His reply [124] is expressive of his weakness: he proves, with some learning, that, both in sacred and profane history, the name of king is synonymous with the Greek word basileus: if, at Constantinople, it were assumed in a more exclusive and imperial sense, he claims from his ancestors, and from the popes, a just participation of the honors of the Roman purple.

The same controversy was revived in the reign of the Othos; and their ambassador describes, in lively colors, the insolence of the Byzantine court.

[125] The Greeks affected to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and in their last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman emperors.
[Footnote 120: Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis (C.P.

imperatoribus super hoc indignantibus) magna tulit patientia, vicitque eorum contumaciam...

mittendo ad eos crebras legationes, et in epistolis fratres eos appellando.