Russians were put to the sword; and the sons of the Bulgarian king were rescued from an ignominious prison, and invested with a nominal diadem. After these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of Dristra, on the banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy who alternately employed the arms of celerity and delay. The Byzantine galleys ascended the river; the legions completed a line of circumvallation; and the Russian prince was encompassed, assaulted, and famished, in the fortifications of the camp and city. Many deeds of valour were performed; several desperate sallies were attempted; nor was it till after a siege of sixty-five days that Swatoslaus yielded to his adverse fortune. The liberal terms which he obtained announce the prudence of the victor, who respected the valour, and apprehended the despair, of an unconquered mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself, by solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe passage was opened for his return; the liberty of trade and navigation was restored; a measure of corn was distributed to each of his soldiers; and the allowance of twenty-two thousand measures attests the loss and the remnant of the barbarians. After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the Borysthenes; but their provisions were exhausted, the season was unfavourable; they passed the winter on the ice; and, before they could prosecute their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and oppressed by the neighbouring tribes, with whom the Greeks entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. Far different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in his capital like Camillus or Marius, the saviours of ancient Rome. But the merit of the victory was attributed by the pious emperor to the mother of God; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the divine infant in her arms, was placed on a triumphal car, adorned with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty. Zimisces made his public entry on horseback; the diadem on his head, a crown of laurel in his hand; and Constantinople was astonished to applaud the martial virtues of her sovereign.c

Conversion of
Russia,
A. D. 864.

Photius of Constantinople, a patriarch whose ambition was equal to his curiosity, congratulates himself and the Greek church on the conversion of the Russians. Those fierce and bloody barbarians had been persuaded by the voice of reason and religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, the christian missionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends and brethren. His triumph was transient and premature. In the various fortune b The political management of the Greeks, more especially with the Patzinacites, is explained in the seven first chapters, de Administratione Imperii.

In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A. D. 968-973.) is more authentic and circumstantial than Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 660-683.) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 205-214.) These declaimers have multiplied to 308,000 and 330,000 men, those Russian forces, of which the contemporary had given a moderate and consistent account.

d Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35. p. 58. edit. Montacut. It was unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the Russian nation, To 'Pos, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians; nor did it become the enlightened patriarch

A. D. 955.

of their piratical adventures, some Russian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of baptism; and a Greek bishop, with the name of metropolitan, might administer the sacraments in the church of Kiow, to a congregation of slaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel was sown on a barren soil: many were the apostates, the converts were few; and the baptism of Olga may be fixed as the æra of Russian christianity. A female, perhaps of the basest origin, who could revenge the death, and assume the sceptre, of her husband Igor, must have been endowed with those active virtues which command the fear and obedience of barbarians. In a moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to Constantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphy- Baptism of Olga, rogenitus has described, with minute diligence, the ceremonial of her reception in his capital and palace. The steps, the titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted, to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the superior majesty of the purple.' In the sacrament of baptism, she received the venerable name of the empress Helena; and her conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a lower, rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four Russian merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly persisted in her new religion; but her labours in the propagation of the gospel were not crowned with success; and both her family and nation adbered with obstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her son Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn and ridicule of his companions; and her grandson Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments of ancient worship. The savage deities of the north were still propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the victim, a citizen was preferred to a stranger, a christian to an idolater; and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdotal knife, was involved in the same doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep, though secret, impression on the minds of the prince and people: the Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptize; and the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woods with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed with admiration on the dome of St. Sophia; the lively pictures of saints and martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the to accuse the Sclavonian idolaters της Ελληνικής και αθεού δόξης. They were neither Greeks nor atheists.

e M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and modern researches, the most satisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi, and the conversion of Russia. (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 35–54, 59. 92, 93. 113-121. 124-129. 148, 149, &c.)

f See the Ceremoniale Aulæ Byzant. tom. ii. c. 15. p. 343-345. the style of Olga, or Elga, is Αρχοντισσα Ρωσίας. For the chief of barbarians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an Athenian magistrate, with a female termination, which would have astonished the ear of Demosthenes,

CHAP. LVI.

The Saracens, Franks, and Greeks, in Italy. First adventures and settlement of the Normans.-Character and conquests of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia.-Deliverance of Sicily by his brother Roger.-Victories of Robert over the emperors of the east and west.—Roger, king of Sicily, invades Africa and Greece.-The emperor Manuel Comnenus.-Wars of the Greeks and Normans.-Extinction of the Normans.

Conflict of the

Saracens, Latins, and Greeks, in Italy,

THE three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the A. D. 840-1017. theatre of Italy. The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum ; so powerful in war, that they checked for a moment the genius of Charlemagne ; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in their capital an academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division of this flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy was exposed to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable of healing by the union and tranquillity of a perfect | conquest. Their frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the christians of Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast; and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of human events, a new ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine forks, the fields of Cannæ were bedewed a second time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome again attacked or defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A

n The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the reverential expres sions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam, &c. which were most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII, and the Hungarian catholics are distressed between the sanctity of the pope and the independence of the crown. (Katona, Hist. Critica, tom. I. p. 20-25. tom. iì, p. 304. 316. 360, &c.)

a For the general history of Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries, I may properly refer to the fifth, sixth, and seventh books of Sigonius de Regno Italiæ; (in the second volume of his works, Milan, 1732) the Annals of Baronius, with the Criticism of Pagi; the seventh and eighth books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli cf Giannone; the seventh and eighth volumes (the octavo edition) of the Annali d'Italia of Muratori; and the second volume of the Abreg: Chronolo

commands the entrance of the Adriatic gulf; and their impartial depredations provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union, of the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of Charlemagne ; and each party supplied the deficiencies of his associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch to transport his stationary troops of Asia to an Italian campaign; and the Latin arms would have been insufficient if his superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the gulf. The fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and by the cavalry and galleys of the Conquest of Bari, Greeks; and, after a defence of four A. D. 871. years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis, who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This important conquest had been achieved by the concord of the east and west; but their recent amity was soon imbittered by the mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph; extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of the handful of barbarians who appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: We confess the magnitude of your preparations," says the great-grandson of Charlemagne. "Your armies were indeed as numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a short flight, tumble weary and breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew from the scene of action to injure and despoil our christian subjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were few in number; and why were we few? because, after a tedious expectation of your arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors to continue the blockade of the city. If they indulged their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, did these feasts abate the vigour of their enterprise? Is it by your fasting that the walls of Bari have been overturned? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and fatigue, intercept and vanquish the three most powerful emirs of the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of the city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be delivered; and, if we command the sea, the island of Sicily may be rescued from the hands of

66

gique of M. de St. Marc, a work which, under a superficial title, contains much genuine learning and industry. But my long-accus tomed reader will give me credit for saying, that I myself have ascended to the fountain-head, as often as such ascent could be either profitable or possible; and that I have diligently turned over the originals in the first volumes of Muratori's great collection of the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum.

b Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his two books, Historia Principum Longobardorum, in the Scriptores of Muratori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 221-345, and tom. v. p. 159-245.

e See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibus, 1. ii. c. xi. in Vit, Basil. c. 55. p. 181.

the infidels. My brother, (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek,) accelerate your naval succours, respect your allies, and distrust your flat

terers."a

New province of the Greeks in Italy,

A. D. 890.

e

These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and whoever might deserve the honour, the Greek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the advantage of the reduction of Bari. The Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from mount Garganus to the bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of the kingdom of Naples under | the dominion of the eastern empire. Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi and Naples, who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the neighbourhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua,' were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world, and too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy; the title of patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, was assigned to the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople. As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the Alps under the imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and barons, escaped with honour from the bloody field of Crotona. On that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by the valour of the Saracens. These corsairs had indeed been driven by the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but a sense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported |

Defeat of Otho
III.
A. D. 983.

d The original epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the emperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 871. No. 51-71.) from the Vatican MS. of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian of Salerno.

e See an excellent Dissertation de Republicâ Amalphitanâ, in the Appendix (p. 1-42.) of Henry Brencman's Historia Pandectarum. (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722. in 4to.)

f Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and protection principibus Capuano et Beneventano, servis meis, quos oppugnare dispono. Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum patres et avi nostro imperio tributa dederunt. (Liutprand, in Legat. p. 484.) Salerno is not mentioned, yet the prince changed his party about the same time, and Camillo Pellegrino (Script. Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 285.) has nicely discerned this change in the style of the anonymous Chronicle. On the rational ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480) had asserted the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria.

g See the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Du Cange, (Kareravw, catapanus,) and his notes on the Alexias, (p. 275) Against the contemporary notion, which derives it from Kara nav, juxta omne, he treats it as a corruption of the Latin capitaneus. Yet M. de St. Marc has accurately observed (Abregé Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924.) that in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles of the first rank, the great valvassors of Italy.

Η Ου μόνον δια πολεμων ακριβώς ετεταγμένων το τοιούτον υπηγάγε

forty thousand Moslems to the aid of his christian ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that the conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved, by the justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman adventurers.

Anecdotes.

The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and the tenth century of the christian æra. At the former period the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of Tarentum, Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a powerful kingdom. At the second æra, these once flourishing provinces were clouded with ignorance, impoverished by tyranny, and depopulated by barbarian war: nor can we severely accuse the exaggeration of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth after the general deluge. Among the hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1. It was the A D. 873. amusement of the Saracens to profane,

as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno, a mussulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua : after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. A fearless citizen dropt from the

A. D. 874.

το έθνος, (the Lombards,) αλλα και αγχίνοια χρησαμενος, και δικαιοσυνη,

και χρησότητι επιεικώς τε τοις προσερχομένοις προσφερόμενος και την ελευθερίαν αυτοίς πάσης τε δουλείας, και των άλλων φορολογικών xapiCouevos. (Leon, Tactic. c. xv. p. 471.) The little Chronicle of Beneventum (tom. ii. pars i. p. 280.) gives a far different character of the Greeks during the five years (A. D. 891-896.) that Leo was master of the city.

1 Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam reperientes funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut deserta sit velut in diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or Erchempert, according to the two editions of Caraccioli, (Rer. Italic. Script. tom. v. p. 23.) and Camillo Pellegrino, (tom. ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, when they were reprinted by Muratori.

k Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 874. No. 2.) has drawn this story from a MS. of Erchempert, who died at Capua only fifteen years after the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a false title, and we can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of Salerno, (Paralipomena, c. 110.) composed towards the end of the tenth century, and published in the second volume of Muratori's Collection. See the Dissertations of Camillo Pellegrino, tom, ii. pars i. 231–281, &c.

1 Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 58. p. 183.) is the original author of this story. He places it under the reigns of Basil and Lewis II.; yet the reduction of Beneventum by the Greeks is dated A. D. 891, after the decease of both of those princes.