.LVI. CHA P. turers 53. In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an open boat, the real and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only fixty foldiers on a hostile fhore; drove the Saracens to the gates of Meffina; and fafely returned with the fpoils of the adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani, his active and patient courage were equally confpicuous. In his old age he related with pleafure, that, by the distress of the fiege, himfelf, and the countess his wife, had been reduced to a fingle cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately that in a fally his horfe had been slain, and he was dragged away by the Saracens ; but that he owed his refcue to his good fword, and had retreated with his faddle on his back, left the meanest trophy might be left in the hands of the mifcreants. In the fiege of Trani, three hundred Normans withstood and repulfed the forces of the ifland. In the field of Ceramio, fifty thoufand horfe and foot were overthrown by one hundred and thirty-fix Christian foldiers, without reckoning St. George, who fought on horfeback in the foremost ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, were referved for the fucceffor of St. Peter; and had these barbaric spoils been expofed not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they might have revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. 53 Duo fibi proficua deputans animæ fcilicet et corporis fi terram Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret (Galfrid Malaterra, 1. ii. c. 1.). The conqueft of Sicily is related in the three laft books, and he himself has given an accurate fummary of the chapters (p. 544-546.). Thefe LVI. Thefe infufficient numbers of the Normans moft c H A P. probably denote their knights, the foldiers of honourable and equestrian rank, each of whom was attended by five or fix followers in the field 54 ; yet, with the aid of this interpretation, and after every fair allowance on the fide of valour, arms, and reputation, the discomfiture of fo many myriads will reduce the prudent reader to the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily derived a frequent and powerful fuccour from their countrymen of Africa: in the fiege of Palermo, the Norman cavalry was affifted by the gallies of Pifa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of the two brothers was fublimed to a generous and invincible emulation. After a war of thirty years ", Roger, with the title of great count, obtained the fovereignty of the largest and moft fruitful island of the Mediterranean; and his adminiftration difplays a liberal and enlightened mind above the limits of his age and education. The Moflems were maintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and property 56: a philofopher and physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomét, harangued the conqueror, and was invited 55 54 See the word milites, in the Latin Gloffary of Ducange. 55 Of odd particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that the Arabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (1. i. c. 33.) and of carrierpigeons (c. 42.); and that the bite of the tarantula provokes a windy difpofition, quæ per anum inhonefte crepitando emergit: a symptom moft ridiculously felt by the whole Norman army in their camp near Palermo (c. 36.). I fhall add an etymology not unworthy of the xith century: Meffana is derived from Meffis, the place from whence the harvefts of the ifle were fent in tribute to Rome (l. ii. c. 1.). 56 See the capitulation of Palermo in Malaterra, l. ii. c. 45. and Giannone, who remarks the general toleration of the Saracens (tom. ii. p. 72.). to LVI. CHAP. to court; his geography of the feven climates was tranflated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent perufal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the Grecian Ptolemy "7. A remnant of Christian natives had promoted the fuccefs of the Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of the Crofs. The ifland was restored to the jurifdiction of the Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal cities; and the clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment of churches and monafteries. Yet the Catholic hero afferted the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of refigning the investiture of benefices, he dextrously applied to his own profit the papal claims: the fupremacy of the crown was fecured and enlarged, by the fingular bull which declares the princes of Sicily hereditary and perpetual legates of the Holy See ". Robert in vades the Eastern empire, A. D. 1081. To Robert Guifcard, the conqueft of Sicily was more glorious than beneficial: the poffeffion of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate to his ambition; and he refolved to embrace or create 57 John Leo Afer, de Medicis et Philosophis Arabibus, c. 14. apud Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. xiii. p. 278, 279. This philofo pher is named Efferiph Effachalli, and he died in Africa, A. H.516, A. D. 1122. Yet this story bears a strange resemblance to the Sherif ad Edriffi, who prefented his book (Geographia Nubienfis, fee preface, p. 88. 90. 170.) to Roger king of Sicily, A. H. 548, A. D. 1153 (d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 786. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 188. Petit de la Croix, Hift. de Gengiscan, P. 535, 536. Cafiri, Bibliot. Arab. Hifpan. tom. ii. p. 9—13.); and I am afraid of fome mistake. 58 Malaterra remarks the foundation of the bishoprics (1. iv. c. 7.), and produces the original of the bull (l. iv. c. 29.). Giannone gives a rational idea of this privilege, and the tribunal of the monarchy of Sicily (tom. ii. p. 95-102.); and St. Marc (Abregé, tom. iii. p. 217-301. 1st column) labours the cafe with the diligence of a Sicilian lawyer. the LVI. the first occafion of invading, perhaps of fubduing, CHAP. the Roman empire of the East 59. From his first wife, the partner of his humble fortunes, he had been divorced under the pretence of confanguinity; and her fon Bohemond was deftined to imitate, rather than to fucceed, his illustrious father. The fecond wife of Guifcard was the daughter of the princes of Salerno; the Lombards acquiefced in the lineal fucceffion of their fon Roger; their five daughters were given in honourable nuptials and one of them was betrothed in a tender age, to Conftantine, a beautiful youth, the fon and heir of the emperor Michael ". But the throne of Conftantinople was fhaken by a revolution: the Imperial family of Ducas was confined to the palace or the cloister; and Robert deplored, and refented, the disgrace of his daughter and the expulfion of his ally. A Greek, who ftyled himself the father of 60 59 In the first expedition of Robert against the Greeks, I follow Anna Comnena (the ist, iiid, ivih, and vth books of the Alexiad), William Appulus (1. ivth and vth, p. 270-275.), and Jeffrey Malaterra (1. iii. c. 13, 14. 24-29. 39.). Their information is contemporary and authentic, but none of them were eye witneffes of the war. 60 One of them was married to Hugh, the fon of Azzo, or Axo, a marquis of Lombardy, rich, powerful, and noble (Gulielm. Appul. 1. iii. p. 267.), in the xith century, and whofe ancestors in the xta and ixth are explored by the critical industry of Leibnitz and Muratori. From the two elder fons of the marquis Azzo, are derived the illuftrious lines of Brunswick and Este. See Muratori, Antichitæ Eftenfe. 61-Anna Comnena, fomewhat too wantonly, praises and bewails that handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric nuptials (l. i. p. 23.), was betrothed as her husband; he was ayaλμa quoiwS .... Θες χειρων φιλοτίμημα χρυσε γενώς απορροή, &c. (p. 27.). Elfewhere, the describes the red and white of his skin, his hawk's eyes, &c. l. iii. p. 71. . .... Con LVI. CHA P. Conftantine, foon appeared at Salerno, and related the adventures of his fall and flight. That unfortunate friend was acknowledged by the duke, and adorned with the pomp and titles of Imperial dignity in his triumphal progress through Apulia and Calabria, Michael 62 was faluted with the tears and acclamations of the people; and pope Gregory the feventh exhorted the bishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious works of his restoration. His converfations with Robert were frequent and familiar; and their mutual promises were justified by the valour of the Normans and the treafures of the Eaft. Yet this Michael, by the confeffion of the Greeks and Latins, was a pageant and an impoftor; a monk who had fled from his convent, or a domeftic who had served in the palace. The fraud had been contrived by the fubtle Guifcard; and he trusted, that after this pretender had given a decent colour to his arms, he would fink, at the nod of the conqueror, into his primitive obfcurity. But victory was the only argument that could determine the belief of the Greeks; and the ardour of the Latins was much inferior to their credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest of their toils, and the unwarlike dangers of a tranfmarine expedition. In his new levies, Robert extended the influence of 62 Anna Comnena, 1. i. p. 28, 29. Gulielm. Appul. 1. iv. p. 271. Galfrid Malaterra, 1. iii. c. 13. p. 579, 580, Malaterra is more cautious in his ftyle: but the Apulian is bold and pofitive. Mentitus fe Michaelem Venerat a Danais quidam feductor ad illum. As Gregory VII. had believed, Baronius, almost alone, recognizes the emperor Michael (A. D. 1080, No 44.). gifts |