Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/104

 amba^jsadors 84 THE DECLINE AND FALL Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cre- mona,''^ asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the abase- Reccjition of mcnt of his first audience. When he approached the throne, the birds of the gohlen tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roarings of the tAvo hons of gokl. With his two companions, Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate ; and thrice he touched the ground with his forehead. He arose ; but, in the short interval, the tlirone had been hoisted by an engine from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious narrative, the bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the Byzantine court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte, and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Moscovy or Russia. After a long journey by the sea and land, from Venice to Con- stantinople, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till he was ct)nducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace j)repared for his reception ; but this palace was a prison, and his jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse, either with strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armour. The ostentatious payment of the officers and troops displayed before his eyes the riches of the emjiire : he was entertained at a royal banquet, ^"^ in which the ambassadors of the nations wei'e marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks : from his own table, the emperor, as the most signal favour, sent the plates which he had tasted ; and his favourites were dismissed with a robe of honour.^ In the morning and evening of each day, his civil and military servants attended their duty in the ^^ The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople, all that he saw or suffered in the Greek capital, are pleasantly described by himself fHist. 1. vi. c. 1-4, p. 469- 471. Legatioad Nicephorum Phocam, p. 479-489). •'■Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced, on his forehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a cross bar of two cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked, though cinctured {ca?i!/-cs/rafi), together and singly, climbed, stood, played, descended, &c., ita me stupidum reddidit ; utrum mirabilius nescio (p. 470 [vi. c. g]). At another repast, an homily of Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles was read elata voce non Latine (p. 483 [c. 29. The words >wn La/ine do not occur in the text ; but there is a variant Latina for elata. 57 Gala is not improbably derived from Cala, or Caloat, in Arabic, a robe of honour (Reiske, Not. in Ceremon. p. 84). Gala seems to be connected with f;allant, O. Fr. sealant ; and it is supposed th;U both words may be akin to N.H.(i. ^^cil, Gothic ^i^'ai/Jau (to rejoice), x^'ip"'.]