Manuel Normans, A. D. 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 Cæsars (111). This playful outrage of the pirates of The emperor Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected repulses the to despise, while his martial spirit, and the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were 1148, 1149. covered with his squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not by what favourable 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 was 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. A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of the empire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise this pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal (112). The natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship, which had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily: the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his death had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his subjects: the feudal (111) In palatium regium sagittas igneas injecit, says Dandulus; but Nicetas, 1. ii. c. 8. p. 66. transforms them into βέλη ἀργυρέους ἔχοντα ἀτράκτους, and adds, that Manuel styled this insult παίγνιον, and γέλωτα... ληστεύοντα. These arrows, by the compiler, Vincent de Beauvais, are again transmuted into gold. (112) For the invasion of Italy, which is almost overlooked by Nicetas, see the more polite history of Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 1–15. p. 78-101.), who introduces a diffuse narrative by a lofty professsion, περὶ τε Σικελίας, καὶ τῆς Ἰταλῶν ἐσκέπτετο γῆς, ὡς καὶ ταύτας Ρωμαίοις ἀνασώσαιτο, iii. 5. He reduces A. D. 1155. Western empire, A. D. 1155-1174, government was always pregnant with the seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies of his family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and noble Palæogolus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch entrusted a fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his first exploit ; and, in every operation, gold as well as steel was the instrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the western coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in two campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was content with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all the walls of the palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation, under the His design of seal of the German Cæsars (113); but the successor of Constantine acquiring Italy and the soon renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible dominion of Italy, and professed his design of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal gifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the free cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a river of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of the Venetians (114). · The situation and trade of Ancona rendered it an important garrison in the heart of Italy: it was twice besieged by the arms of Frederic; the Imperial forces were twice repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit was animated by the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most intrepid patriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth and honours of the Byzantine court (115). The pride of Manuel disdained and rejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope of stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in the West, as in the East, his lawful title of sole emperor of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome. Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani, secured the &c. (113) The Latin, Otho (de Gestis Frederici I. 1. ii. c. 30. p. 734.), attests the forgery: the Greek, Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 1. p. 78.), claims a promise of restitution from Conrad and Frederic. An act of fraud is always credible when it is told of the Greeks. (114) Quod Anconitani Græcum imperium nimis diligerent.. Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love, perhaps of envy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the emperor; and the Latin narrative is confirmed by Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 14. p. 98.). (115) Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the first, in 1167, against Frederic I. in person (Annali, tom. x. p. 39, &c.); the second, in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian, Archbishop Mentz, a man unworthy of his name and office (p. 76, &c.). It is of the second siege, that w sess an original narrative, which he has published in his great collection (tom. vi. p. 921 • pos J46.). support of that powerful family (116), and his royal standard or image was entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis (117). During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the Third, the pope twice received in the Vatican the ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his piety by the long-promised union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal court, and exhorted the Roman pontiff to seize the just provocation, the favourable moment, to humble the savage insolence of the Alemanni, and to acknowledge the true representative of Constantine and Augustus (118). designs. But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon escaped Failure of his from the hand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded by the prudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep and momentous revolution (119); nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute to renounce the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After his re-union with Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of Constantinople and Rome (120). The free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity of Venice (121). By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial people: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but after some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement, inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily. His prophecy was soon verified; the death of (116) We derive this anecdote from an anonymous chronicle of Fossa Nova, published by Muratori (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 874.). (117) The Bachelor onμetov of Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 14. p. 99.) is susceptible of this double sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more Greek. (118) Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa et tempus opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona imperii a sancto apostolo sibi redderetur; quoniam non ad Frederici Alamanni, sed ad suum jus asseruit pertinere (Vit. Alexandri III. a Cardinal. Arragoniæ, in Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. par. i. p. 458.). His second embassy was accompanied cum immensa multitudine pecuniarum. (119) Nimis alta et perplexa sunt (Vit. Alexandri III. p. 460, 461.), says the cautious pope. (120) Μηδὲν μετὸν εἶναι λέγων Ρώμῃ τῇ νεωτέρᾳ πρὸς τὴν πρεσβυτέραν, πάλαι άoppayɛtov (Cinuamus, I. iv. c. 14. p. 99.). (121) In his vith book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian war, which Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The Italian accounts, which do not satisfy our curiosity, are reported by the annalist Muratori, under the years 1171, &c. the Normans, Palæologus devolved the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressed by land and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person or dominions of their conqueror (122). Yet the king of Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on the Italian shore: he respectfully adPeace with dressed the new Justinian; solicited a peace or truce of thirty years, A. D. 1156.' accepted as a gift, the regal title; and acknowledged himself the military vassal of the Roman empire (123). The Byzantine Cæsars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of that period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and mankind: the sword of William the Second, the grandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they detested their sovereign as the worst Last war of of enemies. The Latin historians (124) expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts who invaded Romania with a fleet and A. D. 1185. army, and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The Greeks (125) accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the sea of Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment of four thousand captives. the Greeks and Normans, Such (122) This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno (in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 198.). It is whimsical enough, that in the praise of the king of Sicily, Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 13. p. 97, 98.) is much warmer and copious than Falcandus (p. 268. 270.). But the Greek is fond of description, and the Latin historian is not fond of William the Bad. (123) For the epistle of William I. see Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 15. p. 101, 102.), and Nicetas (1. ii. c. 8.). It is difficult to affirm, whether these Greeks deceived themselves, or the public, in these flattering portraits of the grandeur of the empire. (124) I can only quote of original evidence, the poor chronicles of Sicard of Cremona (p. 603.), and of Fossa Nova (p. 875), as they are published in the viith tome of Muratori's historians. The king of Sicily sent his troops contra nequitiam Andronici... ad acquirendum imperium C. P. They were capti aut confusi... decepti captique, by Isaac. (125) By the failure of Cinnamus, we are now reduced to Nicetas (in Andronico, l. i. c. 7, 8, 9. 1. 1. c. 1. in Isaac Angelo, l. i. c. 1-4.), who now becomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived the emperor and the empire, he is above flattery: but the fall of Constantinople exasperated his prejudices against the Latins. For the honour of learning I shall observe that Homer's great commentator, Eustathius archbishop of Thessalonica, refused to desert his flock. William I. the Bad, king of Sicily, A. D. 1154. Feb. 26 A. D. 1166, May 7. was the event of the last conquest between the Greeks and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations were lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy. The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son and grandson: they might be confounded under the name of William: they are strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good; but these epithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms by danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the valour of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired against 'the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even the haram, of a sultan; and a Christian people was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times (126) has delineated the misfortunes of his country (127) the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the continent, during the reign of William the First, and the minority of his son. The youth, inno- William II. cence, and beauty of William the Second (128), endeared him to the nation: the factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the manhood to the premature death of that amiable Nov. 16. prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred (126) The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which properly extends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the viith volume of Muratori's Collection (tom. vii p. 259-344.), and preceded by an eloquent preface or epistle (p. 251-258.) de Calamitatibus Siciliæ. Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of Sicily; and, after a just, but immense, abatement, from the ist to the xiith century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip him of his title: his narrative iş rapid and perspicuous, his style bold and elegant, his observation keen: he had studied mankind, and feels like a man. only regret the narrow and barren field on which his labours have been cast. I can (127) The laborious Benedictines (l'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 896.) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II. Archbishop of Palermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian: and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on himself) appears to indicate, that he was born, or at least educated, in the island. (128) Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his history from the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: Legis et justitiæ cultus tempore suo vigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte contentus; (were they mortals?) ubique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum metuebat viator insidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii. p. 969.). the Good, A. D. 1166, May 7A. D. 1189, |