Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

35 Diplomacy and espionage 249
lead an army against the Romans; 19 he did not send Goths, however, in order that
they would not immediately be recognisable and spoil the plans, but two Ligurian
priests, who had been bribed to get involved in this deed. (2) The one, who seemed
to be of higher integrity, went on this embassy giving himself the appearance and
name of a bishop (although entitled to neither), the other followed him as his
servant. (3) On their journey they moved through Thracian territory where they
recruited an interpreter of the Syriac and Greek language and then entered Persian
territory without having been noticed by the Romans. For as this happened during
a time of peace 20 these were not guarding the area meticulously.
Procopius, De Bello Gothico iv.15.1–2 and 19–20 21
(1) In Byzantium Xusrō (I)’s envoy Isdigusnas 22 met with the emperor Justinian
in order to talk about the peace and spent a considerable period of time there. (2)
After much dispute they finally agreed that there should be a five-year-truce within
the hegemony of each ruler but that there should be frequent embassies between
both sides, with the envoys going back and forth safely during this period in order
to settle the disagreements regarding Lazika 23 and the Saracens 24 ...
(19) Isdigusnas, however, appropriated more revenues than any envoy before
him and returned, as I believe, as the wealthiest Persian to his home country.
For the emperor Justinian had placed the highest honours upon him and gave
him large monetary gifts before he dismissed him. (20) He was the only envoy
who was never supervised; he and the barbarians with him (and there were a
large number of them) rather enjoyed great freedom. During the entire period
they were allowed to meet and converse with whom they liked, to move around
anywhere in the city, acquire and sell whatever they wanted, conduct all business
and do so with utmost freedom, just like they would in their own city; no Roman
followed or accompanied them or dared to observe them, as was normally the
case.
Procopius confirms that when Yazdgushnasp stayed in Byzantium he
enjoyed much freedom and his movements in the capital were not monitored
at all. However, the passage also suggests that contemporary observers
were aware of the dangers that such privileges for foreign diplomats could
19 On the political background to this embassy see 13.
20 The first Sasanian–Byzantine war of the sixth century (12) had been ended in 532 by the so-called
‘eternal peace’ (Proc. BP i.22.3).
21 On iv.15.19–20 see Tinnefeld 1993: 207–8.
22 Elsewhere (Menander Protector, frg. 11 [see 20]) this man is called Yazdgushnasp; see above.
23 Proc. BP ii.28.6–11 states that in the year 545 Xusrō I did not want a peace but merely a truce and
that he, moreover, explicitly refused to return Lazika; the hostilities that arose before the end of the
agreed truce actually focused on this Black Sea region.
24 As a rule, the Lahmids and Ghassanids (25) were excluded from the peace negotiations of this period
so that the vassal states were able to continue their military confrontations, which also happened
after the truce of 545; cf. Proc. BP ii.28.12–14; the foedus of 562 (20) was the first one to address also
the situation of the Arabs.