This article examines several cases of documented deaths of ambassadors involved in diplomatic relations between Byzantium and its neighbors. Three main causes can explain such deaths. Old age, a criterion for the selection of official emissaries, is one of these. As a guarantee of wisdom and political experience, it is not only a topos but a reality for many of them. Travel risks in the medieval world account for physical fatigue and can explain bad encounters, on land as well as on sea. More rarely, death is pronounced by a ruler, despite the ius gentium. Some sources give us some clues about the fate of an ambassador’s dead body. They also refer to the question of stopping or continuing negotiations. Finally, if a monarch put an ambassador to death, the fact is a casus belli and requires compensation.
Du viie au xie siècle, les ambassadeurs sont victimes de multiples préjudices lors des contacts diplomatiques de Byzance avec ses voisins, atteintes allant de l’isolement volontaire à l’emprisonnement affiché ou aux violences physiques, entre autres. Si le ius gentium, censé protéger les émissaires officiels, est bien attesté dans les textes, en premier lieu normatifs, il ne semble donc pas toujours respecté. Toutefois, au regard du nombre relativement élevé des contacts diplomatiques sur cette période, les exemples réels d’atteinte aux ambassadeurs concernent au total un faible pourcentage des rencontres. En outre, la narration de telles atteintes entre dans la logique rhétorique des contacts diplomatiques, au point que certains récits paraissent suspects voire exagérés pour noircir l’image du souverain qui en est responsable.
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