Tag: diplomacy

In all this [Tokugawa Ieyasu] revealed the attitude to which he ever afterwards adhered through life. He wielded two weapons of reasonableness and force. And when he could use the former he did, for he gained his point with less expenditure and effort. But he knew this would be useless unless backed by force, and none had it readier at all times than he. Tokutomi observes that “his militarism was diplomatic, and his diplomacy was militaristic.” Nobody in the Empire valued armaments more or took more care of them. He took so much care of them that he never used them rashly, and unless driven to it by unavoidable necessity. Others in this age, of course, used these two methods also. But perhaps none made so few failures as he did, and that owing to his extraordinary patience and self-control.

— Shogun, Chapter 3

More than two decades passed between the meeting of Sulla and Orobazus [in 96 B.C.E.] and the next diplomatic contact between Rome and Parthia. Ancient states did not maintain permanent embassies in each other’s capitals or feel the need to be in constant touch, and instead sent ambassadors only when there was something that they wished to say. Preoccupied with bitter internal strife and with enemies and friends closer to their territory, neither the Romans nor Parthians chose to seek out the other.

— Rome and Persia, pp. 63