intervene, as he probably saw a Sicilian–Byzantine alliance as being directed against him. The alliance with William had probably been strengthened by the Pope's belief that Barbarossa had already broken the Treaty of Constance. At the Treaty of Benevento, Adrian was represented by the Cardinals Ubald, Julius and Roland; the Papacy was forced to cede much valuable land, rights and income to William. The Emperor felt personally betrayed: according to the contemporary chronicler Geoffrey of Viterbo, the Pope, "wish[ed] to be an enemy of Caesar". Duggan, however, suggests that the Imperial alliance with the papacy had only ever been a flag of convenience, "ready to be discarded when it had served its purpose". Bolton, meanwhile, suggests that, as Benevento was an Imperial town, the fact that following the treaty he stayed there for eight more months indicates that Adrian was asserting his power. Problems in translation, 1157 By 1157, suggests Whalen, having secured the border with the south (by his alliance with Sicily) and the commune as peaceful as it had been for some time, Adrian was able to reside in Rome again and "stood in a more secure position than any of his predecessors had for decades". They were made worse in 1157 when, in a letter to the Emperor, Adrian referred to the Empire by the Latin term beneficium, which some of Barbarossa's councillors translated as fief, rather than benefice. This, they claimed, implied that the Pope saw the Empire as subordinate to the Papacy. The Emperor had to personally hold back Otto of Wittelsbach from assaulting the Pope's messengers. Ullmann, however, argues that Adrian's use of the word was "harmless enough...that he conferred the Imperial crown as a favour". Duggan too describes the incident as "at best a diplomatic incident—a faux pas—which suggests carelessness on the part of the drafter". Historians have disagreed as to the degree of deliberation behind the use of the word. Peter Munz, for example, believes it to have been a deliberate provocation, engineered by an anti-Imperial faction within the curia, designed to justify Adrian's treaty with King William. Anne Duggan, on the other hand, suggests this view is "scarcely credible": not only was Adrian in no position of strength from which to threaten Frederick, but he was also aware that the Emperor was planning a campaign against Milan for the following year, and would hardly wish to provoke him into marching on