LVI. taken, 1082, Fe bruary 8, It is more than probable that Guifcard was CHAP. not afflicted by the lofs of a coftly pageant, which had merited only the contempt and de- Durazzo rifion of the Greeks. After their defeat, they A. D. fill perfevered in the defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander fupplied the place of George Palæologus, who had been imprudently called away from his ftation. The tents of the befiegers were converted into barracks, to fuftain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the garrifon, Robert infinuated, that his patience was at leaft equal to their obftinacy". Perhaps he already trufted to his fecret correfpondence with a Venetian noble, who fold the city for a rich and honourable marriage. At the dead of night feveral rope-ladders were dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians afcended in filence; and the Greeks were awakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defended the ftreet three days against an enemy already master of the rampart; and near feven months elapfed between the first investment and the final furrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; traverfed the first mountains of Theffaly; furprised three hundred English in the city of Caltoria; approached Theffalonica; and made Constantinople tremble. A more preffing duty fuf 77 The Romans had changed the inaufpicious name of Epi-damnus to Dyrrachium (Plin. iii. 26.); and the vulgar corruption of Duracium (fee Malaterra) bore fome affinity to hardness. One of Robert's names was Durand, a durando: poor wit! (Alberic. Monach.in Chron. apud Muratori Annali d'Italia, tom. ix. p. 137.). pended LVI. Robert, and Bohe CHAP. pended the profecution of his ambitious defigns. By fhipwreck, peftilence, and the fword, his army was reduced to a third of the original numbers; and inftead of being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive epiftles, of the mischiefs and dangers which had been produced by his abfence: the revolt of the cities and barons of Apulia; the diftrefs of the pope; and the approach or invafion of Henry king of Return of Germany. Highly prefuming that his perfon was fufficient for the public fafety, he repaffed actions of the fea in a fingle brigantine, and left the remains of the army under the command of his fon and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond to refpect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey the authority of their leader. The fon of Guifcard trod in the footsteps of his father; and the two deftroyers are compared by the Greeks to the caterpillar and the locuft, the last of whom devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former 78. After winning two battles against the emperor, he defcended into the plain of Theffaly, and befieged Lariffa, the fabulous realm of Achilles ", which contained the treasure and magazines of the Byzantine camp. Yet mond. 28 Βρυχος και ακρίδας είπεν αν τις αυτές πατέρα και ύιον (Anna, l. i. p. 35-). By thefe fimilies, fo different from those of Homer, fhe wishes to infpire contempt as well as horror for the little, noxious animal, a conqueror. Moft unfortunately, the common fenfe, or common nonsense, of mankind refists her laudable design. 79 Prodiit hâc auctor Trojanæ cladis Achilles. LVI. a juft praife muft not be refufed to the fortitude CHAP. and prudence of Alexius, who bravely ftruggled with the calamities of the times. In the poverty of the ftate, he prefumed to borrow the fuperfluous ornaments of the churches; the defertion of the Manichæans was fupplied by fome tribes of Moldavia; a reinforcement of feven thoufand Turks replaced and revenged the lofs of their brethren; and the Greek foldiers were exercised to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice of ambufcades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience, that the formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for action, and almoft incapable of motion; his archers were directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the man; and a variety of fpikes and fnares was fcattered over the ground on which he might expect an attack. In the neighbourhood of Lariffa the events of war were protracted and balanced. The courage of Bohemond was always confpicuous, and often fuccefsful; but his camp was pillaged by a ftratagem of the Greeks; the city was impregnable; and the venal or difcontented counts deferted his ftandard, betrayed their trusts, and enlifted in the fervice of the emperor. Alexius returned to Conftantinople with the advantage, rather than the ho 8ο The των πεδιλων προαλματα, which incumbered the knights on foot, have been ignorantly translated spurs (Anna Comnena, Alexias, 1. v. p. 140.). Ducange has explained the true fenfe by a ridiculous and inconvenient fashion, which lafted from the xith to the xvth century. Thefe peaks, in the form of a fcorpion, were sometimes two foot, and fastened to the knee with a filver chain, nour, CHAP. nour, of victory. After evacuating the conquefts LVI. which he could no longer defend, the fon of Guifcard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father who esteemed his merit, and sympathifed in his misfortune. The emperor invited by the Greeks, A. D. 1081. δι Of the Latin princes, the allies of Alexius Henry III. and enemies of Robert, the most prompt and powerful was Henry the third or fourth, king of Germany and Italy, and future emperor of the Weft. The epiftle of the Greek monarch ** to his brother is filled with the warmest profeffions of friendship, and the most lively defire of ftrengthening their alliance by every public and private tie. He congratulates Henry on his fucçefs in a juft and pious war, and complains that the profperity of his own empire is disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The lift of his prefents expreffes the manners of the age, a radiated crown of gold, a crofs fet with pearls to hang on the breast, a çafe of relics, with the names and titles of the faints, a vase of crystal, a vase of fardonyx, fome balm, moft probably of Mecca, and one hundred pieces of purple. To thefe he added a more folid present, of one hundred and fortyfour thousand Byzantines of gold, with a farther affurance of two hundred and fixteen thousand, fo foon as Henry fhould have entered in arms 81 The epiftle itself (Alexias, l. iii. p. 93, 94, 95.) well deferves to be read. There is one expreffion, αφροπελεκιν δεδεμενον μετα χρυσ cape, which Ducange does not understand, I have endeavoured to grope out a tolerable meaning: xpuca prov, is a golden crown; onexus, is explained by Simon Portius (in Lexico GræcoBarbar.), by nepauros, wpnsup, a flall of lightning. the LVI. the Apulian territories, and confirmed by an CHA P. oath the league against the common enemy. The German 2, who was already in Lombardy at the head of an army and a faction, accepted these liberal offers, and marched towards the fouth his speed was checked by the found of the battle of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms or name, in the hafty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the Grecian bribe. Henry was the fincere adverfary of the Normans, the allies and vaffals of Gregory the feventh, his implacable foe. The long quarrel of the throne and mitre had been recently kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughty prieft": the king and the pope had degraded each other: and each had feated a rival on the temporal or fpiritual throne of his antagonist. After the defeat and death of his Swabian rebel, Henry defcended into Italy to affume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican the tyrant of the church But the Roman people adhered 84 82 For thefe general events I must refer to the general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mofheim, St. Marc, &c. 83 The lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or invectives (St. Marc, Abregé, tom. iii. p. 235, &c.): and his miraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a modern reader. He will, as ufual, find some inftru&ion in Le Clerc (Vie de Hildebrand, Bibliot. ancienne et moderne, tom. viii.), and much amusement in Bayle (Dictionare Critique, Gregoire VII.). That pope was undoubtedly a great man, a second Athanafius, in a more fortunate age of the church. May I presume to add, that the portrait of Athanafius is one of the paffages of my hiftory (vol. iii. p. 356, c.) with which I am the leaft diffatisfied? 84 Anna, with the rancour of a Greek fchifmatic, calls him MATANTUÇIÇ OUTOG Пamas (1. i. p. 32.), a pope, or priest, worthy to |