ABSTRACT
The so-called Endless Peace between Byzantium and Persia was signed and ratified in 532, so ending, as John Malalas tells us, thirty-one years of hostility. It must be admitted immediately that what Malalas does have to tell us about diplomacy is limited. He does not have anything to say about the techniques and skills of diplomacy or what went on when the negotiators met. There is the politeness of diplomacy in civilized discussion between two powers even when their relationships are bad, that battle and invasion are about to recommence. There is the slow pace of diplomacy: unfortunately Malalas does not give a precise date for Kavad's reply but it is still in 529 after September, so the process so far has taken between five and eight months. Malalas begins the next stage after a subsidiary piece of diplomacy in June 531, where, interestingly, a deacon is used as go-between, though the move is initiated by the Saracen Lakhmids.
