and prudence of Otho dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible, that unless they were true to each other, their religion and country were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in the plains of Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight legions, according to the division of provinces and tribes; the first, second, and third, were composed of Bavarians; the fourth of Franconians; the fifth of Saxons, under the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth and seventh consisted of Swabians; and the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of the host. The resources of discipline and valour were fortified by the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers were purified with a fast; the camp was blessed with the relics of saints and martyrs; and the christian hero girded on his side the sword of Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and waved the banner of St. Maurice, the præfect of the Thebaan legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy lance, whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which his father had extorted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats of war, and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were expected in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the christian army; plundered the baggage, and disordered the legions of Bohemia and Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, whose duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested from his fatigues: the Saxons fought under the eye of their king; and his victory surpassed, in merit and importance, the triumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of the Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action; they were encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and their past cruelties excluded them from the hope of mercy. Three captive princes were hanged at Ratisbon, the multitude of prisoners was slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, who presumed to appear in the face of their country, were condemned to everlasting poverty and disgrace. Yet the spirit of the nation was not humbled, and the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of p See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 929. No. 2-5. The lance of Christ is taken from the best evidence, Liutprand, (1. iv. c. 12.) Sige. bert, and the acts of St. Gerard: but the other military relics depend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post Bedam, 1. ii. c. S. q Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungariæ, p. 500, &c. 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.) 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 magnâ 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.) • Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui ex omni parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the language of Pili. grinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary, A. D. 973. Pars major is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517. moderation and peace: the robbers of the west acquiesced in a sedentary life; and the A. D. 972. 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; 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. The son of Geisa was invested 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. Origin of the narchy. A. D. 839. III. The name of RUSSIANS" was first divulged, in the ninth century, by Russian moan 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, 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. The 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 * The fideles Teutonici of Geissa are authenticated in old characters: 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.) u Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singular form, Pos, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologiea have been suggested. I have perused, with pleasure and profit, a dissertation de Origine Russorum, (Comment. Academ. Petropolitanæ, 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'Auville, de l'Empire de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772. in 12mo,) has likewise been of use. x See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut aureis in tabulis figatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum, (in Script. Ital. Mura. tori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 525.) A. D. 839. twenty-two years before the æra of Ruric. In the tenth century, Liutprand (Hist. I. v. c. 6.) speaks of the Russians and Normans as the same Aquilonares homines of a red complexion. y My knowledge of these Annals is drawn from M. Leveque, Histoire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these ancient annalists, was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning of the twelfth century; but his chronicle was obscure, till it was published at Petersburgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. xvi. Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. p. 184. said, the populous, regions of Denmark, Sweden, | Contemporary writers have recorded the introducand Norway, were crowded with independent chief- tion, name, and character of the Varangians: each tains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in the day they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of body was assembled at Constantinople to perform death. Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the the duty of guards; and their strength was recruited glory, and the virtue, of the Scandinavian youth. | by a numerous band of their countrymen from the Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they island of Thule. On this occasion, the vague apstarted from the banquet, grasped their arms, sound- pellation of Thule is applied to England; and the ed their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored new Varangians were a colony of English and every coast that promised either spoil or settlement. Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conThe Baltic was the first scene of their naval achieve- queror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had ments; they visited the eastern shores, the silent approximated the countries of the earth; these residence of Fennic and Sclavonian tribes, and the exiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; primitive Russians of the lake Ladoga paid a tri- and they preserved, till the last age of the embute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, pire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the whom they saluted with the title of Varangians," or use of the Danish or English tongue. With their Corsairs. Their superiority in arms, discipline, and broad and double-edged battle-axes on their renown, commanded the fear and reverence of the shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor to natives. In their wars against the more inland the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he savages, the Varangians condescended to serve as slept and feasted under their trusty guard; and friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital, conquest, obtained the dominion of a people whom were held by the firm and faithful hands of the they were qualified to protect. Their tyranny was Varangians. expelled, their valour was again recalled, till at A. D. 862. 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. As long as the descendants of Ruric The Varangians of Constantino- were considered as aliens and conple. querors, 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.a 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. z Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis, (for the name is differently spelt) fu Comment. Academ. Petropolitanæ, tom. iv. p. 275-311. a Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were still guarded ex fugitivorum servorum robore conflue utium, 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. b Du Cange 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. 256-258. Notes sur Villehardouin, p. 296-299.) See likewise the annotations of Reiske to A. D. 950. The In the tenth century, the geography Geography and of Scythia was extended far beyond trade of Russia, the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the Russians obtains a vast and conspicuous place in the map of Constantine. 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, on 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 retain their name and position; and the two capitals, Novothe 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 Βαράγγοι κατα των πατριον γλώσσαν αυτών ήτοι Ιγκληνίδι. e 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.) 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. thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed, coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind gorodd and Kiow, 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 breed 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. From this harbour, at the entrance of the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in fortythree 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 deco-sians made four attempts to plunder the treasures of rated with Grecian and Spanish gold. 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; 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 d The haughty proverb, "Who can resist God and the great Novogorod?" is applied by M. Levesque (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 Olearins, describes (in 1635) the remains of Novogorod, and the route by sea and land of the Holstein ambassadors, tom. i. p. 123 -129. e In hac magnâ civitate, quæ est caput regni, plus trecentæ ecclesiæ habentur et nundin 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) metropo lis est Chive, æmula sceptri Constantinopolitani, quæ est clarissimum decus Græciæ. The fame of Kiow, especially in the eleventh century, had reached the German and the Arabian geographers. f In Odoræ ostio quâ Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum, celeberrimam barbaris et Græcis qui sunt in circuitâ præstans stationem, est sane maxima omnium quas Europa claudit civitatum. (Adam Bremensis, Hist Eccles. p. 19.) A strange exaggeration even in the eleventh century. The trade of the Baltic, and the Hanseatic league, are carefully treated in Anderson's Historical Deduction of Commerce; at least, in our languages, I am not acquainted with any book so satisfactory. g According to Adam of Bremen, (de Sitû 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 Constantinople: the event was various, but the motive, the means, and the object, were the same in these naval expeditions. 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 from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles of the ocean. The image of their naval armaments was revived in the last century, in the fleets of the Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, to navigate the same seas, for a similar purpose. The Greek appellation of monoxyla, or (forsan Zupanis, id est regulis Lettoviæ) 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.) h 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. i Nestor, apud Levesque, 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 Zupia, read Evavia? (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 eleventh century. (Cedren. tom. ii. p. 770.) k The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 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. p. 939-1044. 1 Προσεταιρισαμένος δε και συμμαχικόν ουκ ολίγον από των κατοι κούντων εν τοις προσαρκτιοις του Οκεανου νήσοις εθνών. Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758. m See Beauplau (Description de l'Ukraine, p. 54-61.): his descrip. tions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the circumstance of fire. arms, we may read old Russians for modern Cossacks. favourable gale, The third, A. D. 941. The leader of the third armament, Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and de employed against the Saracens. But if courage be A. D. 1043. 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 sidecay, when the naval powers of the empire were 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 strait of fifteen miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russian might have been stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adThe first, versary. In their first enterprise" under the princes of Kiow, they passed without opposition, and occupied the 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. 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 The second, ascribed to the mother of God." The A, D. 904. silence of the Greeks may inspire some doubt of the truth, or at least of the importance, of the second attempt by Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric. A strong barrier of arms and fortifications defended the Bosphorus: they were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the isthmus; and this simple operation is described in the national chronicles, as if the Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and A. D. 865. n 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 965, a date which might have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in the beginning of M. Levesque's history. o When Photius wrote his enciclic epistle on the conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently ripe; he reproaches the nation as εις ωμότητα και μιαιφονίαν πάντας δευτέρους ταττομενον. p Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini Continuator, in Script, post. Theophanem, p. 121, 122. Symeon Logothet. p. 445, 446. Georg. Mouach. p. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 551. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 162. 4 See Nestor and Nicon, in Levesque's Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. Yet the threats or calamities of a Negociations and Russian war were more frequently di- prophecy. verted by treaty than by arms. In these naval bostilities, every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks; their savage enemy afforded no mercy; his poverty promised no spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire indulged an opinion, that no honour could be gained or lost in the intercourse with barbarians. At first their demands were high and inadmissible, three pounds of gold for each soldier or mariner of the fleet: the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest and glory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the hoary sages. tent," they said, "with the liberal offers of Cæsar; is it not far better to obtain without a combat, the possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our desires? Are we sure of victory? Can we conclude a treaty with the sea? We do not tread on the land; we float on the abyss of water, and a common death hangs over our heads." The memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from "Be con 74-80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75-79.) uses his advantage to dis prove this Russian victory, which would cloud the siege of Kiow by the Hungarians. Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. p. 263, 264. Symeon Logothet. p. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. p. 588, 589. Cedren. tom. . p. 629. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 190, 191. and Liutprand, I. v. c. 6. who writes from the narratives of his father-in-law, then ambas. sador at Constantinople, and corrects the vain exaggeration of the Greeks. I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 758, 759.) and Zonaras (tom. ii. p. 253, 254.); but they grow more weighty and credible as they draw near to their own times. t Nestor, apud Levesque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 87. the polar circle, left a deep impression of terror on the imperial city. By the vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus, was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople." In our own time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, has circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish capital has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of which, with its naval science and thundering artillery, could have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable. By land the Russians were less Reign of Swatoslaus, formidable than by sea; and as they A. D. 955-973. fought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and imperfect, presented a shelter to the subject, and a barrier to the enemy: the monarchy of Kiow, till a fatal partition, assumed the dominion of the north; and the nations from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms of Swatoslaus, the son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Ruric. The vigour of his mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a military and savage life. Wrapt in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usually slept on the ground, his head reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarse and frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, his meat (it was often horse-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The exercise of war gave stability and discipline to his army; and it may be presumed, that no soldier was permitted to transcend the luxury of his chief. By an embassy from Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, he was moved to undertake the conquest of Bulgaria, and a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of gold was laid at his feet to defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the expedition. An army of sixty thousand men was assembled and embarked; they sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing was effected on the Mæsian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the swords of the Russians prevailed against the arrows of the Bulgarian horse. The vanquished king sunk into the grave; his children were made captive; and his dominions, as far as mount. Hæmus, were subdued or ravaged by the u This brazen statue, which had been brought from Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed to represent either Joshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See Nicetas Choniates, (p. 413, 414.) Codinus, (de Originibus C. P. p. 24.) and the anonymous writer de Antiquitat. C. P. (Banduri, Imp. Orient. tom. i. p. 17, 18.) who lived about the year 1100. They witness the belief of the prophecy; the rest is immaterial. x The life of Swatoslans, or Sviatoslaf, or Sphendosthlabus, is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M. Levesque. (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 94-107.) yThis resemblance may be clearly seen in the ninth book of the Iliad, (205-221.) in the minute detail of the cookery of Achilles. By such a picture, a modern epic poet would disgrace his work, and disgust his reader; but the Greek verses are harmonious, a dead language can seldom appear low or familiar; and at the distance of two thousand northern invaders. But instead of relinquishing his prey, and performing his engagements, the Varangian prince was more disposed to advance than to retire; and, had his ambition been crowned with success, the seat of empire in that early period might have been transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus enjoyed and acknowledged the advantages of his new position, in which he could unite, by exchange or rapine, the various productions of the earth. By an easy navigation he might draw from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, and hydromel; Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoils of the west; and Greece abounded with gold, silver, and the foreign luxuries, which his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands of Patzinacites, Chozars, and Turks, repaired to the standard of victory; and the ambassador of Nicephorus betrayed his trust, assumed the purple, and promised to share with his new allies the treasures of the eastern world. From the banks of the Danube the Russian prince pursued his march as far as Adrianople; a formal summons to evacuate the Roman province was dismissed with contempt; and Swatoslaus fiercely replied, that Constantinople might soon expect the presence of an enemy and a master. His defeat by John Zimisces, A. D. 970-973, Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had introduced; but his throne and wife were inherited by John Zimisces,' who, in a diminutive body, possessed the spirit and abilities of a hero. The first victory of his lieutenants deprived the Russians of their foreign allies, twenty thousand of whom were either destroyed by the sword, or provoked to revolt, or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand barbarians were still in arms; and the legions that had been recalled from the new conquests of Syria, prepared, with the return of the spring, to march under the banners of a warlike prince, who declared himself the friend and avenger of the injured Bulgaria. The passes of mount Hamus had been left unguarded; they were instantly occupied; the Roman vanguard was formed of the immortals; (a proud imitation of the Persian style ;) the emperor led the main body of ten thousand five hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in slow and cautious array, with the baggage and military engines. The first exploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or Peristhlaba, in two days: the trumpets sounded; the walls were scaled; eight thousand five hundred seven hundred years, we are amused with the primitive manners of antiquity. a This singular epithet is derived from the Armenian language, and Τζιμισκης is interpreted in Greek by Μουζακίζης, οι μοιρακίζης. Αs Ι profess myself equally ignorant of these words, I may be indulged in the question in the play, "Pray, which of you is the interpreter ?" From the context, they seem to signify Adolescentulus. (Leo Diacon. 1. iv. MS. apud Du Cange, Glossar. Græc. p. 1570.) a In the Sclavonic tongue, the name of Peristhlaba implied the great or illustrious city, μεγάλη και ουσα και λεγομένη, says Anna Comnena. (Alexiad, 1. vii. p. 194.) From its position between mount Hæmus and the lower Danube, it appears to fill the ground, or at least the station, of Marcianopolis. The situation of Durostolus, or Dristra, is well known and conspicuous, (Comment. Academ. Petropol, tom. ix. p. 415, 416. D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 307. 311.) |