It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by the

loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the contempt and

derision of the Greeks. After their defeat, they still persevered

in the defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the

place of George Palaeologus, who had been imprudently called away

from his station. The tents of the besiegers were converted into

barracks, to sustain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer

to the defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated, that his

patience was at least equal to their obstinacy. 77 Perhaps he

already trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian

noble, who sold the city for a rich and honorable marriage. At

the dead of night, several rope-ladders were dropped from the

walls; the light Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks

were awakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they

defended the streets three days against an enemy already master

of the rampart; and near seven months elapsed between the first

investment and the final surrender of the place. From Durazzo,

the Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania;

traversed the first mountains of Thessaly; surprised three

hundred English in the city of Castoria; approached Thessalonica;

and made Constantinople tremble. A more pressing duty suspended

the prosecution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck,

pestilence, and the sword, his army was reduced to a third of the

original numbers; and instead of being recruited from Italy, he

was informed, by plaintive epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers

which had been produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities

and barons of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach

or invasion of Henry king of Germany. Highly presuming that his

person was sufficient for the public safety, he repassed the sea

in a single brigantine, and left the remains of the army under

the command of his son and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond

to respect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey the

authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard trod in the

footsteps of his father; and the two destroyers are compared, by

the Greeks, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom

devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former. 78 After

winning two battles against the emperor, he descended into the

plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of

Achilles, 79 which contained the treasure and magazines of the

Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused to the

fortitude and prudence of Alexius, who bravely struggled with the

calamities of the times. In the poverty of the state, he presumed

to borrow the superfluous ornaments of the churches: the

desertion of the Manichaeans was supplied by some tribes of

Moldavia: a reenforcement of seven thousand Turks replaced and

revenged the loss of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers were

exercised to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice of

ambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience,

that the formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for

action, and almost incapable of motion; 80 his archers were

directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the man;

and a variety of spikes and snares were scattered over the ground

on which he might expect an attack. In the neighborhood of

Larissa the events of war were protracted and balanced. The

courage of Bohemond was always conspicuous, and often successful;

but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks; the city

was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts deserted

his standard, betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service

of the emperor. Alexius returned to Constantinople with the

advantage, rather than the honor, of victory. After evacuating

the conquests which he could no longer defend, the son of

Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father who

esteemed his merit, and sympathized in his misfortune.

77 (return) [ The Romans had changed the inauspicious name of

Epidamnus to Dyrrachium, (Plin. iii. 26;) and the vulgar

corruption of Duracium (see Malaterra) bore some affinity to

hardness. One of Robert’s names was Durand, a durando: poor wit!

(Alberic. Monach. in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.

ix. p. 137.)]

78 (return) [ (Anna, l. i. p. 35.) By these similes, so different

from those of Homer she wishes to inspire contempt as well as

horror for the little noxious animal, a conqueror. Most

unfortunately, the common sense, or common nonsense, of mankind,

resists her laudable design.]

79 (return) [ Prodiit hac auctor Trojanae cladis Achilles. The

supposition of the Apulian (l. v. p. 275) may be excused by the

more classic poetry of Virgil, (Aeneid. ii. 197,) Larissaeus

Achilles, but it is not justified by the geography of Homer.]

80 (return) [ The items which encumbered the knights on foot,

have been ignorantly translated spurs, (Anna Comnena, Alexias, l.

v. p. 140.) Ducange has explained the true sense by a ridiculous

and inconvenient fashion, which lasted from the xith to the xvth

century. These peaks, in the form of a scorpion, were sometimes

two feet and fastened to the knee with a silver chain.]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part IV.

Of the Latin princes, the allies of Alexius and enemies of

Robert, the most prompt and powerful was Henry the Third or

Fourth, king of Germany and Italy, and future emperor of the

West. The epistle of the Greek monarch 81 to his brother is

filled with the warmest professions of friendship, and the most

lively desire of strengthening their alliance by every public and

private tie. He congratulates Henry on his success in a just and

pious war; and complains that the prosperity of his own empire is

disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The

lists of his presents expresses the manners of the age—a radiated

crown of gold, a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a

case of relics, with the names and titles of the saints, a vase

of crystal, a vase of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of

Mecca, and one hundred pieces of purple. To these he added a more

solid present, of one hundred and forty-four thousand Byzantines

of gold, with a further assurance of two hundred and sixteen

thousand, so soon as Henry should have entered in arms the

Apulian territories, and confirmed by an oath the league against

the common enemy. The German, 82 who was already in Lombardy at

the head of an army and a faction, accepted these liberal offers,

and marched towards the south: his speed was checked by the sound

of the battle of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms, or name,

in the hasty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the

Grecian bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of the Normans, the

allies and vassals of Gregory the Seventh, his implacable foe.

The long quarrel of the throne and mitre had been recently

kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughty priest: 83 the

king and the pope had degraded each other; and each had seated a

rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of his antagonist.

After the defeat and death of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended

into Italy, to assume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the

Vatican the tyrant of the church. 84 But the Roman people adhered

to the cause of Gregory: their resolution was fortified by

supplies of men and money from Apulia; and the city was thrice

ineffectually besieged by the king of Germany. In the fourth year

he corrupted, as it is said, with Byzantine gold, the nobles of

Rome, whose estates and castles had been ruined by the war. The

gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages, were delivered into his

hands: the anti-pope, Clement the Third, was consecrated in the

Lateran: the grateful pontiff crowned his protector in the

Vatican; and the emperor Henry fixed his residence in the

Capitol, as the lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The

ruins of the Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of

Gregory: the pope himself was invested in the castle of St.

Angelo; and his last hope was in the courage and fidelity of his

Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by some

reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this pressing

occasion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of his oath, by

his interest, more potent than oaths, by the love of fame, and

his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling the holy banner, he

resolved to fly to the relief of the prince of the apostles: the

most numerous of his armies, six thousand horse, and thirty

thousand foot, was instantly assembled; and his march from

Salerno to Rome was animated by the public applause and the

promise of the divine favor. Henry, invincible in sixty-six

battles, trembled at his approach; recollected some indispensable

affairs that required his presence in Lombardy; exhorted the

Romans to persevere in their allegiance; and hastily retreated

three days before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three

years, the son of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of

delivering the pope, and of compelling the two emperors, of the

East and West, to fly before his victorious arms. 85 But the

triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities of Rome. By the

aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls had been perforated or

scaled; but the Imperial faction was still powerful and active;

on the third day, the people rose in a furious tumult; and a

hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was the

signal of fire and pillage. 86 The Saracens of Sicily, the

subjects of Roger, and auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this

fair occasion of rifling and profaning the holy city of the

Christians: many thousands of the citizens, in the sight, and by

the allies, of their spiritual father were exposed to violation,

captivity, or death; and a spacious quarter of the city, from the

Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the flames, and devoted

to perpetual solitude. 87 From a city, where he was now hated,

and might be no longer feared, Gregory retired to end his days in

the palace of Salerno. The artful pontiff might flatter the

vanity of Guiscard with the hope of a Roman or Imperial crown;

but this dangerous measure, which would have inflamed the

ambition of the Norman, must forever have alienated the most

faithful princes of Germany.

81 (return) [ The epistle itself (Alexias, l. iii. p. 93, 94, 95)

well deserves to be read. There is one expression which Ducange

does not understand. I have endeavored to grope out a tolerable

meaning: The first word is a golden crown; the second is

explained by Simon Portius, (in Lexico Graeco-Barbar.,) by a

flash of lightning.]

82 (return) [ For these general events I must refer to the

general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St.

Marc, &c.]

83 (return) [ The lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or

invectives, (St. Marc, Abrege, tom. iii. p. 235, &c.;) and his

miraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a

modern reader. He will, as usual, find some instruction in Le

Clerc, (Vie de Hildebrand, Bibliot, ancienne et moderne, tom.

viii.,) and much amusement in Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique,

Gregoire VII.) That pope was undoubtedly a great man, a second

Athanasius, in a more fortunate age of the church. May I presume

to add, that the portrait of Athanasius is one of the passages of

my history (vol. ii. p. 332, &c.) with which I am the least

dissatisfied? * Note: There is a fair life of Gregory VII. by

Voigt, (Weimar. 1815,) which has been translated into French. M.

Villemain, it is understood, has devoted much time to the study

of this remarkable character, to whom his eloquence may do

justice. There is much valuable information on the subject in the

accurate work of Stenzel, Geschichte Deutschlands unter den

Frankischen Kaisern—the History of Germany under the Emperors of

the Franconian Race.—M.]

84 (return) [ Anna, with the rancor of a Greek schismatic, calls

him (l. i. p. 32,) a pope, or priest, worthy to be spit upon and

accuses him of scourging, shaving, and perhaps of castrating the

ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31, 33.) But this outrage is improbable

and doubtful, (see the sensible preface of Cousin.)]

85 (return) [

Sic uno tempore victi

Sunt terrae Domini duo: rex Alemannicus iste,

Imperii rector Romani maximus ille.

Alter ad arma ruens armis superatur; et alter

Nominis auditi sola formidine cessit.

It is singular enough, that the Apulian, a Latin, should

distinguish the Greek as the ruler of the Roman empire, (l. iv.

p. 274.)]

86 (return) [ The narrative of Malaterra (l. iii. c. 37, p. 587,

588) is authentic, circumstantial, and fair. Dux ignem exclamans

urbe incensa, &c. The Apulian softens the mischief, (inde

quibusdam aedibus exustis,) which is again exaggerated in some

partial chronicles, (Muratori, Annali, tom. ix. p. 147.)]

87 (return) [ After mentioning this devastation, the Jesuit

Donatus (de Roma veteri et nova, l. iv. c. 8, p. 489) prettily

adds, Duraret hodieque in Coelio monte, interque ipsum et

capitolium, miserabilis facies prostrates urbis, nisi in hortorum

vinetorumque amoenitatem Roma resurrexisset, ut perpetua

viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinas suas.]

The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in

a season of repose; but in the same year of the flight of the

German emperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of

his eastern conquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had

promised to his valor the kingdoms of Greece and Asia; 88 his

troops were assembled in arms, flushed with success, and eager

for action. Their numbers, in the language of Homer, are compared

by Anna to a swarm of bees; 89 yet the utmost and moderate limits

of the powers of Guiscard have been already defined; they were

contained on this second occasion in one hundred and twenty

vessels; and as the season was far advanced, the harbor of

Brundusium 90 was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius,

apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously labored to

restore the naval forces of the empire; and obtained from the

republic of Venice an important succor of thirty-six transports,

fourteen galleys, and nine galiots or ships of extra-ordinary

strength and magnitude. Their services were liberally paid by the

license or monopoly of trade, a profitable gift of many shops and

houses in the port of Constantinople, and a tribute to St. Mark,

the more acceptable, as it was the produce of a tax on their

rivals at Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the

Adriatic was covered with a hostile fleet; but their own neglect,

or the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind, or the shelter

of a mist, opened a free passage; and the Norman troops were

safely disembarked on the coast of Epirus. With twenty strong and

well-appointed galleys, their intrepid duke immediately sought

the enemy, and though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he

trusted his own life, and the lives of his brother and two sons,

to the event of a naval combat. The dominion of the sea was

disputed in three engagements, in sight of the Isle of Corfu: in

the two former, the skill and numbers of the allies were

superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained a final and

complete victory. 91 The light brigantines of the Greeks were

scattered in ignominious flight: the nine castles of the

Venetians maintained a more obstinate conflict; seven were sunk,

two were taken; two thousand five hundred captives implored in

vain the mercy of the victor; and the daughter of Alexius

deplores the loss of thirteen thousand of his subjects or allies.

The want of experience had been supplied by the genius of

Guiscard; and each evening, when he had sounded a retreat, he

calmly explored the causes of his repulse, and invented new

methods how to remedy his own defects, and to baffle the

advantages of the enemy. The winter season suspended his

progress: with the return of spring he again aspired to the

conquest of Constantinople; but, instead of traversing the hills

of Epirus, he turned his arms against Greece and the islands,

where the spoils would repay the labor, and where the land and

sea forces might pursue their joint operations with vigor and

effect. But, in the Isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally

blasted by an epidemical disease: Robert himself, in the

seventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a suspicion

of poison was imputed, by public rumor, to his wife, or to the

Greek emperor. 92 This premature death might allow a boundless

scope for the imagination of his future exploits; and the event

sufficiently declares, that the Norman greatness was founded on

his life. 93 Without the appearance of an enemy, a victorious

army dispersed or retreated in disorder and consternation; and

Alexius, who had trembled for his empire, rejoiced in his

deliverance. The galley which transported the remains of Guiscard

was ship-wrecked on the Italian shore; but the duke’s body was

recovered from the sea, and deposited in the sepulchre of

Venusia, 94 a place more illustrious for the birth of Horace 95

than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second son

and successor, immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke

of Apulia: the esteem or partiality of his father left the

valiant Bohemond to the inheritance of his sword.

The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the

first crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more

splendid field of glory and conquest. 96

88 (return) [ The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed

by the pope, (Anna, l. i. p. 32,) is sufficiently confirmed by

the Apulian, (l. iv. p. 270.) —Romani regni sibi promisisse

coronam Papa ferebatur. Nor can I understand why Gretser, and the

other papal advocates, should be displeased with this new

instance of apostolic jurisdiction.]

89 (return) [ See Homer, Iliad, B. (I hate this pedantic mode of

quotation by letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &c. His bees are

the image of a disorderly crowd: their discipline and public

works seem to be the ideas of a later age, (Virgil. Aeneid. l.

i.)]

90 (return) [ Gulielm. Appulus, l. v. p. 276.) The admirable port

of Brundusium was double; the outward harbor was a gulf covered

by an island, and narrowing by degrees, till it communicated by a

small gullet with the inner harbor, which embraced the city on

both sides. Caesar and nature have labored for its ruin; and

against such agents what are the feeble efforts of the Neapolitan

government? (Swinburne’s Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. i. p.

384-390.]

91 (return) [ William of Apulia (l. v. p. 276) describes the

victory of the Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats,

which are diligently recorded by Anna Comnena, (l. vi. p. 159,

160, 161.) In her turn, she invents or magnifies a fourth action,

to give the Venetians revenge and rewards. Their own feelings

were far different, since they deposed their doge, propter

excidium stoli, (Dandulus in Chron in Muratori, Script. Rerum

Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 249.)]

92 (return) [ The most authentic writers, William of Apulia. (l.

v. 277,) Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii. c. 41, p. 589,) and Romuald

of Salerno, (Chron. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii.,)

are ignorant of this crime, so apparent to our countrymen William

of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) and Roger de Hoveden, (p. 710, in

Script. post Bedam) and the latter can tell, how the just Alexius

married, crowned, and burnt alive, his female accomplice. The

English historian is indeed so blind, that he ranks Robert

Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights of Henry I, who ascended

the throne fifteen years after the duke of Apulia’s death.]

93 (return) [ The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers over

the grave of an enemy, (Alexiad, l. v. p. 162-166;) and his best

praise is the esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the

sovereign of his family Graecia (says Malaterra) hostibus

recedentibus libera laeta quievit: Apulia tota sive Calabria

turbatur.]

94 (return) [ Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris, is

one of the last lines of the Apulian’s poems, (l. v. p. 278.)

William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) inserts an epitaph on

Guiscard, which is not worth transcribing.]

95 (return) [ Yet Horace had few obligations to Venusia; he was

carried to Rome in his childhood, (Serm. i. 6;) and his repeated

allusions to the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii.

4, Serm. ii. I) are unworthy of his age and genius.]

96 (return) [ See Giannone (tom. ii. p. 88-93) and the historians

of the fire crusade.]

Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are alike

and soon bounded by the sepulchre. The male line of Robert

Guiscard was extinguished, both in Apulia and at Antioch, in the

second generation; but his younger brother became the father of a

line of kings; and the son of the great count was endowed with

the name, the conquests, and the spirit, of the first Roger. 97

The heir of that Norman adventurer was born in Sicily; and, at

the age of only four years, he succeeded to the sovereignty of

the island, a lot which reason might envy, could she indulge for

a moment the visionary, though virtuous wish of dominion. Had

Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and

grateful people might have blessed their benefactor; and if a

wise administration could have restored the prosperous times of

the Greek colonies, 98 the opulence and power of Sicily alone

might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and

desolated by the sword of war. But the ambition of the great

count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was gratified by

the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain

the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had been

ceded to the elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian

limits beyond the measure of former treaties; and impatiently

watched the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia, the

grandson of Robert. On the first intelligence of his premature

death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor

in the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days’ negotiation, an

oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the

submission of the barons, and extorted a legal investiture from

the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the

friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of

Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter;

but the reduction of Capua and Naples completed the design of his

uncle Guiscard; and the sole inheritance of the Norman conquests

was possessed by the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of

power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke and of

count; and the Isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the

continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom 99 which

would only yield to the monarchies of France and England. The

chiefs of the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo might

doubtless pronounce under what name he should reign over them;

but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir was

insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings

of the Latin world 100 might disclaim their new associate, unless

he were consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The

pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a title, which the pride

of the Norman had stooped to solicit; 101 but his own legitimacy

was attacked by the adverse election of Innocent the Second; and

while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the successful fugitive was

acknowledged by the nations of Europe. The infant monarchy of

Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of

an ecclesiastical patron; and the sword of Lothaire the Second of

Germany, the excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pisa,

and the zeal of St. Bernard, were united for the ruin of the

Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance, the Norman prince

was driven from the continent of Italy: a new duke of Apulia was

invested by the pope and the emperor, each of whom held one end

of the gonfanon, or flagstaff, as a token that they asserted

their right, and suspended their quarrel. But such jealous

friendship was of short and precarious duration: the German

armies soon vanished in disease and desertion: 102 the Apulian

duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a conqueror who

seldom forgave either the dead or the living; like his

predecessor Leo the Ninth, the feeble though haughty pontiff

became the captive and friend of the Normans; and their

reconciliation was celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard, who

now revered the title and virtues of the king of Sicily.

97 (return) [ The reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily,

fills books of the Istoria Civile of Giannone, (tom. ii. l.

xi.-xiv. p. 136-340,) and is spread over the ixth and xth volumes

of the Italian Annals of Muratori. In the Bibliotheque Italique

(tom. i. p. 175-122,) I find a useful abstract of Capacelatro, a

modern Neapolitan, who has composed, in two volumes, the history

of his country from Roger Frederic II. inclusive.]

98 (return) [ According to the testimony of Philistus and

Diodorus, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse could maintain a

standing force of 10,000 horse, 100,000 foot, and 400 galleys.

Compare Hume, (Essays, vol. i. p. 268, 435,) and his adversary

Wallace, (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307.) The ruins of

Agrigentum are the theme of every traveller, D’Orville, Reidesel,

Swinburne, &c.]

99 (return) [ A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from

the year 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the

consent of the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and

Palermo, without introducing Pope Anacletus, (Alexand. Coenobii

Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gestis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in

Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 607-645)]

100 (return) [ The kings of France, England, Scotland, Castille,

Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three first

were more ancient than Charlemagne; the three next were created

by their sword; the three last by their baptism; and of these the

king of Hungary alone was honored or debased by a papal crown.]

101 (return) [ Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a

more early and independent coronation, (A.D. 1130, May 1,) which

Giannone unwillingly rejects, (tom. ii. p. 137-144.) This fiction

is disproved by the silence of contemporaries; nor can it be

restored by a spurious character of Messina, (Muratori, Annali d’

Italia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. p. 467, 468.)]

102 (return) [ Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire’s

army, who sounded, or rather cried, a retreat; for the Germans

(says Cinnamus, l. iii. c. i. p. 51) are ignorant of the use of

trumpets. Most ignorant himself! * Note: Cinnamus says nothing of

their ignorance.—M]

As a penance for his impious war against the successor of St.

Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the banner of

the cross, and he accomplished with ardor a vow so propitious to

his interest and revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might

provoke a just retaliation on the heads of the Saracens: the

Normans, whose blood had been mingled with so many subject

streams, were encouraged to remember and emulate the naval

trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their strength

they contended with the decline of an African power. When the

Fatimite caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded

the real merit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a

gift of his royal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace

with its sumptuous furniture, and the government of the kingdoms

of Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, 103 the descendants of

Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant

benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity; and

after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were now

fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, they

were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco,

while the sea-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and

Franks, who, before the close of the eleventh century, had

extorted a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. By the

first arms of Roger, the island or rock of Malta, which has been

since ennobled by a military and religious colony, was

inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, 104 a strong

and maritime city, was the next object of his attack; and the

slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females, might be

justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves. The

capital of the Zeirides was named Africa from the country, and

Mahadia 105 from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a

neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not

compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was

besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one

hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the

instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish

governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and

irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem

inhabitants abandoned the place and its treasures to the

rapacious Franks. In successive expeditions, the king of Sicily

or his lieutenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia,

Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; 106 the fortresses were

garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that it held

Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on the

sword of Roger. 107 After his death, that sword was broken; and

these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost,

under the troubled reign of his successor. 108 The triumphs of

Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that the African continent is

neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great princes and

powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments

against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and

long servitude of Spain.

103 (return) [ See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. i.

p. 369-373 and Cardonne, Hist. de l’Afrique, &c., sous la

Domination des Arabes tom. ii. p. 70-144. Their common original

appears to be Novairi.]

104 (return) [ Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more

properly the Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata,

sita prope littus maris Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus

captivis ductis, viros pere mit.]

105 (return) [ See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio

tom. i. fol. 74 verso. fol. 75, recto,) and Shaw’s Travels, (p.

110,) the viith book of Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de

Vertot. The possession and defence of the place was offered by

Charles V. and wisely declined by the knights of Malta.]

106 (return) [ Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests

of Roger and his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de

Longuerue with some Arabic memorials, (A.D. 1147, No. 26, 27,

A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D. 1153, No. 16.)]

107 (return) [ Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. A

proud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors were

still discriminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects.]

108 (return) [ Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script.

tom. vii. p. 270, 271) ascribes these losses to the neglect or

treachery of the admiral Majo.]

Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had

relinquished, above sixty years, their hostile designs against

the empire of the East. The policy of Roger solicited a public

and private union with the Greek princes, whose alliance would

dignify his regal character: he demanded in marriage a daughter

of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed

to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuous treatment of

his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch; and

the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to

the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. 109

With the fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily,

appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city were

delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had

yet to learn that a siege is still more calamitous than a

tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of

commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the

provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and

Corinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of

Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which

encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were

scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel

was to sanctify an oath, that the lawful owners had not secreted

any relic of their inheritance or industry. On the approach of

the Normans, the lower town of Corinth was evacuated; the Greeks

retired to the citadel, which was seated on a lofty eminence,

abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene; an

impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by

any advantages of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had

surmounted the labor (their sole labor) of climbing the hill,

their general, from the commanding eminence, admired his own

victory, and testified his gratitude to Heaven, by tearing from

the altar the precious image of Theodore, the tutelary saint. The

silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily,

composed the most valuable part of the spoil; and in comparing

the skilful industry of the mechanic with the sloth and cowardice

of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that the distaff and loom

were the only weapons which the Greeks were capable of using. The

progress of this naval armament was marked by two conspicuous

events, the rescue of the king of France, and the insult of the

Byzantine capital. In his return by sea from an unfortunate

crusade, Louis the Seventh was intercepted by the Greeks, who

basely violated the laws of honor and religion. The fortunate

encounter of the Norman fleet delivered the royal captive; and

after a free and honorable entertainment in the court of Sicily,

Louis continued his journey to Rome and Paris. 110 In the absence

of the emperor, Constantinople and the Hellespont were left

without defence and without the suspicion of danger. The clergy

and people (for the soldiers had followed the standard of Manuel)

were astonished and dismayed at the hostile appearance of a line

of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the front of the Imperial

city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequate to the

siege or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; but

George enjoyed the glory of humbling the Greek arrogance, and of

marking the path of conquest to the navies of the West. He landed

some soldiers to rifle the fruits of the royal gardens, and

pointed with silver, or most probably with fire, the arrows which

he discharged against the palace of the Caesars. 111 This playful

outrage of the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded

moment, Manuel affected to despise, while his martial spirit, and

the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge. The

Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered with his squadrons and

those of Venice; but I know not by what favorable allowance of

transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even our

fancy, can be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen

hundred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine historian.

These operations were directed with prudence and energy: in his

homeward voyage George lost nineteen of his galleys, which were

separated and taken: after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored

the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a

soldier, of the Norman prince, be found, unless as a captive,

within the limits of the Eastern empire. The prosperity and the

health of Roger were already in a declining state: while he

listened in his palace of Palermo to the messengers of victory or

defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, was

celebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander or the

Hercules of the age.

109 (return) [ The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end

too soon, or begin too late, must be supplied by Otho of

Frisingen, a German, (de Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 33, in

Muratori, Script. tom. vi. p. 668,) the Venetian Andrew Dandulus,

(Id. tom. xii. p. 282, 283) and the Greek writers Cinnamus (l.

iii. c. 2-5) and Nicetas, (in Manuel. l. iii. c. 1-6.)]

110 (return) [ To this imperfect capture and speedy rescue I

apply Cinnamus, l. ii. c. 19, p. 49. Muratori, on tolerable

evidence, (Annali d’Italia, tom. ix. p. 420, 421,) laughs at the

delicacy of the French, who maintain, marisque nullo impediente

periculo ad regnum proprium reversum esse; yet I observe that

their advocate, Ducange, is less positive as the commentator on

Cinnamus, than as the editor of Joinville.]

111 (return) [ In palatium regium sagittas igneas injecit, says

Dandulus; but Nicetas (l. ii. c. 8, p. 66) transforms them, and

adds, that Manuel styled this insult. These arrows, by the

compiler, Vincent de Beauvais, are again transmuted into gold.]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part V.

A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having

repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty,

it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the

ancient majesty of the empire, to recover the provinces of Italy

and Sicily, and to chastise this pretended king, the grandson of

a Norman vassal. 112 The natives of Calabria were still attached

to the Greek language and worship, which had been inexorably

proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of her dukes,

Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily;

the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his death

had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his

subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the

seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the

enemies of his family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and

a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from

embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and

noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch intrusted a

fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his first exploit; and, in

every operation, gold as well as steel was the instrument of

victory. Salerno, and some places along the western coast,

maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in two

campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and

the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was

content with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of

Apulia and Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all

the walls of the palace. The prejudices of the Latins were

gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of

the German Caesars; 113 but the successor of Constantine soon

renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible

dominion of Italy, and professed his design of chasing the

Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal

gifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the free

cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle

against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan

were rebuilt by the contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says

the historian, a river of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose

attachment to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of

the Venetians. 114 The situation and trade of Ancona rendered it

an important garrison in the heart of Italy: it was twice

besieged by the arms of Frederic; the imperial forces were twice

repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit was animated by

the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most intrepid patriots,

the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth and

honors of the Byzantine court. 115 The pride of Manuel disdained

and rejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by

the hope of stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of

establishing, in the West, as in the East, his lawful title of

sole emperor of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the

alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome. Several of the

nobles embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid

nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani secured the support of

that powerful family, 116 and his royal standard or image was

entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis. 117

During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the Third, the

pope twice received in the Vatican the ambassadors of

Constantinople. They flattered his piety by the long-promised

union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal

court, and exhorted the Roman pontiff to seize the just

provocation, the favorable moment, to humble the savage insolence

of the Alemanni and to acknowledge the true representative of

Constantine and Augustus. 118

112 (return) [ For the invasion of Italy, which is almost

overlooked by Nicetas see the more polite history of Cinnamus,

(l. iv. c. 1-15, p. 78-101,) who introduces a diffuse narrative

by a lofty profession, iii. 5.]

113 (return) [ The Latin, Otho, (de Gestis Frederici I. l. ii. c.

30, p. 734,) attests the forgery; the Greek, Cinnamus, (l. iv. c.

1, p. 78,) claims a promise of restitution from Conrad and

Frederic. An act of fraud is always credible when it is told of

the Greeks.]

114 (return) [ Quod Ancontiani Graecum imperium nimis diligerent

... Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love,

perhaps of envy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the

emperor; and the Latin narrative is confirmed by Cinnamus, (l.

iv. c. 14, p. 98.)]

115 (return) [ Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the

first, in 1167, against Frederic I. in person (Annali, tom. x. p.

39, &c.;) the second, in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian,

archbishop of Mentz, a man unworthy of his name and office, (p.

76, &c.) It is of the second siege that we possess an original

narrative, which he has published in his great collection, (tom.

vi. p. 921-946.)]

116 (return) [ We derive this anecdote from an anonymous

chronicle of Fossa Nova, published by Muratori, (Script. Ital.

tom. vii. p. 874.)]

117 (return) [ Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 14, p. 99) is susceptible of

this double sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more

Greek.]

118 (return) [ Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa

et tempos opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona

imperii a sancto apostolo sibi redderetur; quoniam non ad

Frederici Alemanni, sed ad suum jus asseruit pertinere, (Vit.

Alexandri III. a Cardinal. Arragoniae, in Script. Rerum Ital.

tom. iii. par. i. p. 458.) His second embassy was accompanied cum

immensa multitudine pecuniarum.]

But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon escaped

from the hand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded

by the prudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep

and momentous revolution; 119 nor could the pope be seduced by a

personal dispute to renounce the perpetual inheritance of the

Latin name. After the reunion with Frederic, he spoke a more

peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors,

excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final

separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of

Constantinople and Rome. 120 The free cities of Lombardy no

longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without

preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity

of Venice. 121 By his own avarice, or the complaints of his

subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons,

and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This

violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial

people: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many

days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but after

some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement,

inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a

complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries was reserved

for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had

informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any

domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were

inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily.

His prophecy was soon verified: the death of Palaeologus devolved

the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike

defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressed by land

and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the

Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the

person or dominions of their conqueror. 122 Yet the king of

Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had

landed a second army on the Italian shore; he respectfully

addressed the new Justinian; solicited a peace or truce of thirty

years, accepted as a gift the regal title; and acknowledged

himself the military vassal of the Roman empire. 123 The

Byzantine Caesars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without

expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman

army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any

hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of

that period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman

tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and

mankind: the sword of William the Second, the grandson of Roger,

was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects

of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they

detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies. The Latin

historians 124 expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts

who invaded Romania with a fleet and army, and reduced many

castles and cities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The

Greeks 125 accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious

cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the

second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those

invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the

arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of

triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the Sea of

Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the

walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of

Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of

the successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and

Isaac Angelus, the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or

vengeance in the treatment of four thousand captives. Such was

the event of the last contest between the Greeks and Normans:

before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations were

lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of

Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the

Sicilian monarchy.

119 (return) [ Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III.

p. 460, 461,) says the cautious pope.]

120 (return) [ (Cinnamus, l. iv. c. 14, p. 99.)]

121 (return) [ In his vith book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian

war, which Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The

Italian accounts, which do not satisfy our curiosity, are

reported by the annalist Muratori, under the years 1171, &c.]

122 (return) [ This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno,

(in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 198.) It is whimsical

enough, that in the praise of the king of Sicily, Cinnamus (l.

iv. c. 13, p. 97, 98) is much warmer and copious than Falcandus,

(p. 268, 270.) But the Greek is fond of description, and the

Latin historian is not fond of William the Bad.]

123 (return) [ For the epistle of William I. see Cinnamus (l. iv.

c. 15, p. 101, 102) and Nicetas, (l. ii. c. 8.) It is difficult

to affirm, whether these Greeks deceived themselves, or the

public, in these flattering portraits of the grandeur of the

empire.]

124 (return) [ I can only quote, of original evidence, the poor

chronicles of Sicard of Cremona, (p. 603,) and of Fossa Nova, (p.

875,) as they are published in the viith tome of Muratori’s

historians. The king of Sicily sent his troops contra nequitiam

Andronici.... ad acquirendum imperium C. P. They were.... decepti

captique, by Isaac.]

125 (return) [ By the failure of Cinnamus to Nicetas (in

Andronico, l.. c. 7, 8, 9, l. ii. c. 1, in Isaac Angelo, l. i. c.

1-4,) who now becomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived

the emperor and the empire, he is above flattery; but the fall of

Constantinople exasperated his prejudices against the Latins. For

the honor of learning I shall observe that Homer’s great

commentator, Eustathias archbishop of Thessalonica, refused to

desert his flock.]

The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son and

grandson: they might be confounded under the name of William:

they are strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and

the good; but these epithets, which appear to describe the

perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to

either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms by

danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the

valor of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were

dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the

monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for

those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and

conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian

conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners;

the despotism, the pomp, and even the harem, of a sultan; and a

Christian people was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of

the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the

religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times 126 has

delineated the misfortunes of his country: 127 the ambition and

fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his

assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself;

the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the

various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo,

the island, and the continent, during the reign of William the

First, and the minority of his son. The youth, innocence, and

beauty of William the Second, 128 endeared him to the nation: the

factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the

manhood to the premature death of that amiable prince, Sicily

enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose

value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread

of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred of

Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William; but

his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful

prince of the age; and Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic

Barbarossa, descended from the Alps to claim the Imperial crown

and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a

free people, this inheritance could only be acquired by arms; and

I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the historian

Falcandus, who writes at the moment, and on the spot, with the

feelings of a patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman.

“Constantia, the daughter of Sicily, nursed from her cradle in

the pleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners,

of this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the

Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, with her savage

allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent.

Already I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians: our opulent

cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with

fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by

intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our

citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. 129 In this

extremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act?

By the unanimous election of a king of valor and experience,

Sicily and Calabria might yet be preserved; 130 for in the levity

of the Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can repose

neither confidence nor hope. 131 Should Calabria be lost, the

lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of

Messina, 132 might guard the passage against a foreign invader.

If the savage Germans coalesce with the pirates of Messina; if

they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted by

the fires of Mount Aetna, 133 what resource will be left for the

interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should

never be violated by the hostile footsteps of a Barbarian? 134

Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake: the ancient

virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude; 135 but

Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls

enclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the

two nations, under one king, can unite for their common safety,

they may rush on the Barbarians with invincible arms. But if the

Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of injuries, should now retire

and rebel; if they should occupy the castles of the mountains and

sea-coast, the unfortunate Christians, exposed to a double

attack, and placed as it were between the hammer and the anvil,

must resign themselves to hopeless and inevitable servitude.” 136

We must not forget, that a priest here prefers his country to his

religion; and that the Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were

still numerous and powerful in the state of Sicily.

126 (return) [ The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which

properly extends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the viiith

volume of Muratori’s Collection, (tom. vii. p. 259-344,) and

preceded by a eloquent preface or epistle, (p. 251-258, de

Calamitatibus Siciliae.) Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of

Sicily; and, after a just, but immense, abatement, from the ist

to the xiith century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip

him of his title: his narrative is rapid and perspicuous, his

style bold and elegant, his observation keen; he had studied

mankind, and feels like a man. I can only regret the narrow and

barren field on which his labors have been cast.]

127 (return) [ The laborious Benedictines (l’Art de verifier les

Dates, p. 896) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is

Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a

Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had

followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to

the mother of William II., archbishop of Palermo, and great

chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of

a Sicilian; and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on

himself) appears to indicate that he was born, or at least

educated, in the island.]

128 (return) [ Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his

history from the death and praises of William II. After some

unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: Legis et justitiae cultus

tempore suo vigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte contentus;

(were they mortals?) abique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum

metuebat viator insidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum,

(Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii p 939.)]

129 (return) [ Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarun

tuarum affluentia diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinus

et moribus informata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura

discessit: et nunc cum imgentibus copiis revertitur, ut

pulcherrima nutricis ornamenta barbarica foeditate contaminet

.... Intuari mihi jam videor turbulentas bar barorum acies....

civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florentia, metu

concutere, caede vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedare luxuria

hinc cives aut gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi,

virgines constupratae, matronae, &c.]

130 (return) [ Certe si regem non dubiae virtutis elegerint, nec

a Saracenis Christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus

licet quasi desperatis et perditis subvenire, et incursus

hostium, si prudenter egerit, propulsare.]

131 (return) [ In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum

rerum studiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciae

reponendum.]

132 (return) [ Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas,

.... muriorum etiam ambitum densis turribus circumseptum.]

133 (return) [ Cum erudelitate piratica Theutonum confligat

atrocitas, et inter aucbustos lapides, et Aethnae flagrant’s

incendia, &c.]

134 (return) [ Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgor

illustrat, quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio

praeminere, nefarium esset.... vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I

wish to transcribe his florid, but curious, description, of the

palace, city, and luxuriant plain of Palermo.]

135 (return) [ Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tam inopia

civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt.]

136 (return) [ The Normans and Sicilians appear to be

confounded.]

The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first

gratified by the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the

grandson of the first king, whose birth was illegitimate, but

whose civil and military virtues shone without a blemish. During

four years, the term of his life and reign, he stood in arms on

the farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of

Germany; and the restitution of a royal captive, of Constantia

herself, without injury or ransom, may appear to surpass the most

liberal measure of policy or reason. After his decease, the

kingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; and

Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The

political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if

the pope and the free cities had consulted their obvious and real

interest, they would have combined the powers of earth and heaven

to prevent the dangerous union of the German empire with the

kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for which the Vatican

has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion

blind and inactive; and if it were true that Celestine the Third

had kicked away the Imperial crown from the head of the prostrate

Henry, 137 such an act of impotent pride could serve only to

cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy. The Genoese, who

enjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily, listened

to the promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure:

138 their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the

harbor of Palermo; and the first act of his government was to

abolish the privileges, and to seize the property, of these

imprudent allies. The last hope of Falcandus was defeated by the

discord of the Christians and Mahometans: they fought in the

capital; several thousands of the latter were slain; but their

surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed above

thirty years the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic

the Second, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocera

in Apulia. In their wars against the Roman church, the emperor

and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the

service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony

maintained their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till

they were extirpated, at the end of the thirteenth century, by

the zeal and revenge of the house of Anjou. 139 All the

calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were surpassed

by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated

the royal sepulchres, 1391 and explored the secret treasures of

the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and

jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one

hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of

Sicily. 140 The young king, his mother and sisters, and the

nobles of both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses

of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumor of rebellion, the

captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of

posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the

miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might

struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony

of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age

under the name of Frederic the Second. Ten years after this

revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy

of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been

transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the

house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised

so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia,

Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude,

among the vanquished nations.

137 (return) [ The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de

Hoveden, (p. 689,) will lightly weigh against the silence of

German and Italian history, (Muratori, Annali d’ Italia, tom. x.

p. 156.) The priests and pilgrims, who returned from Rome,

exalted, by every tale, the omnipotence of the holy father.]

138 (return) [ Ego enim in eo cum Teutonicis manere non debeo,

(Caffari, Annal. Genuenses, in Muratori, Script. Rerum

Italicarum, tom vi. p. 367, 368.)]

139 (return) [ For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, see the

Annals of Muratori, (tom. x. p. 149, and A.D. 1223, 1247,)

Giannone, (tom ii. p. 385,) and of the originals, in Muratori’s

Collection, Richard de St. Germano, (tom. vii. p. 996,) Matteo

Spinelli de Giovenazzo, (tom. vii. p. 1064,) Nicholas de

Jamsilla, (tom. x. p. 494,) and Matreo Villani, (tom. xiv l. vii.

p. 103.) The last of these insinuates that, in reducing the

Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather artifice

than violence.]

1391 (return) [ It is remarkable that at the same time the tombs

of the Roman emperors, even of Constantine himself, were violated

and ransacked by their degenerate successor Alexius Comnenus, in

order to enable him to pay the “German” tribute exacted by the

menaces of the emperor Henry. See the end of the first book of

the Life of Alexius, in Nicetas, p. 632, edit.—M.]

140 (return) [ Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec,

(l. iv. c. 20:) Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum

pretiosorum et gemmarum gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis,

gloriose ad terram suam redierit. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions

the violation of the royal tombs and corpses, computes the spoil

of Salerno at 200,000 ounces of gold, (p. 746.) On these

occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid

in La Fontaine, “Je voudrois bien avoir ce qui manque.”]

Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part I.

The Turks Of The House Of Seljuk.—Their Revolt Against Mahmud

Conqueror Of Hindostan.—Togrul Subdues Persia, And Protects The

Caliphs.—Defeat And Captivity Of The Emperor Romanus Diogenes By

Alp Arslan.—Power And Magnificence Of Malek Shah.—Conquest Of Asia

Minor And Syria.—State And Oppression Of Jerusalem.—Pilgrimages To

The Holy Sepulchre.

From the Isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond

the Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans,

against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their

Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since dissolved;

but the name was still famous among the Greeks and Orientals; and

the fragments of the nation, each a powerful and independent

people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and

the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admitted into the

republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by

slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and

Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these

northern shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia; their

princes of the race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire

from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; and the Turks

have maintained their dominion in Asia Minor, till the victorious

crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia.

One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud,

1 the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia,

one thousand years after the birth of Christ. His father

Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the

commander of the faithful. But in this descent of servitude, the

first degree was merely titular, since it was filled by the

sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paid a nominal

allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank was that of a

minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, 2 who broke, by

his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step

was a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that

rebel; from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity,

ascended to the supreme command of the city and provinces of

Gazna, 3 as the son-in-law and successor of his grateful master.

The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and

at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public

disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. From him

the title of Sultan 4 was first invented; and his kingdom was

enlarged from Transoxiana to the neighborhood of Ispahan, from

the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the

principal source of his fame and riches was the holy war which he

waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative

I may not consume a page; and a volume would scarcely suffice to

recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions.

Never was the Mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the

seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers,

the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy, or the

formidable array of their elephants of war. 5 The sultan of Gazna

surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march

of three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached

the famous city of Kinnoge, 6 on the Upper Ganges; and, in a

naval combat on one of the branches of the Indus, he fought and

vanquished four thousand boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and

Multan, were compelled to open their gates: the fertile kingdom

of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his

avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden

and aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On the payment of a

tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people, their

lives and fortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan the zealous

Mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or

pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand idols were

demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and

rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed.

The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in

the neighborhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of

the Portuguese. 7 It was endowed with the revenue of two thousand

villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the service

of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water

from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted of

three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred

dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides

of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was

fortified by a natural or artificial precipice; and the city and

adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They

confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but

if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy

precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the

divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith of Mahmud was

animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian

deity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the

spear of the Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was

profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the

head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered

ten millions 711 sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the

wisest counsellors, that the destruction of a stone image would

not change the hearts of the Gentoos; and that such a sum might

be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. “Your reasons,”

replied the sultan, “are specious and strong; but never in the

eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols.”

712 He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies,

concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree

the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol

were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to

the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the

title of guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet.

1 (return) [ I am indebted for his character and history to

D’Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533-537,) M. De

Guignes, (Histoire des Huns, tom. iii. p. 155-173,) and our

countryman Colonel Alexander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23-83.) In the two

first volumes of his History of Hindostan, he styles himself the

translator of the Persian Ferishta; but in his florid text, it is

not easy to distinguish the version and the original. * Note: The

European reader now possesses a more accurate version of

Ferishta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col. Dow’s work, Col. Briggs

observes, “that the author’s name will be handed down to

posterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our

Oriental scholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere

translation, he has filled his work with his own observations,

which have been so embodied in the text that Gibbon declares it

impossible to distinguish the translator from the original

author.” Preface p. vii.—M.]

2 (return) [ The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years,

A.D. 847-999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin,

in the Tables of M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p.

404-406.) They were followed by the Gaznevides, A.D. 999-1183,

(see tom. i. p. 239, 240.) His divisions of nations often

disturbs the series of time and place.]

3 (return) [ Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et domicilium

mercaturae Indicae. Abulfedae Geograph. Reiske, tab. xxiii. p.

349. D’Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern

traveller.]

4 (return) [ By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who

employed an Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and

master, (D’Herbelot, p. 825.) It is interpreted by the Byzantine

writers of the eleventh century; and the name (Soldanus) is

familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after it

had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs

of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p.

238-240. Gloss. Graec. et Latin.) labors to find the title of

Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia: but his proofs are mere

shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11,) an

anticipation of Zonaras, &c., and a medal of Kai Khosrou, not (as

he believes) the Sassanide of the vith, but the Seljukide of

Iconium of the xiiith century, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.

i. p. 246.)]

5 (return) [ Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p.

49) mentions the report of a gun in the Indian army. But as I am

slow in believing this premature (A.D. 1008) use of artillery, I

must desire to scrutinize first the text, and then the authority

of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court in the last century. *

Note: This passage is differently written in the various

manuscripts I have seen; and in some the word tope (gun) has been

written for nupth, (naphtha, and toofung) (musket) for khudung,

(arrow.) But no Persian or Arabic history speaks of gunpowder

before the time usually assigned for its invention, (A.D. 1317;)

long after which, it was first applied to the purposes of war.

Briggs’s Ferishta, vol. i. p. 47, note.—M.]

6 (return) [ Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra) is

marked in latitude 27 Degrees 3 Minutes, longitude 80 Degrees 13

Minutes. See D’Anville, (Antiquite de l’Inde, p. 60-62,)

corrected by the local knowledge of Major Rennel (in his

excellent Memoir on his Map of Hindostan, p. 37-43: ) 300]

jewellers, 30,000 shops for the arreca nut, 60,000 bands of

musicians, &c. (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p. 274. Dow, vol. i.

p. 16,) will allow an ample deduction. * Note: Mr. Wilson (Hindu

Drama, vol. iii. p. 12) and Schlegel (Indische Bibliothek, vol.

ii. p. 394) concur in identifying Palimbothra with the Patalipara

of the Indians; the Patna of the moderns.—M.]

7 (return) [ The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta, (Dow, vol.

i. p. 66.) Consult Abulfeda, (p. 272,) and Rennel’s Map of

Hindostan.]

711 (return) [ Ferishta says, some “crores of gold.” Dow says, in

a note at the bottom of the page, “ten millions,” which is the

explanation of the word “crore.” Mr. Gibbon says rashly that the

sum offered by the Brahmins was ten millions sterling. Note to

Mill’s India, vol. ii. p. 222. Col. Briggs’s translation is “a

quantity of gold.” The treasure found in the temple, “perhaps in

the image,” according to Major Price’s authorities, was twenty

millions of dinars of gold, above nine millions sterling; but

this was a hundred-fold the ransom offered by the Brahmins.

Price, vol. ii. p. 290.—M.]

712 (return) [ Rather than the idol broker, he chose to be called

Mahmud the idol breaker. Price, vol. ii. p. 289—M]

From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I

cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or

virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in

the East: his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and

peace; his vices were concealed by the veil of religion; and two

familiar examples will testify his justice and magnanimity.

I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the

throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier who had

driven him from his house and bed. “Suspend your clamors,” said

Mahmud; “inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will

judge and punish the offender.” The sultan followed his guide,

invested the house with his guards, and extinguishing the

torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who had been

seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execution of

his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in

prayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare,

which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man,

whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his

astonishment and curiosity; and the courteous monarch

condescended to explain the motives of this singular behavior. “I

had reason to suspect that none, except one of my sons, could

dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the

lights, that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer

was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so

painful was my anxiety, that I had passed three days without food

since the first moment of your complaint.”

II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty of

the Bowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia: he was

disarmed by an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his

invasion till the manhood of her son. 8 “During the life of my

husband,” said the artful regent, “I was ever apprehensive of

your ambition: he was a prince and a soldier worthy of your arms.

He is now no more; his sceptre has passed to a woman and a child,

and you dare not attack their infancy and weakness. How

inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your defeat! and

yet the event of war is in the hand of the Almighty.” Avarice was

the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of

Mahmud; and never has that passion been more richly satiated. 811

The Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the account of

millions of gold and silver, such as the avidity of man has never

accumulated; in the magnitude of pearls, diamonds, and rubies,

such as have never been produced by the workmanship of nature. 9

Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious minerals:

her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold and silver of the

world; and her virgin spoils were rifled by the first of the

Mahometan conquerors. His behavior, in the last days of his life,

evinces the vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, so

dangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the vast

and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna, burst into tears,

and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the

wealth which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following

day he reviewed the state of his military force; one hundred

thousand foot, fifty-five thousand horse, and thirteen hundred

elephants of battle. 10 He again wept the instability of human

greatness; and his grief was imbittered by the hostile progress

of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his

Persian kingdom.

8 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet

these letters apothegms, &c., are rarely the language of the

heart, or the motives of public action.]

811 (return) [ Compare Price, vol. ii. p. 295.—M]

9 (return) [ For instance, a ruby of four hundred and fifty

miskals, (Dow, vol. i. p. 53,) or six pounds three ounces: the

largest in the treasury of Delhi weighed seventeen miskals,

(Voyages de Tavernier, partie ii. p. 280.) It is true, that in

the East all colored stones are calied rubies, (p. 355,) and that

Tavernier saw three larger and more precious among the jewels de

notre grand roi, le plus puissant et plus magnifique de tous les

rois de la terre, (p. 376.)]

10 (return) [ Dow, vol. i. p. 65. The sovereign of Kinoge is said

to have possessed 2500 elephants, (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p.

274.) From these Indian stories, the reader may correct a note in

my first volume, (p. 245;) or from that note he may correct these

stories.]

In the modern depopulation of Asia, the regular operation of

government and agriculture is confined to the neighborhood of

cities; and the distant country is abandoned to the pastoral

tribes of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans. 11 Of the last-mentioned

people, two considerable branches extend on either side of the

Caspian Sea: the western colony can muster forty thousand

soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the traveller, but more

strong and populous, has increased to the number of one hundred

thousand families. In the midst of civilized nations, they

preserve the manners of the Scythian desert, remove their

encampments with a change of seasons, and feed their cattle among

the ruins of palaces and temples. Their flocks and herds are

their only riches; their tents, either black or white, according

to the color of the banner, are covered with felt, and of a

circular form; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin; a robe of

cloth or cotton their summer garment: the features of the men are

harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft and

pleasing. Their wandering life maintains the spirit and exercise

of arms; they fight on horseback; and their courage is displayed

in frequent contests with each other and with their neighbors.

For the license of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the

sovereign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the

hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration of the

Eastern Turkmans, the most ancient of the race, may be ascribed

to the tenth century of the Christian aera. 12 In the decline of

the caliphs, and the weakness of their lieutenants, the barrier

of the Jaxartes was often violated; in each invasion, after the

victory or retreat of their countrymen, some wandering tribe,

embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the

spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme.

The Turkish slaves who aspired to the throne encouraged these

emigrations which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and

rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of

Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide

beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his

error by the chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the

territory of Bochara. The sultan had inquired what supply of men

he could furnish for military service. “If you send,” replied

Ismael, “one of these arrows into our camp, fifty thousand of

your servants will mount on horseback.”—“And if that number,”

continued Mahmud, “should not be sufficient?”—“Send this second

arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand

more.”—“But,” said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, “if I

should stand in need of the whole force of your kindred

tribes?”—“Despatch my bow,” was the last reply of Ismael, “and as

it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two

hundred thousand horse.” The apprehension of such formidable

friendship induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes

into the heart of Chorasan, where they would be separated from

their brethren of the River Oxus, and enclosed on all sides by

the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the country was an

object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigor of

government was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of

Gazna. The shepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of

robbers were collected into an army of conquerors: as far as

Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was afflicted by their predatory

inroads; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to measure

their courage and numbers with the proudest sovereigns of Asia.

Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too long neglected

the advice of his wisest Omrahs. “Your enemies,” they repeatedly

urged, “were in their origin a swarm of ants; they are now little

snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire

the venom and magnitude of serpents.” After some alternatives of

truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his

lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans,

who attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular

onset. “Massoud,” says the Persian historian, 13 “plunged singly

to oppose the torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of

gigantic force and valor as never king had before displayed. A

few of his friends, roused by his words and actions, and that

innate honor which inspires the brave, seconded their lord so

well, that wheresoever he turned his fatal sword, the enemies

were mowed down, or retreated before him. But now, when victory

seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was active behind it;

for when he looked round, be beheld almost his whole army,

excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths

of flight.” The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or

treachery of some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable

day of Zendecan 14 founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd

kings. 15

11 (return) [ See a just and natural picture of these pastoral

manners, in the history of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c.

vii. in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 633, 634,) and a valuable

note by the editor of the Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, p.

535-538.]

12 (return) [ The first emigration of the Turkmans, and doubtful

origin of the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History

of the Huns, by M. De Guignes, (tom. i. Tables Chronologiques, l.

v. tom. iii. l. vii. ix. x.) and the Bibliotheque Orientale, of

D’Herbelot, (p. 799-802, 897-901,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p.

321-333,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 221, 222.)]

13 (return) [ Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95-98. I

have copied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner; but

I suspect that, by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has

been improved by that of Ossian. * Note: Gibbon’s conjecture was

well founded. Compare the more sober and genuine version of Col.

Briggs, vol. i. p. 110.-M.]

14 (return) [ The Zendekan of D’Herbelot, (p. 1028,) the Dindaka

of Dow (vol. i. p. 97,) is probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda,

(Geograph. p. 345, Reiske,) a small town of Chorasan, two days’

journey from Maru, and renowned through the East for the

production and manufacture of cotton.]

15 (return) [ The Byzantine historians (Cedrenus, tom. ii. p.

766, 766, Zonaras tom. ii. p. 255, Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21)

have confounded, in this revolution, the truth of time and place,

of names and persons, of causes and events. The ignorance and

errors of these Greeks (which I shall not stop to unravel) may

inspire some distrust of the story of Cyaxares and Cyrus, as it

is told by their most eloquent predecessor.]

The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of

a king; and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian 16

deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice of their

new master. A number of arrows were successively inscribed with

the name of a tribe, a family, and a candidate; they were drawn

from the bundle by the hand of a child; and the important prize

was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michael the son of Seljuk,

whose surname was immortalized in the greatness of his posterity.

The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill in national

genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk; yet

the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power and

renown. 17 For a daring intrusion into the harem of his prince,

Seljuk was banished from Turkestan: with a numerous tribe of his

friends and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the

neighborhood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and

acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war against the infidels.

His age, of a hundred and seven years, surpassed the life of his

son, and Seljuk adopted the care of his two grandsons, Togrul and

Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age of forty-five, was

invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city of Nishabur.

The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues of

the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the

valor of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul 18 was equal to his

valor. By his arms, the Gasnevides were expelled from the eastern

kingdoms of Persia, and gradually driven to the banks of the

Indus, in search of a softer and more wealthy conquest. In the

West he annihilated the dynasty of the Bowides; and the sceptre

of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation. The

princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed

their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media,

he approached the Roman confines; and the shepherd presumed to

despatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and

obedience of the emperor of Constantinople. 19 In his own

dominions, Togrul was the father of his soldiers and people; by a

firm and equal administration, Persia was relieved from the evils

of anarchy; and the same hands which had been imbrued in blood

became the guardians of justice and the public peace. The more

rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans 20 continued

to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to

the Euphrates, these military colonies were protected and

propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of the court

and city were refined by business and softened by pleasure: they

imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia; and the

royal palaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and

magnificence of a great monarchy. The most deserving of the

Arabians and Persians were promoted to the honors of the state;

and the whole body of the Turkish nation embraced, with fervor

and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet. The northern swarms of

Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have been

irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar

conduct. Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague

and local traditions have yielded to the reason and authority of

the prevailing system, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent

of nations. But the triumph of the Koran is more pure and

meritorious, as it was not assisted by any visible splendor of

worship which might allure the Pagans by some resemblance of

idolatry. The first of the Seljukian sultans was conspicuous by

his zeal and faith: each day he repeated the five prayers which

are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, the two first

days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in every city

a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the

foundations of a palace. 21

16 (return) [ Willerm. Tyr. l. i. c. 7, p. 633. The divination by

arrows is ancient and famous in the East.]

17 (return) [ D’Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his

posterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from

the great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar

pedigree of the house of Zingis gave a different cast to flattery

and fable; and the historian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from

Alankavah, the virgin mother, (p. 801, col. 2.) If they be the

same as the Zalzuts of Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist.

Genealogique, p. 148,) we quote in their favor the most weighty

evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the descendant of Zingis,

Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan.]

18 (return) [ By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the

Tangroli-pix of the Greeks. His reign and character are

faithfully exhibited by D’Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p.

1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p.

189-201.)]

19 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. ii.

p. 257. With their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they

describe the ambassador as a sherif, who, like the syncellus of

the patriarch, was the vicar and successor of the caliph.]

20 (return) [ From William of Tyre I have borrowed this

distinction of Turks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and

convenient. The names are the same, and the addition of man is of

the same import in the Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics

will adopt the etymology of James de Vitry, (Hist. Hierosol. l.

i. c. 11 p. 1061,) of Turcomani, quesi Turci et Comani, a mixed

people.]

21 (return) [ Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. iii. p. 165, 166,

167. M. DeGognes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt.]

With the belief of the Koran, the son of Seljuk imbibed a lively

reverence for the successor of the prophet. But that sublime

character was still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt,

and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove his title in the

judgment of the strong, though illiterate Barbarians. Mahmud the

Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of Abbas; and

had treated with indignity the robe of honor which was presented

by the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had

changed with the change of fortune; he applauded the victory of

Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal vicegerent

over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged this

important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph

Cayem, and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to

his arms. 22 In the palace of Bagdad, the commander of the

faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or

master, the prince of the Bowides, could no longer protect him

from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and

Tigris were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian

emirs. The presence of a conqueror was implored as a blessing;

and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword were excused as the

sharp but salutary remedies which alone could restore the health

of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force, the sultan

of Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the

prostrate were spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the

heads of the most obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of

Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people of

Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and the

restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of

his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of

religious prejudice over Barbarian power. 23 The Turkish sultan

embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his

public entry on horseback. At the palace-gate he respectfully

dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without

arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil: the black

garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he

held in his hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror

of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest

posture, and was led towards the throne by the vizier and

interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne,

his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal

lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively

invested with seven robes of honor, and presented with seven

slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire.

His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns 231 were

placed on his head; two cimeters were girded to his side, as the

symbols of a double reign over the East and West. After this

inauguration, the sultan was prevented from prostrating himself a

second time; but he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the

faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice of heralds

and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad, the

Seljukian prince again rescued the caliph from his enemies and

devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to

the palace. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of

Togrul’s sister with the successor of the prophet. Without

reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem; but

Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to

mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian

shepherd; and protracted the negotiation many months, till the

gradual diminution of his revenue admonished him that he was

still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials were followed

by the death of Togrul himself; 24 as he left no children, his

nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of

sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in

the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the

Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On the

throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the

domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the

faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which

they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian

dynasty.

22 (return) [ Consult the Bibliotheque Orientale, in the articles

of the Abbassides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin

and Abulpharagius.]

23 (return) [ For this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. De

Guignes (tom. iii. p. 197, 198,) and that learned author is

obliged to Bondari, who composed in Arabic the history of the

Seljukides, tom. v. p. 365) I am ignorant of his age, country,

and character.]

231 (return) [ According to Von Hammer, “crowns” are incorrect.

They are unknown as a symbol of royalty in the East. V. Hammer,

Osmanische Geschischte, vol. i. p. 567.—M.]

24 (return) [ Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus

.... rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror

corda mortalium invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad

ipsum scriberent. Elma cin, Hist. Saracen. p. 342, vers. Erpenii.

* Note: He died, being 75 years old. V. Hammer.—M.]

Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part II.

Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the

Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by the

victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended

as far as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia.

Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were

suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united

the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the

art and riches of a powerful monarchy. 25 The myriads of Turkish

horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to

Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand

Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet

the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on

the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country;

the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an

Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or

suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the

Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. 26

The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the

popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of

Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal

animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish

cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to

which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple

of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he

carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and

pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose

mortal frailties were now covered by the venerable rust of

antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and Georgia was achieved

by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom, and the spirit

of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial fortifications were

yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by strangers

without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and recruits without

experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontier was

the news of a day; and the Catholics were neither surprised nor

displeased, that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian

and Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother

into the hands of the infidels. 27 The woods and valleys of Mount

Caucasus were more strenuously defended by the native Georgians

28 or Iberians; but the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were

indefatigable in this holy war: their captives were compelled to

promise a spiritual, as well as temporal, obedience; and, instead

of their collars and bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a badge of

ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still adhered to the

worship of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or

universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have

maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a

race of men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is

degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and

still more their practice, of Christianity is an empty name; and

if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too

illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed. 29

25 (return) [ For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in

general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus,

Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius

Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter

statesmen; yet such were the Greeks, that the difference of style

and character is scarcely discernible. For the Orientals, I draw

as usuul on the wealth of D’Herbelot (see titles of the first

Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.

iii. l. x.)]

26 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the

vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the

Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D’Herbelot,

p. 213 &c.)]

27 (return) [ (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834,

whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that

he confounded the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies,) He

familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should apprehend, very

foreign to the perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to

confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox

Romans.]

28 (return) [ Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks,

(Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it

from their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.)

But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a

Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals,

(D’Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George

of Cappadocia.]

29 (return) [ Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in

Chardin’s Travels, (tom. i. p. 171-174,) the manners and religion

of this handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their

princes from Adam to the present century, in the tables of M. De

Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433-438.)]

The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was not

imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the Greek

empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled

her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and

Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His

patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople

within two months after his accession; and the next campaign he

most scandalously took the field during the holy festival of

Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the husband of

Eudocia: in the camp, he was the emperor of the Romans, and he

sustained that character with feeble resources and invincible

courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were taught to

act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks had

penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had

resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war; and their

numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of

conquest. Laden with spoil, and careless of discipline, they were

separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks: the activity of

the emperor seemed to multiply his presence: and while they heard

of his expedition to Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the

hills of Trebizond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks were

driven beyond the Euphrates; in the fourth and last, Romanus

undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The desolation of the land

obliged him to transport a supply of two months’ provisions; and

he marched forwards to the siege of Malazkerd, 30 an important

fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and

Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand

men. The troops of Constantinople were reenforced by the

disorderly multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real

strength was composed of the subjects and allies of Europe, the

legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a

Moldavian horde, who were themselves of the Turkish race; 31 and,

above all, the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and

Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant Ursel of

Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings, 32 and were

allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to the

Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance.

30 (return) [ This city is mentioned by Constantine

Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,)

and the Byzantines of the xith century, under the name of

Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but

Delisle, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the

situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes

Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with

water, without trees, &c.]

31 (return) [ The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant.

tom. iii. p. 923-948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des

Huns, tom. ii. p. 522, tom. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appear on the

Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the

name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.]

32 (return) [ Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is

distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman

conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Baliol: and our own

historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to

Durham, built Bernard’s castle on the Tees, married an heiress of

Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4)

has labored the subject in honor of the president de Bailleul,

whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.]

On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his

hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at

the head of forty thousand horse. 33 His rapid and skilful

evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the

Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal

generals, he displayed the first example of his valor and

clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces

after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he

attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey

his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of

the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against

the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and

decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the

sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace;

but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the

enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and

defiance. “If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate

the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans,

and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his

sincerity.” Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he

wept the death of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout

prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of

retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his

horse’s tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and

cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body

with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot

should be the place of his burial. 34 The sultan himself had

affected to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of

victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose

squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent.

Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian

tactics, Romulus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and

pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and yielding

resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless

combat he spent the greater part of a summer’s day, till prudence

and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is

always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had

the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken

by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a

rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the

Caesars. 35 The Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on

this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their

formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks. In the

destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, it would be

needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The

Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they

forgot to mention, that in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces

of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.

33 (return) [ Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number,

which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by

D’Herbelot (p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives

300,000 met to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum

centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa

instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.]

34 (return) [ The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of

the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch,

had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or

truth?]

35 (return) [ He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the

emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus

Bryennius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i.

p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus.

Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason.]

As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save

the relics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial station,

was left naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious

Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight

till the close of day, at the head of the brave and faithful

subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around him; his

horse was slain; the emperor was wounded; yet he stood alone and

intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the strength of

multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputed by a

slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne of

Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been

excused on the promise of some signal service.