5 - Diffusion of information

Summary

the preceding part of this study has shown that information of strategic and wider significance was obtained by the empire during late antiquity, and that there was a significant difference between the levels of information that the Romans possessed about the Persians on the one hand and northern peoples on the other. This third and final part of the study considers the question of how this information was acquired, and suggests reasons for the difference between east and north. Officially initiated information-gathering through agencies such as spies and embassies is one obvious subject requiring investigation, and this will be taken up in Chapter 6. But it is apparent that some information entered the empire (as well as leaving it) through informal channels: the interaction of ordinary inhabitants on either side of the empire's boundaries, already discussed in detail in Chapter 2, did not occur without the transmission of news. This phenomenon is the concern of the present chapter.

All too often in the cases discussed in Chapter 4 the agency by which information was acquired is not specified. As has been seen, late Roman writers frequently employ generalised expressions to the effect that an official or officer ‘heard’ or ‘learned’ an item of information, without specifying the source of this knowledge.