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

The Saracens, Franks, And Greeks, In Italy.—First Adventures And
Settlement Of The Normans.—Character And Conquest Of Robert
Guiscard, Duke Of Apulia—Deliverance Of Sicily By His Brother
Roger.—Victories Of Robert Over The Emperors Of The East And
West.—Roger, King Of Sicily, Invades Africa And Greece.—The
Emperor Manuel Comnenus.— Wars Of The Greeks And
Normans.—Extinction Of The Normans.

The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens,
and the Franks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy. 1
The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples,
were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes
of Beneventum; 2 so powerful in war, that they checked for a
moment the genius of Charlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they
maintained in their capital an academy of thirty-two philosophers
and grammarians. The division of this flourishing state produced
the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and
the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the competitors invited
the Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a
calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy was exposed to a
repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable of
healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect conquest. Their
frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of
Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the
Christians of Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on
the African coast; and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes
tempted to assist or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In
the revolution of human events, a new ambuscade was concealed in
the Caudine Forks, the fields of Cannae were bedewed a second
time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome
again attacked or defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A
colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commands the
entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial depredations
provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union of the two
emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the
Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson
of Charlemagne; 3 and each party supplied the deficiencies of his
associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch
to transport his stationary troops of Asia to an Italian
campaign; and the Latin arms would have been insufficient if his
superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the Gulf. The
fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and
by the cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence of
four years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis,
who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This
important conquest had been achieved by the concord of the East
and West; but their recent amity was soon imbittered by the
mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as
their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph;
extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride
the intemperance and sloth of the handful of Barbarians who
appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply
is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: “We
confess the magnitude of your preparation,” says the
great-grandson of Charlemagne. “Your armies were indeed as
numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap
their wings, and, after a short flight, tumble weary and
breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble
effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew
from the scene of action to injure and despoil our Christian
subjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were few in number, and why
were we few? Because, after a tedious expectation of your
arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band
of warriors to continue the blockade of the city. If they
indulged their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death,
did these feasts abate the vigor of their enterprise? Is it by
your fasting that the walls of Bari have been overturned? Did not
these valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and
fatigue, intercept and vanish the three most powerful emirs of
the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of
the city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be
delivered; and, if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may
be rescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother,”
accelerate (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek,)
“accelerate your naval succors, respect your allies, and distrust
your flatterers.” 4

1 (return) [ For the general history of Italy in the ixth and xth
centuries, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books
of Sigonius de Regno Italiae, (in the second volume of his works,
Milan, 1732;) the Annals of Baronius, with the criticism of Pagi;
the viith and viiith books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di
Napoli of Giannone; the viith and viiith volumes (the octavo
edition) of the Annali d’ Italia of Muratori, and the 2d volume
of the Abrege Chronologique of M. de St. Marc, a work which,
under a superficial title, contains much genuine learning and
industry. But my long-accustomed reader will give me credit for
saying, that I myself have ascended to the fountain head, as
often as such ascent could be either profitable or possible; and
that I have diligently turned over the originals in the first
volumes of Muratori’s great collection of the Scriptores Rerum
Italicarum.]

2 (return) [ Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last
century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum,
in his two books Historia Principum Longobardorum, in the
Scriptores of Muratori tom. ii. pars i. p. 221-345, and tom. v. p
159-245.]

3 (return) [ See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibus, l. ii. c
xi. in Vit Basil. c. 55, p. 181.]

4 (return) [ The oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the
emperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published
by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 871, No. 51-71,) from the
Vatican Ms. of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian
of Salerno.] These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the
death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and
whoever might deserve the honor, the Greek emperors, Basil, and
his son Leo, secured the advantage, of the reduction of Bari. The
Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to
acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount
Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of
the kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire.
Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi 5 and Naples,
who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in
the neighborhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was
enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of
Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, 6
were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world, and
too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The city
of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new
theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician, and
afterwards the singular name of Catapan, 7 was assigned to the
supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was
modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople.
As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy,
their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or
eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the Alps under
the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of
those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of
Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and
barons, escaped with honor from the bloody field of Crotona. On
that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by the
valor of the Saracens. 8 These corsairs had indeed been driven by
the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but
a sense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or
resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported forty
thousand Moslems to the aid of his Christian ally. The successors
of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that the conquest of
Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved by the
justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the
gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and
oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into
the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were
dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman
adventurers.

5 (return) [ See an excellent Dissertation de Republica
Amalphitana, in the Appendix (p. 1-42) of Henry Brencman’s
Historia Pandectarum, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.)]

6 (return) [ Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and
protection prinminibus Capuano et Beneventano, servis meis, quos
oppugnare dispono.... Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum
patres et avi nostro Imperio tributa dederunt, (Liutprand, in
Legat. p. 484.) Salerno is not mentioned, yet the prince changed
his party about the same time, and Camillo Pellegrino (Script.
Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 285) has nicely discerned this
change in the style of the anonymous Chronicle. On the rational
ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480) had asserted
the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria.]

7 (return) [ See the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Ducange
(catapanus,) and his notes on the Alexias, (p. 275.) Against the
contemporary notion, which derives it from juxta omne, he treats
it as a corruption of the Latin capitaneus. Yet M. de St. Marc
has accurately observed (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924)
that in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles
of the first rank, the great valvassors of Italy.]

8 (return) [ (the Lombards), (Leon. Tactic. c. xv. p. 741.) The
little Chronicle of Beneventum (tom. ii. pars i. p. 280) gives a
far different character of the Greeks during the five years (A.D.
891-896) that Leo was master of the city.]

The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and
Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and
the tenth century of the Christian aera. At the former period,
the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted
with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with
soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of
Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a
powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishing
provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny,
and depopulated by Barbarian war; nor can we severely accuse the
exaggeration of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district
was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth
after the general deluge. 9 Among the hostilities of the Arabs,
the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I shall select
two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1.
It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to
pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno, a
Mussulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on
that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian
nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof was
accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the
death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ,
which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful
spouse. 10 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and
Capua: after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the
Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. 11 A
fearless citizen dropped from the walls, passed the
intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the
hands of the Barbarians as he was returning with the welcome
news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceive
his countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honors should
be the reward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be
punished with immediate death. He affected to yield, but as soon
as he was conducted within hearing of the Christians on the
rampart, “Friends and brethren,” he cried with a loud voice, “be
bold and patient, maintain the city; your sovereign is informed
of your distress, and your deliverers are at hand. I know my
doom, and commit my wife and children to your gratitude.” The
rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-devoted
patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to
live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the
same story in ancient and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts
on the reality of this generous deed. 12 3. The recital of a
third incident may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war.
Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, 13 supported the
rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible
in that age with the character of a hero. His captives of the
Greek nation or party were castrated without mercy, and the
outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished to present
the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments
of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been
defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the
customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the
intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks
dishevelled hair, and importunate clamors, compelled the marquis
to listen to her complaint. “Is it thus,” she cried, “ye
magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women
who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are the distaff
and the loom?” Theobald denied the charge, and protested that,
since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. “And how,”
she furiously exclaimed, “can you attack us more directly, how
can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our
husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source of our joys,
and the hope of our posterity? The plunder of our flocks and
herds I have endured without a murmur, but this fatal injury,
this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on
the justice of heaven and earth.” A general laugh applauded her
eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by
her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of
the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she
returned in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a
messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment
should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms.
“Should such,” she answered without hesitation, “be his guilt and
misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These
are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal
offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what his little
handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property.”
14

9 (return) [ Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam
reperientes funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut
deserta sit velut in diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or
Erchempert, according to the two editions of Carraccioli (Rer.
Italic. Script. tom. v. p. 23) and of Camillo Pellegrino, (tom.
ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, when they were
reprinted by Muratori.]

10 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 874, No. 2) has drawn
this story from a Ms. of Erchempert, who died at Capua only
fifteen years after the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a
false title, and we can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of
Salerno, (Paralipomena, c. 110,) composed towards the end of the
xth century, and published in the second volume of Muratori’s
Collection. See the Dissertations of Camillo Pellegrino, tom. ii.
pars i. p. 231-281, &c.]

11 (return) [ Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 58,
p. 183) is the original author of this story. He places it under
the reigns of Basil and Lewis II.; yet the reduction of
Beneventum by the Greeks is dated A.D. 891, after the decease of
both of those princes.]

12 (return) [ In the year 663, the same tragedy is described by
Paul the Deacon, (de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 7, 8, p. 870,
871, edit. Grot.,) under the walls of the same city of
Beneventum. But the actors are different, and the guilt is
imputed to the Greeks themselves, which in the Byzantine edition
is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in Germany, M.
D’Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, is said to
have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behavior is the
more heroic, as mere silence was required by the enemy who had
made him prisoner, (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33, tom. ix.
p. 172.)]

13 (return) [ Theobald, who is styled Heros by Liutprand, was
properly duke of Spoleto and marquis of Camerino, from the year
926 to 935. The title and office of marquis (commander of the
march or frontier) was introduced into Italy by the French
emperors, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 545-732 &c.)]

14 (return) [ Liutprand, Hist. l. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic.
Script. tom. i. pars i. p. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness of
the tale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that it
is hard if I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop could
write without scruple What if I had translated, ut viris certetis
testiculos amputare, in quibus nostri corporis refocillatio,
&c.?]

The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples and
Sicily 15 is an event most romantic in its origin, and in its
consequences most important both to Italy and the Eastern empire.
The broken provinces of the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, were
exposed to every invader, and every sea and land were invaded by
the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. After a long
indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair and ample territory
was accepted, occupied, and named, by the Normans of France: they
renounced their gods for the God of the Christians; 16 and the
dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the vassals of the
successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage fierceness which
they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway was refined,
without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions of
Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the
manners, language, 17 and gallantry, of the French nation; and in
a martial age, the Normans might claim the palm of valor and
glorious achievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they
embraced with ardor the pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy
Land. 171 In this active devotion, the minds and bodies were
invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty the
recompense; and the prospect of the world was decorated by
wonder, credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederated for
their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had been
allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm
of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount
Garganus in Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition
of the archangel Michael, 18 they were accosted by a stranger in
the Greek habit, but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a
fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was
Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt,
was compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The
bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited
his confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more
to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth
demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the
inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed
by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled
a spark of enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely
associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by
separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but in the
neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the chief of Bari, who
supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and instantly
led them to the field of action. In the first conflict, their
valor prevailed; but in the second engagement they were
overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks,
and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. 1811 The
unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of
Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and
their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of
Italy, and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that
formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and
Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic quarrels; the
superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory to the
side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the
balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state
should render their aid less important, and their service less
profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of
the marshes of Campania: but they were soon endowed by the
liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and
permanent seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark
against Capua, the town of Aversa was built and fortified for
their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and fruits, the
meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of their
success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and soldiers:
the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope;
and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of
ease and ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa
afforded shelter and encouragement to the outlaws of the
province, to every fugitive who had escaped from the injustice or
justice of his superiors; and these foreign associates were
quickly assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic colony.
The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the
origin of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and the
proof of superior merit. 19 1911

15 (return) [ The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are
collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may
distinguish the poems of William Appulus (p. 245-278) and the
history of Galfridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537-607.) Both were
natives of France, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of the
first conquerors (before A.D. 1100,) and with the spirit of
freemen. It is needless to recapitulate the compilers and critics
of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori,
St. Marc, &c., whom I have always consulted, and never copied. *
Note: M. Goutier d’Arc has discovered a translation of the
Chronicle of Aime, monk of Mont Cassino, a contemporary of the
first Norman invaders of Italy. He has made use of it in his
Histoire des Conquetes des Normands, and added a summary of its
contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was supposed
to have been entirely lost.—M.]

16 (return) [ Some of the first converts were baptized ten or
twelve times, for the sake of the white garment usually given at
this ceremony. At the funeral of Rollo, the gifts to monasteries
for the repose of his soul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one
hundred captives. But in a generation or two, the national change
was pure and general.]

17 (return) [ The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans
of Bayeux on the sea-coast, at a time (A.D. 940) when it was
already forgotten at Rouen, in the court and capital. Quem
(Richard I.) confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni militiae suae
principi nutriendum tradidit, ut, ibi lingua eruditus Danica,
suis exterisque hominibus sciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm.
Gemeticensis de Ducibus Normannis, l. iii. c. 8, p. 623, edit.
Camden.) Of the vernacular and favorite idiom of William the
Conqueror, (A.D. 1035,) Selden (Opera, tom. ii. p. 1640-1656) has
given a specimen, obsolete and obscure even to antiquarians and
lawyers.]

171 (return) [ A band of Normans returning from the Holy Land had
rescued the city of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet
of Saracens. Gainar, the Lombard prince of Salerno wished to
retain them in his service and take them into his pay. They
answered, “We fight for our religion, and not for money.” Gaimar
entreated them to send some Norman knights to his court. This
seems to have been the origin of the connection of the Normans
with Italy. See Histoire des Conquetes des Normands par Goutier
d’Arc, l. i. c. i., Paris, 1830.—M.]

18 (return) [ See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d’Italia, p. 250)
and Baronius, (A.D. 493, No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the
temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the
soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph l. vi. p. 435, 436,) the Catholics
(on this occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of
their superstition.]

1811 (return) [ Nine out of ten perished in the field. Chronique
d’Aime, tom. i. p. 21 quoted by M Goutier d’Arc, p. 42.—M.]

19 (return) [ See the first book of William Appulus. His words
are applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters:—

Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos
Confugiebat eum gratanter suscipiebant:
Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant
Informant propria; gens efficiatur ut una.
And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy:—
Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae:
Pars, quia de magnis majora subire volebant.]

1911 (return) [ This account is not accurate. After the retreat
of the emperor Henry II. the Normans, united under the command of
Rainulf, had taken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in
the duchy of Naples. They had been masters of it a few years when
Pandulf IV., prince of Capua, found means to take Naples by
surprise. Sergius, master of the soldiers, and head of the
republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned a city in which
he could not behold, without horror, the establishment of a
foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, with the
assistance of the Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to
their country, he had collected money enough to satisfy the
rapacity of the Norman adventurers, he advanced at their head to
attack the garrison of the prince of Capua, defeated it, and
reentered Naples. It was then that he confirmed the Normans in
the possession of Aversa and its territory, which he raised into
a count’s fief, and granted the investiture to Rainulf. Hist. des
Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267]

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