eriod. Two of them, Cyril and Methodius,
prepared a Slavonic alphabet, in which many Greek letters were used,
and the Bible was translated into that language. There is a tradition
that Askold was baptized after his defeat at Constantinople, and that
this is the reason why the people still worship at his tomb at Kief,
as of that of the first Christian prince. The Norsemen had no taste
for persecution on account of religious belief, but for themselves
they clung to the heathen deities. When Igor swore to observe the
treaty concluded with Emperor Leo VI, he went up to the hill of Perun
and used the ancient Slavonic rites; but the emperor's deputies went
to the church of St. Elias, and there laid their hands upon the Bible
as a token of good faith.

The drujina and warriors did not take kindly to Christianity. They, as
well as the peasants, preferred to worship Perun and Voloss. The same
thing happened elsewhere. Christianity made the greatest progress (p. 037)
in cities, whereas the dwellers on the "heath" remained "heathen."
"When one of the warriors of the prince wished to become a convert,"
says Nestor, "he was not prevented; they simply laughed at him." When
Olga returned from Constantinople, she was anxious that her son, who
was of age and had succeeded to his father, should follow her example.
Sviatoslaf refused; "my men will laugh at me," was his usual answer.
Nestor mentions that he sometimes lost his temper. Christianity did
not make much progress during his reign.

He was a warrior, like his Norse ancestors. In the brief time of eight
years, 964-972, he found time to wage two wars. The first was with the
Khazar empire on the Don. Sviatoslaf captured its capital, the White
City, and received tribute from two tribes of the Caucasus. The second
war did not turn out so well.

From Nestor's account and that of Leo the Deacon, it appears that the
Byzantine emperor, wishing to make use of Sviatoslaf, decided to find
out what sort of man he was. He therefore sent him presents of gold
and fine clothes, but the grandson of Rurik would scarcely look at
them and told his warriors to take them away. When the emperor heard
this, he sent him a fine sword and other weapons; these were accepted
with every token of satisfaction by Sviatoslaf. When the emperor was
informed of the result, he exclaimed: "This must be a fierce man,
because he despises wealth and accepts a sword as tribute."

This did not prevent the emperor, who