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The Embassy to Constantinople and Other Works
Liudprand of Cremona, advisor to the Emperor Otto the Great, was also one of the supreme story-tellers of the Middle Ages.
A king-maker behind the scenes, Liudprand both engineered Otto's Coronation as Emperor of the West and, as he describes in his Chronicle of Otto's Reign, convened a synod to depose the debauched Pope John XII. Sent on an ill-fated Embassy to Constantinople to arrange a dynastic marriage, he produced a vivid account of the grotesque Byzantine Emperor, court and city, and negotiations doomed by a clash of cultures.
Even more wide-ranging is the Antapodosis (or Tit-for Tat), a lively insider's history of Germany and the whole of Southern Europe between the years 887 and 949. Full of comic incident, court gossip and sharp character sketches, it forms an endlessly entertaining summary of an era.
A king-maker behind the scenes, Liudprand both engineered Otto's Coronation as Emperor of the West and, as he describes in his Chronicle of Otto's Reign, convened a synod to depose the debauched Pope John XII. Sent on an ill-fated Embassy to Constantinople to arrange a dynastic marriage, he produced a vivid account of the grotesque Byzantine Emperor, court and city, and negotiations doomed by a clash of cultures.
Even more wide-ranging is the Antapodosis (or Tit-for Tat), a lively insider's history of Germany and the whole of Southern Europe between the years 887 and 949. Full of comic incident, court gossip and sharp character sketches, it forms an endlessly entertaining summary of an era.
- GenresHistory
218 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Liudprand of Cremona
14 books1 followerLiutprand, also Liudprand, Liuprand, Lioutio, Liucius, Liuzo, and Lioutsios (c. 922 – 972) was a Lombard historian, author, and Bishop of Cremona.
A Greek speaker, he served as ambassador to the Byzantine Empire for Berengar and later the Emperor Otto I.
A Greek speaker, he served as ambassador to the Byzantine Empire for Berengar and later the Emperor Otto I.
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January 18, 2017There are three works in this edition, Antapodosis,the Chronicle of the reign of Otto I and the Embassy to Constantinople. The first impression of Liudprand is that his style is more self-assured than his contemporary Widukind von Corvey. Antapodosis and the Chronicle of the reign of Otto I are straight forwardly chronicles and are clearly unfinished. The Antapodosis Liudprand tells us is intended as revenge for his suffering before leaving Italy but cuts off abruptly. The grand sounding Chronicle of the reign of Otto only deals with the deposition of Pope John XII. The account of Liuprand's unsuccessful embassy to Constantinople also comes to an abrupt end and that may also not have been completed.
Liudprand's sources are wide ranging and he covers events in France, Germany and Italy with detailed anecdotes about Byzantine Emperors. The Antapodosis is dedicated to a bishop in Muslim Spain which is indicative of his fairly wide-ranging interests and contacts. Possibly his sources for the earlier part of Antapodosis were oral, some of the anecdotes have a folkloric feel to them - for example how the Bishop of Mainz tricks the rebel Adalbert and delivers him up to the King as a captive, or come across as urban legends like his stories of the Byzantine Emperor testing the honesty of his guards.
A good chunk of the Antapodosis is a fairly bewildering sequence of plots and fighting between Italian nobles to be King over (some of) Italy, but it has interesting titbits - slaves castrated at Verdun taken and sold in Spain, slaves in Italy castrated and sold in the Byzantine Empire, this is the old pattern of European trade, people from the north traded as slaves in to the Mediterranean world.
Another interesting point is the business of embassies to the Byzantines. Liudprand's step-father seems to have known Greek and Liudprand first accompanied him when he was sent as Ambassador to the Greeks. Having learnt Greek himself Liudprand was later sent as an Ambassador on behalf of King Hugh (King over various bits of Italy), he travelled with the Ambassador from Otto I who was a merchant. The sense is that Greek speakers were so rare that anyone who could master the language could get to be an Ambassador, those men would probably tend to be involved in trade and this was something that would presumably have run in families.
The third piece in this book is Liudprand's account of a failed embassy to Byzantium to procure a bride for Otto I's son. The embassy doesn't work out well. Liudprand and his party eventually are held effectively under house arrest, his purchases are seized and he fails to reach any kind of agreement with the Byzantines.
His account of his interactions with the Byzantines is remarkably undiplomatic (and therefore entertaining) for the most part, whether that caused the negotiations to fail or whether in his report Liudprand is simply portraying himself as an intransigent supporter of Otto I's dignity is debatable as we only have the man's own testimony, certainly he seems to be trying to shift the failure of the embassy away from himself and on to the bad breath and ugly appearance of the Byzantines. However he wasn't chosen to lead the next embassy which succeeded in winning a Byzantine bride of the imperial family for the future Otto II to marry, so perhaps nobody was entirely convinced by him. Leaving the city one gets the impression from his choice of words that he possibly may not have a good impression of Constantinople: on the second of October, I went on board my boat and left the city that was once so rich and prosperous and is now such a starveling, a city full of lies, tricks, perjury and greed, rapacious, avaricious, vain-glorious.
When Byzantine officials take the purple cloth off him that he bought he records How improper and insulting is it that these soft effeminate creatures, with their long sleeves and hoods and bonnets, idle liars of neither gender, should go about in purple, while heroes like yourselves, men of courage, skilled in war, full of faith and love, submissive to God, full of virtues, may not!
Nor does he care for the religious ceremonial either. The people who line the streets to see the Emperor are "tradesmen and low-born persons" most of whom "had marched there in bare feet" while the nobles "were dressed in tunics that were too large for them and were also because of their extreme age full of holes".
Unsurprisingly Liudprand doesn't much like the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus:
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 grey; disgraced by a neck scarcely an inch long; piglike by reason of the big close bristles on his head; in colour 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 discoloured by age; shod with Sicyonian slippers; bold of tongue, a fox by nature, in perjury and falsehood a Ulysses.
and later:
The king of the Greeks has long hair and wears a tunic with long sleeves and a bonnet; he is lying, crafty, merciless, foxy, proud, falsely humble, miserly and greedy; he eats garlic, onions and leeks, and he drinks bath water.
Apparently tenth century Italians weren't fans of garlic. And we also learn that there is nothing new about diplomats being outspoken and insulting in their private correspondence and reports.
Liudprand's sources are wide ranging and he covers events in France, Germany and Italy with detailed anecdotes about Byzantine Emperors. The Antapodosis is dedicated to a bishop in Muslim Spain which is indicative of his fairly wide-ranging interests and contacts. Possibly his sources for the earlier part of Antapodosis were oral, some of the anecdotes have a folkloric feel to them - for example how the Bishop of Mainz tricks the rebel Adalbert and delivers him up to the King as a captive, or come across as urban legends like his stories of the Byzantine Emperor testing the honesty of his guards.
A good chunk of the Antapodosis is a fairly bewildering sequence of plots and fighting between Italian nobles to be King over (some of) Italy, but it has interesting titbits - slaves castrated at Verdun taken and sold in Spain, slaves in Italy castrated and sold in the Byzantine Empire, this is the old pattern of European trade, people from the north traded as slaves in to the Mediterranean world.
Another interesting point is the business of embassies to the Byzantines. Liudprand's step-father seems to have known Greek and Liudprand first accompanied him when he was sent as Ambassador to the Greeks. Having learnt Greek himself Liudprand was later sent as an Ambassador on behalf of King Hugh (King over various bits of Italy), he travelled with the Ambassador from Otto I who was a merchant. The sense is that Greek speakers were so rare that anyone who could master the language could get to be an Ambassador, those men would probably tend to be involved in trade and this was something that would presumably have run in families.
The third piece in this book is Liudprand's account of a failed embassy to Byzantium to procure a bride for Otto I's son. The embassy doesn't work out well. Liudprand and his party eventually are held effectively under house arrest, his purchases are seized and he fails to reach any kind of agreement with the Byzantines.
His account of his interactions with the Byzantines is remarkably undiplomatic (and therefore entertaining) for the most part, whether that caused the negotiations to fail or whether in his report Liudprand is simply portraying himself as an intransigent supporter of Otto I's dignity is debatable as we only have the man's own testimony, certainly he seems to be trying to shift the failure of the embassy away from himself and on to the bad breath and ugly appearance of the Byzantines. However he wasn't chosen to lead the next embassy which succeeded in winning a Byzantine bride of the imperial family for the future Otto II to marry, so perhaps nobody was entirely convinced by him. Leaving the city one gets the impression from his choice of words that he possibly may not have a good impression of Constantinople: on the second of October, I went on board my boat and left the city that was once so rich and prosperous and is now such a starveling, a city full of lies, tricks, perjury and greed, rapacious, avaricious, vain-glorious.
When Byzantine officials take the purple cloth off him that he bought he records How improper and insulting is it that these soft effeminate creatures, with their long sleeves and hoods and bonnets, idle liars of neither gender, should go about in purple, while heroes like yourselves, men of courage, skilled in war, full of faith and love, submissive to God, full of virtues, may not!
Nor does he care for the religious ceremonial either. The people who line the streets to see the Emperor are "tradesmen and low-born persons" most of whom "had marched there in bare feet" while the nobles "were dressed in tunics that were too large for them and were also because of their extreme age full of holes".
Unsurprisingly Liudprand doesn't much like the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus:
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 grey; disgraced by a neck scarcely an inch long; piglike by reason of the big close bristles on his head; in colour 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 discoloured by age; shod with Sicyonian slippers; bold of tongue, a fox by nature, in perjury and falsehood a Ulysses.
and later:
The king of the Greeks has long hair and wears a tunic with long sleeves and a bonnet; he is lying, crafty, merciless, foxy, proud, falsely humble, miserly and greedy; he eats garlic, onions and leeks, and he drinks bath water.
Apparently tenth century Italians weren't fans of garlic. And we also learn that there is nothing new about diplomats being outspoken and insulting in their private correspondence and reports.
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