Liutprand of Cremona in Constantinople. The rhetoric of compensation

Abstract

Liutprand of Cremona in Constantinople: the rhetoric of the compensation In this article, the author analyzes two works of Liutprand of Cremona, the Antapodosis and the Relatio of legatione constantinopolitana, from the perspective of the travel diary, highlighting the rhetorical resource that permanently becomes present in Liutprand's work, not for a substantial change in Constantinople between 949 and 968, but because the writer has changed: from deacon to bishop, from legacy of little range to imperial legacy. The "historical egocentrism" appears in this rhetoric in which a king is reviled, first, exalting at the same time the Greek emperor and, later, reviling the Byzantine emperor to exalt the Otons. It is the rhetoric of the compensation.