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Medieval Sourcebook:
Liudprand of Cremona (c.922-c.972):
Embassy to Constantinople, 963 excerpts
The full text is available
Liudprand of Cremona (c.922-c.972) made several trips to Constantinople. Embassy
to Constantinople discusses his tmission to the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas on behalf of
Emperor Otto I.of the Holy Roman Empire.
... On the fourth of June, as I said above, we arrived at Constantinople and waited
with our horses in heavy rain outside the Carian gate until five o'clock in the afternoon.
At five o'clock Nicephorus ordered us to be admitted on foot, for he did not think us
worthy to use the horses with which your clemency bad provided us, and we were escorted to
the aforesaid hateful, waterless, draughty stone house. On the sixth of June, which was
the Saturday before Pentecost, I was brought before the emperor's brother Leo, marshal of
the court and chancellor; and there we tired ourselves with a fierce argument over your
imperial title. He called you not emperor, which is Basileus in his tongue, but
insultingly Rex, which is king in ours. I told him that the thing meant was the
same though the word was different, and he then said that I had come not to make peace but
to stir up strife. Finally he got up in a rage, and really wishing to insult us received
your letter not in his own hand but through an interpreter. He is a man commanding enough
in person but feigning humility: whereon if a man lean it will pierce his hand.
On the seventh of June, the sacred day of Pentecost, I was brought before Nicephorus
himself in the palace called Stephana, that is, the Crown Palace. He is a
monstrosity of a man, a dwarf, fat-headed and with tiny mole's eyes; disfigured by a
short, broad, thick beard half going gray; disgraced by a neck scarcely an inch long;
piglike by reason of the big close bristles on his bead; in color an Ethiopian and, as the
poet says, "you would not like to meet him in the dark"; a big belly, a lean
posterior, very long in the hip considering his short stature, small legs, fair sized
heels and feet; dressed in a robe made of fine linen, but old, foul smelling, and
discolored by age; shod with Sicyonian slippers; bold of tongue, a fox by nature, in
perjury and falsehood a Ulysses. My lords and august emperors, you always seemed comely to
me; but bow much more comely now! Always magnificent; how much more magnificent now!
Always mighty; how much more mighty now! Always clement; how much more clement now! Always
full of virtues; bow much fuller now! At his left, not on a line with him, but much lower
down, sat the two child emperors, once his masters, now his subjects. He began his speech
as follows: "It was our duty and our desire to give you a courteous and magnificent
reception. That, however, has been rendered impossible by the impiety of your master, who
in the guise of an hostile invader has laid claim to Rome; has robbed Berengar and
Adalbert of their kingdom contrary to law and right; has slain some of the Romans by the
sword, some by banging, while others he has either blinded or sent into exile; and
furthermore has tried to subdue to himself by massacre and conflagration cities belonging
to our empire. His wicked attempts have proved unsuccessful, and so he has sent you, the
instigator and furtherer of this villainy, under pretence of peace to act comme un espion,
that is, as a spy upon us."
To him I made this reply: "My master did not invade the city of Rome by force nor
as a tyrant; he freed her from a tyrant's yoke, or rather from the yoke of many tyrants.
Was she not ruled by effeminate debauchers, and what is even worse and more shameful, by
harlots? Your power, methinks, was fast asleep then; and the power of your predecessors,
who in name alone are called emperors of the Romans, while the reality is far different.
If they were powerful, if they were emperors of the Romans, why did they allow Rome to be
in the hands of harlots? Were not some of the holy popes banished, others so distressed
that they could not procure their daily supplies nor money wherewith to give alms? Did not
Adalbert send insulting letters to your predecessors, the emperors Romanos and
Constantine? Did he not rob and plunder the churches of the holy apostles? Who of you
emperors, led by zeal for God, troubled to punish so heinous a crime and bring back the
holy church to its proper state? You neglected it, my master did not. From the ends of the
world be rose, and came to Rome, and drove out the ungodly, and gave back to the vicars of
the holy apostles all their power and honor. Those who afterwards rose against him and the
lord pope, as being violators of their oath, sacrilegious robbers and torturers of their
lords the popes, in accordance with the decrees of such Roman emperors as Justinian,
Valentinian, Theodosius etc., he slew, beheaded, hanged, or exiled. If he had not done so,
he himself would be an impious, unjust, cruel tyrant. It is a known fact that Berengar and
Adalbert became his vassals and received the kingdom of Italy with a golden scepter from
his hand and that they promised fealty, under oath in the presence of your servants, men
still alive and now dwelling in this city. At the devil's prompting they perfidiously
broke their word, and therefore he justly took their kingdom from them, as being deserters
and rebels. You yourself would have done the same to men who had sworn fealty, and then
revolted against you.
"But," said be, "there is one of Adalbert's vassals here, and he does
not acknowledge the truth of this." "If he denies it," I replied, "one
of my men, at your command, will prove to him to-morrow, in single combat that it is
so." "Well," said he, "he may, as you declare, have acted justly in
this. Explain now why he attacked the borders of our empire with war and conflagration. We
were friends and were thinking by marriage to enter into a partnership that would never be
broken."
"The land," I answered, " which you say belongs to your empire, is
proved by race and language to be part of the kingdom of Italy. The Lombards held it in
their power, and Louis, emperor of the Lombards or Franks, freed it from the grip of the
Saracens with great slaughter. For seven years also Landulf, prince of Benevento and Capua
held it under his control. Nor would it even now have passed from the yoke of slavery to
him and his descendants, had not your emperor Romanos bought at a great price the
friendship of our King Hugh. It was for this reason also that be made a match between King
Hugh's bastard daughter and his own nephew and namesake. I see now that you think it shows
weakness in my master, not generosity, when after winning Italy and Rome he for so many
years left them to you. The friendly partnership, which you say you wished to form by a
marriage, we bold to be a fraud and a snare: you ask for a truce, but you have no real
reason to want it nor we to grant it. Come, let us clear away all trickeries and speak the
plain truth. My master has sent me to you to see if you will give the daughter of the
emperor Romanos and the empress Theophano to his son, my master the august emperor Otto.
If you give me your oath that the marriage shall take place, I am to affirm to you under
oath that my master in grateful return will observe to do this and this for you. Moreover
he has already given you, his brother ruler, the best pledge of friendship by handing over
Apulia, which was subject to his rule. I, to whose suggestion you declare this mischief
was due, intervened in this matter, and there are as many witnesses to this as there are
people in Apulia."
"It is past seven o'clock," said Nicephorus "and there is a church
procession which I must attend. Let us keep to the business before us. We will give you a
reply at some convenient season."
I think that I shall have as much pleasure in describing this procession as my masters
will have in reading of it. A numerous company of tradesmen and low-born persons,
collected on this solemn occasion to welcome and honor Nicephorus, lined the sides of the
road, like walls, from the palace to Saint Sophia, tricked out with thin little shields
and cheap spears.-As an additional scandal, most of the mob assembled in his honor had
marched there with bare feet, thinking, I suppose, that thus they would better adorn the
sacred procession. His nobles for their part, who with their master passed through the
plebeian and barefoot multitude, were dressed in tunics that were too large for them and
were also because of their extreme age full of holes. They would have looked better if
they had worn their ordinary clothes. There was not a man among them whose grandfather had
owned his tunic when it was new. No one except Nicephorus wore any jewels or golden
ornaments, and the emperor looked more disgusting than ever in the regalia that had been
designed to suit the persons of his ancestors. By your life, sires, dearer to me than my
own, one of your nobles' costly robes is worth a hundred or more of these. I was taken to
the procession and given a place on a platform near the singers.
As Nicephorus, like some crawling monster, walked along, the singers began to cry out
in adulation: "Behold the morning star approaches: the day star rises: in his eyes
the sun's rays are reflected: Nicephorus our prince, the pale death of the Saracens."
And then they cried again: "Long life, long life to our prince Nicephorus. Adore him,
ye nations, worship him, bow the neck to his greatness." How much more truly might
they have sung:-"Come, you miserable burnt-out coal; old woman in your walk,
wood-devil in your look; clodhopper, haunter of byres, goat-footed, horned, double-limbed;
bristly, wild, rough, barbarian, harsh, hairy, a rebel, a Cappadocian!" So, puffed up
by these lying ditties, he entered St. Sophia, his masters the emperors following at a
distance and doing him homage on the ground with the kiss of peace. His amour bearer, with
an arrow for pen, recorded in the church the era in progress since the beginning of his
reign. So those who did not see the ceremony know what era it is.
On this same day he ordered me to be his guest. But as he did not think me worthy to be
placed above any of his nobles, I sat fifteenth from him and without a table cloth. Not
only did no one of my suite sit at table with me; they did not even set eyes upon the
house where I was entertained. At the dinner, which was fairly foul and disgusting, washed
down with oil after the fashion of drunkards and moistened also with an exceedingly bad
fish liquor, the emperor asked me many questions concerning your power, your dominions and
your army. My answers were sober and truthful; but be shouted out:"You lie. Your
master's soldiers cannot ride and they do not know how to fight on foot. The size of their
shields, the weight of their cuirasses, the length of their swords, and the heaviness of
their helmets, does not allow them to fight either way." Then with a smile he added:
"Their gluttony also prevents them. Their God is their belly, their courage but wind,
their bravery drunkenness. Fasting for them means dissolution, sobriety, panic. Nor has
your master any force of ships on the sea. I alone have really stout sailors, and I will
attack him with my fleets, destroy his maritime cities and reduce to ashes those which
have a river near them. Tell me, how with his small forces will he be able to resist me
even on land? His son was there: his wife was there: his Saxons, Swabians, Bavarians and
Italians were all there with him: and yet they had not the skill nor the strength to take
one little city" that resisted them. How then will they resist me when I come
followed by as many forces as there are Corn fields on Gargarus, grapes on Lesbian
vine, Waves in the ocean, stars in heaven that shine?"
I wanted to answer and make such a speech in our defence as his boasting deserved; but
be would not let me and added this final insult: "You are not Romans but
Lombards." He even then was anxious to say more and waved his hand to secure my
Silence, but I was worked up and cried: "History tells us that Romulus, from whom the
Romans get their name, was a fratricide born in adultery. He made a place of refuge for
himself and received into it insolvent debtors, runaway slaves, murderers and men who
deserved death for their crimes. This was the sort of crowd whom he enrolled as citizens
and gave them the name of Romans. From this nobility are descended those men whom you
style 'rulers of the world.' But we Lombards, Saxons, Franks, Lotharingians, Bavarians,
Swabians and Burgundians, so despise these fellows that when we are angry with an enemy we
can find nothing more insulting to say than -'You Roman!' For us in the word Roman is
comprehended every form of lowness, timidity, avarice, luxury, falsehood and vice. You say
that we are unwarlike and know nothing of horsemanship. Well, if the sins of the
Christians merit that you keep this stiff neck, the next war will prove what manner of men
you are, and how warlike we."*
Source.
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