Page 97 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

territories attacked or prepared to attack imperial territory. They were
quelled only by the appointment of a new magister utriusque militiae per
Gallias, Avitus, who set about re-establishing the disturbed alliances. 141
Hydatius describes at greater length the series of embassies resulting
from the accession of the Gothic king Euric in 467. Euric came to power
by murdering his elder brother, Theoderic II. His firstrecorded actwas
to dispatch envoys to other western rulers. 142 Hydatius knew of embassies
to the new western emperor Anthemius, to the Suevic king Remismund,
and to the Vandals. Remismund quickly dismissed Euric’s envoys and sent
his own legations to Anthemius, to the Vandals, and to Euric. 143 Hydatius
records nothing further of the Gothic mission to Rome, but he states that
the Gothic envoys to Carthage withdrew upon hearing of the military
campaign being prepared against the Vandals by the emperors Leo and
Anthemius. 144 The Suevic mission to the Goths was disastrous: on its
return, it was closely followed by a Gothic army which contested control
of Lusitania with the Sueves, while from the north a second Gothic force
attacked Gallaecia. 145 Remismund subsequently sent a second embassy
to Anthemius. 146

141
External threats: raids by the Alamanni, Ripuarian Franks, and Saxons on northern Gaul and
the Atlantic coastline: Sid. Ap., Carm. vii, 369–75. Internal: preparations for war by the Goths
of Toulouse: ibid. vii, 361–2, 398–400; the Sueves reoccupied Carthaginiensis, surrendered to
the empire the previous year: Hyd., c. 168 with c. 155 [147, 161] and Tranoy ii, 101. Cf. Stein i,
349; Seeck, Untergang vi, 319–20 (wrongly citing the assault on Arles by the Gothic king
Thurismund, who had been killed the previous year; PLRE ii, 1116).
It is unclear whether the death of Aetius in September 454 or that of Valentinian III in March
455 prompted these aggressions. Sidonius’ description seems to place the actions of the Ala-
manni, Ripuarian Franks, and Saxons after Valentinian’s death (Carm. vii, 360), but the winter
of 454/5 would in any case have delayed reaction to Aetius’ death until the spring, especially in
northern Gaul. The Goths seem to have reacted to the news of Valentinian’s death, not Aetius’.
The magister utriusque militiae Avitus did not find it necessary to approach the Goths until May or
June 455 (according to Sidonius, he went three months after his appointment as magister, which
was soon after Petronius Maximus’ imperial accession on 17 March; Avitus was still in Toulouse
when news of Maximus’ death in Rome on 31 Mayarrived;Sid.Ap., Carm. vii, 391–3, 450–1).
Cf. Loyen, Recherches, 53–5; Wolfram, History of the Goths, 179 (on the Goths as ‘legitimistic’).
142
On the date (467, not 466), participants (the emperor involved was Anthemius in Rome, not
Leo I in Constantinople), and significance of these embassies: Gillett, ‘Accession of Euric’. Hyd.,
cc. 237–8 [233–4] seems to indicate that the news of Euric’s usurpation had reached Gallaecia
before Euric dispatched his envoys.
143
Table 1 nos. 34–9.
144
Hyd., c. 240 [236], cf. 236 [232]. The campaign was abandoned because of bad weather. A
subsequent collaboration between Leo, Anthemius, and Marcellinus, de facto ruler of Dalmatia,
also failed; c. 247 [241]; Priscus, Fr., 53.3.
145
Hyd., cc. 245–6, 249–50 [239–40, 243–4].
146
Table 1 no. 41. Hydatius dedicates long entries to news brought back to Gallaecia by the Suevic
envoys to Toulouse and Rome; Hyd., cc. 242–4, 247 [238, 241]. This is probably because they
were recent events at the time when he wrote the final segment of the Chronicle; cf. the similar
expansion of the narrative for 456, when the first section of the work was probably composed;
nn. 42–6 above.
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