contracted to fifty; and this narrow distance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the sublime or extravagant idea of a bridge. Before the general embarkation, the Norman duke despatched Bohemond with fifteen galleys to seize or threaten the Isle of Corfu, to survey the opposite coast, and to secure a harbor in the neighborhood of Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed without perceiving an enemy; and this successful experiment displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks. The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu (I use the modern appellation) to the siege of Durazzo. That city, the western key of the empire, was guarded by ancient renown, and recent fortifications, by George Palæologus, a patrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of his enterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of danger and mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the old infamy of the Acroceraunian rocks."7 The sails, the masts, and the oars, were shattered or torn away; the sea and shore were covered with the fragments of vessels, with arms and dead bodies; and the greatest part of the provisions were either drowned or damaged. The ducal galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners whe

which is strangely doubled by Strabo (L vi. p. 433) and Pliny, (Hist Natur. iii. 16.)

66 Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. 6, 16) allows quinquaginta millia for this brevissimus cursus, and agrees with the real distance from Otranto to La Vallona, or Auion, (D'Anville, Analyse de sa Carte des Côtés de la Grèce, &c., p. 3-6.) Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutes centum. (Harduin, Not. lxvi. in Plin. l. iii.,) might have been corrected by every Venetian pilot who had sailed out of the gulf.

Infames scopulos Acrocerannia, Horat. carm. i. 3. The præcipi tem Africum decertantem Aquilonibus, et rabiem Noti and the monatra natantia of the Adriatic, are somewhat enlarged; but Horace trembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting moment in the history of poetry and friendship.

had explored the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept during the tempest; they were alarmned by the hos ile approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and promises of the Byzantine court. The first day's action was not disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth," who led the naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of the republic lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the victory of the second day was decided y the dexterity of their evolutions, the station of their archers, the weight of their javelins, and the borrowed aid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from their cables, and dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally from the town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Norman duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Durazzo, and as soon as the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, the islands and maritime towns withdrew from the camp the supply of tribute and provision. That camp was soon afflicted with a pestilential disease; five hundred knights perished by an inglorius death; and the list of burials (if all could obtain a decent brial) amounted to ten thousand persons. Under these calamities, the mind of Guiscard alone was firm and invincible; and while he collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, he bettered, or scaled, or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his ir fustry and valor were encountered by equal valor and more prfect industry. A movable turret, of a size and capacity to ntain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the ot of the rampart: but the descent of the door or drawLidge was checked by an enormous beam, and the wooden ructure was constantly consumed by artificial flames.

While the Roman empire was attacked by the Turks in the East, and the Normans in the West, the aged successor of Michael surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. The princess Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected style, that even Hercules was un equal to a double combat; and, on this principle, she ap

50 Τῶν δὲ εἰς τὸν πώγωνα αὐτοῦ ἐφυβρισάντων, (Alexias, l. iv. p. 106.) Yet the Norma shaved, and the Venetians wore, their beards: they must have derided the no beard of Bohemond; a harsh interpretation' (Dncange, Nt, ad Alexiad. p. 283.)

p.oves a hasty peace with the Turks, which allowed her fatber to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, and the treasury without money; yet such were the vigor an activity of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of seventy thousand men," and performed a march of five hundred miles. His troops were levied in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of the companies of Horse-guards; and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate the multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination were preg nant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamors for speedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, who might have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British Island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppressed and united; a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea was open to their escape and, in their long pilgrimage, they visited every coast tha afforded any hope of liberty and revenge. They were en tertained in the service of the Greek emperor; and their

" Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. ix. p. 136, 137) observes, that Some authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. 1. iii. c. 49) compose the Greek army of 170,000 men, but that the hundred may be struck off, an that Malaterra reckons only 70,000; a slight inattention. The passage to which he alludes is in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 45.) Malaterra (1. iv. c. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite terms of the emperor, cum copiis innumerabilibus: like the Apulian poet, (1. iv. p. 272 :)—

More locustarum montes et p.ana teguntur.

first station was in a new city on the Asiatic slore: but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his person and palace; and bequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their faith and valor." The name of a Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs: they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle of Has tings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constan tinople from the tyranny of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure aid of the Paulicians or Manichæans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these her etics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valor." The treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. "You behold," said he, "your danger: it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accus tomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader." The vote and acclamation even of his se cret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence; and the duke thus continued: "Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity and our burial." The resolution was unanimously approved; and, without confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he

To See William of Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, l. ii. p. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens præcipuis familiaritatibus suis eo applicabat, amorem eorum filio transcribens. Odericus Vitalis (Hist Eccles. 1. iv. p. 508, 1. vii. p. 641) relates their emigration from England, and their service in Greece.

"See the Apulian, (l. i. p 256.) The character and the story of these Manichæars has been the subject of the livth chapter.

conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Cæsar and Pom pey had formerly disputed the empire of the world."

Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the garri son of Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally from the town. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans before daybreak on two different sides: his light cavalry was scattered over the plain; the archers formed the econd line; and the Varangians claimed the honors of the vanguard. In the first onset, the battle-axes of the strangers шade a deep and bloody impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the river and the sea; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike Ama zon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: 73 though wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops. Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council: "Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly

74

" See the simple and masterly narrative of Cæsar himself, (Comment. de Bell. Civil. iii. 41-75.) It is a pity that Quintus Icilius (M. Guichard) did not live to analyze these operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain.

1. Παλλὰς ἄλλη κὰν μὴ ̓Αθήνη, which is very properly translated by the President Cousin, (Hist. de Constantinople, tom. iv. p. 131, in !2mo.,) qui combattoit comme une Pallas, quoiqu'elle ne fût pas aussi avante que celle d'Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed of twe discordant characters, of Neith, the workwoman of Sais in Egypt, and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier, Mythologie, tom. iv. p. 1-31, in 12mo.)

74 Anna Comnena (1. iv. p. 116) admires, with some degree of ter ror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar to the Latins and though the Apulian (1. iv. p. 273) mentions her presence and her ound, he represents her as far less intrepid.

Uxor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagittâ

Quâdam læsa fuit: quo vulnere territa nullam.
Dum sperabat opem, se pone subegerat hosti.

The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner.