Did the Romans negotiate with their enemies, or potential enemies, in good faith? Did they respect the equivalent of a white flag (whatever it was) for parleys, or what we would consider the sanctity/immunity of ambassadors and envoys?
I ask because I just finished Philip Matyszak’s Legionary, a history of the Roman army in the form of an illustrated instruction manual, taking a soldier through the 25 years (!) of his career from recruitment to training, deployment and battle, then his wounding, death, triumph or retirement. Very interesting, and just light-hearted enough in tone to mask the essential bloodthirstiness of the topic. The issue of negotiations is touched on but not developed as much as I would’ve liked, although I still recommend the book.
They were quite the negotiators. In short, they constantly sent emissaries to recruit “barbarians” for the auxilia, play potential enemies off each other, and negotiate with larger powers (ie Persia/Parthia).
Once the Romans realized they’d never be able to conquer Germania, they turned to negotiation through bribes, recruitment, and controlled immigration of certain tribes.
I love ancient Roman culture. They’d threaten you with war. If you refused and they were forced to beat the fuck out of you they’d bill you for the costs afterwards.
If the Germans had won and then billed the Allies, yeah.
Also, the Romans acknowledged the existence of foreign Gods (example- they believed that the Egyptian pantheon was indeed real) which helped with integration.
The Olive Branch was the symbol for surrender, much like the white flag is modern times. But I don’t believe that would be used in more general parleys, rather than outright surrender.
One more fact in answer to the OP is that roman law forbade any kind of negotiated surrender of a beseiged town once the “ram had hit the wall”.
During the 3rd Punic War, the Carthaginians, trying to appease Rome, agreed to send several hundred noble children as hostages and relinquish all their weapons and armor. The Romans took the children and the armaments, and then besieged Carthage anyway.
The whole buildup to that war was a series of dick moves by Rome. First, they make Carthage pay reparations at the end of the 2nd Punic War and then they forbid them for ever going to war without Rome’s approval. So, over a period of the next 50 years, Carthage’s neighbor, Numidia (a Roman ally), starts raiding border towns in Carthage and the Carthaginians can’t say boo about it. They have to let Rome negotiate on their behalf. Finally, they pay off the reparations and send an expedition to defend against Numidian raiders; thinking that because they’re paid in full, the terms of their 2nd Punic War surrender treaty are up. No, so fast, says Rome. We own your asses for life. So, they declare war on Carthage again. The Carthaginians try to calm everything down, sending weapons and the aforementioned children. Then Rome demands the city of Carthage itself. And that was the end of the line for Carthage.
So, good faith negotiating wasn’t the order of the day in that instance.
Quintis is our main negotiator. Quintus make sure you crucify the men and garrot the women.. And make zombies.
If the Bible is to be believed, the Romans were not above bowing to local sentiments to avoid revolts; note the whole standards in the Temple business.
As it is, one gets the feeling from reading about the Boudicca rebellion, that many Romans thought the local magistrates fucked up by needlessly provoking an uprising.
