A Forced Way to Resolve Rome’s Conflicts with Barbarians in the Second Half of the Fourth Century AD

The Roman emperors played a major role in the foreign policy of the state. Therefore, relations with neighboring tribes were also within their sphere of competence. Since these relations mostly resulted in armed conflicts, not only the conditions for restoring peace, but also the way in which a peace agreement was concluded, became very important. While the Romans were successful in war, they demanded that the ambassadors of the defeated should come to their territory, since meetings of the emperors with them on the borders of the state, or near the line of military contact, were not considered prestigious. But in the second half of the fourth century, the policy of the Roman Empire was no longer so successful; the empire was forced, mainly, to defend itself, fighting in its own territory. The Romans had to deviate from long-established traditions and rules that used to formalise their relations with barbarians. Sometimes the emperors were forced to start negotiations right on the line of contact with the enemy. Since this did not add to their authority, in the description of such events by Roman historians one can notice the subjective attitude of the authors towards the actors.