves on two
fronts, through Astorga in the north and from M´ erida, newly occupied, in the south; it is unclear
whether the Goths in Astorga were part of the force sent to occupy Lusitania or were a separate
band from Gaul: cc. 245–6, 249–50 [239–40, 243–4].
105
Table 1 no. 6; cf. nos. 3 and 5.
106
Imperial campaign: Hyd., c. 134; Rechiarius: c. 137 [126, 129]. In the same year, the comes
Censorius, held captive for eight years, was put to death, possibly as a show of hostility to the
empire; c. 139 [131].
107
Hyd., c. 155 with 168 [147, 161]; cf. Tranoy ii, 95.
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