The Tenth Century in Byzantine-Western Relationships

Abstract

Venice not only controlled the passenger-traffic between north-alpine Europe and Byzantium, she also handled the post. Travellers of whatever kind then between western Europe and Byzantium in the tenth century went by sea for a good part, if not the whole of the way. For aristocratic and exalted churchmen like Archbishops Gero of Cologne, Arnulf of Milan and Bishop Werner of Strassburg to be sent to Constantinople by the Ottoman and Salian emperors was perhaps an honour, certainly an opportunity to acquire new relics for their sees but also a possible sentence of death. Too much weight should perhaps not be placed on every expression the learned emperor used. Judicious deployment of their naval squadrons in the Tyrrhenian and above all diplomacy were the means by which the emperors secured their influence during the first half of the tenth century and maintained a footing in Rome even during the second.

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