Cassiodorus' Variae and the role of ambiguity in Ostrogothic foreign policy

Ambiguity ought to have had no place in the letters of Cassiodorus, as he states more than once, yet he regularly deployed indeterminacy, polysemy and omissions in diplomatic epistles. An analysis of three letters addressed respectively to emperor Anastasius, king Gundobad, and king Hilderic, indicates that Cassiodorus avails himself of such ambiguity in an effort to suppress adverse circumstances or to deal ‒ as delicately as possible ‒ with diplomatically contentious matters. Ambiguity constituted an indispensable aspect of Ostrogothic political communication, because clear-cut distinctions between allies and enemies, foederati and independent peoples or Romans and barbarians were futile during the sixth century. In a time of shifting allegiances and strained diplomatic relations, ambiguity became a fundamental resource for concealing awkward gaps between ideology and reality.