Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.—Part

II.

It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics, 29
that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their
pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same
means of subsistence, and employed the same instruments of
destruction. But he adds, that the two nations of Bulgarians and
Hungarians were superior to their brethren, and similar to each
other in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and
government: their visible likeness determines Leo to confound his
friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture
may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of
the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess,
all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to
these Barbarians, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the
consciousness of numbers and freedom. The tents of the Hungarians
were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair,
and scarified their faces: in speech they were slow, in action
prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach
of Barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth,
too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn
engagements. Their simplicity has been praised; yet they
abstained only from the luxury they had never known; whatever
they saw they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their
sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the
definition of a pastoral nation, I have recalled a long
description of the economy, the warfare, and the government that
prevail in that state of society; I may add, that to fishing, as
well as to the chase, the Hungarians were indebted for a part of
their subsistence; and since they seldom cultivated the ground,
they must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes
practised a slight and unskilful husbandry. In their emigrations,
perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompanied by
thousands of sheep and oxen which increased the cloud of
formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesale supply of
milk and animal food. A plentiful command of forage was the first
care of the general, and if the flocks and herds were secure of
their pastures, the hardy warrior was alike insensible of danger
and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle that overspread the
country exposed their camp to a nocturnal surprise, had not a
still wider circuit been occupied by their light cavalry,
perpetually in motion to discover and delay the approach of the
enemy. After some experience of the Roman tactics, they adopted
the use of the sword and spear, the helmet of the soldier, and
the iron breastplate of his steed: but their native and deadly
weapon was the Tartar bow: from the earliest infancy their
children and servants were exercised in the double science of
archery and horsemanship; their arm was strong; their aim was
sure; and in the most rapid career, they were taught to throw
themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrows into the
air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in flight, or pursuit,
they were equally formidable; an appearance of order was
maintained in the foremost ranks, but their charge was driven
forwards by the impatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They
pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and horrific
outcries; but, if they fled, with real or dissembled fear, the
ardor of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by the same
habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of
victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from the wounds of
the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely asked, and more
rarely bestowed: both sexes if accused is equally inaccessible to
pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the
popular tale, that they drank the blood, and feasted on the
hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those
principles of justice and humanity, which nature has implanted in
every bosom. The license of public and private injuries was
restrained by laws and punishments; and in the security of an
open camp, theft is the most tempting and most dangerous offence.
Among the Barbarians there were many, whose spontaneous virtue
supplied their laws and corrected their manners, who performed
the duties, and sympathized with the affections, of social life.

29 (return) [ Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks
was monarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous,
(Tactic. p. 896) Rhegino (in Chron. A.D. 889) mentions theft as a
capital crime, and his jurisprudence is confirmed by the original
code of St. Stephen, (A.D. 1016.) If a slave were guilty, he was
chastised, for the first time, with the loss of his nose, or a
fine of five heifers; for the second, with the loss of his ears,
or a similar fine; for the third, with death; which the freeman
did not incur till the fourth offence, as his first penalty was
the loss of liberty, (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar tom. i. p. 231,
232.)]

After a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish hordes
approached the common limits of the French and Byzantine empires.
Their first conquests and final settlements extended on either
side of the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the
measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom
of Hungary. 30 That ample and fertile land was loosely occupied
by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven
by the invaders into the compass of a narrow province.
Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire as far as
the edge of Transylvania; but, after the failure of his
legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and
tribute to the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph
was provoked to invite the arms of the Turks: they rushed through
the real or figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown
open; and the king of Germany has been justly reproached as a
traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical society of the
Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarians were
checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son Lewis
they discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian
speed, that in a single day a circuit of fifty miles was stripped
and consumed. In the battle of Augsburgh the Christians
maintained their advantage till the seventh hour of the day, they
were deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of the
Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces of
Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians 31 promoted
the reign of anarchy, by forcing the stoutest barons to
discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of
walled towns is ascribed to this calamitous period; nor could any
distance be secure against an enemy, who, almost at the same
instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St. Gall, and
the city of Bremen, on the shores of the northern ocean. Above
thirty years the Germanic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the
ignominy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by the menace,
the serious and effectual menace of dragging the women and
children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males above the
age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow
the Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with
surprise, that the southern provinces of France were blasted by
the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished
at the approach of these formidable strangers. 32 The vicinity of
Italy had tempted their early inroads; but from their camp on the
Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength and
populousness of the new discovered country. They requested leave
to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian
king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid the
forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the
West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendor; and
the preeminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics
of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames;
forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of
the people, they spared about two hundred wretches who had
gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a vague exaggeration)
from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual
excursions from the Alps to the neighborhood of Rome and Capua,
the churches, that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany:
“O, save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians!” But
the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled
forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land of Calabria. 33
A composition was offered and accepted for the head of each
Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in
the Turkish camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of
violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of
the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the side of the
East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the
equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance
with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the
Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of
Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks; and one of
their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe into the
golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks diverted the
assault; but the Hungarians might boast, in their retreat, that
they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the
majesty of the Caesars. 34 The remote and rapid operations of the
same campaign appear to magnify the power and numbers of the
Turks; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a
light troop of three or four hundred horse would often attempt
and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica
and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the ninth and
tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from
the North, the East, and the South: the Norman, the Hungarian,
and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same ground of desolation;
and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the
two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag. 35

30 (return) [ See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321-352.]

31 (return) [ Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertae
saevitium &c., is the preface of Liutprand, (l. i. c. 2,) who
frequently expatiated on the calamities of his own times. See l.
i. c. 5, l. ii. c. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7; l. iii. c. 1, &c., l. v. c.
8, 15, in Legat. p. 485. His colors are glaring but his
chronology must be rectified by Pagi and Muratori.]

32 (return) [ The three bloody reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and
Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum, &c. p.
107-499.) His diligence has searched both natives and foreigners;
yet to the deeds of mischief, or glory, I have been able to add
the destruction of Bremen, (Adam Bremensis, i. 43.)]

33 (return) [ Muratori has considered with patriotic care the
danger and resources of Modena. The citizens besought St.
Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession, the
rabies, flagellum, &c. Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab
Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis.The bishop erected walls for the
public defence, not contra dominos serenos, (Antiquitat. Ital.
Med. Aevi, tom. i. dissertat. i. p. 21, 22,) and the song of the
nightly watch is not without elegance or use, (tom. iii. dis. xl.
p. 709.) The Italian annalist has accurately traced the series of
their inroads, (Annali d’ Italia, tom. vii. p. 365, 367, 398,
401, 437, 440, tom. viii. p. 19, 41, 52, &c.)]

34 (return) [ Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that
they besieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople, (Pray,
dissertat. x. p. 239. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354-360;) and the
fact is almost confessed by the Byzantine historians, (Leo
Grammaticus, p. 506. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 629: ) yet, however
glorious to the nation, it is denied or doubted by the critical
historian, and even by the notary of Bela. Their scepticism is
meritorious; they could not safely transcribe or believe the
rusticorum fabulas: but Katona might have given due attention to
the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gentem atque daecorum
tributariam fecerant, (Hist. l. ii. c. 4, p. 435.)]

35 (return) [—Iliad, xvi. 756.]

The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the
Saxon princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two
memorable battles, forever broke the power of the Hungarians. 36
The valiant Henry was roused from a bed of sickness by the
invasion of his country; but his mind was vigorous and his
prudence successful. “My companions,” said he, on the morning of
the combat, “maintain your ranks, receive on your bucklers the
first arrows of the Pagans, and prevent their second discharge by
the equal and rapid career of your lances.” They obeyed and
conquered: and the historical picture of the castle of Merseburgh
expressed the features, or at least the character, of Henry, who,
in an age of ignorance, intrusted to the finer arts the
perpetuity of his name. 37 At the end of twenty years, the
children of the Turks who had fallen by his sword invaded the
empire of his son; and their force is defined, in the lowest
estimate, at one hundred thousand horse. They were invited by
domestic faction; the gates of Germany were treacherously
unlocked; and they spread, far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse,
into the heart of Flanders. But the vigor and prudence of Otho
dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible that
unless they were true to each other, their religion and country
were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in
the plains of Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight
legions, according to the division of provinces and tribes; the
first, second, and third, were composed of Bavarians; the fourth,
of Franconians; the fifth, of Saxons, under the immediate command
of the monarch; the sixth and seventh consisted of Swabians; and
the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of
the host. The resources of discipline and valor were fortified by
the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve
the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers were purified
with a fast; the camp was blessed with the relics of saints and
martyrs; and the Christian hero girded on his side the sword of
Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and
waved the banner of St. Maurice, the praefect of the Thebaean
legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy lance,
38 whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which
his father had extorted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats
of war, and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were expected
in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, a river of Bavaria
that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the Christian
army; plundered the baggage, and disordered the legion of Bohemia
and Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, whose
duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested
from his fatigues: the Saxons fought under the eyes of their
king; and his victory surpassed, in merit and importance, the
triumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of the
Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action;
they were encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and their past
cruelties excluded them from the hope of mercy. Three captive
princes were hanged at Ratisbon, the multitude of prisoners was
slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, who presumed to appear in
the face of their country, were condemned to everlasting poverty
and disgrace. 39 Yet the spirit of the nation was humbled, and
the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch
and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of moderation and
peace: the robbers of the West acquiesced in a sedentary life;
and the next generation was taught, by a discerning prince, that
far more might be gained by multiplying and exchanging the
produce of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish or
Fennic blood, was mingled with new colonies of Scythian or
Sclavonian origin; 40 many thousands of robust and industrious
captives had been imported from all the countries of Europe; 41
and after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he
bestowed honors and estates on the nobles of Germany. 42 The son
of Geisa was invested with the regal title, and the house of
Arpad reigned three hundred years in the kingdom of Hungary. But
the freeborn Barbarians were not dazzled by the lustre of the
diadem, and the people asserted their indefeasible right of
choosing, deposing, and punishing the hereditary servant of the
state.

36 (return) [ They are amply and critically discussed by Katona,
(Hist. Dacum, p. 360-368, 427-470.) Liutprand (l. ii. c. 8, 9) is
the best evidence for the former, and Witichind (Annal. Saxon. l.
iii.) of the latter; but the critical historian will not even
overlook the horn of a warrior, which is said to be preserved at
Jaz-berid.]

37 (return) [ Hunc vero triumphum, tam laude quam memoria dignum,
ad Meresburgum rex in superiori coenaculo domus per Zeus, id est,
picturam, notari praecepit, adeo ut rem veram potius quam
verisimilem videas: a high encomium, (Liutprand, l. ii. c. 9.)
Another palace in Germany had been painted with holy subjects by
the order of Charlemagne; and Muratori may justly affirm, nulla
saecula fuere in quibus pictores desiderati fuerint, (Antiquitat.
Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. ii. dissert. xxiv. p. 360, 361.) Our
domestic claims to antiquity of ignorance and original
imperfection (Mr. Walpole’s lively words) are of a much more
recent date, (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 2, &c.)]

38 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 929, No. 2-5. The
lance of Christ is taken from the best evidence, Liutprand, (l.
iv. c. 12,) Sigebert, and the Acts of St. Gerard: but the other
military relics depend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post
Bedam, l. ii. c. 8.]

39 (return) [ Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungariae, p. 500, &c.]

40 (return) [ Among these colonies we may distinguish, 1. The
Chazars, or Cabari, who joined the Hungarians on their march,
(Constant. de Admin. Imp. c. 39, 40, p. 108, 109.) 2. The
Jazyges, Moravians, and Siculi, whom they found in the land; the
last were perhaps a remnant of the Huns of Attila, and were
intrusted with the guard of the borders. 3. The Russians, who,
like the Swiss in France, imparted a general name to the royal
porters. 4. The Bulgarians, whose chiefs (A.D. 956) were invited,
cum magna multitudine Hismahelitarum. Had any of those
Sclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion? 5. The Bisseni and
Cumans, a mixed multitude of Patzinacites, Uzi, Chazars, &c., who
had spread to the Lower Danube. The last colony of 40,000 Cumans,
A.D. 1239, was received and converted by the kings of Hungary,
who derived from that tribe a new regal appellation, (Pray,
Dissert. vi. vii. p. 109-173. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 95-99,
259-264, 476, 479-483, &c.)]

41 (return) [ Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui
ex omni parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the
language of Piligrinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary,
A.D. 973. Pars major is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517.]

42 (return) [ The fideles Teutonici of Geisa are authenticated in
old charters: and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a
fair estimate of these colonies, which had been so loosely
magnified by the Italian Ranzanus, (Hist. Critic. Ducum. p,
667-681.)]

III. The name of Russians 43 was first divulged, in the ninth
century, by an embassy of Theophilus, emperor of the East, to the
emperor of the West, Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks
were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, or
czar, of the Russians. In their journey to Constantinople, they
had traversed many hostile nations; and they hoped to escape the
dangers of their return, by requesting the French monarch to
transport them by sea to their native country. A closer
examination detected their origin: they were the brethren of the
Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable
in France; and it might justly be apprehended, that these Russian
strangers were not the messengers of peace, but the emissaries of
war. They were detained, while the Greeks were dismissed; and
Lewis expected a more satisfactory account, that he might obey
the laws of hospitality or prudence, according to the interest of
both empires. 44 This Scandinavian origin of the people, or at
least the princes, of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated by
the national annals 45 and the general history of the North. The
Normans, who had so long been concealed by a veil of impenetrable
darkness, suddenly burst forth in the spirit of naval and
military enterprise. The vast, and, as it is said, the populous
regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were crowded with
independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in
the laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy
was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the
Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow
limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms,
sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored every
coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The Baltic was
the first scene of their naval achievements they visited the
eastern shores, the silent residence of Fennic and Sclavonic
tribes, and the primitive Russians of the Lake Ladoga paid a
tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, whom
they saluted with the title of Varangians 46 or Corsairs. Their
superiority in arms, discipline, and renown, commanded the fear
and reverence of the natives. In their wars against the more
inland savages, the Varangians condescended to serve as friends
and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or conquest, obtained
the dominion of a people whom they were qualified to protect.
Their tyranny was expelled, their valor was again recalled, till
at length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a
dynasty which reigned above seven hundred years. His brothers
extended his influence: the example of service and usurpation was
imitated by his companions in the southern provinces of Russia;
and their establishments, by the usual methods of war and
assassination, were cemented into the fabric of a powerful
monarchy.

43 (return) [ Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a
singular form, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful
etymologies have been suggested. I have perused, with pleasure
and profit, a dissertation de Origine Russorum (Comment. Academ.
Petropolitanae, tom. viii. p. 388-436) by Theophilus Sigefrid
Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labors in the
service of Russia. A geographical tract of D’Anville, de l’Empire
de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772, in
12mo.,) has likewise been of use. * Note: The later antiquarians
of Russia and Germany appear to aquiesce in the authority of the
monk Nestor, the earliest annalist of Russia, who derives the
Russians, or Vareques, from Scandinavia. The names of the first
founders of the Russian monarchy are Scandinavian or Norman.
Their language (according to Const. Porphyrog. de Administrat.
Imper. c. 9) differed essentially from the Sclavonian. The author
of the Annals of St. Bertin, who first names the Russians (Rhos)
in the year 839 of his Annals, assigns them Sweden for their
country. So Liutprand calls the Russians the same people as the
Normans. The Fins, Laplanders, and Esthonians, call the Swedes,
to the present day, Roots, Rootsi, Ruotzi, Rootslaue. See
Thunman, Untersuchungen uber der Geschichte des Estlichen
Europaischen Volker, p. 374. Gatterer, Comm. Societ. Regbcient.
Gotting. xiii. p. 126. Schlozer, in his Nestor. Koch. Revolut. de
‘Europe, vol. i. p. 60. Malte-Brun, Geograph. vol. vi. p.
378.—M.]

44 (return) [ See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut
aureis in tabulis rigatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum,
(in Script. Ital. Muratori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 525,) A.D. 839,
twenty-two years before the aera of Ruric. In the xth century,
Liutprand (Hist. l. v. c. 6) speaks of the Russians and Normans
as the same Aquilonares homines of a red complexion.]

45 (return) [ My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M.
Leveque, Histoire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these
ancient annalists, was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning
of the xiith century; but his Chronicle was obscure, till it was
published at Petersburgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist. de Russie,
tom. i. p. xvi. Coxe’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 184. * Note: The late
M. Schlozer has translated and added a commentary to the Annals
of Nestor; and his work is the mine from which henceforth the
history of the North must be drawn.—G.]

46 (return) [ Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis, (for the name is
differently spelt,) in Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. iv.
p. 275-311.]

As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and
conquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians,
distributed estates and subjects to their faithful captains, and
supplied their numbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the
Baltic coast. 47 But when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a
deep and permanent root into the soil, they mingled with the
Russians in blood, religion, and language, and the first
Waladimir had the merit of delivering his country from these
foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the throne; his
riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; but they
listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not a
more grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should
embark for Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk
and gold would be the recompense of their service. At the same
time, the Russian prince admonished his Byzantine ally to
disperse and employ, to recompense and restrain, these impetuous
children of the North. Contemporary writers have recorded the
introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians: each day
they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body was assembled
at Constantinople to perform the duty of guards; and their
strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen
from the Island of Thule. On this occasion, the vague appellation
of Thule is applied to England; and the new Varangians were a
colony of English and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman
conqueror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had approximated
the countries of the earth; these exiles were entertained in the
Byzantine court; and they preserved, till the last age of the
empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the use of the
Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edged
battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor
to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and
feasted under their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the
treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful
hands of the Varangians. 48

47 (return) [ Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were
still guarded ex fugitivorum servorum robore, confluentium et
maxime Danorum. Bayer, who quotes (p. 292) the Chronicle of
Dithmar of Merseburgh, observes, that it was unusual for the
Germans to enlist in a foreign service.]

48 (return) [ Ducange has collected from the original authors the
state and history of the Varangi at Constantinople, (Glossar.
Med. et Infimae Graecitatis, sub voce. Med. et Infimae
Latinitatis, sub voce Vagri. Not. ad Alexiad. Annae Comnenae, p.
256, 257, 258. Notes sur Villehardouin, p. 296-299.) See likewise
the annotations of Reiske to the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. of
Constantine, tom. ii. p. 149, 150. Saxo Grammaticus affirms that
they spoke Danish; but Codinus maintains them till the fifteenth
century in the use of their native English.]

In the tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far
beyond the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the
Russians obtains a vast and conspicuous place in the map of
Constantine. 49 The sons of Ruric were masters of the spacious
province of Wolodomir, or Moscow; and, if they were confined on
that side by the hordes of the East, their western frontier in
those early days was enlarged to the Baltic Sea and the country
of the Prussians. Their northern reign ascended above the
sixtieth degree of latitude over the Hyperborean regions, which
fancy had peopled with monsters, or clouded with eternal
darkness. To the south they followed the course of the
Borysthenes, and approached with that river the neighborhood of
the Euxine Sea. The tribes that dwelt, or wandered, in this ample
circuit were obedient to the same conqueror, and insensibly
blended into the same nation. The language of Russia is a dialect
of the Sclavonian; but in the tenth century, these two modes of
speech were different from each other; and, as the Sclavonian
prevailed in the South, it may be presumed that the original
Russians of the North, the primitive subjects of the Varangian
chief, were a portion of the Fennic race. With the emigration,
union, or dissolution, of the wandering tribes, the loose and
indefinite picture of the Scythian desert has continually
shifted. But the most ancient map of Russia affords some places
which still retain their name and position; and the two capitals,
Novogorod 50 and Kiow, 51 are coeval with the first age of the
monarchy. Novogorod had not yet deserved the epithet of great,
nor the alliance of the Hanseatic League, which diffused the
streams of opulence and the principles of freedom. Kiow could not
yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumerable people, and a
degree of greatness and splendor which was compared with
Constantinople by those who had never seen the residence of the
Caesars. In their origin, the two cities were no more than camps
or fairs, the most convenient stations in which the Barbarians
might assemble for the occasional business of war or trade. Yet
even these assemblies announce some progress in the arts of
society; a new breed of cattle was imported from the southern
provinces; and the spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the
sea and land, from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouth of
the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In the days of idolatry
and barbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was frequented and
enriched by the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of
purchase and exchange. 52 From this harbor, at the entrance of
the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three days to
the eastern shores of the Baltic, the most distant nations were
intermingled, and the holy groves of Curland are said to have
been decorated with Grecian and Spanish gold. 53 Between the sea
and Novogorod an easy intercourse was discovered; in the summer,
through a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the winter
season, over the hard and level surface of boundless snows. From
the neighborhood of that city, the Russians descended the streams
that fall into the Borysthenes; their canoes, of a single tree,
were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the
spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle; and the
whole produce of the North was collected and discharged in the
magazines of Kiow. The month of June was the ordinary season of
the departure of the fleet: the timber of the canoes was framed
into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious boats; and
they proceeded without obstacle down the Borysthenes, as far as
the seven or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed,
and precipitate the waters, of the river. At the more shallow
falls it was sufficient to lighten the vessels; but the deeper
cataracts were impassable; and the mariners, who dragged their
vessels and their slaves six miles over land, were exposed in
this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. 54 At the
first island below the falls, the Russians celebrated the
festival of their escape: at a second, near the mouth of the
river, they repaired their shattered vessels for the longer and
more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. If they steered along the
coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind they could
reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shores of
Anatolia; and Constantinople admitted the annual visit of the
strangers of the North. They returned at the stated season with a
rich cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece,
and the spices of India. Some of their countrymen resided in the
capital and provinces; and the national treaties protected the
persons, effects, and privileges, of the Russian merchant. 55

49 (return) [ The original record of the geography and trade of
Russia is produced by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
(de Administrat. Imperii, c. 2, p. 55, 56, c. 9, p. 59-61, c. 13,
p. 63-67, c. 37, p. 106, c. 42, p. 112, 113,) and illustrated by
the diligence of Bayer, (de Geographia Russiae vicinarumque
Regionum circiter A. C. 948, in Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom.
ix. p. 367-422, tom. x. p. 371-421,) with the aid of the
chronicles and traditions of Russia, Scandinavia, &c.]

50 (return) [ The haughty proverb, “Who can resist God and the
great Novogorod?” is applied by M. Leveque (Hist. de Russie, tom.
i. p. 60) even to the times that preceded the reign of Ruric. In
the course of his history he frequently celebrates this republic,
which was suppressed A.D. 1475, (tom. ii. p. 252-266.) That
accurate traveller Adam Olearius describes (in 1635) the remains
of Novogorod, and the route by sea and land of the Holstein
ambassadors, tom. i. p. 123-129.]

51 (return) [ In hac magna civitate, quae est caput regni, plus
trecentae ecclesiae habentur et nundinae octo, populi etiam
ignota manus (Eggehardus ad A.D. 1018, apud Bayer, tom. ix. p.
412.) He likewise quotes (tom. x. p. 397) the words of the Saxon
annalist, Cujus (Russioe) metropolis est Chive, aemula sceptri
Constantinopolitani, quae est clarissimum decus Graeciae. The
fame of Kiow, especially in the xith century, had reached the
German and Arabian geographers.]

52 (return) [ In Odorae ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes,
nobilissima civitas Julinum, celeberrimam, Barbaris et Graecis
qui sunt in circuitu, praestans stationem, est sane maxima omnium
quas Europa claudit civitatum, (Adam Bremensis, Hist. Eccles. p.
19;) a strange exaggeration even in the xith century. The trade
of the Baltic, and the Hanseatic League, are carefully treated in
Anderson’s Historical Deduction of Commerce; at least, in our
language, I am not acquainted with any book so satisfactory. *
Note: The book of authority is the “Geschichte des Hanseatischen
Bundes,” by George Sartorius, Gottingen, 1803, or rather the
later edition of that work by M. Lappenberg, 2 vols. 4to.,
Hamburgh, 1830.—M. 1845.]

53 (return) [ According to Adam of Bremen, (de Situ Daniae, p.
58,) the old Curland extended eight days’ journey along the
coast; and by Peter Teutoburgicus, (p. 68, A.D. 1326,) Memel is
defined as the common frontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia.
Aurum ibi plurimum, (says Adam,) divinis auguribus atque
necromanticis omnes domus sunt plenae.... a toto orbe ibi
responsa petuntur, maxime ab Hispanis (forsan Zupanis, id est
regulis Lettoviae) et Graecis. The name of Greeks was applied to
the Russians even before their conversion; an imperfect
conversion, if they still consulted the wizards of Curland,
(Bayer, tom. x. p. 378, 402, &c. Grotius, Prolegomen. ad Hist.
Goth. p. 99.)]

54 (return) [ Constantine only reckons seven cataracts, of which
he gives the Russian and Sclavonic names; but thirteen are
enumerated by the Sieur de Beauplan, a French engineer, who had
surveyed the course and navigation of the Dnieper, or
Borysthenes, (Description de l’Ukraine, Rouen, 1660, a thin
quarto;) but the map is unluckily wanting in my copy.]

55 (return) [ Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p.
78-80. From the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, the Russians went to
Black Bulgaria, Chazaria, and Syria. To Syria, how? where? when?
The alteration is slight; the position of Suania, between
Chazaria and Lazica, is perfectly suitable; and the name was
still used in the xith century, (Cedren. tom. ii. p. 770.)]