Buying Goodwill, Granting Rewards
Borja Vertedor Ballesteros · Edinburgh University Press eBooks · 2024
This chapter presents a study of the relationship between diplomatic gift and headquarters at the provincial level. In the Republican period, the Roman camp took on the role of administrative centre and political headquarters, thus acting as a space for diplomatic interaction within the province. This intra vallum scenario hosted diplomatic missions, receiving heralds and legati. The camp and its surroundings were also the venue for high-level political meetings of conloquia type, with the participation of local and regional leaders. The general-in-chief, assisted by his consilium, played a crucial role in a complex ritual of audiences as the unifying force behind these political-diplomatic dynamics. At the same time, the headquarters played the role of a centre for issuing legati in order to create or re-establish bonds of friendship and to interact politically with its surroundings. Special attention is paid to the study of the spaces where the protagonists interact, as well as to the analysis of the specific role of gift-giving in these contexts.