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 144 THE DECLINE AND FALL position was offered and accepted for the head of each Italian subject ; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in the Tui'kish camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of vio- lence ; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the side of the East the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the ban-ier of the A.D. 924 Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned ; the emperor of Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks ; and one of their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks diverted the assault ; but the Hungarians might boast, on their retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the majesty of the Caesars.^^ The remote and rapid operations of the same campaign appear to magnify the powers and numbers of the Turks ; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse Avould often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica and Constantinople. At this disastrous sera of the ninth and •tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the South ; the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen sometimes trod the same ground of desolation ; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the two lions sfrowlins: over the carcase of a mangled stag.^-' Victory of The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved Fowler. AD. bv tlic Saxon princes, Henrv the Fowler and Otho the Great, 934 [933] . r ' J Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab Ungeronim nosdefendas jaculis. The bishop erected walls for the public defence, not contra dominos serenos (Antiquitat. Ital. med. Mw'i, torn. i. dissertat. i. p. 21, 22), and the song of the nightly watch is not without elegance or use (torn. iii. diss. xl. p. 709). The Italian annalist has accurately traced the series of their inroads (Aivnali d'ltalia, torn. vii. P- 365. 367. 393. 401,437. 440; torn. viii. p. 19, 41, 52, Slc). ■"Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose that they besieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople (Pray, dissertat. x. p. 239; Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354-360), and the fact is almost confessed by the Byzantine historians (Leo Grammaticus, p. 506 [p. 322, ed. Bonn] ; Cedrenus, torn. ii. p. 629 [ii. p. 316, ed. Bonn]), yet, however glorious to the nation, it is denied or doubted b' the criti- cal historian, and even by the notary of B61a. Their scepticism is meritorious; they could not safely transcribe or believe the rusticorum fabulas ; but Katona might have given due attention to the evidence of Liutprand ; Bulgarorum gentem atque Graecorum tributariam fecerant (Hist. 1. ii. c. 4, p. 435 [=c. 7]). Ae'oi'fl' <iis hip{.vB-i-nv, 'Ot* opeo? Koput^Tytri Trepl kto-x^vt)'; cAoj^oio
 * .;x</)uj •nn.vo.ovii /xe'ya 0poi'e'orT€ /Xtt't<T6oi'. [H. lo, 75^' J