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LVI.

Their conqueft of Apulia,

A. D. 1040 -1043.

CHAP. pathifed in their indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt 22. Above twenty years after the first emigration, the Normans took the field with no more than feven hundred horse and five hundred foot; and after the recall of the Byzantine legions 23 from the Sicilian war, their numbers are magnified to the amount of threescore thousand men. Their herald propofed the option of battle or retreat ; "of battle," was the unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stouteft warriors, with a ftroke of his fift, felled to the ground the horse of the Greek meffenger. He was difmiffed with a fresh horse; the infult was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two fucceffive battles they were more fatally inftructed of the prowefs of their adverfaries. In the plains of Cannæ, the Afiatics fled before the adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was made prisoner; the Apulians acquiefced in a new dominion; and the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brundufium, and Tarentum, were alone faved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this æra we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which foon eclipfed the infant colony of Averfa.

22 Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, and the con queft of Apulia (l. i, c. 7, 8, 9. 19.). The fame events are described by Cedrenus (tóm. ii. p. 741-743. 755, 756.) and Zonaras (tom. ii. p. 237, 238.); and the Greeks are so hardened to difgrace, that their narratives are impartial enough.

23 Cedrenus fpecifies the Taya of the Obfequiem (Phrygia), and the μpos of the Thracefians (Lydia; confult Conftantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4. with Delifle's map); and afterwards pares the Pifidians and Lycaonians, with the fœderati.

Twelve

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LVI.

Twelve counts were chofen by the popular fuf- CHAP. frage; and age, birth, and merit, were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated to their use; and each count erected a fortrefs in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his vaffals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of Melphi was referved as the metropolis and citadel of the republic; an house and separate quarter was allotted to each of the twelve counts; and the national concerns were regulated by this military fenate. The first of his peers, their prefident and general, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred on William of the iron arm, who, in the language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in fociety, and an angel in council". The manners of his coun

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Omnes conveniunt et bis fex nobiliores

Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et ætas,
Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum
His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris
Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras
Divifere fibi, ni fors inimica repugnet
Singula proponunt loca quæ contingere forte
Cuique duci debent, et quæque tributa locorum.
And after speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds,
Pro numero comitum bis fex ftatuere plateas

Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe.
Leo Oftienfis (1. ii. c. 67 ) enumerates the divifions of the Apulian
cities, which it is needless to repeat.

25 Gulielm. Appulus, 1. ii. c. 12. according to the reference of Giannone (Iftoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 31.), which I cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida virtus; and declares, that had he lived, no poet could have equalled his merits (1 i. p. 258. 1. ii. p. 259.). He was bewailed by the Normans, quippe qui tanti confilii virum (fays Malaterra, 1. i. c. 12. p. 552.) tam armis ftrenuum, tam fibi munificum, affabilem, morigeratum ulterius fe habere diffidebant.

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CHAP. trymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary 26 and national hiftorian "The Normans," Character fays Malaterra," are a cunning and revengeful people; eloquence and diffimulation appear to be their hereditary qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed by the "reftraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of nature and paffion. Their princes affect the "praise of popular munificence; the people obferve the medium, or rather blend the extremes, of avarice and prodigality; and, in "their eager thirst of wealth and dominion, they defpife whatever they poffefs, and hope what"ever they defire. Arms and horfes, the luxury

Oppref-
fion of
Apulia,
A. D.

1046, &c.

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of drefs, the exercises of hunting and hawking "are the delight of the Normans; but on preffing "occafions they can endure with incredible pa"tience the inclemency of every climate, and "the toil and abstinence of a military life "."

The Normans of Apulia were feated on the verge of the two empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted the inveftiture of their lands from the fovereigns of Germany or Conftantinople. But the firmeft title of thefe adventurers was the right of conqueft: they nei

26 The gens aftutiffima, injuriarum ultrix....adulari fciens eloquentiis inferviens, of Malaterra (1.`i. c. 3. p. 550.), are expreffive of the popular and proverbial character of the Normans, 27 The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the defcendants of the Norwegian failors; though they might import from Norway and Iceland the finest cafts of falcons.

28 We may compare this portrait with that of William of Malmf bury (de Geftis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 101, 102.), who appreciates, Jike a philofophic hiftorian, the vices and virtues of the Saxons and Normans. England was affuredly a gainer by the conqueft.

ther

1

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ther loved nor trufted; they were neither trufted nor beloved: the contempt of the princes was mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with hatred and resentment. Every object of defire, an horfe, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the ftrangers 2; and the avarice of their chiefs was only coloured by the more fpecious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts were fometimes joined in a league of injustice: in their domeftic quarrels they difputed the fpoils of the people the virtues of William were buried in his grave; and Drogo, his brother and fucceffor, was better qualified to lead the valour, than to reftrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of Conftantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of the Byzantine court attempted to relieve Italy from this adherent mifchief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians 3°; and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with the moft lofty titles 3 and the most ample commiffion. The

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memory

29 The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom on the Normans. Videns indifciplinatam et alienam gentem Normannorum,crudeli et inauditâ rabie et plufquam Paganâ impietate adverfus ecclefias Dei infurgere, paffim Christianos trucidare, &c. (Wibert, c. 6.) The honeft Apulian (1. ii. p. 259.) fays calmly of their accufer, Veris commifcens fallacia,

30 The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c. must be collected from Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 757, 758.), William Appulus (1. í. p. 257, 258. 1. ii. p. 259.), and the two Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protoipata (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44.), and an anonymous writer (Antiquitat. Italiæ medii Ævi, tom. i. p. 31-35.). This laft is a fragment of some value.

31 Argyrus received, fays the anonymous Chronicle of Bari, imperial letters, Foederatûs et Patriciatûs, et Catapani et Veftatûs. In

his

CHA P.

LVI.

LVI.

CHAP memory of his father might recommend him të the Normans; and he had already engaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the public injury. It was the defign of Conftantine to transplant this warlike colony from the Italian provinces to the Perfian war; and the fon of Milo diftributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of Greece, as the first fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts were baffled by the fenfe and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia: his gifts, or at least his propofals, were rejected; and they unanimously refused to relinquish their poffeffions and their hopes for the distant prospect League of of Afiatic fortune. After the means of perfuafion had failed, Argyrus refolved to compel or to pires, destroy the Latin powers were solicited against A.D.1049 the common enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors of the Eaft and Weft. The throne of St. Peter was occupied by Leo the ninth, a fimple faint 3, of a temper most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whofe venerable character would confecrate with the name of piety, the measures least compatible with the practice of religion. His huma

the pope

and the

two em

1054.

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his Annals, Muratori (tom. viii. p. 426.) very properly reads, or interprets, Seveftatus, the title of Sebaftos or Auguftus. But in his Antiquities, he was taught by Ducange to make it a palatine office, mafter of the wardrobe.

32 A life of St. Leo IX. deeply tinged with the paffions and prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert, printed at Paris, 1615, in octavo, and fince inferted in the Collections of the Bollandifts, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The public and private history of that pope is diligently treated by M. de St. Marc (Abregé, tom. ii. p. 140-210. and p. 25-95. 24 column,)

nity

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