The Ambassadors
From Ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, the Men Who Introduced the World to Itself
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Heretics comes this "informative and enjoyable glimpse at the travails and achievements of emissaries over thousands of years" (Booklist).
We think of ambassadors as simply diplomats—but once they were adventurers who dared an uncertain fate in unknown lands, bringing gifts of greyhounds and elephants to powerful and unpredictable leaders. In vivid detail, The Ambassadors traces the remarkable journeys of these emissaries, taking us from the linguistically challenged Greek Megasthenes to the first Japanese embassies to China and Korea; from Mohammed's ambassadors to Egypt to the envoys of Byzantium, who had the unenviable task of convincing Attila the Hun to stop attacking them. We also witness the dialogue between Europe and Moorish Spain, and meet the ill-fated envoys sent in search of the mythical king Prester John.
What Europe still thinks of Asia and what Asia still thinks of Africa were in no small part kindled in these long-ago first encounters. From the cuneiform civilizations of the ancient Near East to the clashing empires of the early modern age, JonathanWright brings alive the men who introduced the great cultures of the world to each other.
"Illuminating the practice of diplomatic immunity, the gradual formalization of the institution of global diplomacy and the role of maverick diplomats, Wright carefully balances general developments in the scope of ambassadorial duties with colorful and exemplary tales of particular instances." —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset of this "book of journeys," Wright (God's Soldiers) declares, "Throughout history, ambassadors would be in the vanguard of cultural discovery." Presenting intricate ambassadorial narratives in the context of their age's geopolitical tensions, Wright shows how intrepid ambassadors in the ancient world traveled epic distances to foster trade, seek out alliances or discipline rivals. Wright's sources are historical a survey of 302 B.C Indian life by Macedonian ambassador Megathenes and the chronicles of Han dynasty ambassador Chang Ch'ien, who traveled as far as Kazakhstan and literary: he explores theories of diplomacy through the so-called "Sanskrit Machiavelli" Kautilya's treatise Arthasastra and the medieval Song of Roland, celebrating the diplomatic acumen of Charlemagne. Complex accounts of Crusade-era political maneuvers and growing rifts in the Christian commonwealth segue into discussion of the 15th-century rise of statecraft and of 16th-century Protestant-Catholic tensions. He also describes diplomatic faux pas such as the British envoy Sir Henry Wooten's flounderings in the 17th-century Catholic bastion of Venice. Illuminating the practice of diplomatic immunity, the gradual formalization of the institution of global diplomacy and the role of maverick diplomats, Wright carefully balances general developments in the scope of ambassadorial duties with colorful and exemplary tales of particular instances.
