Rivers as Boundaries and “Borderscapes” in Ancient Diplomatic Practice

Abstract

For the Romans and their Hellenistic contemporaries, rivers served several functions. While rivers were encountered in everyday activities, they also operated, in historical narratives, as points of articulation and as markers of geography and distance. The role rivers played in the negotiation of power and diplomatic activities is worthy of examination. As liminal spaces and potential sites of neutrality, rivers (and islands within them) were used for diplomatic negotiation. Yet the river as boundary was also an important aspect of the negotiation and limitations of (perceived) power and control. Rivers and other natural geographical markers (such as mountains and seas) can be viewed as ‘borderscapes’. Following Costas Constantinou (2020), who uses the term ‘borderscapes’ to examine not only physical and material divisions, but also internal and mental, linguistic and immaterial, this paper will consider rivers as borderscapes and spaces of diplomatic negotiation, in order to provide wider context for the Iber river as a potential diplomatic boundary between Rome and Carthage, both in the immediate debates concerning culpability for the outbreak of war and in the later narrative reconstructions.