The Nor mans serve A.D. 1038 Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emin Sicily. perors 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 entrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their women, but with the command of their men.25 After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions.26 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 [A.D. 1038] Maniaces, governor of Lombardy.28 Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa were Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy : Pars parat, exiguæ vel opes aderant quia nullæ ; 25 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). 26 See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253. 27 [It was the emir Akhal who appealed to the Greeks to help him against his brother, Abu Hafs, who headed the Sicilian rebels. The latter were supported by the Zayrid Sultan of Tunis (Muizz ben Badis), and Akhal though he was supported by the Catepan of Italy and a Greek army in 1037 was shut up in Palermo, where he was murdered by his own followers. The statement in the text that "the brothers were reconciled" is misleading; but a prospect of such a reconciliation seems to have induced the Catepan to return to Italy without accomplishing much. Cp. Cedrenus, ii. p. 516; and Heinemann, op. cit., p. 74. Meanwhile preparations had been made in Constantinople for an expedition to recover Sicily; and Maniaces arrived in Apulia and crossed over to the island in 1038.] 28 [For a personal description of George Maniaces, a Hercules of colossal height (els déraтov åveotníws toda), see Psellus, Hist. p. 137-8 (ed. Sathas). According to Vámbéry the name Maniakes is Turkish and means noble. His memory survives at Syracuse in the Castel Maniaci, at the south point of Ortygia commanding the entrance to the Great Harbour. Maniaces was accompanied by another famous warrior, Harald Hardrada (brother of King Olaf of Norway), who was slain a quarter of a century later on English soil. Maniaces was the general of the expedition: he was not governor of the Theme of Lombardy.] of Messina] Rametta. Troina. restored; and the Island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the [Capture valour of an untried foe. In a second action, the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of [Battle of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his intrepid A.D. 1038] companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand Saracens, and [Battle of left the Greeks no more than the labour of the pursuit: a A.D. 1039] 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 spoil 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. Above twenty years after the first emigration, the Their conNormans took the field with no more than seven hundred horse Apulia. and five hundred foot; and, after the recall of the Byzantine 1043 legions 20 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 29 Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war and the conquest of Apulia (1. i. c. 7, 8, 9, 19). The same events are described by Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 741743, 755, 756) and Zonaras (tom. ii. p. 237, 238); and the Greeks are so hardened to disgrace that their narratives are impartial enough. 30 Cedrenus specifies the rayua of the Obsequium (Phrygia) and the μépos of the Thracesians (Lydia; consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4, with Delisle's map), and afterwards names the Pisidians and Lycaonians with the foederati. The Normans under Rainulf were acting in common with, and at the instigation of, the Lombard Arduin. They seized Melfi while the Catepan Michael Doceanus was in Sicily seeking to retrieve the losses which the Greek cause had suffered since the recall of Maniaces. From Melfi they conquered Ascoli and other places, and Michael was forced to return to Italy. All this happened in A.D. 1040. Heinemann, op. cit., p. 84.] quest of A.D. 1040 messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive [A.D. 1041] battles 31 they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the plains of Canne, the Asiatics fled [May 4] from 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 æra, we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts 32 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; an 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 [A.D. 1042] 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.33 The manners of his countrymen are 31 [(1) On the Olivento (a tributary of the Ofanto), March 17, (2) near Monte Maggiore, in the plain of Cannæ, May 4, and (3) at Montepeloso, Sept. 3, 1041. See Heinemann, op. cit., p. 358-61.] 32 Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores, Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et ætas, His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris And, after speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds, Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas, 33 Gulielm. Appulus, 1. 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 (1. i. p. 258, 1. ii. p. 259). He was bewailed by the Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum (says Malaterra, 1. i. c. 12, p. 552) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum, affabilem, morigeratum, alterius se habere diffidebant. [Having elected William, the Normans placed themselves under the suzerainty of Waimar of Salerno, who assumed the title of of the Nor fairly delineated by a contemporary and national historian.34 "The Normans," says Malaterra, "are a cunning and revengeful Character people; eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their heredi- mans tary 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 praise of popular munificence; the people observe the medium, or rather blend 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, 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 abstinence of a military life." "36 of Apulia. &c. The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two Oppression empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted A.D. 1046, 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, an horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of Prince of Apulia and Calabria. William, Rainulf, and Waimar then proceeded to Melfi and divided the conquests. Rainulf received, as an honorary present, Siponto and Mount Garganus; William got Ascoli; his brother, Drogo, Venosa, &c. &c., Aimé, Ystorie de li Normant, ii. 29, 30. The extent of the Norman conquest in this first stage corresponds (Heinemann observes, p. 94) to the towns in the regions of the rivers Ofanto and Bradano. "The valleys of these rivers were the natural roads to penetrate from Melfi eastward and southward into Greek territory."] The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix. . . adulari sciens ... eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra (1. i. c. 3, p. 550) are expressive of the popular and proverbial character of the Normans. 35 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. We may compare this portrait with that of William of Malmsbury (de Gestis Anglorum, 1. 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. [The visit of the Emperor Henry III. to southern Italy in A.D. 1047 was of special importance. He restored to Pandulf the principality of Capua, which Conrad II. had transferred to Waimar of Salerno. Waimar had to resign his title of Prince of Apulia and Calabria, and his suzerainty over the Normans; while the Norman princes, Rainulf of Aversa and Drogo (William's successor), Count of Apulia, were elevated to be immediate vassals of the Empire.] The the strangers; 38 and the avarice of their chiefs was only coloured by the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts were sometimes joined in a 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 valour, 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; 39 and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with the most lofty titles 40 and the most ample commission. 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 this 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, League of Argyrus resolved to compel or to destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common enemy; and an offensive pires. A.D. alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors of the 1049-1054 East and West. The throne of St. Peter was occupied by Leo the pope and the two em 38 The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem Normannorum, crudeli et inauditâ rabie, et plusquam Paganâ impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim Christianos trucidare, &c. (Wibert, c. 6). The honest Apulian (1. ii. p. 259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia. 39 The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c. must be collected from Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 757, 758), William Appulus (1. 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. Italiæ medii Ævi, tom. i. p. 31-35). [This anonymous chronicle, called the Annales Barenses, compiled before A.D. 1071, is printed in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. v. p. 51-56, with the corresponding text of " Lupus" opposite.] This last is a fragment of some value. 40 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. |