sold the city for a rich and honourable marriage. At the dead of
night several rope-ladders were dropped from the walls; the light
Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks were awakened by
the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defended the
streets three days against an enemy already master of the rampart;
and near seven months elapsed between the first investment and the
final surrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman duke
advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; traversed the first
mountains of Thessaly; surprised three hundred English in the
city of Castoria; approached Thessalonica; and made Constantinople
tremble. A more pressing duty suspended the prosecution of his
ambitious designs.. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the sword, his
army was reduced to a third of the original numbers; and instead of
being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive epistles,
of the mischiefs and dangers which had been produced by his ab-
sence;
the revolt of the cities and barons of Apulia; the distress of
the pope; and the approach or invasion of Henry king of Germany.
Highly presuming that his person was sufficient for the public safety,
he repassed the sea in a single brigantine, and left the remains of
the army under the command of his son and the Norman counts,
exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and the
counts to obey the authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard
trod in the footsteps of his father; and the two destroyers are com-
pared, by the Greeks, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of
whom devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former (78).
After winning two battles against the emperor, he descended into
the plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of
Achilles (79), which contained the treasure and magazines of the
Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused to the for-
titude and prudence of Alexius, who bravely struggled with the ca-
lamities of the times. In the poverty of the state, he presumed to
borrow the superfluous ornaments of the churches: the desertion
of the Manichæans was supplied by some tribes of Moldavia: a rein-
forcement of seven thousand Turks replaced and revenged the loss
of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers were exercised to ride, to
draw the bow, and to the daily practice of ambuscades and evolu-
tions. Alexius had been taught by experience, that the formidable
cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for action, and almost in-
capable of motion (80); his archers were directed to aim their arrows

(78) Βρουχοὺς καὶ ἀκρίδας εἴπεν ἄν τις αὐτοὺς πατέρα καὶ υἷον (Anna, l. i. p. 35.). By these similes, so different from those of Homer, she wishes to inspire contempt as well as horror for the little noxious animal, a conqueror. Most unfortunately, the common sense, or common nonsense, of mankind, resists her laudable design.

The supposition of the Apulian (1. v. p. 275.) may be excused by the more classic poetry of Virgil (Eneid II. 197.), Larissaeus Achilles, but it is not justified by the geography of Homer.

(80) The TY T‹diwv πpoάluara, which incumbered the knights on foot, have been igno

Return of

Robert and

actions of

Bohemond.

The emperor

Henry III.

Greeks,

A. D. 1081.

at the horse rather than the man; and a variety of spikes and snares was scattered over the ground on which he might expect an attack. In the neighbourhood of Larissa the events of war were protracted and balanced. The courage of Bohemond. was always conspicuous, and often successful; but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks; the city was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts deserted his standard, betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service of the emperor. Alexius returned to Constantinople with the advantage, rather than the honour, of victory. After evacuating the conquests which he could no longer defend, the son of Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father who esteemed his merit, and sympathised in his misfortune..

Of the Latin. princes, the allies of Alexius and enemies of Robert, invited by the 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 list 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 farther assur ance 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

rantly translated spurs (Anna Comnena, Alexias, 1. v. p. 140.). Ducange has explained the true sense by a ridiculous and inconvenient fashion, which lasted from the xith to the xvth century. These peaks, in the form of a scorpion, were sometimes two feet, and fastened to the knee with a silver chain.

(81) The epistle itself (Alexias, 1. iii. p. 93, 94, 95.) well deserves to be read. There is one expression, ἀστροπέλεκυν δεδεμένον μετὰ χρυσαφίου, which Ducange does not understand. I have endeavoured to grope out a tolerable meaning: χρυσάφιον, is a golden crown; ἀστροπές λεκυς, is explained by Simon Portius (in Lexico Græco-Barbar.), by κεραυνός, πρηστήρ, a flash of lightning.

(82) For these general events I must refer to the general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St. Marc, &c.

Rome,

A. D. 1081-1084.

March 21.

24.

31.

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 Ro- Besieges man 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 A. D. 1084, 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 ap→ plause and the promise of the divine favour. 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 Flies before three days before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three years, the son of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of deli

(83) The Lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or invectives (St. Marc, Abrégé, 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, Grégoire 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. iii. p. 30, &c.) with which I am the least dissatisfied?*

(84) Anna, with the rancour of a Greek schismatic, calls him xatántuσtog outos lánast (1. i. p. 32.), a pope, or priest, worthy to be spit upon; and accuses him of scourging, shaving, perhaps of castrating, the ambassadors of Henry (p. 31. 33.). But this outrage is improbable and doubtful (see the sensible preface of Cousin).

*There is a fair life of Gregory the Seventh by Voig (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 Em-
perors of the Franconian Race.-M.

Robert; May.

Second

expedition of

A. D. 1084,

vering 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 an hasty word of the con-
queror, in his defence or revenge, was the signal of fire and pil-
lage (86). The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Roger, and auxi-
liaries 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 con—
sumed 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 Ro-
man or Imperial crown; but this dangerous measure, which would
have inflamed the ambition of the Norman, must for ever have alien-
ated the most faithful princes of Germany.

The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himRobert into self in a season of repose; but in the same year of the flight of the German emperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of October. his eastern conquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valour 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

It is singular enough, that the Apulian, a Latin, should distinguish the Greek as the ruler of the
Roman Empire (1. iv. p. 274.).

(86) 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 ædibus exustis), which is again exaggerated in some partial chronicles (Muratori Annali, tom. ix. p. 147.). (87) After mentioning this devastation, the Jesuit Donatus (de Roma veteri et nova, l. iv. c. 8. p. 489.) prettily adds, Duraret hodieque in Cœlio monte, interque ipsum et capitolium, miserabilis facies prostratæ urbis, nisi in hortorum vinetorumque amœnitatem Roma resurrexisset, ut perpetua viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinas suas.

(88) The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed by the pope (Anna, l. i. p. 32.), is sufficiently confirmed by the Apulian (1. 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) See Homer, Iliad B. (I hate this pedantic mode of quotation by the 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. Eneid. 1. i.).

on this second occasion in one hundred and twenty vessels; and as the season was far advanced, the harbour of Brundusium (90) was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius, apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously laboured to restore the naval forces of the empire; and obtained from the republic of Venice an important succour of thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, and nine galeots or ships of extraordinary strength and magnitude. Their services were liberally paid by the licence 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 of Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the Adriatic was covered with an 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 labour, and where the land and sea forces might pursue their joint operations with vigour and effect. But, in the isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally

(90) Gulielm. Appulus, l. v. p. 276. The admirable port of Brundusium was double; the outward harbour was a gulf covered by an island, and narrowing by degrees, till it communicated by a small gullet with the inner harbour, which embraced the city on both sides. Cæsar and nature have laboured 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) William of Apulia (1. v. p. 276.) describes the victory of the Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats, which are diligently recorded by Anna Comnena (1. 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.).

VII.

11