But the Greeks soon forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it was extorted.

During the short union of virtue and power, they respectfully saluted the _august_ Charlemagne, with the acclamations of _basileus_, and emperor of the Romans.

As soon as these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son, the Byzantine letters were inscribed, "To the king, or, as he styles himself, the emperor of the Franks and Lombards." When both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis the Second of his hereditary title, and with the barbarous appellation of rex or _rega_, degraded him among the crowd of Latin princes.

His reply 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.