§ 1. Although I frequently made mention of Ambassadors in the first edition, I nevertheless did not treat them by design, both because I saw that subject occupied by many writers and because the things which I discussed concerning the virtues and vices of Princes, Optimates, the Senate, and Councillors appeared able sufficiently to instruct an Ambassador. For whatever is praiseworthy in all of them ought to shine forth collectively in an Ambassador. He sustains the person of his own state; he is placed between fire and sacrifice, between hammer and anvil. Concerning him the Prince who sent him and rivals in that Prince’s council pass judgment; enemies and friends judge and scrutinize him. To serve and satisfy one Prince for a long time is arduous. An Ambassador must serve his own Prince, accommodate himself to a foreign one, and also please the Ambassadors of other Princes. No Province is more burdensome, none more dangerous. He must be dear to his Lord without being hated by an enemy or rival. Indeed, it is necessary to be wary even of Secretaries and Domestics. Here there is need of the highest protection afforded by all the virtues—yet not new virtues, but those which I have expounded. For this reason I had passed over this subject. But now, induced by the requests and arguments of certain men, I have resolved to institute a discourse on this matter also and to imitate other writers of no mean reputation: Plato, Demetrius of Phalerum, Diotimus, Crates, Julius Ferretius, Brunus, Octavianus, Bodin, and Carolus Scribanius.
§ 2. They refer the antiquity of Ambassadors to Belus and Ninus. But, to omit the times before the Flood and disputes over chronology, it must be established as certain that in the same year in which the human race was scattered into various parts of the world through the confusion of languages, Ambassadors were sent for the sake of business and treaties. For neighbor had to speak with neighbor if it seemed good to establish something for the advantage of both or to settle a disputed right. Such is the relation among nations that a state necessarily holds communication with its neighbor. Necessity is the mother of embassies, as it is of clothing; adornment and splendor were added afterward. Letters are indeed mute Ambassadors, which speak only to the eyes and exhibit the mind of their lord as though in a mirror; but there are many things which cannot be accomplished through them. For letters cannot immediately answer the things proposed by the other party. Moreover, an Ambassador must conceal or disclose many things in accordance with the disposition of the Prince to whom he is sent or with the condition of the times and affairs. An Ambassador assuredly sometimes finds many things otherwise arranged than the man by whom he was sent had thought.
§ 3. An embassy requires immense prudence together with dexterity. For an Ambassador is publicly sent to conduct public business; he is a messenger, or Apostle. Therefore he sustains not only the person of his own Prince but that of the entire state and indeed of the Senate itself. The Greeks always chose the highest men, and therefore called them πρεσβευτὰς and πρέσβεις, because they were selected from the γερουσία. For that name belongs not more to age than to dignity. Thus the Venetian Ambassadors excused their age before the Emperor, and Scipio professed that he possessed enough years if the Roman people should make him Consul.
They are also called Orators and commonly Ambassadors. Some derive the latter name from the German Ambacht, which among the ancients signifies work, as though they were Workers; others derive it from the Greek ἀναβάζειν, to speak, to advance to make a speech, as is established from a witty saying of the Athenians. When an unwelcome Orator began his speech from the word Ἀναβαίνειν, “for those ascending,” the People answered Καταβαίνειν, “let them descend.” That ἀμβάζειν is said for ἀναβαίνειν is known even to boys. But I omit these matters.
I give this warning: Military Legates are excluded from this discussion. They were Legates who were Councillors and assistants of the next dignity, attached to Commanders and frequently greater than those Commanders in the glory of their deeds. Caesar, book 2 of The Civil War, acknowledges that the Commander employs their service in trust. See Vegetius, book 2, chapter 9; Lipsius’s commentary on book 2 of the Annals of Tacitus. Departing Proconsuls sometimes entrusted to them part of the army, sometimes the whole army, and indeed a Province. Much less does the Free Embassy belong here. It is the mask of an embassy, often unjust and always burdensome to the allies. For, so that men of Senatorial rank might be more honored and secure in the Provinces and might conduct private business more easily, a Free Embassy was decreed to them, which they could employ when, where, and as long as they wished, although it was generally annual. Lipsius on Tacitus; Alexander ab Alexandro; Cujacius, book 9 of Observations, 29; and law 14, π., On an Embassy.