Roman foreign policy in classical Rome

Abstract

The terminus technicus “diplomacy” applies to a number of instruments by which states and nations manage their relations and communicate with each other – including a lot of international mechanisms and institutions the role of which is to facilitate above all peaceful coexistence. There was nothing to assure the existence of most of these institutions in the Roman world, where there were no permanent diplomatic missions or delegations of individual states abroad to protect their geopolitical interests and pro- vide the necessary assistance to citizens in an emergency situation abroad. With a “lack” of permanent diplomatic missions in ancient Rome, ad hoc Roman diplomats were sent abroad et vice versa in order to negotiate spe- cific peace treaties to ensure the undisturbed development of Rome’s eco- nomic, trade and cultural relations with surrounding cities, nations or more distant powers.