land. Asmund Drengot and his brothers, on their flight from Normandy in the year 1017, "passed through the city of Rome, and arrived at Capua;" ;"'15 and in another place it is said that they fled with their horses and arms only." William the Blind starting for Italy in the year 1054, with some monks and a retinue of twelve squires on a visit to his son, who had acquired renown and riches in the South, crossed the Alps and passed through Rome to Apulia." When Robert of Grentemesnil, in the year 1061, from the fear of Duke William, went into banishment, "he mounted his steed with his two attendants, Fuleo and Urso, and rode through Gaul; he then repaired to Rome and joined Robert Wiscard in Lower Italy.18 Speaking of the Normans, who in the beginning went to Apulia, it is generally said, "that they crossed the Tiber;" and finally, that those bands who in the year 1017, on the invitation of Melo, left Normandy, having arrived at a mountain pass on St. Bernard, (Mons Fovis,) where the inhabitants by towers and gates had shut the passage in order to demand a tribute of the travellers, broke open the gates, killed the guardians, and with their swords cleared their way to Rome and Apulia."

On the arrival of the Normans in Lower Italy, they joined those troops which Melo in the meantime had obtained from the Longobard princes, who with avidity embraced every opportunity to weaken the Greek empire in Italy. In the beginning of the year 1018, when the cold was so intense that even the wild beasts perished in the mountains, Melo opened the contest, wherein he in a short time gained six victories; but in the next year fortune turned against him, and after the defeat near Cannæ, he was obliged to flee to Germany, where, a few months later, he died broken-hearted at the overthrow of all his hopes.

Dato, his brother-in-law, who attempted to continue the feud against the Greeks, was routed and taken prisoner in the year 1021. The Greeks mounted him, in chains, on a donkey, and carried him triumphantly to Bari, where he was sewed up in a sack together with a serpent, a cock, and a monkey, and thrown into the After the death of Dato the nephews of Melo rose as leaders against the Greeks, and to their assistance the German Emperor

sea.

Henry the Second crossed the Alps at the head of a powerful army. But the Germans not being able to withstand the baneful influence of the Italian climate, the Emperor returned in 1023, without having succeeded in expelling the Greeks."

The nephews of Melo, who now gave up the contest, received from the Emperor some of his Italian fiefs, and with them Henry left the last twenty-five Normans who had survived the war, and remained faithful to the family of Melo. Among these are named Walter of Canisy, Hugh Faloch, Gusman, Stig, Thorstein and Balbus. Most of the other Normans had perished as the victims of their headlong courage and contempt of death. Of two hundred and fifty who had fought at the battle of Cannæ, only ten remained; and already at the time when Melo went into banishment, the three thousand warriors from Normandy had melted down to five hundred. Those who, besides the above-mentioned small number, faithfully adhering to the family of Melo, had escaped from the war, returned to Salerno and joined those of their brothers, who with the envoys of Gaimar at an earlier period had arrived from Normandy, and still served as regular troops (soudarii, i. e. soldiers) the prince of Salerno. The commander of these Normans was Thorstein Scitel, of whom for long years afterwards many wonderful traditions were told in Normandy. Normandy. Thus the chronicles give some curious details, how he, in the court of the palace at Salerno, was attacked by a lion, whom he caught with his defenceless arms, lifted high in the air, and then hurled over the battlements of the castle; and how he, at last, by some Longobard traitors, was decoyed to a dragon, whom he succeeded in killing, but whose venomous blood occasioned his death.21

Provoked at the death of Thorstein, or, as another version has it, dissatisfied at not being rewarded according to the agreement, the Normans renounced their allegiance to the prince of Salerno and retired to the marshes of Campania, tenanted by frogs, where they erected a strongly fortified camp, and chose Rainulf, the brother of Asmund Drengot, for their leader. The Normans soon began to form a political system of their own. They would have lost all weight if one of the petty princes

the timid and suspicious Italian soon began to become distrustful of his foreign mercenaries, and to fear that these wild guests might become dangerous to himself and his own dominion; he therefore secretly sought a pretext to get rid of

them.

In the mean time the fame of the wonderful valor of the Normans had spread all over the Orient, and they were thus called away to new regions and new victories. The Byzantine emperors had never forgotten the loss of Sicily; but all their efforts, however strenuous, to regain possession of that fertile and beautiful island, had hitherto been rewarded with continual disasters. Michael the Fourth, the Paphlagonian, who now occupied the imperial throne, resolved at last to take advantage of the internal dissensions among the Arabs in Sicily, and to make another attempt to reconquer the island. A large army was assembled for this purpose, and the command of it was given to the Italian Catapan Georgios Maniakes, who formerly had acquired the reputation of an able general by several victories he had won over the Saracens of Syria." Maniakes requested Gaimar to lend him those Normans who were in his service, and the prince of Salerno instantly seized this opportunity to remove his northern guests, who willingly listened to the splendid promises of the imperial governor. They met Maniakes and the Greek army at Reggio, and, united with them, they for the first time crossed the strait and landed in Sicily.

28

We possess different accounts of the first expedition of the Normans to Sicily, in the year 1038: Byzantine by Zonaras and Cedrenus; Icelandic in the Saga of Harald Haarderaade and Normanno; Italian by Malaterra, William of Apulia, and Aimé, the chronicler of Monte Casino. All these sources being contradictory, and it being hardly possible to bring them in harmony with each other, except by loose guessing or arbitrary reforming, it would seem that one of them ought particularly to be chosen as a guide; and about the choice there can hardly be any doubt in this case, the Norman chronicler Jeffrey Malaterra being the one who in every respect appears preferable. He relates that Maniakes having disembarked on the coast and besieged Messina, the Saracens

29

made a sally from the city and drove back the Greeks with great loss, until the Normans, forcing their way through the press of the fugitives, put spurs to their horses and not only compelled the Arabs to make a stand, but these being terrified at the sight of their unknown enemies and retreating in the greatest disorder to the city, the Normans pressed hard upon their rear and rushed together with them into the city, which thus fell into the possession of Maniakes. From Messina the Greek army then penetrated into the interior of Sicily, and captured thirteen other towns." Before Syracuse a pitched battle was fought, which gave William of Hauteville his surname Bras-de-Fer or Iron-arm, because he thrust his heavy lance with such violence into the breast of the Arabian general," that the point passed through his back. Some time afterwards Maniakes gained another great victory at Traina (Traianum) over the Saracens, who, though their number is given at fifteen thousand," were manfully charged by three hundred Normans riding in the van of the army, and totally routed before Maniakes could bring up his Greeks. But while the Normans were pursuing the Saracens, the Greeks reached the battlefield and plundered the Arabian camp, without leaving any portion to those to whom they owed the victory. Provoked at this, the Normans sent a Lombard, Ardoin," who had joined their standard and understood the Greek language, to interpret their complaints to Maniakes; but the haughty Greek governor being accustomed to servile obedience, looked upon this action as a punishable mutiny, and ordered Ardoin to be flogged naked all around the camp of the Greeks." The Normans, exasperated at this outrage, would instantly have taken a bloody revenge, yet they were induced by Ardoin himself to tarry with their vengeance until he succeeded in obtaining a Greek passport," with which they could more easily get back to Italy. As soon as this was accomplished, they suddenly, during the night, left the Greek camp.

The Normans having recrossed the strait of Messina, invaded with fire and sword the possessions of the Greeks, and advanced to the frontiers of Apulia, where they halted to deliberate on their further

undertakings. Hitherto they had given themselves up to their anger without following any well concerted plan. They would not return to Salerno, knowing the disposition of Gaimar, but at the suggestion of Ardoin, they sent him as an envoy to the settlement of the Normans at Anversa, to solicit reinforcements. Anversa was still governed by Rainulf, who, remembering the expedition under the command of Melo, was disposed even now to renew the warfare against the Greeks. Reinforcements were sent to Apulia, and new bands of emigrants arriving, as it seems, from Normandy, an army was formed, consisting of twelve hundred warriors, who were commanded by twelve chieftains. Among these were Rainulf, William, Drogo, and Hugh Tudebod (Tudebœuf.) The leaders of the Normans adopted now the plan of Melo, totally to expel the Greeks from the peninsula: they bound themselves by oath to divide the conquests in equal parts among each other, and began their enterprise most successfully during the night of the 21st of March, 1041, by forcing their entry into the city of Malfi, which, according to Aimé, by the strength of its site and fortifications, might be considered as the key of Apulia. The following day, the Normans, merry and singing, rode away from Malfi, and subdued the neighboring towns, Venosa, Ascoli, and Lavello."

38

40

It contributed very much to the good fortune of the Normans in Italy, that Apulia and Calabria were left unprovided with troops, the Greek army having been concentrated in Sicily. Here Georgios Maniakes had lost the command a short time after the departure of the Normans, on account of his having punished the brother-in-law of the emperor, the Admiral (Navarch) Stephanos, who had disobeyed his orders. On the recall of Maniakes,* Michael Dokeianos was appointed governer, with the special command of the emperor to rid the Italian provinces of the barbarian robbers of the north; yet it was enjoined on the Catapan not to kill all the barbarians, but to capture some of them living and to send them in fetters to Constantinople, for the diversion of the emperor and the imperial court. According to this order, Michael, at the head of the Phrygian legion and part of the Lydian,

marched against Malfi ;" but when the Normans boldly went out to meet him, he attempted beforehand to try, if possible, to persuade them to retire without combat; and, therefore, sent a messenger to summon them within the space of three days and three nights to quit Italy. But the Normans replied that the way to their home was very long, and that they had not wandered so far, dastardly to return; and their refusal to the Greek messenger terminated with a show of strength, whereby they possibly intended to frighten the Greek with their Herculean force. Hugh Tudebod, who had been standing near the Greek envoy, patting his horse, levelled so tremendous a blow with his fist on the head of the animal," that he felled it dead to the ground. The Normans placed the terrified Greek on a fresh horse, and permitted him unhurt to retire to the Greek camp. Still Michael Dokeianos did not suffer himself to be discouraged from fighting; he crossed the river Ofanto, attacked the Normans-who, according to the chivalresque usage of the times, had appointed the place and the hour for the battle-and followed at the onset the Greek tactics of wearying out the enemy, by charging with one division of the army after the other. But the Normans instantly took advantage of this, and though they did not count more hundreds than the Greeks thousands, they drew up their battle array in the form of a wedge, and thus broke through the whole army of Dokeianos, a great part of which, on their flight, perished in the Ofanto. When the Greeks, before the combat, crossed the river, says the chronicler, it was so narrow and low, that the water hardly reached to the thighs of the horses, but when the battle was lost and the Greeks fled, they found the river overflowing its banks, although the sky was serene and beautiful, and no rain had fallen during the action. Michael Dokeianos escaped with only a few fugitives, but these he joined with the rest of the Greek army, which, in the mean time, had been expelled from Sicily by the Arabs, and then he a second time attacked the Normans near Montepiloso." the battle continued yet undecided at sundown; when William of Hauteville, who was suffering from the ague," and had witnessed the combat from a neighboring hill,

Here

by an extraordinary effort overcame his weakness, put on his armor, and chanting the war-song of the Normans, charged and killed the general of the enemy, at whose fall the Greeks retreated." After the battle of Montepiloso, the Greeks evacuated the open country and shut themselves up in the cities. Fresh troops were in vain sent from Constantinople to their relief," and they soon began, one after another, to surrender to the Normans, who had succeeded in conducting their enterprises with more union and strength, and perhaps to win the confidence of the Italians by electing Argyros, the son of Melo, their duke. This election took place near Bari, in the year 1042, on a general assembly of the Normans, and here Argyros was raised to his new dignity, by the warriors lifting him high on a shield," amidst loud acclamations and clashing of arms. Yet, when he some time afterwards disappointed their expectations, the former convention was renewed, and the twelve chieftains having finished the conquest of Apulia in the year 1043, the Normans again assembled near Malfi, where now the whole country was divided in twelve shares among the victors. William of Hauteville received Ascoli, which lay nearest to the capital of Malfi, and his brother Drogo, Venosa. Hugh Hugh Tudebod obtained Monopoli; Arnulf, Lavello; Peter, Trani; Walter, Civita; Thorstein, Montepiloso; Herulf, Trivento; and Archangelo was allotted to Budolphus, the son of Betena; Ralph received Cannæ; Ascelin occupied the rocky region of Ascerenza, and his brother Rainulf, of Anversa, received for his share the district of Mount Gargano, where he, eighteen years before, in alliance with Melo, for the first time had planned the war for the expulsion of the Greeks. The Norman chieftains and their vassals now hurried to take possession of the territories which had been assigned to them, and fortified themselves there by the erection of strong places of refuge. In these classical regions of antiquity, surrounded by forests of pines and cypresses, there rose, within a short period, numerous castles built in the northern style, and from the heights of the mountains of Apulia waved the blood-red banner of the Normans.

49

48

At the partition of the territory, it was settled that the strong central town of

50

Malfi should be possessed by all in common. The city was divided into twelve shares, in each of which one of the Norman counts possessed his own dwelling. Giannono remarks that this Norman constitution resembles that of the Longobards, during the first ten years of their dominion in Italy, who, not choosing a new king after the death of Klephis, divided the kingdom in such a manner, that each of the thirty-six chieftains governed his own district; and all met in Pavia, when it was expedient to deliberate on the general affairs of their confederacy. There appears, however, to be this difference, that while all the Longobard dukes (duces) were alike, the Norman counts (comites) chose a primus inter pares as their leader and president. This was for the first time the case with William of the Iron-arm, who was succeeded by his brother Drogo. The valiant Drogo being assassinated by a treacherous Lombard, in the year 1051, the chief command was transferred to the third brother, Humfrey, with the surname Bagalarde, who formerly had been roaming about on the Adriatic, and afterwards obtained the county of Lavello. In order to explain the immediate succession of the three brothers, as leaders of the Apulian military republic, the Italian historians, who supposed the presidency hereditary, have either erroneously asserted that none of the elder sons of Tancred had left any male descendants, or have assumed, without any foundation, that it was a custom among the Normans, to prefer the brothers of the deceased to his sons, when the latter were younger than the former. it appears certain, that the sons of the twelve Norman counts inherited only the territories of their fathers, without enjoying any personal claim to be chosen general leader and president of the commonwealth.

But

III. In the year 1047, a band of foreign travellers arrived at Malfi with bags on their shoulders and staves in their hands. They were five high-born Normans, who, with a retinue of thirty squires, had left Normandy and undertaken the journey through Middle Italy, dressed like pilgrims, in order to avoid the insidious snares of the Romans, who, with envy and hatred, were watching the growing prosperity of the northern strangers. After the departure of William, Drogo and Humfrey from