Page 94 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

the Mediterranean in the 440s and the destructive sack of Rome in 455,
sharp demonstrations of Geiseric’s power and potential hostility, made
him the single most disruptive element in western politics until his death
in 477. 125 News of the Vandals travelled. Nevertheless, Hydatius does not
record enough information to reveal clearly patterns in the Vandals’ con-
tacts. Only one diplomatic exchange, in 460, between Geiseric and the
empire is recorded; earlier treaties, and the betrothal of Valentinian III’s
daughter Eudocia to Geiseric’s son Huneric, are unmentioned. 126
Direct contacts between the Vandals and the Sueves are twice recorded
by Hydatius. On the first occasion, Vandal and Gothic envoys arrived in
Gallaecia after the Gothic occupation of Baetica in 458. 127 Post quod
propter quod: the timing suggests that the Goths’ actions not only posed a
threat to the south of the Sueves and a potential check on their renewed
ambitions on Lusitania, but also caused unease to the Vandals, now facing
the sometime imperial allies across the narrow straits of Cadiz. The Vandal
mission to the Sueves probably sought their friendship in the face of a
mutual foe. 128 The Sueves themselves had controlled Baetica from 441
to the mid-450s, and there is some evidence that this occupation of the
province also had caused hostility with the Vandals. 129

Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge, 1999), 231–8. The historic antagonism of Punic
Carthage was recalled by Prosper, Chron., 1339. For the strategic importance of control over the
African grain supply: Elton, Warfare in Roman Europe, 195.
125 Andrew Gillett, ‘Rome, Ravenna, and the Last Western Emperors’, Papers of the British School in
Rome 69 (2001), 164.
126 Hyd., c. 209 [204]; on other treaties: above, n. 65. Similarly Hydatius does not record the imperial
campaign againstthe Vandals in 441, although he does record the campaigns of Majorian and Leo
in 460, 467,and 469 (cc. 200, 236, 240, 247 [195, 232, 236, 241]). He records several Vandal naval
raids or battles (cc. 86, 131, 176–7, 227 [77, 123, 169–70, 223]), and Geiseric’s release of Licinia
Eudoxia, Valentinian III’s widow, to the eastern court in 462, after arranging the marriages of
the empresses’ two daughters (c. 216 [211]).
127 Table 1 no. 14. Goths in Baetica: Hyd., c. 192 [185].
128 Goths as strategic threat to Vandals: the rationale of Avitus’ alliance with the Goths of Toulouse,
as presented by his propagandist Sidonius, was to use Gothic support to defeat the Vandals;
cf. chapter 3 below, atnn. 39–43, 51–3; and Clover, ‘Geiseric the Statesman’, 156–68.Events
following the Gothic seizure of Baetica justified any Vandal concerns. The Goths were hostile
to the emperor Majorian for two years after the deposition of Avitus (cf. n. 118 above). When
Majorian and Theoderic II concluded a pax in 459, imperial and Gothic envoys were sent jointly
to announce the settlement to the Vandals and the Sueves (Table 1 nos. 17–20). Soon afterwards,
Majorian commenced his campaign againstthe Vandals (Hyd., c. 200 [195]; Priscus, Fr., 36.1, 2).
The campaign was staged in the south-eastern Spanish province of Carthaginiensis, unlike the
imperial campaigns againstthe Vandals of 441, 467,and 469, which were staged in Sicily (Hyd.,
c. 200 [195]; Marius of Avenches, Chron., s.a. 460; Chr. Gall. 511,cc. 633–4; Priscus, Fr., 36.1;
for 441 and 467–9 campaigns: Clover, ‘Geiseric the Statesman’, 80–4, 194–9). Majorian’s alliance
with the Goths, together with their hold of strategic Baetica, may explain the decision to advance
on North Africa from south-east Spain.
Goths in Baetica as a threat to the Sueves in Lusitania: above, nn. 104, 118.
129
Suevic occupation of Baetica: Hyd., c. 123 [115]. Suevic/Vandal contact: possibly the explanation
of the Vandal raid on coastal Gallaecia and the capture of familiae (perhaps as hostages, cf. n. 70
68