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 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.

The

Varangians

of Constan

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 tinople. 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

(46) Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis (for the name is differently spelt), in Comment. Academ. Petropolitanæ, 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 Dithmar of Merseburgh, observes, that it was unusual for the Germans to enlist in a foreign service.

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). Geography In the tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far Russia, beyond the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the A. D. 950. Russians obtains a vast and conspicuous place in the map of Con

and trade of

stantine (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 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 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

(48) Ducange has collected from the original authors the state and history of the Varangi at Constantinople (Glossar. Med. et Infimæ Græcitatis, sub voce Bapayyor. 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 Gfteenth century in the use of their native English: Πολυχρονίζουσι οἱ Βάραγγοι κατὰ τὴν πάτριον γλῶσσαν αὐτῶν ἤγουν ἐγκλινιστί.

(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. e. 37. p. 106. c. 42. p. 112, 113.), 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.

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 splendour which was compared with Constantinople, by those who had never seen the residence of the Cæsars. 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 bred 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 harbour, 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 neighbourhood of that city, the Russians descended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes;

(50) The haughty proverb, "Who can resist God and the great Novogorod?" is applied by M. Lévêque (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) In hac magna civitate, quæ est caput regni, plus trecentæ ecclesiæ, habentur et nundinæ 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 (Russia) metropolis est Chive, æmula sceptri Constantinopolitani, quæ est clarissimum decus Græciæ. The fame of Kiow, especially in the xith century, had reached the German and the Arabian geographers.

(52) In Odoræ ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum, celeberrimam, Barbaris et Græcis qui sunt in circuitu, præstans 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 salisfactory.*

(53) According to Adam of Bremen (de Situ Daniæ, 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 plenæ. .... a toto orbe ibi responsa petuntur, maxime ab Hispanis (forsan Zupanis, id est regulis Lettovia) et Græcis. 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.).

*The book of authority is the "Geschichte des Hanseatischen Bundes," by George Sartorius, Gottingen, 1803.—M.

Naval

of the

against Con

their canoes, of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the spoil of their bee-hives, 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).

But the same communication which had been opened for the beexpeditions nefit, was soon abused for the injury, of mankind. In a period of Russians one hundred and ninety years, the Russians made four attempts to stantinople. plunder the treasures of Constantinople: the event was various, but the motive, the means, and the object, were the same in these naval expeditions (56). The Russian traders had seen the magnificence and tasted the luxury of the city of the Cæsars. A marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desires of their savage countrymen: they envied the gifts of nature which their climate denied ; they coveted the works of art, which they were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase: the Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure, and their bravest soldiers were drawn

(54) 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) Nestor, apud Lévêque, 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? May we not, instead of Zupía, read Evavía (de Administrat. Imp. c. 42. p. 113.)? 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.).

(56) The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ixth, xth, and xith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals, especially those of Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their testimonies are collected in the Russica of Stritter, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 939-1044

from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles of the ocean (57). The image of their naval armaments was revived in the last century, in the fleets of the Cosacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, to navigate the same seas for a similar purpose (58). The Greek appellation of monoxyla, or single canoes, might be justly applied to the bottom of their vessels. It was scooped out of the long stem of a beech or willow, but the slight and narrow foundation was raised and continued on either side with planks, till it attained the length of sixty, and the height of about twelve, feet. These boats were built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast; to move with sails and oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men, with their arms, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. The first trial of the Russians was made with two hundred boats; but when the national force was exerted, they might arm against Constantinople a thousand or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet was not much inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but it was magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the Greek emperors been endowed with foresight to discern, and vigour to prevent, perhaps they might have sealed with a maritime force the mouth of the Borysthenes. Their indolence abandoned the coast of Anatolia to the calamities of a piratical war, which, after an interval of six hundred years, again infested the Euxine; but as long as the capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant province escaped the notice both of the prince and the historian. The storm which had swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at length burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace; a streight of fifteen miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russian might have been stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adversary. In their first enterprise (59) under the The first, princes of Kiow, they passed without opposition, and occupied the A. D. 865. port of Constantinople in the absence of the emperor Michael, the son of Theophilus. Through a crowd of perils, he landed at the palace-stairs, and immediately repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary (60). By the advice of the patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which determined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to the mother of God (61). The silence of the

(57) Προσεταιρισάμενος δὲ καὶ συμμαχικὸν οὐκ ὀλίγον ἀπὸ τῶν κατοικούντῶν ἐν ταῖς προσαρκτίαις τοῦ ὀκεανοῦ νήσοις ἐθνῶν. Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758.

(58) See Beauplan (Description de l'Ukraine, p. 54-61.): his descriptions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the circumstance of fire-arms, we may read old Russians for modern Cosacks. (59) It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given a Dissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 365-391.). After disentangling some chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the years 864 or 865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in the beginning of M. Lévêque's history.

(60) When Photius wrote his encyclic epistle on the conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently ripe; he reproaches the nation as εἰς ὠμότητα καὶ μιαιφονίαν πάντας δευτέρους ταττόμενον.

(61) Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini Continuator, in Script. post Theophanem, p. 121,