LV. the trumpets founded; the walls were fcaled; CHAP. eight thousand five hundred Ruffians were put to the fword; and the fons of the Bulgarian king were rescued from an ignominious prifon, and invested with a nominal diadem. After thefe repeated loffes, Swatoflaus retired to the strong post of Driftra, on the banks of the Danube, and was purfued by an enemy who alternately employed the arms of celerity and delay. The Byzantine gallies afcended the river; the legions completed a line of circumvallation; and the Ruffian prince was encompaffed, affaulted, and famifhed, in the fortifications of the camp and city. Many deeds of valour were performed; feveral defperate fallies, were attempted; nor was it till after a fiege of fixty-five days that Swatoflaus yielded to his adverse fortune. The liberal terms which he obtained announce the prudence of the victor, who refpected the valour, and apprehended the defpair, of an unconquered mind. The great duke of Ruffia bound himself by folemn imprecations to relinquifh all hoftile defigns; a fafe paffage was opened for his return; the liberty of trade and navigation was reftored: a measure of corn was diftributed to each of his foldiers; and the allowance of twenty-two thoufand measures attefts the lofs and the remnant of the Barbarians. After a painful voyage, they Duroftolus, or Driftra, is well-known and confpicuous (Comment. LV. CHAP. ice; and, before they could profecute their march, Swatoflaus was furprised and oppreffed by the neighbouring tribes, with whom the Greeks entertained a perpetual and ufeful correfpondence". Far different was the return of Zimifces, who was received in his capital like Camillus or Marius, the faviours 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 enfigns of Bulgarian royalty. Zimifces made his public entry on horfeback; the diadem on his head, a crown of laurel in his hand; and Conftantinople was aftonished to applaud the martial virtues of her fovereign "2. Conver- 72 Photius of Conftantinople, a patriarch whose ambition was equal to his curiofity, congratulates himself and the Greek church on the converfion of the Ruffians "3. Those fierce and bloody Barbarians had been perfuaded by the voice of reafon 73 75 The political management of the Greeks, more especially with the Patzanicites, is explained in the seven firft chapters, de Adminiftratione Imperii. 72 In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A. D. 968—973) is more authentic and circumftantial than Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 660-683.) and Zonaras (tom. ii. p. 205-214.). Thefe declaimers have multiplied to 308,cco and 330,000 men, those Ruffian forces, of which the contemporary had given a moderate and confiftent account. 73 Phot. Epiftol. ii. No 35. p. 58. edit. Montacut. It was unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the Ruffian nation, To 'Pas, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians; nor did it become the enlightened patriarch to accuse the Sclavonian idolaters της Ελληνικής και αθες δόξης. They were neither Greeks nor Atheists. and LV. and religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, CHAP. the Chriftian miffionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends and brethren. His triumph was tranfient and premature. In the various fortune of their piratical adventures, fome Ruffian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of baptifm; and a Greek bishop with the name of metropolitan, might administer the facraments in the church of Kiow, to a congregation of flaves and natives. But the feed of the Gofpel was fown on a barren foil many were the apoftates, the converts were few ; and the baptifm of Olga may be fixed as the æra of Ruffian Christianity 74. A female, perhaps of the bafeft origin, who could revenge the death, and affume the fceptre, 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 domeftic peace, fhe failed from Kiow to Conftantinople; and the emperor Conftantine Porphyrogenitus has defcribed with minute diligence the ceremonial of her reception in his capital and palace. The steps, the titles, the falutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquifitely adjusted, to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the fuperior majefty of the purple "5. In the facrament 75 74 M. Levefque has extracted, from old chronicles and modern researches, the most fatisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi, and the converfion of Ruffia (Hift. de Ruffie, tom. i. P. 35-54. 59.92, 93. 113-121. 124-129. 148, 149, &c.). 75 See the Ceremoniale Aulæ Byzant. tom. ii. c. 15. 345. the style of Olga, or Elga, is Apportion 'Paras. 21 P. 343- chief Baptifm of Olga, A. D. 955 LV. CHAP. facrament of baptifm, fhe received the venerable name of the emprefs Helena; and her converfion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two interpreters, fixteen damfels, of an higher, and eighteen of a lower rank, twenty-two domeftics or minifters, and forty-four Ruffian merchants, who compofed the retinue of the great princess Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, fhe firmly perfifted in her new religion; but her labours in the propagation of the Gospel were not crowned with fuccefs; and both her family and nation adhered with obftinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her fon Swatoflaus was apprehenfive of the fcorn and ridicule of his companions; and her grandfon Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments of ancient worship. The favage deities of the North were still propitiated with human facrifices: in the choice of the victim, a citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Chriftian to an idolater; and the father, who defended his fon from the facerdotal knife, was involved in the fame doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult. Yet the leffons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep, though fecret, impreffion on the minds of the prince and people: the Greek miffionaries continued to preach, to difpute, and to baptife; and the ambaffadors or merchants of Ruffia compared the idolatry of the woods with the elegant fuperftition of Conftan chief of Barbarians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an Athenian magiftrate, with a female termination, which would have aftonified the ear of Demofthenes. tinople. LV. tinople. They had gazed with admiration on O HAP the dome of St. Sophia; the lively pictures of faints and martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and veftments of the priests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the alternate fucceffion of devout filence and harmonious fong; nor was it difficult to perfuade them, that a choir of angels defcended each day from heaven to join in the devotion of the Chriftians". But the converfion of Wolodomir of Wolo domir, was determined or haftened by his defire of a A.D.9884 Roman bride. At the fame time, and in the city of Cherfon, the rites of baptism and mar riage were celebrated by the Christian pontiff: the city he restored to the emperor Bafil, the brother of his spouse; but the brazen gates were transported, as it is faid, to Novogorod, and erected before the first church as a trophy of his victory and faith". At his defpotic command, Peroun, the god of thunder, whom he had fo long adored, was dragged through the ftreets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy Barbarians battered with clubs, the mishapen image, which was in 76 See an anonymous fragment published by Banduri (Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 112, 113.), de Converfione Rufforum. 77 Cherfon, or Corfun, is mentioned by Herberstein (apud Pagi, tom.iv. p. 56.) as the place of Wolodomir's baptism and marriage and both the tradition and the gates are ftill preserved at Novogo-` rod. Yet an observing traveller tranfports the brazen gafés from Magdeburgh in Germany (Coxe's Travels into Rufffa, &c. vol. i. P. 452.); and quotes an infcription, which seems to justify his opinion. The modern reader muft not confound this old Cherfon of the Tauric or Crimean peninsula with a new city of the fame fame, which has arisen near the mouth of the Boryfthenes, and was lately honoured by the memorable interview of the emprefs of Ruffia with the emperor of the Weft. VOL. X. R dignantly |