Editing Liutprand of Cremona (section)

==Mission to Constantinople==
[[File:Surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantines.jpg|thumb|240px|Surrender of the [[Mandylion]] to  the Byzantines]]

In 949, Berengar II sent him on a goodwill mission as an apprentice diplomat<ref name=Sch>"Liudprand of Cremona - a diplomat?" by Constanze M.F. Schummer in Shepard J. & Franklin, Simon. (Eds.) (1992) ''Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990.'' Aldershot: Variorum, pp. 197-201. {{ISBN|0860783383}}</ref> to the Byzantine court of [[Constantine VII|Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus]], with whom he became friendly. Liutprand went partly to learn Greek<ref>Liutprand, ''Antapodosis'', VI.2-3.</ref> and may have provided material for chapter 26 of Constantine VII's {{Lang|la|[[De Administrando Imperio]]}}.<ref name=Oxf/> Liutprand knew a surprising amount of Greek and he was among the first Westerners to use [[Greek minuscule]].{{sfn|McCormick|1991}} Both Liutprand's father and his stepfather had been sent as ambassadors to Constantinople (927 and 942).<ref name=Oxf/> (Knowledge of [[Igor of Kiev|Prince Igor]]'s [[Rus'–Byzantine War (941)|941 attack on Constantinople]] was told by his stepfather as Liutprand wasn't in the city at the time).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hansen |first=Valerie |title=The Year 1000 |publisher=Penguin |year=2020 |pages=93 |language=en}}</ref> Liutprand included in his later ''Antapodosis'' (950s) a glowing account of the hospitality he enjoyed there, including being carried into the audience hall on the shoulders of [[eunuch]]s, and Constantine's delight in receiving a gift of an additional four ''de luxe'' eunuchs from Liutprand.<ref name=Sch/> Liutprand uses the word "carzimasium" for the eunuchs he brought, suggesting that all of their external genitalia had been removed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grabowski|first=Antoni|date=2015-02-02|title=Eunuch between economy and philology. The case of carzimasium|url=http://journals.openedition.org/mefrm/2408|journal=Mélanges de l'École française de Rome:  Moyen Âge|language=fr|issue=127–1|doi=10.4000/mefrm.2408|issn=1123-9883}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Stevenson|first=Walter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yPaAAAAMAAJ|title=Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond|date=2002|publisher=Classical Press of Wales and Duckworth|isbn=978-0-7156-3129-4|editor-last=Tougher|editor-first=Shaun|location=|pages=148|language=en|chapter=Eunuchs and early Christianity}}</ref>