Page 95 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

The second embassy between Carthage and Braga attested by Hydatius
also suggests more regular contact than the Chronicle records. In 467, fol-
lowing Euric’s usurpation of the Gothic kingship at Toulouse, the Suevic
king Remismund sentenvoys to the Goths, the emperor Anthemius,
and the Vandals. 130 Atthe commencementof his reign, Remismund had
been supported by Theoderic II, now killed by Euric; he was rightly
concerned about Euric’s intentions on Spain. His dispatch of envoys to
Carthage indicates Braga’s need to determine the position of the main
players in the western Mediterranean in the face of the sudden change at
Toulouse.
Hydatius preserves the only record of a further embassy to the Vandals.
In 464,the comes et magister utriusque militiae per Gallias Aegidius sent
envoys to Geiseric. 131 Aegidius had been incensed atRicimer’s murder
of the emperor Majorian in 461. Retaining his military command in
Gaul butrefusing to recognise Ricimer’s puppetemperor Libius Severus,
Aegidius threatened to attack Italy and overthrow Ricimer. To gain the
support of the Goths against Aegidius and to block his path to Italy,
Ricimer condoned the ceding of Narbonne to Theoderic II. Thereafter
Aegidius was occupied fighting the Goths, winning a major battle at
Orl´ eans in 463. 132 The following year Aegidius sentenvoys to Geiseric,
doubtless to seek Vandal support against the Goths or Ricimer or both.
The envoys sailed per Oceanum, along the Atlantic coast, avoiding hostile
territories under imperial or Gothic control. 133 Leaving in May, they did
not return until the end of summer; Aegidius must not have anticipated
coordinated action with the Vandals until the following year. It never
occurred, for he was murdered later that year. 134
How did Hydatius learn of this maritime embassy? It is unlikely that
the legation landed at Gallaecia on its way. 135 Remismund had justbeen
installed as king of the Sueves through the influence of Theoderic II
and with the help of a Gothic army. Envoys of Aegidius would have been

above) in 445, some four years after the Suevic occupation of Baetica; Hyd., c. 131 [123]. Suevic
loss of Baetica: presumably during the assault of Theoderic II on Gallaecia 456/7, though it is
possible that the Sueves retained control of the south of Spain until the Gothic expeditions of
458.
130 131
Table 1 nos. 36–8. Table 1 no. 27.
132
On Aegidius: Priscus, Fr., 39.1; Hyd., cc. 217, 218, 228 [212, 214, 224]; Marius of Avenches,
Chron., s.a. 463; Chron. Gall. 511,c. 638; Gregory of Tours, Hist. ii, 12, 18, 27; Stein i, 378–9,
381–2; Clover, ‘Geiseric the Statesman’, 182–4; PLRE ii, 11–13.
133
This is the only occasion on which Hydatius specified the route or duration of an embassy. The
sea-route from northern Europe to the Mediterranean was also used by Heruli pirates; Hyd., c.
194 [189]. Cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. viii, 35 (ships from Gaul to Gallaecia attacked by orders
of Gothic king Leuvigild of Spain).
134
Hyd., c. 228 [224].
135
Cf. Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 172; Muhlberger, Fifth-Century Chroniclers, 310.
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