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.]