The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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[Footnote 7: Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the
identity of the language of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians,
Bulgarians, Poles, (de Rebus Turcicis, l. x. p. 283,) and
elsewhere of the Bohemians, (l. ii. p. 38.) The same author has
marked the separate idiom of the Hungarians.

Note: The Slavonian languages are no doubt Indo-European,
though an original branch of that great family, comprehending the
various dialects named by Gibbon and others. Shafarik, t. 33. -
M. 1845.]

[Footnote 8: See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de
Originibus Sclavicis, Vindobonae, 1745, in four parts, or two
volumes in folio. His collections and researches are useful to
elucidate the antiquities of Bohemia and the adjacent countries;
but his plan is narrow, his style barbarous, his criticism
shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free from the prejudices
of a Bohemian.

Note: We have at length a profound and satisfactory work on
the Slavonian races. Shafarik, Slawische Alterthumer. B. 2,
Leipzig, 1843. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 9: Jordan subscribes to the well-known and probable
derivation from Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in
the different dialects and parts of speech, and which forms the
termination of the most illustrious names, (de Originibus
Sclavicis, pars. i. p. 40, pars. iv. p. 101, 102)]

[Footnote 10: This conversion of a national into an appellative
name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the
Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in
Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but
of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to the
general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of
the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and
Ducange.) The confusion of the Servians with the Latin Servi, was
still more fortunate and familiar, (Constant. Porphyr. de
Administrando, Imperio, c. 32, p. 99.)]

[Footnote 11: The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most
accurate for his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages,
describes the Sclavonians of Dalmatia, (c. 29 - 36.)]

[Footnote 12: See the anonymous Chronicle of the xith century,
ascribed to John Sagorninus, (p. 94 - 102,) and that composed in
the xivth by the Doge Andrew Dandolo, (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom.
xii. p. 227 - 230,) the two oldest monuments of the history of
Venice.]

The glory of the Bulgarians ^13 was confined to a narrow
scope both of time and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries,
they reigned to the south of the Danube; but the more powerful
nations that had followed their emigration repelled all return to
the north and all progress to the west. Yet in the obscure
catalogue of their exploits, they might boast an honor which had
hitherto been appropriated to the Goths: that of slaying in
battle one of the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The
emperor Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his
life in the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced
with boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt
the royal court, which was probably no more than an edifice and
village of timber. But while he searched the spoil and refused
all offers of treaty, his enemies collected their spirits and
their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and
the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim, "Alas, alas!
unless we could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to
escape." Two days he waited his fate in the inactivity of
despair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians
surprised the camp, and the Roman prince, with the great officers
of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of
Valens had been saved from insult; but the head of Nicephorus was
exposed on a spear, and his skull, enchased with gold, was often
replenished in the feasts of victory. The Greeks bewailed the
dishonor of the throne; but they acknowledged the just punishment
of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured
with the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were
softened before the end of the same century by a peaceful
intercourse with the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated
region, and the introduction of the Christian worship. The
nobles of Bulgaria were educated in the schools and palace of
Constantinople; and Simeon, ^14 a youth of the royal line, was
instructed in the rhetoric of Demosthenes and the logic of
Aristotle. He relinquished the profession of a monk for that of
a king and warrior; and in his reign of more than forty years,
Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth.
The Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint
consolation from indulging themselves in the reproaches of
perfidy and sacrilege. They purchased the aid of the Pagan
Turks; but Simeon, in a second battle, redeemed the loss of the
first, at a time when it was esteemed a victory to elude the arms
of that formidable nation. The Servians were overthrown, made
captive and dispersed; and those who visited the country before
their restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants,
without women or children, who extorted a precarious subsistence
from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of Achelous, the
greeks were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of
the Barbaric Hercules. ^15 He formed the siege of Constantinople;
and, in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed
the conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous
precautions: the royal gallery was drawn close to an artificial
and well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple was
emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. "Are you a Christian?"
said the humble Romanus: "it is your duty to abstain from the
blood of your fellow- Christians. Has the thirst of riches
seduced you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, open
your hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your
desires." The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance;
the freedom of trade was granted or restored; the first honors of
the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the
ambassadors of enemies or strangers; ^16 and her princes were
dignified with the high and invidious title of Basileus, or
emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after the death
of Simeon, the nations were again in arms; his feeble successors
were divided and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the
eleventh century, the second Basil, who was born in the purple,
deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His
avarice was in some measure gratified by a treasure of four
hundred thousand pounds sterling, (ten thousand pounds' weight of
gold,) which he found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty
inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand
captives who had been guilty of the defence of their country.
They were deprived of sight; but to one of each hundred a single
eye was left, that he might conduct his blind century to the
presence of their king. Their king is said to have expired of
grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terrible example;
the Bulgarians were swept away from their settlements, and
circumscribed within a narrow province; the surviving chiefs
bequeathed to their children the advice of patience and the duty
of revenge.

[Footnote 13: The first kingdom of the Bulgarians may be found,
under the proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras.
The Byzantine materials are collected by Stritter, (Memoriae
Populorum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 441 - 647;) and the series of
their kings is disposed and settled by Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. p.
305 - 318.)

[Footnote 14: Simeonem semi-Graecum esse aiebant, eo quod a
pueritia Byzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis
syllogismos didicerat, (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 8.) He says in
another place, Simeon, fortis bella tor, Bulgariae praeerat;
Christianus, sed vicinis Graecis valde inimicus, (l. i. c. 2.)]

[Footnote 15: - Rigidum fera dextera cornu
Dum tenet, infregit, truncaque a fronte revellit.
Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1 - 100) has boldly painted the combat of
the river god and the hero; the native and the stranger.]

[Footnote 16: The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek
excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus
conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia scripto juramento
firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes
nos Bulgarorum Apostoli praeponantur, honorentur, diligantur,
(Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482.) See the Ceremoniale of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. i. p. 82, tom. ii. p. 429, 430,
434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447, with the annotations of Reiske.]

II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over
Europe, above nine hundred years after the Christian aera, they
were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of
the Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the
world. ^17 Since the introduction of letters, they have explored
their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of
patriotic curiosity. ^18 Their rational criticism can no longer
be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they
complain that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar
war; that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long
since forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle ^19
must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign
intelligence of the imperial geographer. ^20 Magiar is the
national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among
the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under
the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that
mighty people who had conquered and reigned from China to the
Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade
and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of Persia and
after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, the
missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their
ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They were
hospitably entertained by a people of Pagans and Savages who
still bore the name of Hungarians; conversed in their native
tongue, recollected a tradition of their long-lost brethren, and
listened with amazement to the marvellous tale of their new
kingdom and religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the
interest of consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their
princes had formed the generous, though fruitless, design of
replenishing the solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony
from the heart of Tartary. ^21 From this primitive country they
were driven to the West by the tide of war and emigration, by the
weight of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were
fugitives and conquerors. ^* Reason or fortune directed their
course towards the frontiers of the Roman empire: they halted in
the usual stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in
the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have
been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and
various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion
of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or
sullied by the mixture of a foreign race: from a motive of
compulsion, or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were
associated to the standard of their ancient vassals; introduced
the use of a second language; and obtained by their superior
renown the most honorable place in the front of battle. The
military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven
equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of
thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the
proportion of women, children, and servants, supposes and
requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels
were directed by seven vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the
experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple
and vigorous administration of a single person. The sceptre,
which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to
the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the authority
of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of
the prince and people; of the people to obey his commands, of the
prince to consult their happiness and glory.

[Footnote 17: A bishop of Wurtzburgh submitted his opinion to a
reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog
were the spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies
the root, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from
the root, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once
commanded the respect of mankind, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi.
p. 594, &c.)]

[Footnote 18: The two national authors, from whom I have derived
the mos assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes and Annales
veterum Hun garorum, &c., Vindobonae, 1775, in folio) and Stephen
Katona, (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariae Stirpis
Arpadianae, Paestini, 1778 - 1781, 5 vols. in octavo.) The first
embraces a large and often conjectural space; the latter, by his
learning, judgment, and perspicuity, deserves the name of a
critical historian.

Note: Compare Engel Geschichte des Ungrischen Reichs und
seiner Neben lander, Halle, 1797, and Mailath, Geschichte der
Magyaren, Wien, 1828. In an appendix to the latter work will be
found a brief abstract of the speculations (for it is difficult
to consider them more) which have been advanced by the learned,
on the origin of the Magyar and Hungarian names. Compare vol. vi.
p. 35, note. - M.]

[Footnote 19: The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary
of King Bela. Katona has assigned him to the xiith century, and
defends his character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This
rude annalist must have transcribed some historical records,
since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis
rusticorum, et garrulo cantu joculatorum. In the xvth century,
these fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the
Italian Bonfinius. See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist.
Critica Ducum, p. 7 - 33.]

[Footnote 20: See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4,
13, 38 - 42, Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work
to the years 949, 950, 951, (p. 4 - 7.) The critical historian
(p. 34 - 107) endeavors to prove the existence, and to relate the
actions, of a first duke Almus the father of Arpad, who is
tacitly rejected by Constantine.]

[Footnote 21: Pray (Dissert. p. 37 - 39, &c.) produces and
illustrates the original passages of the Hungarian missionaries,
Bonfinius and Aeneas Sylvius.]

[Footnote *: In the deserts to the south-east of Astrakhan have
been found the ruins of a city named Madchar, which proves the
residence of the Hungarians or Magiar in those regions. Precis
de la Geog. Univ. par Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 353. - G.

This is contested by Klaproth in his Travels, c. xxi.
Madschar, (he states) in old Tartar, means "stone building." This
was a Tartar city mentioned by the Mahometan writers. - M.]

With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the
penetration of modern learning had not opened a new and larger
prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language
stands alone, and as it were insulated, among the Sclavonian
dialects; but it bears a close and clear affinity to the idioms
of the Fennic race, ^22 of an obsolete and savage race, which
formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. ^* The
genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western
confines of China; ^23 their migration to the banks of the Irtish
is attested by Tartar evidence; ^24 a similar name and language
are detected in the southern parts of Siberia; ^25 and the
remains of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly scattered
from the sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland. ^26 The
consanguinity of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the
powerful energy of climate on the children of a common parent;
the lively contrast between the bold adventurers who are
intoxicated with the wines of the Danube, and the wretched
fugitives who are immersed beneath the snows of the polar circle.

Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often the
unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by
nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body. ^27 Extreme
cold has diminished the stature and congealed the faculties of
the Laplanders; and the arctic tribes, alone among the sons of
men, are ignorant of war, and unconscious of human blood; a happy
ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their
peace! ^28

[Footnote 22: Fischer in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de
Origine Ungrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii. &c., have
drawn up several comparative tables of the Hungarian with the
Fennic dialects. The affinity is indeed striking, but the lists
are short; the words are purposely chosen; and I read in the
learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. x. p. 374,) that
although the Hungarian has adopted many Fennic words, (innumeras
voces,) it essentially differs toto genio et natura.]

[Footnote *: The connection between the Magyar language and that
of the Finns is now almost generally admitted. Klaproth, Asia
Polyglotta, p. 188, &c. Malte Bran, tom. vi. p. 723, &c. - M.]

[Footnote 23: In the religion of Turfan, which is clearly and
minutely described by the Chinese Geographers, (Gaubil, Hist. du
Grand Gengiscan, 13; De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31,
&c.)]

[Footnote 24: Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi
Bahadur Khan partie ii. p. 90 - 98.]

[Footnote 25: In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives
(Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920,
921) and Bell (Travels, vol. i p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the
neighborhood of Tobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological
art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to the same name; the
circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and
of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the nearest to the
Hungarian, (Fischer, Dissert. i. p. 20 - 30. Pray. Dissert. ii.
p. 31 - 34.)]

[Footnote 26: The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described
in the curious work of M. Leveque, (Hist. des Peuples soumis a la
Domination de la Russie, tom. ii. p. 361 - 561.)]

[Footnote 27: This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is
chiefly drawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796 - 801, and the
Latin Annals, which are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori,
A.D. 889, &c.]

[Footnote 28: Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 6, in 12mo.
Gustavus Adolphus attempted, without success, to form a regiment
of Laplanders. Grotius says of these arctic tribes, arma arcus et
pharetra, sed adversus feras, (Annal. l. iv. p. 236;) and
attempts, after the manner of Tacitus, to varnish with philosophy
their brutal ignorance.]

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.

Part II.

It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics,
^29 that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their
pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same
means of subsistence, and employed the same instruments of
destruction. But he adds, that the two nations of Bulgarians and
Hungarians were superior to their brethren, and similar to each
other in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and
government: their visible likeness determines Leo to confound his
friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture
may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of
the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military
prowess, all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and
contemptible to these Barbarians, whose native fierceness was
stimulated by the consciousness of numbers and freedom. The
tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur;
they shaved their hair, and scarified their faces: in speech they
were slow, in action prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they
shared the common reproach of Barbarians, too ignorant to
conceive the importance of truth, too proud to deny or palliate
the breach of their most solemn engagements. Their simplicity
has been praised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they
had never known; whatever they saw they coveted; their desires
were insatiate, and their sole industry was the hand of violence
and rapine. By the definition of a pastoral nation, I have
recalled a long description of the economy, the warfare, and the
government that prevail in that state of society; I may add, that
to fishing, as well as to the chase, the Hungarians were indebted
for a part of their subsistence; and since they seldom cultivated
the ground, they must, at least in their new settlements, have
sometimes practised a slight and unskilful husbandry. In their
emigrations, perhaps in their expeditions, the host was
accompanied by thousands of sheep and oxen which increased the
cloud of formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesale
supply of milk and animal food. A plentiful command of forage
was the first care of the general, and if the flocks and herds
were secure of their pastures, the hardy warrior was alike
insensible of danger and fatigue. The confusion of men and
cattle that overspread the country exposed their camp to a
nocturnal surprise, had not a still wider circuit been occupied
by their light cavalry, perpetually in motion to discover and
delay the approach of the enemy. After some experience of the
Roman tactics, they adopted the use of the sword and spear, the
helmet of the soldier, and the iron breastplate of his steed: but
their native and deadly weapon was the Tartar bow: from the
earliest infancy their children and servants were exercised in
the double science of archery and horsemanship; their arm was
strong; their aim was sure; and in the most rapid career, they
were taught to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley
of arrows into the air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in
flight, or pursuit, they were equally formidable; an appearance
of order was maintained in the foremost ranks, but their charge
was driven forwards by the impatient pressure of succeeding
crowds. They pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and
horrific outcries; but, if they fled, with real or dissembled
fear, the ardor of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by
the same habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the
abuse of victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from the
wounds of the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely asked, and
more rarely bestowed: both sexes were accused is equally
inaccessible to pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might
countenance the popular tale, that they drank the blood, and
feasted on the hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not
devoid of those principles of justice and humanity, which nature
has implanted in every bosom. The license of public and private
injuries was restrained by laws and punishments; and in the
security of an open camp, theft is the most tempting and most
dangerous offence. Among the Barbarians there were many, whose
spontaneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their
manners, who performed the duties, and sympathized with the
affections, of social life.

[Footnote 29: Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks
was monarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous,
(Tactic. p. 896) Rhegino (in Chron. A.D. 889) mentions theft as a
capital crime, and his jurisprudence is confirmed by the original
code of St. Stephen, (A.D. 1016.) If a slave were guilty, he was
chastised, for the first time, with the loss of his nose, or a
fine of five heifers; for the second, with the loss of his ears,
or a similar fine; for the third, with death; which the freeman
did not incur till the fourth offence, as his first penalty was
the loss of liberty, (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar tom. i. p. 231,
232.)]

After a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish
hordes approached the common limits of the French and Byzantine
empires. Their first conquests and final settlements extended on
either side of the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and
beyond the measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, or the
modern kingdom of Hungary. ^30 That ample and fertile land was
loosely occupied by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe,
which were driven by the invaders into the compass of a narrow
province. Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire as
far as the edge of Transylvania; but, after the failure of his
legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and
tribute to the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph
was provoked to invite the arms of the Turks: they rushed through
the real or figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown
open; and the king of Germany has been justly reproached as a
traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical society of the
Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarians were
checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son Lewis
they discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian
speed, that in a single day a circuit of fifty miles was stripped
and consumed. In the battle of Augsburgh the Christians
maintained their advantage till the seventh hour of the day, they
were deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of the
Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces of
Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians ^31 promoted
the reign of anarchy, by forcing the stoutest barons to
discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of
walled towns is ascribed to this calamitous period; nor could any
distance be secure against an enemy, who, almost at the same
instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St. Gall, and
the city of Bremen, on the shores of the northern ocean. Above
thirty years the Germanic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the
ignominy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by the menace,
the serious and effectual menace of dragging the women and
children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males above the
age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow
the Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with
surprise, that the southern provinces of France were blasted by
the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished
at the approach of these formidable strangers. ^32 The vicinity
of Italy had tempted their early inroads; but from their camp on
the Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength
and populousness of the new discovered country. They requested
leave to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the
Italian king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid
the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of
the West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendor;
and the preeminence of Rome itself was only derived from the
relics of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in
flames; forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the
massacre of the people, they spared about two hundred wretches
who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a vague
exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In these
annual excursions from the Alps to the neighborhood of Rome and
Capua, the churches, that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful
litany: "O, save and deliver us from the arrows of the
Hungarians!" But the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the
torrent rolled forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land
of Calabria. ^33 A composition was offered and accepted for the
head of each Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were
poured forth in the Turkish camp. But falsehood is the natural
antagonist of violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in
the numbers of the assessment and the standard of the metal. On
the side of the East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful
conflict by the equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade
an alliance with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the
barrier of the Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the
emperor of Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks;
and one of their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe
into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks
diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, in their
retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of
Bulgaria and the majesty of the Caesars. ^34 The remote and rapid
operations of the same campaign appear to magnify the power and
numbers of the Turks; but their courage is most deserving of
praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse would
often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of
Thessalonica and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the
ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple
scourge from the North, the East, and the South: the Norman, the
Hungarian, and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same ground of
desolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by
Homer to the two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled
stag. ^35 [Footnote 30: See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321 -
352.]