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had been anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their

efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and

the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added

new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals:

twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single

expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a

nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their

women, but with the command of their men 20 After a reign of two

hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. 21

The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the

people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the

chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or

castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the

friendship of the Christians. In every service of danger the

Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or

warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and

interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces,

governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were

reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the

island was guarded to the water’s edge. The Normans led the van

and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. In a

second action the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced

by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement,

his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand

Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of the

pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the

historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It

is, however, true, that they essentially promoted the success of

Maniaces, who reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of

Sicily, under the obedience of the emperor. But his military fame

was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of the

spoils, the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; and

neither their avarice nor their pride could brook this injurious

treatment. They complained by the mouth of their interpreter:

their complaint was disregarded; their interpreter was scourged;

the sufferings were his; the insult and resentment belonged to

those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembled till

they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italian

continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their

indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the

forfeit of the debt. 22 Above twenty years after the first

emigration, the Normans took the field with no more than seven

hundred horse and five hundred foot; and after the recall of the

Byzantine legions 23 from the Sicilian war, their numbers are

magnified to the amount of threescore thousand men. Their herald

proposed the option of battle or retreat; “of battle,” was the

unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest warriors,

with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of the

Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult

was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive

battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their

adversaries. In the plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled before

the adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was made

prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new dominion; and the four

places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum, were alone

saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera we

may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon

eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts 24 were

chosen by the popular suffrage; and age, birth, and merit, were

the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar

districts were appropriated to their use; and each count erected

a fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his

vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of

Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel of the

republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of

the twelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated by

this military senate. The first of his peers, their president and

general, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was

conferred on William of the iron arm, who, in the language of the

age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel

in council. 25 The manners of his countrymen are fairly

delineated by a contemporary and national historian. 26 “The

Normans,” says Malaterra, “are a cunning and revengeful people;

eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary

qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed

by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of

nature and passion. Their princes affect the praises of popular

munificence; the people observe the medium, or rather blond the

extremes, of avarice and prodigality; and in their eager thirst

of wealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and

hope whatever they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress,

the exercises of hunting and hawking 27 are the delight of the

Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure with

incredible patience the inclemency of every climate, and the toil

and absence of a military life.” 28

20 (return) [ Liutprand, in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has

illustrated this event from the Ms. history of the deacon Leo,

(tom. iv. A.D. 965, No. 17-19.)]

21 (return) [ See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori,

Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253.]

22 (return) [ Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war,

and the conquest of Apulia, (l. i. c. 7, 8, 9, 19.) The same

events are described by Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 741-743, 755, 756)

and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 237, 238;) and the Greeks are so

hardened to disgrace, that their narratives are impartial

enough.]

23 (return) [ Lydia: consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4,

with Delisle’s map.]

24 (return) [ Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores,

Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et aetas,

Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum

His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris

Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras

Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet;

Singula proponunt loca quae contingere sorte

Cuique duci debent, et quaeque tributa locorum.

And after speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds,

Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas,

Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe.

Leo Ostiensis (l. ii. c. 67) enumerates the divisions of the

Apulian cities, which it is needless to repeat.]

25 (return) [ Gulielm. Appulus, l. ii. c 12, according to the

reference of Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p.

31,) which I cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises

indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida virtus; and

declares that, had he lived, no poet could have equalled his

merits, (l. i. p. 258, l. ii. p. 259.) He was bewailed by the

Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (says Malaterra, l. i.

c. 12, p. 552,) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum,

affabilem, morigeratum, ulterius se habere diffidebant.]

26 (return) [ The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix.... adulari

sciens.... eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, p.

550,) are expressive of the popular and proverbial character of

the Normans.]

27 (return) [ The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the

descendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import

from Norway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons.]

28 (return) [ We may compare this portrait with that of William

of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 101, 102,) who

appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues

of the Saxons and Normans. England was assuredly a gainer by the

conquest.]

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

The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two

empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted

the investiture of their lands, from the sovereigns of Germany or

Constantinople. But the firmest title of these adventurers was

the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they were

neither trusted nor beloved: the contempt of the princes was

mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with

hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, a horse, a woman,

a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the

strangers; 29 and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored by

the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts

were sometimes joined in the league of injustice: in their

domestic quarrels they disputed the spoils of the people: the

virtues of William were buried in his grave; and Drogo, his

brother and successor, was better qualified to lead the valor,

than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of

Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of

the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve Italy from this

adherent mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians; 30

and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with

the most lofty titles 31 and the most ample commission. The

memory of his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he

had already engaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt

of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the public injury. It

was the design of Constantine to transplant the warlike colony

from the Italian provinces to the Persian war; and the son of

Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of

Greece, as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts

were baffled by the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia:

his gifts, or at least his proposals, were rejected; and they

unanimously refused to relinquish their possessions and their

hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After the

means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to

destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common

enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the

two emperors of the East and West. The throne of St. Peter was

occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, 32 of a temper most

apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable

character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures

least compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was

affected by the complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured

people: the impious Normans had interrupted the payment of

tithes; and the temporal sword might be lawfully unsheathed

against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures

of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo

had free access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry

the Third; and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal

transported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the

Tyber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus indulged

himself in the use of secret and guilty weapons: a crowd of

Normans became the victims of public or private revenge; and the

valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his spirit survived

in his brother Humphrey, the third count of Apulia. The assassins

were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrown and wounded, was

driven from the field, to hide his shame behind the walls of

Bari, and to await the tardy succor of his allies.

29 (return) [ The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom

on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem

Normannorum, crudeli et inaudita rabie, et plusquam Pagana

impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim Christianos

trucidare, &c., (Wibert, c. 6.) The honest Apulian (l. ii. p.

259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia.]

30 (return) [ The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c.,

must be collected from Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 757, 758,) William

Appulus, (l. i. p 257, 258, l. ii. p. 259,) and the two

Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protospata, (Muratori, Script. Ital.

tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44,) and an anonymous writer, (Antiquitat,

Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. i. p 31-35.) This last is a fragment of

some value.]

31 (return) [ Argyrus received, says the anonymous Chronicle of

Bari, Imperial letters, Foederatus et Patriciatus, et Catapani et

Vestatus. In his Annals, Muratori (tom. viii. p. 426) very

properly reads, or interprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos

or Augustus. But in his Antiquities, he was taught by Ducange to

make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe.]

32 (return) [ A Life of St. Leo IX., deeply tinged with the

passions and prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert,

printed at Paris, 1615, in octavo, and since inserted in the

Collections of the Bollandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The

public and private history of that pope is diligently treated by

M. de St. Marc. (Abrege, tom. ii. p. 140-210, and p. 25-95,

second column.)]

But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war; the

mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of

repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a

guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine.

In his long progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and

promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy

standard: 33 the priest and the robber slept in the same tent;

the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the

martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of

march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could

muster in the field no more than three thousand horse, with a

handful of infantry: the defection of the natives intercepted

their provisions and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of

fear, was chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the

hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace or

reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was

inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride the diminutive

stature of their adversaries; and the Normans were informed that

death or exile was their only alternative. Flight they disdained,

and, as many of them had been three days without tasting food,

they embraced the assurance of a more easy and honorable death.

They climbed the hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and

charged in three divisions the army of the pope. On the left, and

in the centre, Richard count of Aversa, and Robert the famous

Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the Italian

multitudes, who fought without discipline, and fled without

shame. A harder trial was reserved for the valor of Count

Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing. The Germans 34

have been described as unskillful in the management of the horse

and the lance, but on foot they formed a strong and impenetrable

phalanx; and neither man, nor steed, nor armor, could resist the

weight of their long and two-handed swords. After a severe

conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons returning from

the pursuit; and died in the ranks with the esteem of their foes,

and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella were shut

against the flying pope, and he was overtaken by the pious

conquerors, who kissed his feet, to implore his blessing and the

absolution of their sinful victory. The soldiers beheld in their

enemy and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we may suppose

the policy of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infected

by the popular superstition. In the calm of retirement, the

well-meaning pope deplored the effusion of Christian blood, which

must be imputed to his account: he felt, that he had been the

author of sin and scandal; and as his undertaking had failed, the

indecency of his military character was universally condemned. 35

With these dispositions, he listened to the offers of a

beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had preached as

the cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests of

the Normans. By whatever hands they had been usurped, the

provinces of Apulia and Calabria were a part of the donation of

Constantine and the patrimony of St. Peter: the grant and the

acceptance confirmed the mutual claims of the pontiff and the

adventurers. They promised to support each other with spiritual

and temporal arms; a tribute or quitrent of twelve pence was

afterwards stipulated for every ploughland; and since this

memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained above

seven hundred years a fief of the Holy See. 36

33 (return) [ See the expedition of Leo XI. against the Normans.

See William Appulus (l. ii. p. 259-261) and Jeffrey Malaterra (l.

i. c. 13, 14, 15, p. 253.) They are impartial, as the national is

counterbalanced by the clerical prejudice]

34 (return) [ Teutonici, quia caesaries et forma decoros

Fecerat egregie proceri corporis illos

Corpora derident Normannica quae breviora

Esse videbantur.

The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he

heats himself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from

hawking and sorcery are descriptive of manners.]

35 (return) [ Several respectable censures or complaints are

produced by M. de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200-204.) As Peter

Damianus, the oracle of the times, has denied the popes the right

of making war, the hermit (lugens eremi incola) is arraigned by

the cardinal, and Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1053, No. 10-17)

most strenuously asserts the two swords of St. Peter.]

36 (return) [ The origin and nature of the papal investitures are

ably discussed by Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii.

p. 37-49, 57-66,) as a lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly

strives to reconcile the duties of patriot and Catholic, adopts

an empty distinction of “Ecclesia Romana non dedit, sed accepit,”

and shrinks from an honest but dangerous confession of the

truth.]

The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard 37 is variously deduced from

the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the

pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess; 38 from the dukes, by

the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. 39 His

genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order of

private nobility. 40 He sprang from a race of valvassors or

bannerets, of the diocese of Coutances, in the Lower Normandy:

the castle of Hauteville was their honorable seat: his father

Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke; and

his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights.

Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the

father of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial

tenderness of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was

insufficient for this numerous and daring progeny; they saw

around the neighborhood the mischiefs of poverty and discord, and

resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance. Two

only remained to perpetuate the race, and cherish their father’s

age: their ten brothers, as they successfully attained the vigor

of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined

the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder were prompted by

native spirit; their success encouraged their younger brethren,

and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and Humphrey,

deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the founders of the

new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven sons of the

second marriage; and even the reluctant praise of his foes has

endowed him with the heroic qualities of a soldier and a

statesman. His lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army:

his limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength and

gracefulness; and to the decline of life, he maintained the

patient vigor of health and the commanding dignity of his form.

His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair and

beard were long and of a flaxen color, his eyes sparkled with

fire, and his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress

obedience and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder

ages of chivalry, such qualifications are not below the notice of

the poet or historians: they may observe that Robert, at once,

and with equal dexterity, could wield in the right hand his

sword, his lance in the left; that in the battle of Civitella he

was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that memorable day

he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor from the

warriors of the two armies. 41 His boundless ambition was founded

on the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of

greatness, he was never arrested by the scruples of justice, and

seldom moved by the feelings of humanity: though not insensible

of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means was determined

only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard 42 was

applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often

confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and

Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning

of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were

disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest

fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers;

and while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he

affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion

of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might

distribute with a liberal, hand: his primitive indigence had

taught the habits of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not

below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with slow

and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secret

treasure. According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy with

only five followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet even

this allowance appears too bountiful: the sixth son of Tancred of

Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim; and his first military

band was levied among the adventurers of Italy. His brothers and

countrymen had divided the fertile lands of Apulia; but they

guarded their shares with the jealousy of avarice; the aspiring

youth was driven forwards to the mountains of Calabria, and in

his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives, it is not

easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To surprise a

castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder the

adjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labors

which formed and exercised the powers of his mind and body. The

volunteers of Normandy adhered to his standard; and, under his

command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the name and character

of Normans.

37 (return) [ The birth, character, and first actions of Robert

Guiscard, may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, 4, 11,

16, 17, 18, 38, 39, 40,) William Appulus, (l. ii. p. 260-262,)

William Gemeticensis, or of Jumieges, (l. xi. c. 30, p. 663, 664,

edit. Camden,) and Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. i. p. 23-27, l. vi.

p. 165, 166,) with the annotations of Ducange, (Not. in Alexiad,

p. 230-232, 320,) who has swept all the French and Latin

Chronicles for supplemental intelligence.]

38 (return) [ (a Greek corruption), and elsewhere, (l. iv. p.

84,). Anna Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no

more than a private though illustrious subject, who raised

himself to the empire.]

39 (return) [ Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 2) forgets all his original

authors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of

Inveges, an Augustine monk of Palermo in the last century. They

continue the succession of dukes from Rollo to William II. the

Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communemente si tiene) to

be the father of Tancred of Hauteville; a most strange and

stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancred fought in Apulia, before

William II. was three years old, (A.D. 1037.)]

40 (return) [ The judgment of Ducange is just and moderate: Certe

humilis fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalem et regium

spectemus apicem, ad quem postea pervenit; quae honesta tamen et

praeter nobilium vulgarium statum et conditionem illustris habita

est, “quae nec humi reperet nec altum quid tumeret.” (Wilhem.

Malmsbur. de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 107. Not. ad Alexiad. p.

230.)]

41 (return) [ I shall quote with pleasure some of the best lines

of the Apulian, (l. ii. p. 270.)

Pugnat utraque manu, nec lancea cassa, nec ensis

Cassus erat, quocunque manu deducere vellet.

Ter dejectus equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis

Major in arma redit: stimulos furor ipse ministrat.

Ut Leo cum frendens, &c.

- — — — — — -

Nullus in hoc bello sicuti post bella probatum est

Victor vel victus, tam magnos edidit ictus.]

42 (return) [ The Norman writers and editors most conversant with

their own idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidus, a

cunning man. The root (wise) is familiar to our ear; and in the

old word Wiseacre, I can discern something of a similar sense and

termination. It is no bad translation of the surname and

character of Robert.]

As the genius of Robert expanded with his fortune, he awakened

the jealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a transient

quarrel, his life was threatened and his liberty restrained.

After the death of Humphrey, the tender age of his sons excluded

them from the command; they were reduced to a private estate, by

the ambition of their guardian and uncle; and Guiscard was

exalted on a buckler, and saluted count of Apulia and general of

the republic. With an increase of authority and of force, he

resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rank that

should raise him forever above the heads of his equals.

By some acts of rapine or sacrilege, he had incurred a papal

excommunication; but Nicholas the Second was easily persuaded

that the divisions of friends could terminate only in their

mutual prejudice; that the Normans were the faithful champions of

the Holy See; and it was safer to trust the alliance of a prince

than the caprice of an aristocracy. A synod of one hundred

bishops was convened at Melphi; and the count interrupted an

important enterprise to guard the person and execute the decrees

of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on

Robert and his posterity the ducal title, 43 with the investiture

of Apulia, Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily,

which his sword could rescue from the schismatic Greeks and the

unbelieving Saracens. 44 This apostolic sanction might justify

his arms; but the obedience of a free and victorious people could

not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard dissembled

his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by

the conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he

assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm by

their suffrage the judgment of the vicar of Christ: the soldiers

hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke; and the

counts, his former equals, pronounced the oath of fidelity with

hollow smiles and secret indignation. After this inauguration,

Robert styled himself, “By the grace of God and St. Peter, duke

of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily;” and it was the

labor of twenty years to deserve and realize these lofty

appellations. Such sardy progress, in a narrow space, may seem

unworthy of the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the

nation; but the Normans were few in number; their resources were

scanty; their service was voluntary and precarious. The bravest

designs of the duke were sometimes opposed by the free voice of

his parliament of barons: the twelve counts of popular election

conspired against his authority; and against their perfidious

uncle, the sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By his

policy and vigor, Guiscard discovered their plots, suppressed

their rebellions, and punished the guilty with death or exile:

but in these domestic feuds, his years, and the national

strength, were unprofitably consumed. After the defeat of his

foreign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, their broken

forces retreated to the strong and populous cities of the

sea-coast. They excelled in the arts of fortification and

defence; the Normans were accustomed to serve on horseback in the

field, and their rude attempts could only succeed by the efforts

of persevering courage. The resistance of Salerno was maintained

above eight months; the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near

four years. In these actions the Norman duke was the foremost in

every danger; in every fatigue the last and most patient. As he

pressed the citadel of Salerno, a huge stone from the rampart

shattered one of his military engines; and by a splinter he was

wounded in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in a

miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched

with straw; a perilous station, on all sides open to the

inclemency of the winter and the spears of the enemy. 45

43 (return) [ The acquisition of the ducal title by Robert

Guiscard is a nice and obscure business. With the good advice of

Giannone, Muratori, and St. Marc, I have endeavored to form a

consistent and probable narrative.]

44 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1059, No. 69) has

published the original act. He professes to have copied it from

the Liber Censuum, a Vatican Ms. Yet a Liber Censuum of the xiith

century has been printed by Muratori, (Antiquit. Medii Aevi, tom.

v. p. 851-908;) and the names of Vatican and Cardinal awaken the

suspicions of a Protestant, and even of a philosopher.]

45 (return) [ Read the life of Guiscard in the second and third

books of the Apulian, the first and second books of Malaterra.]

The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the limits of the

present kingdom of Naples; and the countries united by his arms

have not been dissevered by the revolutions of seven hundred

years. 46 The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces

of Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard principality of Salerno,

the republic of Amalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large

and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts only were

exempted from the common law of subjection; the first forever,

the two last till the middle of the succeeding century. The city

and immediate territory of Benevento had been transferred, by

gift or exchange, from the German emperor to the Roman pontiff;

and although this holy land was sometimes invaded, the name of

St. Peter was finally more potent than the sword of the Normans.

Their first colony of Aversa subdued and held the state of Capua;

and her princes were reduced to beg their bread before the palace

of their fathers. The dukes of Naples, the present metropolis,

maintained the popular freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine

empire. Among the new acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of

Salerno, 47 and the trade of Amalphi, 48 may detain for a moment

the curiosity of the reader. I. Of the learned faculties,

jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and

property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the full

light of religion and reason. But the savage and the sage must

alike implore the assistance of physic; and, if our diseases are

inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds would be

more frequent in the ruder ages of society. The treasures of

Grecian medicine had been communicated to the Arabian colonies of

Africa, Spain, and Sicily; and in the intercourse of peace and

war, a spark of knowledge had been kindled and cherished at

Salerno, an illustrious city, in which the men were honest and

the women beautiful. 49 A school, the first that arose in the

darkness of Europe, was consecrated to the healing art: the

conscience of monks and bishops was reconciled to that salutary

and lucrative profession; and a crowd of patients, of the most

eminent rank, and most distant climates, invited or visited the

physicians of Salerno. They were protected by the Norman

conquerors; and Guiscard, though bred in arms, could discern the

merit and value of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of

thirty-nine years, Constantine, an African Christian, returned

from Bagdad, a master of the language and learning of the

Arabians; and Salerno was enriched by the practice, the lessons,

and the writings of the pupil of Avicenna. The school of medicine

has long slept in the name of a university; but her precepts are

abridged in a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine

verses, or Latin rhymes, of the twelfth century. 50 II. Seven

miles to the west of Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples,

the obscure town of Amalphi displayed the power and rewards of

industry. The land, however fertile, was of narrow extent; but

the sea was accessible and open: the inhabitants first assumed

the office of supplying the western world with the manufactures

and productions of the East; and this useful traffic was the

source of their opulence and freedom. The government was popular,

under the administration of a duke and the supremacy of the Greek

emperor. Fifty thousand citizens were numbered in the walls of

Amalphi; nor was any city more abundantly provided with gold,

silver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners who

swarmed in her port, excelled in the theory and practice of

navigation and astronomy: and the discovery of the compass, which

has opened the globe, is owing to their ingenuity or good

fortune. Their trade was extended to the coasts, or at least to

the commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India: and their

settlements in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and

Alexandria, acquired the privileges of independent colonies. 51

After three hundred years of prosperity, Amalphi was oppressed by

the arms of the Normans, and sacked by the jealousy of Pisa; but

the poverty of one thousand 5111 fisherman is yet dignified by

the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal

merchants.

46 (return) [ The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger I., the

exemption of Benevento and the xii provinces of the kingdom, are

fairly exposed by Giannone in the second volume of his Istoria

Civile, l. ix. x. xi and l. xvii. p. 460-470. This modern

division was not established before the time of Frederic II.]

47 (return) [ Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 119-127,) Muratori,

(Antiquitat. Medii Aevi, tom. iii. dissert. xliv. p. 935, 936,)

and Tiraboschi, (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana,) have given

an historical account of these physicians; their medical

knowledge and practice must be left to our physicians.]

48 (return) [ At the end of the Historia Pandectarum of Henry

Brenckmann, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.,) the

indefatigable author has inserted two dissertations, de Republica

Amalphitana, and de Amalphi a Pisanis direpta, which are built on

the testimonies of one hundred and forty writers. Yet he has

forgotten two most important passages of the embassy of

Liutprand, (A.D. 939,) which compare the trade and navigation of

Amalphi with that of Venice.]

49 (return) [ Urbs Latii non est hac delitiosior urbe,

Frugibus, arboribus, vinoque redundat; et unde

Non tibi poma, nuces, non pulchra palatia desunt,

Non species muliebris abest probitasque virorum.

—Gulielmus Appulus, l. iii. p. 367]

50 (return) [ Muratori carries their antiquity above the year

(1066) of the death of Edward the Confessor, the rex Anglorum to

whom they are addressed. Nor is this date affected by the

opinion, or rather mistake, of Pasquier (Recherches de la France,

l. vii. c. 2) and Ducange, (Glossar. Latin.) The practice of

rhyming, as early as the viith century, was borrowed from the

languages of the North and East, (Muratori, Antiquitat. tom. iii.

dissert. xl. p. 686-708.)]

51 (return) [ The description of Amalphi, by William the Apulian,

(l. iii. p. 267,) contains much truth and some poetry, and the

third line may be applied to the sailor’s compass:—

Nulla magis locuples argento, vestibus, auro

Partibus innumeris: hac plurimus urbe moratur

Nauta maris Caelique vias aperire peritus.

Huc et Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe

Regis, et Antiochi. Gens haec freta plurima transit.

His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri.

Haec gens est totum proore nobilitata per orbem,

Et mercando forens, et amans mercata referre.]

5111 (return) [ Amalfi had only one thousand inhabitants at the

commencement of the 18th century, when it was visited by

Brenckmann, (Brenckmann de Rep. Amalph. Diss. i. c. 23.) At

present it has six or eight thousand Hist. des Rep. tom. i. p.

304.—G.]

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

Roger, the twelfth and last of the sons of Tancred, had been long

detained in Normandy by his own and his father’s age. He accepted

the welcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved

at first the esteem, and afterwards the envy, of his elder

brother. Their valor and ambition were equal; but the youth, the

beauty, the elegant manners, of Roger engaged the disinterested

love of the soldiers and people. So scanty was his allowance for

himself and forty followers, that he descended from conquest to

robbery, and from robbery to domestic theft; and so loose were

the notions of property, that, by his own historian, at his

special command, he is accused of stealing horses from a stable

at Melphi. 52 His spirit emerged from poverty and disgrace: from

these base practices he rose to the merit and glory of a holy

war; and the invasion of Sicily was seconded by the zeal and

policy of his brother Guiscard. After the retreat of the Greeks,

the idolaters, a most audacious reproach of the Catholics, had

retrieved their losses and possessions; but the deliverance of

the island, so vainly undertaken by the forces of the Eastern

empire, was achieved by a small and private band of adventurers.

53 In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an open boat, the real

and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only

sixty soldiers on a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the

gates of Messina and safely returned with the spoils of the

adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani, his active and

patient courage were equally conspicuous. In his old age he

related with pleasure, that, by the distress of the siege,

himself, and the countess his wife, had been reduced to a single

cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately; that in a sally his

horse had been slain, and he was dragged away by the Saracens;

but that he owed his rescue to his good sword, and had retreated

with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy might be

left in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of Trani, three

hundred Normans withstood and repulsed the forces of the island.

In the field of Ceramio, fifty thousand horse and foot were

overthrown by one hundred and thirty-six Christian soldiers,

without reckoning St. George, who fought on horseback in the

foremost ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, were

reserved for the successor of St. Peter; and had these barbaric

spoils been exposed, not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they

might have revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. These

insufficient numbers of the Normans most probably denote their

knights, the soldiers of honorable and equestrian rank, each of

whom was attended by five or six followers in the field; 54 yet,

with the aid of this interpretation, and after every fair

allowance on the side of valor, arms, and reputation, the

discomfiture of so many myriads will reduce the prudent reader to

the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily

derived a frequent and powerful succor from their countrymen of

Africa: in the siege of Palermo, the Norman cavalry was assisted

by the galleys of Pisa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of

the two brothers was sublimed to a generous and invincible

emulation. After a war of thirty years, 55 Roger, with the title

of great count, obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most

fruitful island of the Mediterranean; and his administration

displays a liberal and enlightened mind, above the limits of his

age and education. The Moslems were maintained in the free

enjoyment of their religion and property: 56 a philosopher and

physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomet, harangued the

conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the seven

climates was translated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent

perusal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the

Grecian Ptolemy. 57 A remnant of Christian natives had promoted

the success of the Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of

the cross. The island was restored to the jurisdiction of the

Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal cities;

and the clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment of churches

and monasteries. Yet the Catholic hero asserted the rights of the

civil magistrate. Instead of resigning the investiture of

benefices, he dexterously applied to his own profit the papal

claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged, by

the singular bull, which declares the princes of Sicily

hereditary and perpetual legates of the Holy See. 58

52 (return) [ Latrocinio armigerorum suorum in multis

sustentabatur, quod quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus; sed

ipso ita praecipiente adhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi

sumus ut pluribus patescat, quam laboriose et cum quanta angustia

a profunda paupertate ad summum culmen divitiarum vel honoris

attigerit. Such is the preface of Malaterra (l. i. c. 25) to the

horse-stealing. From the moment (l. i. c. 19) that he has

mentioned his patron Roger, the elder brother sinks into the

second character. Something similar in Velleius Paterculus may be

observed of Augustus and Tiberius.]

53 (return) [ Duo sibi proficua deputans animae scilicet et

corporis si terran: Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret,

(Galfrid Malaterra, l. ii. c. 1.) The conquest of Sicily is

related in the three last books, and he himself has given an

accurate summary of the chapters, (p. 544-546.)]

54 (return) [ See the word Milites in the Latin Glossary of

Ducange.]

55 (return) [ Of odd particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that

the Arabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (l. i. c.

33) and of carrier-pigeons, (c. 42;) and that the bite of the

tarantula provokes a windy disposition, quae per anum inhoneste

crepitando emergit; a symptom most ridiculously felt by the whole

Norman army in their camp near Palermo, (c. 36.) I shall add an

etymology not unworthy of the xith century: Messana is divided

from Messis, the place from whence the harvests of the isle were

sent in tribute to Rome, (l. ii. c. 1.)]

56 (return) [ See the capitulation of Palermo in Malaterra, l.

ii. c. 45, and Giannone, who remarks the general toleration of

the Saracens, (tom ii. p. 72.)]

57 (return) [ John Leo Afer, de Medicis et Philosophus Arabibus,

c. 14, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. xiii. p. 278, 279. This

philosopher is named Esseriph Essachalli, and he died in Africa,

A. H. 516, A.D. 1122. Yet this story bears a strange resemblance

to the Sherif al Edrissi, who presented his book (Geographia

Nubiensis, see preface p. 88, 90, 170) to Roger, king of Sicily,

A. H. 541, A.D. 1153, (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p.

786. Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet, p. 188. Petit de la Croix, Hist.

de Gengiscan, p. 535, 536. Casiri, Bibliot. Arab. Hispan. tom.

ii. p. 9-13;) and I am afraid of some mistake.]

58 (return) [ Malaterra remarks the foundation of the bishoprics,

(l. iv. c. 7,) and produces the original of the bull, (l. iv. c.

29.) Giannone gives a rational idea of this privilege, and the

tribunal of the monarchy of Sicily, (tom. ii. p. 95-102;) and St.

Marc (Abrege, tom. iii. p. 217-301, 1st column) labors the case

with the diligence of a Sicilian lawyer.]

To Robert Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious than

beneficial: the possession of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate

to his ambition; and he resolved to embrace or create the first

occasion of invading, perhaps of subduing, the Roman empire of

the East. 59 From his first wife, the partner of his humble

fortune, he had been divorced under the pretence of

consanguinity; and her son Bohemond was destined to imitate,

rather than to succeed, his illustrious father. The second wife

of Guiscard was the daughter of the princes of Salerno; the

Lombards acquiesced in the lineal succession of their son Roger;

their five daughters were given in honorable nuptials, 60 and one

of them was betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a

beautiful youth, the son and heir of the emperor Michael. 61 But

the throne of Constantinople was shaken by a revolution: the

Imperial family of Ducas was confined to the palace or the

cloister; and Robert deplored, and resented, the disgrace of his

daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, who styled

himself the father of Constantine, soon appeared at Salerno, and

related the adventures of his fall and flight. That unfortunate

friend was acknowledged by the duke, and adorned with the pomp

and titles of Imperial dignity: in his triumphal progress through

Apulia and Calabria, Michael 62 was saluted with the tears and

acclamations of the people; and Pope Gregory the Seventh exhorted

the bishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious

work of his restoration. His conversations with Robert were

frequent and familiar; and their mutual promises were justified

by the valor of the Normans and the treasures of the East. Yet

this Michael, by the confession of the Greeks and Latins, was a

pageant and an impostor; a monk who had fled from his convent, or

a domestic who had served in the palace. The fraud had been

contrived by the subtle Guiscard; and he trusted, that after this

pretender had given a decent color to his arms, he would sink, at

the nod of the conqueror, into his primitive obscurity. But

victory was the only argument that could determine the belief of

the Greeks; and the ardor of the Latins was much inferior to

their credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest

of their toils, and the unwarlike Italians trembled at the known

and unknown dangers of a transmarine expedition. In his new

levies, Robert exerted the influence of gifts and promises, the

terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and some acts of

violence might justify the reproach, that age and infancy were

pressed without distinction into the service of their unrelenting

prince. After two years’ incessant preparations the land and

naval forces were assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme

promontory, of Italy; and Robert was accompanied by his wife, who

fought by his side, his son Bohemond, and the representative of

the emperor Michael. Thirteen hundred knights 63 of Norman race

or discipline, formed the sinews of the army, which might be

swelled to thirty thousand 64 followers of every denomination.

The men, the horses, the arms, the engines, the wooden towers,

covered with raw hides, were embarked on board one hundred and

fifty vessels: the transports had been built in the ports of

Italy, and the galleys were supplied by the alliance of the

republic of Ragusa.

59 (return) [ In the first expedition of Robert against the

Greeks, I follow Anna Comnena, (the ist, iiid, ivth, and vth

books of the Alexiad,) William Appulus, (l. ivth and vth, p.

270-275,) and Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii. c. 13, 14, 24-29, 39.)

Their information is contemporary and authentic, but none of them

were eye-witnesses of the war.]

60 (return) [ One of them was married to Hugh, the son of Azzo,

or Axo, a marquis of Lombardy, rich, powerful, and noble,

(Gulielm. Appul. l. iii. p. 267,) in the xith century, and whose

ancestors in the xth and ixth are explored by the critical

industry of Leibnitz and Muratori. From the two elder sons of the

marquis Azzo are derived the illustrious lines of Brunswick and

Este. See Muratori, Antichita Estense.]

61 (return) [ Anna Comnena, somewhat too wantonly, praises and

bewails that handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric

nuptials, (l. i. p. 23,) was betrothed as her husband. (p. 27.)

Elsewhere she describes the red and white of his skin, his hawk’s

eyes, &c., l. iii. p. 71.]

62 (return) [ Anna Comnena, l. i. p. 28, 29. Gulielm. Appul. l.

iv p. 271. Galfrid Malaterra, l. iii. c. 13, p. 579, 580.

Malaterra is more cautious in his style; but the Apulian is bold

and positive.—Mentitus se Michaelem Venerata Danais quidam

seductor ad illum. As Gregory VII had believed, Baronius almost

alone, recognizes the emperor Michael. (A.D. No. 44.)]

63 (return) [ Ipse armatae militiae non plusquam MCCC milites

secum habuisse, ab eis qui eidem negotio interfuerunt attestatur,

(Malaterra, l. iii. c. 24, p. 583.) These are the same whom the

Apulian (l. iv. p. 273) styles the equestris gens ducis, equites

de gente ducis.]

64 (return) [ Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. i. p. 37;) and her

account tallies with the number and lading of the ships. Ivit in

Dyrrachium cum xv. millibus hominum, says the Chronicon Breve

Normannicum, (Muratori, Scriptores, tom. v. p. 278.) I have

endeavored to reconcile these reckonings.]

At the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, the shores of Italy and Epirus

incline towards each other. The space between Brundusium and

Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no more than one hundred miles; 65

at the last station of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; 66 and

this narrow distance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the

sublime or extravagant idea of a bridge. Before the general

embarkation, the Norman duke despatched Bohemond with fifteen

galleys to seize or threaten the Isle of Corfu, to survey the

opposite coast, and to secure a harbor in the neighborhood of

Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed

without perceiving an enemy; and this successful experiment

displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks.

The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the

arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu

(I use the modern appellation) to the siege of Durazzo. That

city, the western key of the empire, was guarded by ancient

renown, and recent fortifications, by George Palaeologus, a

patrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and a numerous

garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have

maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of his

enterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of

danger and mischance. In the most propitious season of the year,

as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow

unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast

of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the old infamy of the

Acroceraunian rocks. 67 The sails, the masts, and the oars, were

shattered or torn away; the sea and shore were covered with the

fragments of vessels, with arms and dead bodies; and the greatest

part of the provisions were either drowned or damaged. The ducal

galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted

seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his

loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The

Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had

explored the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled

at the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept during

the tempest; they were alarmed by the hostile approach of the

Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and promises of

the Byzantine court. The first day’s action was not

disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth, 68 who led the

naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of the republic

lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the victory

of the second day was decided by the dexterity of their

evolutions, the station of their archers, the weight of their

javelins, and the borrowed aid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and

Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from their

cables, and dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally from the

town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Norman

duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Durazzo, and as soon as

the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, the islands and

maritime towns withdrew from the camp the supply of tribute and

provision. That camp was soon afflicted with a pestilential

disease; five hundred knights perished by an inglorious death;

and the list of burials (if all could obtain a decent burial)

amounted to ten thousand persons. Under these calamities, the

mind of Guiscard alone was firm and invincible; and while he

collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or

scaled, or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his industry and

valor were encountered by equal valor and more perfect industry.

A movable turret, of a size and capacity to contain five hundred

soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart:

but the descent of the door or drawbridge was checked by an

enormous beam, and the wooden structure was constantly consumed

by artificial flames.

65 (return) [ The Itinerary of Jerusalem (p. 609, edit.

Wesseling) gives a true and reasonable space of a thousand stadia

or one hundred miles which is strangely doubled by Strabo (l. vi.

p. 433) and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. iii. 16.)]

66 (return) [ Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. 6, 16) allows quinquaginta

millia for this brevissimus cursus, and agrees with the real

distance from Otranto to La Vallona, or Aulon, (D’Anville,

Analyse de sa Carte des Cotes de la Grece, &c., p. 3-6.)

Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutes centum. (Harduin, Not. lxvi.

in Plin. l. iii.,) might have been corrected by every Venetian

pilot who had sailed out of the gulf.]

67 (return) [ Infames scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. carm. i. 3.

The praecipitem Africum decertantem Aquilonibus, et rabiem Noti

and the monstra natantia of the Adriatic, are somewhat enlarged;

but Horace trembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting

moment in the history of poetry and friendship.]

68 (return) [ (Alexias, l. iv. p. 106.) Yet the Normans shaved,

and the Venetians wore, their beards: they must have derided the

no beard of Bohemond; a harsh interpretation. (Duncanga ad

Alexiad. p. 283.)]

While the Roman empire was attacked by the Turks in the East,

east, and the Normans in the West, the aged successor of Michael

surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious

captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. The princess

Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected

style, that even Hercules was unequal to a double combat; and, on

this principle, she approves a hasty peace with the Turks, which

allowed her father to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo.

On his accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, and

the treasury without money; yet such were the vigor and activity

of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of

seventy thousand men, 69 and performed a march of five hundred

miles. His troops were levied in Europe and Asia, from

Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was displayed in the

silver arms and rich trappings of the companies of Horse-guards;

and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes,

some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the

purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of

affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate the

multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of

subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their

importunate clamors for speedy and decisive action disconcerted

the prudence of Alexius, who might have surrounded and starved

the besieging army. The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad

comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman world: the

raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the

garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the

evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the

Turks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the

Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently

augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British

Island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the

Danes and English were oppressed and united; a band of

adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea

was open to their escape; and, in their long pilgrimage, they

visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and

revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek

emperor; and their first station was in a new city on the Asiatic

shore: but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his

person and palace; and bequeathed to his successors the

inheritance of their faith and valor. 70 The name of a Norman

invader revived the memory of their wrongs: they marched with

alacrity against the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus

the glory which they had lost in the battle of Hastings. The

Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins;

and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the tyranny

of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their

revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the

impure aid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and

Bulgaria; and these heretics united with the patience of

martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valor. 71 The

treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand

Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the

lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect

of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his

principal officers. “You behold,” said he, “your danger: it is

urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and

standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars

and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am

ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader.” The vote and

acclamation even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that

perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence; and the duke

thus continued: “Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and

deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels

and our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the

place of our nativity and our burial.” The resolution was

unanimously approved; and, without confining himself to his

lines, Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer approach of

the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing

extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he conscious,

perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly

disputed the empire of the world. 72

69 (return) [ Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, tom. ix. p. 136, 137)

observes, that some authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. l.

iii. c. 49) compose the Greek army of 170,000 men, but that the

hundred may be struck off, and that Malaterra reckons only

70,000; a slight inattention. The passage to which he alludes is

in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. tom. v. p.

45.) Malaterra (l. iv. c. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite

terms of the emperor, cum copiisinnumerabilbus: like the Apulian

poet, (l. iv. p. 272:) —More locustarum montes et pianna

teguntur.]

70 (return) [ See William of Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, l.

ii. p. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens praecipuis

familiaritatibus suis eos applicabat, amorem eorum filio

transcribens. Odericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. p. 508, l.

vii. p. 641) relates their emigration from England, and their

service in Greece.]

71 (return) [ See the Apulian, (l. i. p. 256.) The character and

the story of these Manichaeans has been the subject of the livth

chapter.]

72 (return) [ See the simple and masterly narrative of Caesar

himself, (Comment. de Bell. Civil. iii. 41-75.) It is a pity that

Quintus Icilius (M. Guichard) did not live to analyze these

operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain.]

Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to

risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the garrison of

Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally

from the town. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans

before daybreak on two different sides: his light cavalry was

scattered over the plain; the archers formed the second line; and

the Varangians claimed the honors of the vanguard. In the first

onset, the battle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody

impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to

fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously

turned their backs; they fled towards the river and the sea; but

the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the

garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who

played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of

ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs.

Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike

Amazon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less

terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: 73 though wounded by

an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation

and example, to rally the flying troops. 74 Her female voice was

seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke,

as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council: “Whither,” he

cried aloud, “whither do ye fly? Your enemy is implacable; and

death is less grievous than servitude.” The moment was decisive:

as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the

nakedness of their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight

hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their

lances, and the Greeks bore the furious and irresistible shock of

the French cavalry. 75 Alexius was not deficient in the duties of

a soldier or a general; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of

the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he despised his

subjects, and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who

drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the

strength and swiftness of her father’s horse, and his vigorous

struggle when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance,

which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valor broke

through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and after

wandering two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found

some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of

Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble

pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize:

but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and standards

of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and

the glory of defeating an army five times more numerous than his

own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own

fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain in this

memorable day. In the Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and

English, amounted to five or six thousand: 76 the plain of

Durazzo was stained with noble and royal blood; and the end of

the impostor Michael was more honorable than his life.

73 (return) [ It is very properly translated by the President

Cousin, (Hist. de Constantinople, tom. iv. p. 131, in 12mo.,) qui

combattoit comme une Pallas, quoiqu’elle ne fut pas aussi savante

que celle d’Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed of two

discordant characters, of Neith, the workwoman of Sais in Egypt,

and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier,

Mythologie, tom. iv. p. 1-31, in 12mo.)]

74 (return) [ Anna Comnena (l. iv. p. 116) admires, with some

degree of terror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar

to the Latins and though the Apulian (l. iv. p. 273) mentions her

presence and her wound, he represents her as far less intrepid.

Uxor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta

Quadam laesa fuit: quo vulnere territa nullam.

Dum sperabat opem, se poene subegerat hosti.

The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner.]

75 (return) [ (Anna, l. v. p. 133;) and elsewhere, (p. 140.) The

pedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellations

encouraged Ducange to apply to his countrymen the characters of

the ancient Gauls.]

76 (return) [ Lupus Protospata (tom. iii. p. 45) says 6000:

William the Apulian more than 5000, (l. iv. p. 273.) Their

modesty is singular and laudable: they might with so little

trouble have slain two or three myriads of schismatics and

infidels!]

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.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 65 / 79 章

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors