The first embassy?

[Foggy]

Maybe I’m not using the right term or something because I’m not finding answers on Google or Wikipedia.

When & where were the first embassies established?

Thanks

[naita]

Did you try this:

Diplomacy

In Europe, early modern diplomacy’s origins are often traced to the states of Northern Italy in the early Renaissance, with the first embassies being established in the 13th century.

[MikeS]

It might help to know that throughout most of history, an “embassy” was just a group of people that one ruler deputized to go talk to another ruler and report back. See, for example, the Tensho embassy or the Persian embassy, both of which were in the later 16th century. The notion of a “permanent mission”, with a building house a permanent staff devoted to the interests of the sending country, was a later development.

[Simplicio]

Papal legates were appointed to different countries and were basically ambassadors of the Holy See. There was one in the Byzantine Empire as far back as the 6th century.

[Simplicio]

Here’s the wikipedia article. Apparently the legate to the Emperors was called a apocrisiarius. It seems to have basically matched what we’d call an embassy, it was a permanent diplomatic mission from one state to another. It also apparently had a dedicated building to work in, and given the importance of the position (it was held by several future Popes) and the size of the bulding, one assumes at least some dedicated staff.

[Simplicio]

I wish I could remember where I heard it, but a few years ago I remember listening to a radio program on the diplomacy of the ancient Sumerian city states. They apparently had a pretty well developed diplomatic system, but I can’t remember if dedicated embassys were part of it.

[aldiboronti]

When sent on an embassage to Augsburg in 1604 Sir Henry Wotton wisecracked, “An ambassador is a man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” Still just as true today.

[Senegoid]

@MikeS

It might help to know that throughout most of history, an “embassy” was just a group of people that one ruler deputized to go talk to another ruler and report back. See, for example, the Tensho embassy or the Persian embassy, both of which were in the later 16th century. The notion of a “permanent mission”, with a building house a permanent staff devoted to the interests of the sending country, was a later development.

If we take “embassy” by this definition (that is, simply a person or group of people sent on an international diplomatic mission), I feel sure that this has been going on in one way or another since all recorded history, if not longer.

[coremelt]

I can’t find a cite right now but I’m fairly certain that during the time of the Roman Republic Roman subject states had permanent representatives in Rome. The representatives for Judea play a significant part in the quite accurate “Masters of Rome” series by Coleen McColllough.

[Foggy]

Thanks for the info & links.

Yeah, for some idiotic reason I never though to search for the word “diplomacy”.:smack:

[Nava]

@MikeS

It might help to know that throughout most of history, an “embassy” was just a group of people that one ruler deputized to go talk to another ruler and report back. See, for example, the Tensho embassy or the Persian embassy, both of which were in the later 16th century. The notion of a “permanent mission”, with a building house a permanent staff devoted to the interests of the sending country, was a later development.

There could also be permanent missions, but not with a staff devoted to the interests of the sending country. The Annals of Navarre contain mentions of “ambassadors” to other Spanish Kingdoms who weren’t so much diplomats as “on-and-off commercial missions”; merchants who were well-established in that other kingdom and willing to assist in obtaining certain products, selling ours or putting up a traveller sent by Navarre (not necessarily in a diplomatic mission either, one of the mentions is about a boy being sent to study with the Cordobese doctors; 12th Century). If there was a need to negotiate a treaty or something like that, the merchant would negotiate where and when would the actual treaty negotiations take place, and who would be involved in them.