Roy Rockwood - "The Wizard of the Sea"

Juliana Horatio Ewing - "Jackanapes"

Frank Gee Patchin - "The Pony Rider Boys in Texas"

Dr. D.M. Brooks - "The Necessity of Atheism"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

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




[Footnote 15: The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are
collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may
distinguish the poems of William Appulus (p. 245 - 278) and the
history of Galfridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537 - 607.) Both
were natives of France, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of
the first conquerors (before A.D. 1100,) and with the spirit of
freemen. It is needless to recapitulate the compilers and
critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone,
Muratori, St. Marc, &c., whom I have always consulted, and never
copied.

Note: M. Goutier d'Arc has discovered a translation of the
Chronicle of Aime, monk of Mont Cassino, a contemporary of the
first Norman invaders of Italy. He has made use of it in his
Histoire des Conquetes des Normands, and added a summary of its
contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was
supposed to have been entirely lost. - M.]

[Footnote 16: Some of the first converts were baptized ten or
twelve times, for the sake of the white garment usually given at
this ceremony. At the funeral of Rollo, the gifts to monasteries
for the repose of his soul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one
hundred captives. But in a generation or two, the national
change was pure and general.]

[Footnote 17: The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans
of Bayeux on the sea-coast, at a time (A.D. 940) when it was
already forgotten at Rouen, in the court and capital. Quem
(Richard I.) confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni militiae suae
principi nutriendum tradidit, ut, ibi lingua eruditus Danica,
suis exterisque hominibus sciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm.
Gemeticensis de Ducibus Normannis, l. iii. c. 8, p. 623, edit.
Camden.) Of the vernacular and favorite idiom of William the
Conqueror, (A.D. 1035,) Selden (Opera, tom. ii. p. 1640 - 1656)
has given a specimen, obsolete and obscure even to antiquarians
and lawyers.]

[Footnote !: A band of Normans returning from the Holy Land had
rescued the city of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet
of Saracens. Gainar, the Lombard prince of Salerno wished to
retain them in his service and take them into his pay. They
answered, "We fight for our religion, and not for money." Gaimar
entreated them to send some Norman knights to his court. This
seems to have been the origin of the connection of the Normans
with Italy. See Histoire des Conquetes des Normands par Goutier
d'Arc, l. i. c. i., Paris, 1830. - M.]

[Footnote 18: See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d'Italia, p. 250)
and Baronius, (A.D. 493, No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the
temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the
soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph l. vi. p. 435, 436,) the Catholics
(on this occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of
their superstition.]

[Footnote *: Nine out of ten perished in the field. Chronique
d'Aime, tom. i. p. 21 quoted by M Goutier d'Arc, p. 42. - M.]

[Footnote 19: See the first book of William Appulus. His words
are applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters: -

Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos

Confugiebat eum gratanter suscipiebant:

Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant

Informant propria; gens efficiatur ut una.

And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy: -

Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae:

Pars, quia de magnis majora subire volebant.]

[Footnote *: This account is not accurate. After the retreat of
the emperor Henry II. the Normans, united under the command of
Rainulf, had taken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in
the duchy of Naples. They had been masters of it a few years when
Pandulf IV., prince of Capua, found means to take Naples by
surprise. Sergius, master of the soldiers, and head of the
republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned a city in which
he could not behold, without horror, the establishment of a
foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, with the
assistance of the Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to
their country, he had collected money enough to satisfy the
rapacity of the Norman adventurers, he advanced at their head to
attack the garrison of the prince of Capua, defeated it, and
reentered Naples. It was then that he confirmed the Normans in
the possession of Aversa and its territory, which he raised into
a count's fief, and granted the investiture to Rainulf. Hist.
des Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267]

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian
emperors had been anxious to regain that valuable possession; but
their efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the
distance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of
success, added new pages of calamity and disgrace to the
Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops were lost
in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the
policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the
custody of their women, but with the command of their men ^20
After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by
their divisions. ^21 The emir disclaimed the authority of the
king of Tunis; the people rose against the emir; the cities were
usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his
village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored
the friendship of the Christians. In every service of danger the
Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or
warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and
interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces,
governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were
reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the
island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van
and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. In a
second action the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced
by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement,
his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand
Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of the
pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the
historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It
is, however, true, that they essentially promoted the success of
Maniaces, who reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of
Sicily, under the obedience of the emperor. But his military
fame was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of
the spoils, the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten;
and neither their avarice nor their pride could brook this
injurious treatment. They complained by the mouth of their
interpreter: their complaint was disregarded; their interpreter
was scourged; the sufferings were his; the insult and resentment
belonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they
dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to
the Italian continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized 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 seven
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
proposed the option of battle or retreat; "of battle," was the
unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest warriors,
with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of the
Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult
was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive
battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their
adversaries. In the plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled before
the adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was made
prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new dominion; and the four
places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum, were alone
saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera
we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon
eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts ^24 were
chosen by the popular suffrage; 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 fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his
vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of
Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel of the
republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of
the twelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated by
this military senate. The first of his peers, their president
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 society, and an angel
in council. ^25 The manners of his countrymen are fairly
delineated by a contemporary and national historian. ^26 "The
Normans," says Malaterra, "are a cunning and revengeful people;
eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary
qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed
by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of
nature and passion. Their princes affect the praises of popular
munificence; the people observe the medium, or rather blond the
extremes, of avarice and prodigality; and in their eager thirst
of wealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and
hope whatever they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress,
the exercises of hunting and hawking ^27 are the delight of the
Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure with
incredible patience the inclemency of every climate, and the toil
and absence of a military life." ^28

[Footnote 20: Liutprand, in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has
illustrated this event from the Ms. history of the deacon Leo,
(tom. iv. A.D. 965, No. 17 - 19.)]

[Footnote 21: See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori,
Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253.]

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

[Footnote 23: Lydia: consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4,
with Delisle's map.]

[Footnote 24: Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores,

Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et aetas,

Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum

His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris

Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras

Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet;

Singula proponunt loca quae contingere sorte

Cuique duci debent, et quaeque tributa locorum.

And after speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds,

Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas,

Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe.
Leo Ostiensis (l. ii. c. 67) enumerates the divisions of the
Apulian cities, which it is needless to repeat.]

[Footnote 25: Gulielm. Appulus, l. ii. c 12, according to the
reference of Giannone, (Istoria 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, (l. i. p. 258, l. ii. p. 259.) He was bewailed by the
Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (says Malaterra, l. i.
c. 12, p. 552,) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum,
affabilem, morigeratum, ulterius se habere diffidebant.]

[Footnote 26: The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix ....
adulari sciens .... eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (l. i.
c. 3, p. 550,) are expressive of the popular and proverbial
character of the Normans.]

[Footnote 27: The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the
descendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import
from Norway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons.]

[Footnote 28: We may compare this portrait with that of William
of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 101, 102,) who
appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues
of the Saxons and Normans. England was assuredly a gainer by the
conquest.]



Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.

Part II.

The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two
empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted
the investiture of their lands, from the sovereigns of Germany or
Constantinople. But the firmest title of these adventurers was
the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they were
neither trusted 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 desire, a horse, a woman,
a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the
strangers; ^29 and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored
by the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve
counts were sometimes joined in the league of injustice: in their
domestic quarrels they disputed the spoils of the people: the
virtues of William were buried in his grave; and Drogo, his
brother and successor, was better qualified to lead the valor,
than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of
Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of
the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve Italy from this
adherent mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians; ^30
and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with
the most lofty titles ^31 and the most ample commission. The
memory of his father might recommend him to 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 design of Constantine to transplant the warlike colony
from the Italian provinces to the Persian war; and the son of
Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of
Greece, as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts
were baffled by the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia:
his gifts, or at least his proposals, were rejected; and they
unanimously refused to relinquish their possessions and their
hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After the
means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to
destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common
enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the
two emperors of the East and West. The throne of St. Peter was
occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, ^32 of a temper most
apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable
character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures
least compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was
affected by the complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured
people: the impious Normans had interrupted the payment of
tithes; and the temporal sword might be lawfully unsheathed
against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures
of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo
had free access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry
the Third; and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal
transported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the
Tyber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus indulged
himself in the use of secret and guilty weapons: a crowd of
Normans became the victims of public or private revenge; and the
valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his spirit survived
in his brother Humphrey, the third count of Apulia. The
assassins were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrown and
wounded, was driven from the field, to hide his shame behind the
walls of Bari, and to await the tardy succor of his allies.

[Footnote 29: The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom
on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem
Normannorum, crudeli et inaudita rabie, et plusquam Pagana
impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim Christianos
trucidare, &c., (Wibert, c. 6.) The honest Apulian (l. ii. p.
259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia.]

[Footnote 30: The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c.,
must be collected from Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 757, 758,) William
Appulus, (l. i. p 257, 258, l. ii. p. 259,) and the two
Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protospata, (Muratori, Script. Ital.
tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44,) and an anonymous writer, (Antiquitat,
Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. i. p 31 - 35.) This last is a fragment
of some value.]

[Footnote 31: Argyrus received, says the anonymous Chronicle of
Bari, Imperial letters, Foederatus et Patriciatus, et Catapani et
Vestatus. In his Annals, Muratori (tom. viii. p. 426) very
properly reads, or interprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos
or Augustus. But in his Antiquities, he was taught by Ducange to
make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe.]

[Footnote 32: A Life of St. Leo IX., deeply tinged with the
passions and prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert,
printed at Paris, 1615, in octavo, and since inserted in the
Collections of the Bollandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori.
The public and private history of that pope is diligently treated
by M. de St. Marc. (Abrege, tom. ii. p. 140 - 210, and p. 25 -
95, second column.)]

But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish
war; the mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope,
instead of repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied
only by a guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of
Lorraine. In his long progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile
and promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy
standard: ^33 the priest and the robber slept in the same tent;
the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the
martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of
march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could
muster in the field no more than three thousand horse, with a
handful of infantry: the defection of the natives intercepted
their provisions and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of
fear, was chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the
hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace or
reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was
inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride the diminutive
stature of their adversaries; and the Normans were informed that
death or exile was their only alternative. Flight they
disdained, and, as many of them had been three days without
tasting food, they embraced the assurance of a more easy and
honorable death. They climbed the hill of Civitella, descended
into the plain, and charged in three divisions the army of the
pope. On the left, and in the centre, Richard count of Aversa,
and Robert the famous Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and
pursued the Italian multitudes, who fought without discipline,
and fled without shame. A harder trial was reserved for the
valor of Count Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing.
The Germans ^34 have been described as unskillful in the
management of the horse and the lance, but on foot they formed a
strong and impenetrable phalanx; and neither man, nor steed, nor
armor, could resist the weight of their long and two-handed
swords. After a severe conflict, they were encompassed by the
squadrons returning from the pursuit; and died in the ranks with
the esteem of their foes, and the satisfaction of revenge. The
gates of Civitella were shut against the flying pope, and he was
overtaken by the pious conquerors, who kissed his feet, to
implore his blessing and the absolution of their sinful victory.
The soldiers beheld in their enemy and captive the vicar of
Christ; and, though we may suppose the policy of the chiefs, it
is probable that they were infected by the popular superstition.
In the calm of retirement, the well-meaning pope deplored the
effusion of Christian blood, which must be imputed to his
account: he felt, that he had been the author of sin and scandal;
and as his undertaking had failed, the indecency of his military
character was universally condemned. ^35 With these dispositions,
he listened to the offers of a beneficial treaty; deserted an
alliance which he had preached as the cause of God; and ratified
the past and future conquests of the Normans. By whatever hands
they had been usurped, the provinces of Apulia and Calabria were
a part of the donation of Constantine and the patrimony of St.
Peter: the grant and the acceptance confirmed the mutual claims
of the pontiff and the adventurers. They promised to support
each other with spiritual and temporal arms; a tribute or
quitrent of twelve pence was afterwards stipulated for every
ploughland; and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of
Naples has remained above seven hundred years a fief of the Holy
See. ^36

[Footnote 33: See the expedition of Leo XI. against the Normans.
See William Appulus (l. ii. p. 259 - 261) and Jeffrey Malaterra
(l. i. c. 13, 14, 15, p. 253.) They are impartial, as the
national is counterbalanced by the clerical prejudice]

[Footnote 34: Teutonici, quia caesaries et forma decoros

Fecerat egregie proceri corporis illos

Corpora derident Normannica quae breviora

Esse videbantur.

The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he
heats himself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from
hawking and sorcery are descriptive of manners.]

[Footnote 35: Several respectable censures or complaints are
produced by M. de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200 - 204.) As Peter
Damianus, the oracle of the times, has denied the popes the right
of making war, the hermit (lugens eremi incola) is arraigned by
the cardinal, and Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1053, No. 10 -
17) most strenuously asserts the two swords of St. Peter.]

[Footnote 36: The origin and nature of the papal investitures are
ably discussed by Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii.
p. 37 - 49, 57 - 66,) as a lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly
strives to reconcile the duties of patriot and Catholic, adopts
an empty distinction of "Ecclesia Romana non dedit, sed accepit,"
and shrinks from an honest but dangerous confession of the
truth.]

The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard ^37 is variously deduced
from the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants,
by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess; ^38 from the
dukes, by the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. ^39
His genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order
of private nobility. ^40 He sprang from a race of valvassors or
bannerets, of the diocese of Coutances, in the Lower Normandy:
the castle of Hauteville was their honorable seat: his father
Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke; and
his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights.
Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the
father of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial
tenderness of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was
insufficient for this numerous and daring progeny; they saw
around the neighborhood the mischiefs of poverty and discord, and
resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance.
Two only remained to perpetuate the race, and cherish their
father's age: their ten brothers, as they successfully attained
the vigor of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps,
and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder were
prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their younger
brethren, and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and
Humphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the
founders of the new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven
sons of the second marriage; and even the reluctant praise of his
foes has endowed him with the heroic qualities of a soldier and a
statesman. His lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army:
his limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength and
gracefulness; and to the decline of life, he maintained the
patient vigor of health and the commanding dignity of his form.
His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair and
beard were long and of a flaxen color, his eyes sparkled with
fire, and his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress
obedience and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder
ages of chivalry, such qualifications are not below the notice of
the poet or historians: they may observe that Robert, at once,
and with equal dexterity, could wield in the right hand his
sword, his lance in the left; that in the battle of Civitella he
was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that memorable day
he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor from the
warriors of the two armies. ^41 His boundless ambition was
founded on the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of
greatness, he was never arrested by the scruples of justice, and
seldom moved by the feelings of humanity: though not insensible
of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means was determined
only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard ^42 was
applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often
confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and
Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning
of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were
disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest
fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers;
and while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he
affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion
of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might
distribute with a liberal, hand: his primitive indigence had
taught the habits of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not
below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with slow
and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secret
treasure. According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy
with only five followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet
even this allowance appears too bountiful: the sixth son of
Tancred of Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim; and his first
military band was levied among the adventurers of Italy. His
brothers and countrymen had divided the fertile lands of Apulia;
but they guarded their shares with the jealousy of avarice; the
aspiring youth was driven forwards to the mountains of Calabria,
and in his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives, it
is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To
surprise a castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to
plunder the adjacent villages for necessary food, were the
obscure labors which formed and exercised the powers of his mind
and body. The volunteers of Normandy adhered to his standard;
and, under his command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the name
and character of Normans.

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