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 81: The epistle itself (Alexias, l. iii. p. 93, 94, 95)
well deserves to be read. There is one expression which Ducange
does not understand. I have endeavored to grope out a tolerable
meaning: The first word is a golden crown; the second is
explained by Simon Portius, (in Lexico Graeco-Barbar.,) by a
flash of lightning.]

[Footnote 82: For these general events I must refer to the
general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St.
Marc, &c.]

[Footnote 83: The lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or
invectives, (St. Marc, Abrege, tom. iii. p. 235, &c.;) and his
miraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a
modern reader. He will, as usual, find some instruction in Le
Clerc, (Vie de Hildebrand, Bibliot, ancienne et moderne, tom.
viii.,) and much amusement in Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique,
Gregoire VII.) That pope was undoubtedly a great man, a second
Athanasius, in a more fortunate age of the church. May I presume
to add, that the portrait of Athanasius is one of the passages of
my history (vol. ii. p. 332, &c.) with which I am the least
dissatisfied?

Note: There is a fair life of Gregory VII. by Voigt,
(Weimar. 1815,) which has been translated into French. M.
Villemain, it is understood, has devoted much time to the study
of this remarkable character, to whom his eloquence may do
justice. There is much valuable information on the subject in
the accurate work of Stenzel, Geschichte Deutschlands unter den
Frankischen Kaisern - the History of Germany under the Emperors
of the Franconian Race. - M.]

[Footnote 84: Anna, with the rancor of a Greek schismatic, calls
him (l. i. p. 32,) a pope, or priest, worthy to be spit upon and
accuses him of scourging, shaving, and perhaps of castrating the
ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31, 33.) But this outrage is improbable
and doubtful, (see the sensible preface of Cousin.)]

[Footnote 85: Sic uno tempore victi

Sunt terrae Domini duo: rex Alemannicus iste,

Imperii rector Romani maximus ille.

Alter ad arma ruens armis superatur; et alter

Nominis auditi sola formidine cessit.

It is singular enough, that the Apulian, a Latin, should
distinguish the Greek as the ruler of the Roman empire, (l. iv.
p. 274.)]

[Footnote 86: The narrative of Malaterra (l. iii. c. 37, p. 587,
588) is authentic, circumstantial, and fair. Dux ignem exclamans
urbe incensa, &c. The Apulian softens the mischief, (inde
quibusdam aedibus exustis,) which is again exaggerated in some
partial chronicles, (Muratori, Annali, tom. ix. p. 147.)]

[Footnote 87: After mentioning this devastation, the Jesuit
Donatus (de Roma veteri et nova, l. iv. c. 8, p. 489) prettily
adds, Duraret hodieque in Coelio monte, interque ipsum et
capitolium, miserabilis facies prostrates urbis, nisi in hortorum
vinetorumque amoenitatem Roma resurrexisset, ut perpetua
viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinas suas.]

The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged
himself in a season of repose; but in the same year of the flight
of the German emperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the
design of his eastern conquests. The zeal or gratitude of
Gregory had promised to his valor the kingdoms of Greece and
Asia; ^88 his troops were assembled in arms, flushed with
success, and eager for action. Their numbers, in the language of
Homer, are compared by Anna to a swarm of bees; ^89 yet the
utmost and moderate limits of the powers of Guiscard have been
already defined; they were contained on this second occasion in
one hundred and twenty vessels; and as the season was far
advanced, the harbor of Brundusium ^90 was preferred to the open
road of Otranto. Alexius, apprehensive of a second attack, had
assiduously labored to restore the naval forces of the empire;
and obtained from the republic of Venice an important succor of
thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, and nine galiots or
ships of extra-ordinary strength and magnitude. Their services
were liberally paid by the license or monopoly of trade, a
profitable gift of many shops and houses in the port of
Constantinople, and a tribute to St. Mark, the more acceptable,
as it was the produce of a tax on their rivals at Amalphi. By
the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the Adriatic was covered
with a hostile fleet; but their own neglect, or the vigilance of
Robert, the change of a wind, or the shelter of a mist, opened a
free passage; and the Norman troops were safely disembarked on
the coast of Epirus. With twenty strong and well-appointed
galleys, their intrepid duke immediately sought the enemy, and
though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he trusted his own
life, and the lives of his brother and two sons, to the event of
a naval combat. The dominion of the sea was disputed in three
engagements, in sight of the Isle of Corfu: in the two former,
the skill and numbers of the allies were superior; but in the
third, the Normans obtained a final and complete victory. ^91 The
light brigantines of the Greeks were scattered in ignominious
flight: the nine castles of the Venetians maintained a more
obstinate conflict; seven were sunk, two were taken; two thousand
five hundred captives implored in vain the mercy of the victor;
and the daughter of Alexius deplores the loss of thirteen
thousand of his subjects or allies. The want of experience had
been supplied by the genius of Guiscard; and each evening, when
he had sounded a retreat, he calmly explored the causes of his
repulse, and invented new methods how to remedy his own defects,
and to baffle the advantages of the enemy. The winter season
suspended his progress: with the return of spring he again
aspired to the conquest of Constantinople; but, instead of
traversing the hills of Epirus, he turned his arms against Greece
and the islands, where the spoils would repay the labor, and
where the land and sea forces might pursue their joint operations
with vigor and effect. But, in the Isle of Cephalonia, his
projects were fatally blasted by an epidemical disease: Robert
himself, in the seventieth year of his age, expired in his tent;
and a suspicion of poison was imputed, by public rumor, to his
wife, or to the Greek emperor. ^92 This premature death might
allow a boundless scope for the imagination of his future
exploits; and the event sufficiently declares, that the Norman
greatness was founded on his life. ^93 Without the appearance of
an enemy, a victorious army dispersed or retreated in disorder
and consternation; and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire,
rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which transported the
remains of Guiscard was ship-wrecked on the Italian shore; but
the duke's body was recovered from the sea, and deposited in the
sepulchre of Venusia, ^94 a place more illustrious for the birth
of Horace ^95 than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger,
his second son and successor, immediately sunk to the humble
station of a duke of Apulia: the esteem or partiality of his
father left the valiant Bohemond to the inheritance of his sword.

The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the
first crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more
splendid field of glory and conquest. ^96

[Footnote 88: The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed
by the pope, (Anna, l. i. p. 32,) is sufficiently confirmed by
the Apulian, (l. iv. p. 270.)

Romani regni sibi promisisse coronam
Papa ferebatur.

Nor can I understand why Gretser, and the other papal advocates,
should be displeased with this new instance of apostolic
jurisdiction.]

[Footnote 89: See Homer, Iliad, B. (I hate this pedantic mode of
quotation by letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &c. His bees are
the image of a disorderly crowd: their discipline and public
works seem to be the ideas of a later age, (Virgil. Aeneid. l.
i.)]

[Footnote 90: Gulielm. Appulus, l. v. p. 276.) The admirable
port of Brundusium was double; the outward harbor was a gulf
covered by an island, and narrowing by degrees, till it
communicated by a small gullet with the inner harbor, which
embraced the city on both sides. Caesar and nature have labored
for its ruin; and against such agents what are the feeble efforts
of the Neapolitan government? (Swinburne's Travels in the Two
Sicilies, vol. i. p. 384 - 390.]

[Footnote 91: William of Apulia (l. v. p. 276) describes the
victory of the Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats,
which are diligently recorded by Anna Comnena, (l. vi. p. 159,
160, 161.) In her turn, she invents or magnifies a fourth action,
to give the Venetians revenge and rewards. Their own feelings
were far different, since they deposed their doge, propter
excidium stoli, (Dandulus in Chron in Muratori, Script. Rerum
Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 249.)]

[Footnote 92: The most authentic writers, William of Apulia. (l.
v. 277,) Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii. c. 41, p. 589,) and Romuald
of Salerno, (Chron. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii.,)
are ignorant of this crime, so apparent to our countrymen William
of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) and Roger de Hoveden, (p. 710, in
Script. post Bedam) and the latter can tell, how the just Alexius
married, crowned, and burnt alive, his female accomplice. The
English historian is indeed so blind, that he ranks Robert
Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights of Henry I, who ascended
the throne fifteen years after the duke of Apulia's death.]

[Footnote 93: The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers over
the grave of an enemy, (Alexiad, l. v. p. 162 - 166;) and his
best praise is the esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the
sovereign of his family Graecia (says Malaterra) hostibus
recedentibus libera laeta quievit: Apulia tota sive Calabria
turbatur.]

[Footnote 94: Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris, is
one of the last lines of the Apulian's poems, (l. v. p. 278.)
William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) inserts an epitaph on
Guiscard, which is not worth transcribing.]

[Footnote 95: Yet Horace had few obligations to Venusia; he was
carried to Rome in his childhood, (Serm. i. 6;) and his repeated
allusions to the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii.
4, Serm. ii. I) are unworthy of his age and genius.]

[Footnote 96: See Giannone (tom. ii. p. 88 - 93) and the
historians of the fire crusade.]

Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are
alike and soon bounded by the sepulchre. The male line of Robert
Guiscard was extinguished, both in Apulia and at Antioch, in the
second generation; but his younger brother became the father of a
line of kings; and the son of the great count was endowed with
the name, the conquests, and the spirit, of the first Roger. ^97
The heir of that Norman adventurer was born in Sicily; and, at
the age of only four years, he succeeded to the sovereignty of
the island, a lot which reason might envy, could she indulge for
a moment the visionary, though virtuous wish of dominion. Had
Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and
grateful people might have blessed their benefactor; and if a
wise administration could have restored the prosperous times of
the Greek colonies, ^98 the opulence and power of Sicily alone
might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and
desolated by the sword of war. But the ambition of the great
count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was gratified by
the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain
the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had been
ceded to the elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian
limits beyond the measure of former treaties; and impatiently
watched the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia, the
grandson of Robert. On the first intelligence of his premature
death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor
in the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation, an
oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the
submission of the barons, and extorted a legal investiture from
the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the
friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of
Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter;
but the reduction of Capua and Naples completed the design of his
uncle Guiscard; and the sole inheritance of the Norman conquests
was possessed by the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority
of power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke and
of count; and the Isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the
continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom ^99 which
would only yield to the monarchies of France and England. The
chiefs of the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo might
doubtless pronounce under what name he should reign over them;
but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir was
insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings
of the Latin world ^100 might disclaim their new associate,
unless he were consecrated by the authority of the supreme
pontiff. The pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a title,
which the pride of the Norman had stooped to solicit; ^101 but
his own legitimacy was attacked by the adverse election of
Innocent the Second; and while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the
successful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations of Europe.
The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown,
by the unlucky choice of an ecclesiastical patron; and the sword
of Lothaire the Second of Germany, the excommunications of
Innocent, the fleets of Pisa, and the zeal of St. Bernard, were
united for the ruin of the Sicilian robber. After a gallant
resistance, the Norman prince was driven from the continent of
Italy: a new duke of Apulia was invested by the pope and the
emperor, each of whom held one end of the gonfanon, or flagstaff,
as a token that they asserted their right, and suspended their
quarrel. But such jealous friendship was of short and precarious
duration: the German armies soon vanished in disease and
desertion: ^102 the Apulian duke, with all his adherents, was
exterminated by a conqueror who seldom forgave either the dead or
the living; like his predecessor Leo the Ninth, the feeble though
haughty pontiff became the captive and friend of the Normans; and
their reconciliation was celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard,
who now revered the title and virtues of the king of Sicily.

[Footnote 97: The reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily,
fills books of the Istoria Civile of Giannone, (tom. ii. l. xi. -
xiv. p. 136 - 340,) and is spread over the ixth and xth volumes
of the Italian Annals of Muratori. In the Bibliotheque Italique
(tom. i. p. 175 - 122,) I find a useful abstract of Capacelatro,
a modern Neapolitan, who has composed, in two volumes, the
history of his country from Roger Frederic II. inclusive.]

[Footnote 98: According to the testimony of Philistus and
Diodorus, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse could maintain a
standing force of 10,000 horse, 100,000 foot, and 400 galleys.
Compare Hume, (Essays, vol. i. p. 268, 435,) and his adversary
Wallace, (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307.) The ruins of
Agrigentum are the theme of every traveller, D'Orville, Reidesel,
Swinburne, &c.]

[Footnote 99: A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from
the year 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the
consent of the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and
Palermo, without introducing Pope Anacletus, (Alexand. Coenobii
Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gestis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in
Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 607 - 645)]

[Footnote 100: The kings of France, England, Scotland, Castille,
Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three first
were more ancient than Charlemagne; the three next were created
by their sword; the three last by their baptism; and of these the
king of Hungary alone was honored or debased by a papal crown.]

[Footnote 101: Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a
more early and independent coronation, (A.D. 1130, May 1,) which
Giannone unwillingly rejects, (tom. ii. p. 137 - 144.) This
fiction is disproved by the silence of contemporaries; nor can it
be restored by a spurious character of Messina, (Muratori, Annali
d' Italia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. p. 467,
468.)]

[Footnote 102: Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire's
army, who sounded, or rather cried, a retreat; for the Germans
(says Cinnamus, l. iii. c. i. p. 51) are ignorant of the use of
trumpets. Most ignorant himself!

Note: Cinnamus says nothing of their ignorance. - M]

As a penance for his impious war against the successor of
St. Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the banner
of the cross, and he accomplished with ardor a vow so propitious
to his interest and revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might
provoke a just retaliation on the heads of the Saracens: the
Normans, whose blood had been mingled with so many subject
streams, were encouraged to remember and emulate the naval
trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their strength
they contended with the decline of an African power. When the
Fatimite caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded
the real merit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a
gift of his royal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace
with its sumptuous furniture, and the government of the kingdoms
of Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, ^103 the descendants of
Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant
benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity; and
after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were now
fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, they
were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco,
while the sea-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and
Franks, who, before the close of the eleventh century, had
extorted a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. By the
first arms of Roger, the island or rock of Malta, which has been
since ennobled by a military and religious colony, was
inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, ^104 a
strong and maritime city, was the next object of his attack; and
the slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females, might
be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves.
The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa from the country,
and Mahadia ^105 from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built
on a neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not
compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was
besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one
hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the
instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish
governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and
irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem
inhabitants abandoned the place and its treasures to the
rapacious Franks. In successive expeditions, the king of Sicily
or his lieutenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia,
Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; ^106 the fortresses were
garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that it held
Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on the
sword of Roger. ^107 After his death, that sword was broken; and
these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost,
under the troubled reign of his successor. ^108 The triumphs of
Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that the African continent is
neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great princes and
powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments
against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and
long servitude of Spain.

[Footnote 103: See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. i.
p. 369 - 373 and Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique, &c., sous la
Domination des Arabes tom. ii. p. 70 - 144. Their common
original appears to be Novairi.]

[Footnote 104: Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more
properly the Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata,
sita prope littus maris Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus
captivis ductis, viros pere mit.]

[Footnote 105: See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio
tom. i. fol. 74 verso. fol. 75, recto,) and Shaw's Travels, (p.
110,) the viith book of Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de
Vertot. The possession and defence of the place was offered by
Charles V. and wisely declined by the knights of Malta.]

[Footnote 106: Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests
of Roger and his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de
Longuerue with some Arabic memorials, (A.D. 1147, No. 26, 27,
A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D. 1153, No. 16.)]

[Footnote 107: Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer.
A proud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors
were still discriminated from their Christian and Moslem
subjects.]

[Footnote 108: Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script.
tom. vii. p. 270, 271) ascribes these losses to the neglect or
treachery of the admiral Majo.]

Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had
relinquished, above sixty years, their hostile designs against
the empire of the East. The policy of Roger solicited a public
and private union with the Greek princes, whose alliance would
dignify his regal character: he demanded in marriage a daughter
of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed
to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuous treatment of
his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch; and
the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to
the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people.
^109 With the fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of
Sicily, appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city were
delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had
yet to learn that a siege is still more calamitous than a
tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of
commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the
provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and
Corinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of
Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which
encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were
scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel
was to sanctify an oath, that the lawful owners had not secreted
any relic of their inheritance or industry. On the approach of
the Normans, the lower town of Corinth was evacuated; the Greeks
retired to the citadel, which was seated on a lofty eminence,
abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene; an
impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by
any advantages of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had
surmounted the labor (their sole labor) of climbing the hill,
their general, from the commanding eminence, admired his own
victory, and testified his gratitude to Heaven, by tearing from
the altar the precious image of Theodore, the tutelary saint.
The silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to
Sicily, composed the most valuable part of the spoil; and in
comparing the skilful industry of the mechanic with the sloth and
cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that the
distaff and loom were the only weapons which the Greeks were
capable of using. The progress of this naval armament was marked
by two conspicuous events, the rescue of the king of France, and
the insult of the Byzantine capital. In his return by sea from
an unfortunate crusade, Louis the Seventh was intercepted by the
Greeks, who basely violated the laws of honor and religion. The
fortunate encounter of the Norman fleet delivered the royal
captive; and after a free and honorable entertainment in the
court of Sicily, Louis continued his journey to Rome and Paris.
^110 In the absence of the emperor, Constantinople and the
Hellespont were left without defence and without the suspicion of
danger. The clergy and people (for the soldiers had followed the
standard of Manuel) were astonished and dismayed at the hostile
appearance of a line of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the
front of the Imperial city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral
were inadequate to the siege or assault of an immense and
populous metropolis; but George enjoyed the glory of humbling the
Greek arrogance, and of marking the path of conquest to the
navies of the West. He landed some soldiers to rifle the fruits
of the royal gardens, and pointed with silver, or most probably
with fire, the arrows which he discharged against the palace of
the Caesars. ^111 This playful outrage of the pirates of Sicily,
who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected to
despise, while his martial spirit, and the forces of the empire,
were awakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were
covered with his squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not by
what favorable allowance of transports, victuallers, and
pinnaces, our reason, or even our fancy, can be reconciled to the
stupendous account of fifteen hundred vessels, which is proposed
by a Byzantine historian. These operations were directed with
prudence and energy: in his homeward voyage George lost nineteen
of his galleys, which were separated and taken: after an
obstinate defence, Corfu implored the clemency of her lawful
sovereign; nor could a ship, a soldier, of the Norman prince, be
found, unless as a captive, within the limits of the Eastern
empire. The prosperity and the health of Roger were already in a
declining state: while he listened in his palace of Palermo to
the messengers of victory or defeat, the invincible Manuel, the
foremost in every assault, was celebrated by the Greeks and
Latins as the Alexander or the Hercules of the age.