Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/292

 256 Readings in European History Berengar II. The latter sent him on an embassy to Constantinople in 949, where he added a knowledge of Greek, of which he was evidently very vain, to his al- ready remarkable attainments in Latin literature. Five or six years later he fell out with Berengar and fled to the court of Otto the Great, whose ardent supporter he remained thereafter. When Otto had conquered his Italian kingdom in 962 he made the helpful Liutprand bishop of Cremona. In 968 he undertook a mission to Constantinople for the emperor. Here he was badly treated, and on his way back wrote a lively account of his experiences at the Byzantine court. 1 He died about 973. Besides his account of his embassy to Constantinople, we have from Liutprand's pen a history of Europe relat- ing chiefly to Italy and Germany during his own early years, and closing abruptly in the middle of the year 950. This is his Book of Retribution, extracts from which are given below. Later he undertook an account of the deeds of Otto the Great, which he never finished. This deals almost exclusively with Otto's troubles with Pope John XII in 963. Liutprand is our best source for the matters of which he had personal knowledge, and few knew more of the politics of the time. Yet even more important than his narrative of events is the light which he casts upon the thought and customs of his age, especially the life at the court of the eastern emperors. 2 105. Liut- In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, pShfswhy herewith begins the book uvraTroSoVecos (antapodbseos) that he wrote the is to say, "of retribution " for the kings and princes of a part feMbution. f Eur P e > which Liutprand, deacon of the church at Pavia, 1 Translated by Henderson in the appendix to his Select Documents. 2 See below, pp. 340 sqq.