Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/120

 100 THE DECLINE AND FALL in the service of cavalry ; -'^ and in all perilous emergencies their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance that they chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot. Un- practised in the use of pikes or of missile weapons, they were encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight of their armour, the magnitude of their shields, and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by their unwieldy intemper- ance. Their independent spirit disdained the yoke of subordi- nation, and abandoned the standard of their chief, if he at- tempted to keep the field beyond the term of their stipulation or service. On all sides they were open to the snares of an enemy, less brave, but more artful, than themselves. They might be bribed, for the barbarians were venal ; or surprised in the night, for they neglected the precautions of a close en- campment or vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and they sunk in despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a plentiful supply of wine and of food. This general character of the Franks was marked with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe to accident rather than to climate, but which were visible both to natives and to foreigners. An am- bassador of the great Otho declared, in the palace of Constanti- nople, that the Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens ; and that they preferred inevitable death to the dishonour of turning their backs to an enemy.-'^ It was the glory of the nobles of France that, in their humble dwellings, war and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manners, of the Italians, who, in the estimate of the Greeks themselves, had degenerated from the liberty and valour of the ancient Lombards. ^^ "^ Domini tui milites (says the proud Nicephorus) equitandi ignari pedestris pugnre sunt inscii ; scutorum magnitude, loricarum gravitudo, ensium longitudo, galearumque pondus neutra parte pugnare eos sinit ; ac subridens, impedit, inquit, ac eos 'ileg. eos et] gastrimargia hoc est ventris ingluvies, .^c. Liutprand in Legat. p. 480, 481 [c. 11]. "'* In SaxoniA certe scio. . . decerltius ensibus pugnare quam calamis, et prius mortem obire quam hostibus terga dare (Liutprand, p. 482 [c. 22]). •Ppiiyyoc Toivvv Kai xVoyy^^ap4^.H Adyoi' iAn/fl«pto« Trtpi jroAAoO jroioCcTai, aAA' oi fici" Aoyyi/Sapfiot to ttAcov tt)9 TOtav-nj? apeTrj? vvv anuj^eaai'. LeoniS TactlCa, C. l3 [§ 8oJ, p. 805. The emperor Leo died .■.D. 911 ; an historical poem, which ends in 916, and appears to have been composed in 940 [between 915 and 922], by a native of Venetia, discriminates in these verses the manners of Italy and France : — Quid inertia bello Pectora (Ubertus ait) duris pra:-tenditis armis, O Itali ? Potius vobis sacra pocula cordi