Hippolytus, indeed, a certain Sicilian bishop, wrote similarly concerning your empire and our people-I call “our people,” namely, all those who are under your rule;-and would that it were true what he prophesied concerning the present times. The other things have hitherto come to pass as he foretold, as I have heard from those who know these books. And of his many sayings I will mention one. For he says that now the saying is to be fulfilled: “The lion and his whelp shall together exterminate the wild ass.”
Lion be the emperor of the Greeks
The interpretation of which is, according to the Greeks: Leo -that is, the emperor of the Romans or Greeks-and his whelp,-the king, namely, of the Franks – shall together in these days drive out the wild ass – that is, the African king of the Saracens. Which interpretation does not seem to me true, for this reason, that the lion and the whelp, although differing in size, are nevertheless of one nature and species or kind; and, as my knowledge suggests to me, if the lion be the emperor of the Greeks, it is not fitting that the whelp should be the king of the Franks. For although both are men, as the lion and the whelp are both animals, yet they differ in habits as much-I will not say alone as one species from another-but as rational beings from those who have no reason.
The whelp differs from the lion only in age; the form is the same, the ferocity the same, the roar the same. The king of the Greeks wears long hair, a tunic, long sleeves, a hood; is lying, crafty, without pity, sly as a fox, proud, falsely humble, miserly, and greedy; lives on garlic, onions, and leeks, and drinks bath-water. The king of the Franks, on the contrary, is beautifully shorn ; wears a garment not at all like a woman’s garment, and a hat; is truthful, without guile, merciful enough when it is right, severe when it is necessary, always truly humble, never miserly; does not live on garlic, onions and leeks so as to spare animals and, by not eating them, but selling them, to heap money together.
You have heard the difference; do not be willing to accept their interpretation, for either it refers to the future, or it is not true. For it is impossible that Nicephorus, as they falsely say, can be the lion and Otto the whelp, and that they together shall exterminate anyone. For “sooner mutually changing their bounds shall the Parthian exile drink the Araris, or the German the Tigris,”. than that Nicephorus and Otto shall become friends and close a treaty with each other.
Read More about Report of his Mission to Constantinople part 11
