Embassy to Constantinople

This is a quaint and charming book full of the obscure history of the Dark Ages. Liudprand, the writer, was a churchman in an Italy that had recently been overrun by waves of German invaders -- Lombards and Franks -- and integrated into the great feudalistic German Empire that then dominated central Europe. This book has an introduction by the English historian John Julius Norwich, who probably came across Liudprand's writings when he was doing research for his own history of the Byzantine Empire. Indeed it is Luidprand's account of his embassy to Constantinople that is the most fascinating and cohesive part of this book, as he expresses the manly contempt of the semi-civilized barbarian for the servile, effete, and overcivilized Byzantines. In the light of recent events, it is easy to draw parallels between the German Empire, the Byzantines, and the threat posed to Christendom by expansionary Islam, on the one hand, and the United States, 'Old Europe,' and the threat to democracy posed by terrorism and tyranny, on the other. In other words, no matter how obscure it may seem, we can learn a lot form this period of history too.One criticism I have is that the editors have not bothered to give a clear chronological framework, so that the year in which the events described occur is left up to one's imagination.