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A.D. 972.

and the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch
and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of modera-
tion 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;" and after the
marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he bestowed honours and
estates on the nobles of Germany.42 The son of Geisa was invested

40 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 [tom. iii. p. 171, seqq., ed. Bonn]). 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 magnà multitudine Hismahelitarum. Had any of these 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.).

C

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 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).

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Respecting the Chazars, a Turkish tribe, see Editor's note, vol. v. p. 406, 407. We learn from Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Admin. Imp. c. 39, 40) that the Chazars, who united with the Hungarians, spoke the language of the latter as well as their own.-S.

These Jazyges must not be confounded with the earlier Sarmatian people of this name. They were a division of the Cumanians, called by the Hungarians Jászok (from singular jász), archers, whence their name Jazyges: they dwelt on the right bank of the Theiss. The Siculi (Hungarian Székelyek, from sing. Székely) are said by the Hungarian chroniclers to have been a remnant of the Huns of Attila, as Gibbon states. They were stationed on the eastern frontier of the kingdom, and their name signifies watchers or guardians. They were perhaps Chazars. Zeuss, Die Deutschen, &c., p. 755, 756. -S.

These Hism helite must have been Mahometans, as Gibbon conjectures. They were probably Baschkirs, who had settled

in Bulgaria. An Arabic writer in the thirteenth century conversed at Aleppo with one of the Mahometan Baschkirs, who related that his countrymen were subject to the Hungarians. Frähn, De Baschkiris Exc. p. 7, 8; Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 755.--S.

d Bisseni is the name given by the Hungarian chroniclers to the Turkish tribe of the Petchene jes, called Пargaxira by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and Peczenjezi by the Slavonians. The Cumani, afterwards called Kiptschahs, were the people named Uzi by Constantine Porph. They are called Gusses, or Goss, by the Arabic writers. (See below, ch. lvii. note 31.) The Uzi or Cumani were also Turks, and spoke the same language as the Petcheneges, and are mentioned together by the Byzantine writers. (Anna Comnena, Alex. viii. p. 231, ed. Paris; p. 402, ed. Bonn.) At a later period these two peoples were found in possession of the whole country to the northward of the Euxine. Zeuss, Die Deutschen, &c., p. 742, seq.- S.

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.

III. The name of RUSSIANS 43 was first divulged, in the ninth

43 Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singular form, 'Ps, 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. Petropolitana, tom. viii. p. 388-436) by Theophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labours 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."

a The Scandinavian origin of the Ruasians, related by Nestor, the old Russian annalist, and adopted by Gibbon, has generally been received by the best modern scholars, and indeed rests upon evidence which can hardly be rejected. But while there can be little doubt of the general fact that the Russians were a race of Scandinavian conquerors, and brothers of the other Northmen, who, about the same period, ravaged so many countries in Europe, the details of their conquests, as given by Nestor, belong rather to mythology than to history. The tale of the three Scandinavian brothers. Rurik, Sineus, and Truwor, who settled in Russia and became masters of the country, reminds one of similar stories in the traditions of other Scandinavian and Germanic races. So much, however, appears certain:-Among the various Slavonic tribes that dwelt north of the Danube, two principal states arose at an early period: one to the north near Lake Ilmen, of which Novogorod was the capital; and the other to the south on the Dnieper, with Kiew as its chief town. The northern state, which contained the more important tribes, several of which were Finns, was conquered by Scandinavians, called by themselves Russians, and by the Slavonians Warjazi or Varangians. The latter name is said to signify allies, and to come from the word vara, a compact or alliance. The southern state was in like manner subdued by the Chazars. The power of the Scandinavian conquerors gradually extended; but the name of Russians was at first confined to the northern state. Oleg, the first successor of Rurik, is said to have conquered Kiew in 884, and hence the southern Slavonians were also called Russians.

The statement of Nestor respecting the

Scandinavian origin of the Russians is confirmed by the following circumstances: -1. In the account of the embassy sent by the emperor Theophilus to Lewis, the son of Charlemagne, in 839, mentioned by Gibbon, the Russians were said to be Swedes ("comperit eos gentis esse Sue

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onum," Annal. Bertin.). Liutprand also states that the Russians were the same people as the Normans. Two Byzantine writers, who relate the last expedition of the Russians against Constantinople, say that the Russians were of the race of the Franks; by which they must clearly mean that the Russians were of Teutonic origin, as it was well known that the Franks were Germans. O Ῥῶς, οἱ καὶ Δρομῖται λεγόμενοι, οἱ ἐκ γένους τῶν Φράγκων καθίστανται. tor. post Theophan. p. 262, ed. Paris. o Ῥῶς, οἱ καὶ Δρομῖται λεγομένοι, οἱ ἐκ γένους τοῦ Φράγγων ὄντες. Symeon Mag. p. 490. Agoura is probably a translation of the name Ros; since in the old Norse rás is demos, running, and the verb rása is to run. It may be added that the naval expeditions of the Russians against Constantinople bear a striking resemblance to those of the Danes and Normans about the same period.

2. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Admin. Imp. c. 9) distinguishes the Russian from the Slavonic language, and gives the names of the cataracts in the Dnieper both in Russian and Slavonic: most of the former are clearly Scandinavian. (Lehrberg, Untersuchungen, p. 337, seq.) Moreover, most of the names of the early Russians, although disguised by the Slavonic pronunciation, may be recognised as Scandinavian, and cannot be explained by the Slavonic or by any other language. This is the case with Rurik, Truwor, and Sineus (Snio?), Igor or Inger; Ragvald or Raguvald, and his daughter Ragnied;

1

Origin of

monarchy.

A.D. 839.

century, by an embassy from 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, the Russian 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 " 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. Impa

44 See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut aureis in tabulis figatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum (in Script. Ital. Muratori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 525), a.d. 859, twenty-two years before the æra of Ruric. In the xth century Liutprand (Hist. 1. v. c. 6) speaks of the Russians and Normans as the same Aquilonares homines of a red complexion.

45 My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M. Levêque, Histoire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these ancient annalists, was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning of the xith century; but his Chronicle was obscure till it was published at Petersburgh, 1767, in 4to.; Levêque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. xvi.; Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. p. 184."

Oskold; and others. Moreover, at the
present day the Finns and Esthonians call
Sweden Ruotzi Rootsimaa, and a Swede
Ruotzalainen and Rootslane. We have
already seen that the Slavonians gave
the name of Varangians to the Russian
conquerors; and we know that this name
was in like manner given by the Greeks at
Constantinople to the Scandinavian body-
guard of the emperor. Some Byzantine
writers say that they spoke English (see
Gibbon's note 48); others call them Ger-
mans; but these statements may have
arisen from the confusion of the northern
nations made by the Byzantines: and,
even if interpreted literally, indicate at

YOL. VII.

least the Teutonic origin of the Varangians.

5. The Scandinavian origin of the Russians is also confirmed by the Arabic writers, who are quoted at length by Zeuss. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, p. 547, scq.; Prichard, Physical History, vol. iii. p. 408, seq.; Karamsin, Histoire de la Russie; Strahl, Geschichte des Russichen Staates, vol. i. p. 55, seq.-S.

a The late M. Schlözer 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.

G

tient 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 Fennie and Sclavonian 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 valour 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.

A.D. 862.

As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and

The Varangians of Constantinople.

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 recompence 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

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

47 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 Ditmar of Merseburg, observes that it was unusual for the Germans to enlist in a foreign service.

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

of Russia,

In the tenth century the geography of Scythia was extended far beyond the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy Geography of the Russians obtains a vast and conspicuous place in the and trade map of Constantine,49 The sons of Ruric were masters of A.D. 950. 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 neighbourhood 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

Ducange has collected from the original authors the state and history of the Varangi at Constantinople (Glossar. Med. et Infimæ Græcitatis, sub voce Bagayyos; Med. et Infimæ Latinitatis, sub voce Vagri; Not. ad Alexiad. Annæ Comnenæ, p. 256, 257, 258; Notes sur Villehardouin, p. 296-299). See likewise the annotations of Reiske to the Ceremoniale Aulæ 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 : Πολυχρονίζουσι οἱ Βάραγγοι κατὰ τὴν πάτριον γλῶσσαν αὐτῶν, ἤγουν Ιγκλινιστί [p. 57, ed. Bonn].

49 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 [tom. iii. p. 59, sq., p. 74-79, p. 82-90, p. 165, p. 177, 8q7., ed. Bonn]), and illustrated by the diligence of Bayer (de Geographia Russia 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.

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