Like the Soviet Union fifteen centuries later, when the Roman Empire collapsed during the fifth and early sixth centuries, the resultant smaller states - often separated by long distances - developed common cultural and political practices.

Dr Andrew Gillett

This parallel development must have involved the exchange of ideas between the leaders and administrators of the new states, yet how was this exchange possible in a pre-telecommunications age when there were no telephones, television sets, computers or even advertising billboards?

Dr Andrew Gillett from the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University has received a five-year $500,000 Australian Research Council grant to look into how communication took place both between these states, and within them, from the fifth to the eighth centuries. By examining dossiers of letters and other materials prepared as reference works for those involved in interchange between governments and other elites, Gillett hopes to track pathways of communication and show how this process facilitated the evolution from classical to medieval societies.

"Despite multiple political boundaries, the sheer distance between the regions to the east and west and the differences in language, the post-imperial states not only remained in contact at the military and political level, but also shared many parallel developments in political, administrative, religious, cultural and social spheres," says Gillett.

"These parallel developments did not happen coincidentally. They were the result of constant intercommunication among the regions and between social elites within these communities."

Gillett believes the dossiers - large collections of correspondence, memoranda, records and other documents sent from one part of the social elite to another or from one government to its counterparts - will provide previously unstudied documentary evidence of how centres of power went about making contact with each other.

Previous evidence from brief narrative sources suggests it is likely that almost all communication would have been undertaken physically - perhaps by parties despatched on horseback or by boat to neighbouring embassies, perhaps using travelling tradesmen as proxy postmen.

Organising such intercultural embassy delegations was likely to have been an extremely complex undertaking. For a Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, for example, to engage in direct dialogue with a western ruler in Paris or Toledo, would have involved lengthy, long-distance return travel, preparation of documentation, rituals of audience and hospitality, and face-to-face communication across language barriers.

The media would also have played an important role in helping elites to 'sell' their ideologies and impose their views. Gillett will look at what parts of society these 'spin-doctored' messages reached, the different purposes of oral and written communication, and the speed of dissemination.

The project breaks new ground in the study of the post-imperial world - while previous attention has been paid to economic and religious ties throughout the region, how ideas were exchanged and political relations maintained has not yet been investigated.

"Looking at the various states of the period as part of a wider process of intercommunication presents a fundamental shift in how a crucial period of history is envisaged," Gillett says.

Dr Gillett will be seeking a postgraduate research assistant who is proficient at Latin translation to help with the project.

Contact Dr Andrew Gillett: andrew.gillett@mq.edu.au

December 2003

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