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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To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond
and the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with
their respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred
knights. They overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast
of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian gates: the Norman standard
was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the
proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and
generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords
against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was
the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled
on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. ^88 He was called to
the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been
suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of
Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion:
but no sooner was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed
the people to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and
treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and
the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of
the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years beyond the
Euphrates. ^89

[Footnote 88: This detached conquest of Edessa is best
represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the
collections of Bongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne,) the valiant
chaplain of Count Baldwin (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13,
14.) In the disputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality
is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the
soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.]

[Footnote 89: See de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 456.]

Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even
the autumn, were completely wasted: the siege of Antioch, or the
separation and repose of the army during the winter season, was
strongly debated in their council: the love of arms and the holy
sepulchre urged them to advance; and reason perhaps was on the
side of resolution, since every hour of delay abates the fame and
force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive
war. The capital of Syria was protected by the River Orontes;
and the iron bridge, ^* of nine arches, derives its name from the
massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either
end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his
victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an
account which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but
which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice.
In the description of Antioch, ^90 it is not easy to define a
middle term between her ancient magnificence, under the
successors of Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of
Turkish desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they
retained their name and position, must have left a large vacuity
in a circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as
the number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent
with the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the
siege. Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and
populous capital. At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a
veteran chief, commanded in the place: his garrison was composed
of six or seven thousand horse, and fifteen or twenty thousand
foot: one hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen by the
sword; and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks,
Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years
the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid
and stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of
threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever less art and labor
had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by the
river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these
fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the
Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a
circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and in
a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor of
the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt.
Whatever strength and valor could perform in the field was
abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross: in the
frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and
defence of convoys, they were often victorious; and we can only
complain, that their exploits are sometimes enlarged beyond the
scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey ^91 divided
a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of the
infidel fell to the ground, while the other was transported by
his horse to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against
his antagonist, "I devote thy head," he piously exclaimed, "to
the daemons of hell;" and that head was instantly cloven to the
breast by the resistless stroke of his descending falchion. But
the reality or the report of such gigantic prowess ^92 must have
taught the Moslems to keep within their walls: and against those
walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance were unavailing
weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, the
crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or
money to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and
implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been
powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek
emperor: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and
Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the
coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return precarious,
and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or
weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire
circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the
wants and recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of
seven months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous
loss by famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the
crusaders was imperceptible, and their success remote, if the
Latin Ulysses, the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not
employed the arms of cunning and deceit. The Christians of
Antioch were numerous and discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian
renegado, had acquired the favor of the emir and the command of
three towers; and the merit of his repentance disguised to the
Latins, and perhaps to himself, the foul design of perfidy and
treason. A secret correspondence, for their mutual interest, was
soon established between Phirouz and the prince of Tarento; and
Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs, that he could
deliver the city into their hands. ^* But he claimed the
sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his service; and the
proposal which had been rejected by the envy, was at length
extorted from the distress, of his equals. The nocturnal
surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes, who
ascended in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from the
walls: their new proselyte, after the murder of his too
scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of
Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon
found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent.

But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims
themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the
innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with
twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of
Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on the verge
of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the
sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. ^93 In
this extremity they collected the relics of their strength,
sallied from the town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated
or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might
safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. ^94
Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human
causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the
Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of
their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is
described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may
observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace,
enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above
two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three thousand
guards, who were cased, the horse as well as the men, in complete
steel. [Footnote *: This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the
Orontes, at a distance of three leagues from Antioch. See
Wilken, vol. i. p. 172. - M.]

[Footnote 90: For Antioch, see Pocock, (Description of the East,
vol. ii. p. i. p. 188 - 193,) Otter, (Voyage en Turquie, &c.,
tom. i. p. 81, &c.,) the Turkish geographer, (in Otter's notes,)
the Index Geographicus of Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit.
Saladin.,) and Abulfeda, (Tabula Syriae, p. 115, 116, vers.
Reiske.)]

[Footnote 91: Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum,
tanta virtute intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et
vitalia interrupit; et sic lubricus ensis super crus dextrum
integer exivit: sicque caput integrum cum dextra parte corporis
immersit gurgite, partemque quae equo praesidebat remisit
civitati, (Robert. Mon. p. 50.) Cujus ense trajectus, Turcus duo
factus est Turci: ut inferior alter in urbem equitaret, alter
arcitenens in flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53, p. 304.)
Yet he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribus of Godfrey;
and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit populus facti novitate
.... mirabilis, (l. v. c. 6, p. 701.) Yet it must not have
appeared incredible to the knights of that age.]

[Footnote 92: See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest
Tancred who imposed silence on his squire, (Randulph. Cadom. c.
53.)]

[Footnote *: See the interesting extract from Kemaleddin's
History of Aleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. ii. p. 36. Phirouz,
or Azzerrad, the breastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to
the torture by Bagi Sejan, the prince of Antioch. - M.]

[Footnote 93: After mentioning the distress and humble petition
of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka,
or Kerboga, "Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium," (Dynast. p.
242.)]

[Footnote 94: In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the
Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robert
Monachus, p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 111,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p.
392,) Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (l. vi. c. 3, p. 714,)
Bernard Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague
expressions of infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumerae
copiae or gentes, which correspond with Anna Comnena, (Alexias,
l. xi. p. 318 - 320.) The numbers of the Turks are fixed by
Albert Aquensis at 200,000, (l. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by
Radulphus Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309.)]

In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch,
the crusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in
despair; either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A
speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a strong
and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of
the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared
themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily
contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this
charitable illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war
display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were
exhibited under the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no
longer flourished; but the Syrian air was still impregnated with
the same vices; the Christians were seduced by every temptation
^95 that nature either prompts or reprobates; the authority of
the chiefs was despised; and sermons and edicts were alike
fruitless against those scandalous disorders, not less pernicious
to military discipline, than repugnant to evangelic purity. In
the first days of the siege and the possession of Antioch, the
Franks consumed with wanton and thoughtless prodigality the
frugal subsistence of weeks and months: the desolate country no
longer yielded a supply; and from that country they were at
length excluded by the arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the
faithful companion of want, was envenomed by the rains of the
winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food, and the close
imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pestilence
are always the same, and always disgustful; and our imagination
may suggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources.
The remains of treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the
purchase of the vilest nourishment; and dreadful must have been
the calamities of the poor, since, after paying three marks of
silver for a goat and fifteen for a lean camel, ^96 the count of
Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and Duke Godfrey to borrow
a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been reviewed in the camp:
before the end of the siege they were diminished to two thousand,
and scarcely two hundred fit for service could be mustered on the
day of battle. Weakness of body and terror of mind extinguished
the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; and every motive of honor
and religion was subdued by the desire of life. ^97 Among the
chiefs, three heroes may be found without fear or reproach:
Godfrey of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety;
Bohemond by ambition and interest; and Tancred declared, in the
true spirit of chivalry, that as long as he was at the head of
forty knights, he would never relinquish the enterprise of
Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and Provence was suspected
of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of Normandy was recalled
from the sea-shore by the censures of the church: Hugh the Great,
though he led the vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguous
opportunity of returning to France and Stephen, count of
Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he bore, and the
council in which he presided. The soldiers were discouraged by
the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter,
from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the saints were
scandalized by the fall ^* of Peter the Hermit, who, after arming
Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the penance of a
necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names
(says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; and the
opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the
deserters who dropped in the night from the walls of Antioch. The
emperor Alexius, ^98 who seemed to advance to the succor of the
Latins, was dismayed by the assurance of their hopeless
condition. They expected their fate in silent despair; oaths and
punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the soldiers
to the defence of the walls, it was found necessary to set fire
to their quarters.

[Footnote 95: See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon
of royal birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an
orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.]

[Footnote 96: The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteen
shillings,) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds,) and
afterwards much higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to
eighteen of our present money: in the second famine, a loaf of
bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More
examples might be produced; but it is the ordinary, not the
extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the
philosopher.]

[Footnote 97: Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta
de libro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr.
l. vi. c. 5, p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse
Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.]

[Footnote *: Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on
an embassy to Kerboga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217. - M.]

[Footnote 98: See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of
Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem,
in the Alexiad, l. xi. p. 317 - 327. Anna was so prone to
exaggeration, that she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.]

For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the
same fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such
a cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles,
were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch, they were
repeated with unusual energy and success: St. Ambrose had assured
a pious ecclesiastic, that two years of trial must precede the
season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped by
the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; the dead had
promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had
obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was
revived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery
of the Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on this
occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious
baud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons;
and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise
and the credulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles,
there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name
was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the
council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which
had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace,
if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. "At Antioch,"
said the apostle, "in the church of my brother St. Peter, near
the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance that
pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that instrument
of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to
his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in
battle; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the
miscreants." The pope's legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to
listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly
accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name
of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance.
The experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due
preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles
introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count
and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against the
impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed
place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth
of twelve feet without discovering the object of their search.
In the evening, when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and
the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt,
and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the
darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete and
deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the
first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The
holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk
and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their
anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope,
and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm
of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the
sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate
revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could
afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an
injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching
conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and
their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of
victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of
Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, "Let the Lord arise,
and let his enemies be scattered!" was chanted by a procession of
priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve
divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance,
in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his
chaplain. The influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the
servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ; ^99 and its
potent energy was heightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a
rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white
garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue,
from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate,
proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St.
Maurice: the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or
scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the
imagination of a fanatic army. ^* In the season of danger and
triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was
unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service was
accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the
count of Tholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance,
provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A
Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the
truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, and the
character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their
deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christ alone. For a
while, the Provincials defended their national palladium with
clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell the
profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit
of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the
author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God. A
pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen long, was erected
in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the
elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches
was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of
Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; but the
thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired
the next day; ^** and the logic of believing minds will pay some
regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some
efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a
ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon
vanished in contempt and oblivion. ^100 Yet the revelation of
Antioch is gravely asserted by succeeding historians: and such is
the progress of credulity, that miracles most doubtful on the
spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit faith at
a convenient distance of time and space.

[Footnote 99: The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom.
ii. p. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy
lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the
Greek princess confounds it with the nail of the cross, (l. xi.
p. 326;) the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter's staff, p. 242.)]

[Footnote *: The real cause of this victory appears to have been
the feud in Kerboga's army Wilken, vol. ii. p. 40. - M.]

[Footnote **: The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and
his flesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with
which he was assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt,
as it was first supposed. Wilken vol. i p. 263 - M.]

[Footnote 100: The two antagonists who express the most intimate
knowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the
fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one
attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman
prince. Fulcherius Carnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem
et non fraudem! and afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter
occultatam forsitan. The rest of the herd are loud and
strenuous.]

The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their
invasion till the decline of the Turkish empire. ^101 Under the
manly government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia
were united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies
which they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in
discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of
the crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by his
four sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public
danger; and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal
vassals were ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of their
allegiance. The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard
or Kerboga were his rivals or enemies: their hasty levies were
drawn from the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the
Turkish veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars
beyond the Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity
of weakness and discord to recover his ancient possessions; and
his sultan Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the
children of Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and
ecclesiastical authority of the Fatimites. ^102 They heard with
astonishment of the vast armies of Christians that had passed
from Europe to Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which
broke the power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect and
monarchy. But the same Christians were the enemies of the
prophet; and from the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive
of their enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge
them forwards to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile.