198 The Imperial Government
ofdevelopment.Whetherwethinkofpurelylocalcontact,aimedatsolv-
ingdisputesorcontrollingthemovementsoftradersandpastoralists,orof
importantnegotiationsconductedcentrally,somemeansfortheadjustment
ofrelationsclearlyhadtoexist,anddid.
Still,itiseasytoseewhythesubjecthasnotoccupiedacentralplacein
ourconceptionoftheearlyEmpireasapoliticalsystem—thebibliography
ofthistopicisbynomeansextensive^5 —foritismarkedbystrikinganoma-
lies and contradictions. First,whose Empirewas it? What bodyor person
wasthesovereign?Infact,asweshallsee,thepublicofficialdiscourseofthe
earlyimperialperiodwasunambiguousinrepresentingtheEmpireasthat
of thepopulus Romanus, the Roman People as a collectivity.^6 But whatever
functionstheassembliesoftheRomanpeoplestillfulfilled,theconductof
foreignrelationswasnotoneofthem.Indeed,evenintheRepublic,ithad
beenoneofthefeaturesdistinguishingthecity-stateofRomefromatypical
Greekdemocracy,thatambassadorsfromforeignpowersnevercamebefore
theassembliesofthepeople.Thepeoplehadoncevotedondeclarationsof
warandthemakingofpeacetreaties,butthatfunctiontoodisappearedin
thelaterRepublic.^7
Embassies from foreign powers had in fact always appeared before the
Senate:asPolybiusrightlynotedinthecourseof hiswell-knownanalysis
oftheRomanconstitution,thereceptionofembassieswasoneoftheSen-
ate’smostimportantfunctions,andalsoonewhichtendedtogiveforeigners
the (false) impression (shared however by many moderns) that the Senate
couldberegardedunambiguouslyasthe‘‘government’’of Rome(Polybius
6,13,7–8).ThiscentralroleoftheSenatewasremembered,andstillclaimed,
- ThemajorbackgroundsurveyoftheevidenceisC.Phillipson,The International Law
and Custom of Ancient Greece and RomeI–II(London,1911);fortheRomanEmpirethemost
important discussions are J. Gagé, ‘‘L’Empereur romain et les rois,’’Revue Historique 221
(1959): 221–60; and M. Lemosse,Le régime des relations internationales dans le Haut-Empire
romain(Paris,1967).ThepresentchapteralsodrawsonsomeaspectsofF.Millar,‘‘Emperors,
FrontiersandForeignRelations,31b.c.toa.d.378,’’Britannia13(1982):1–23(chapter9in
thisvolume). - Forthistheme,seeF.Millar,‘‘ImperialIdeologyintheTabulaSiarensis,’’inJ.Gon-
zález,ed.,Estudios sobre la Tabula Siarensis(Madrid,1988).Addatypicalexamplenotused
there:Pliny,Nat. Hist.3,136,quotestheinscriptionfromthetriumphalmonumentsetup
tocommemorateAugustus’subjectionofalonglistofAlpinepeoples:‘‘[B]ecauseunder
hiscommandandauspicesalltheAlpinegentes[peoples]...havebeenbroughtunderthe
imperiumofthepopulus Romanus.’’ - SeeJ.W.Rich,DeclaringWarintheRomanRepublicinthePeriodof TransmarineExpansion
(Brussels,1976).