Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

204 6 Shared interests: Continuing conflicts
official bans on the export of certain goods were respected, above all the
export of arms, iron, gold, wine and oil. 159 He thus supervised the Roman
foreign trade and acted according to Diocletian’s goal of linking national
security with a regulated trade. 160
The Codex Iustinianus tells us about a constitution de commerciis et mercatoribus
by the emperors Honorius and Theodosius II (408/9), which
was addressed to the praefectus praetorio Orientis Anthemius 161 and which
sums up official guidelines for the trade between Byzantium and the
Persian Empire – guidelines that remained valid until their relations ended
altogether. 162
Codex Iustinianus iv.63.4
It is by no means permitted that merchants, neither subjects of our empire nor of
the Persian king, hold markets 163 outside the places that were agreed on together
with the mentioned nation at the time when the peace was concluded in order that
they do not find out about the secrets of the foreign kingdom in an inappropriate
way. 164 (1) Henceforth no subject of our empire shall dare travelling further than
Nisibis, Kallinikos and Artaxata in order to acquire or sell goods, nor shall anybody
expect to exchange goods with a Persian but in the named cities. Both sides who
contract with each other shall know that goods sold or acquired outside these
places will be confiscated by our most sacred government, that these goods and
the price that was paid or exchanged shall be lost and that they themselves shall
be exiled for life. (2) Regarding their appearance at transactions that took place
outside the mentioned places judges are also punished with a payment of thirty
pounds of gold, [and also those] via whose territory a Roman or Persian travelled
to the forbidden places for the purpose of trade. (3) However, this does not apply
to those who accompanied Persian ambassadors sent to us at any time and carried
goods for the purpose of trade; out of humanity and respect for an embassy we
do not deny these the right to engage in trade also outside the fixed places, unless
they use the embassy as a pretext in order to spend more time in any province and
159 Ibid. iv.41.1 (370–5); iv.41.2 (455–7); iv.63.2 (374); cf. also Dig. xxxix.4.11; Cod. Theod. vii.16.3
(420); Expositio totius mundi et gentium 22 (p. 156 ed. Rougé); also Karayannopoulos 1958: 168 and
De Laet 1949: 477–8.
160 On the comites commerciorum, who existed only in the provinces that bordered foreign territory (cf.
for the Eastern Roman Empire Not. Dign. Or. xiii.6–9), and their responsibilities; De Laet 1949:
457–9; Pigulevskaja 1969: 83–4; on their changing responsibilities from the end of the fifth century
onwards see Karayannopoulos 1958: 159–68, esp. 164–5.
161 On the life and activities of Anthemius, who around the turn of the century, prior to his appointment
as praefectus praetorio (404), was ambassador at the court of the Sasanian king and contributed
significantly to the good relations between East and West during this period, see Clauss 1981: 147;
PLRE 2: 93–5; Synelli 1986: 93–4 and 172.
162 On this source see Antoniadis-Bibicou 1963: 115 and 194.
163 The wording ‘nundinas exercere’ is discussed in De Ligt 1993: 53–4.
164 On the issue of espionage by merchants and diplomats see also 35.