Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/187

 OF THE ROMAIsr EMPIKE 167 CHAPTER LVI The Saracens, Franks, and Greeks, in Italy — First Adventures and Settlement of the Normans — Character and Conquests of Robert Guiscard, Duke of xlpidia — Deliverance of Sicily by his Brother Roger — Victories of Robert over the Emperors of the East and West — Roger, king of Sicily, invades Africa and Greece — The Emperor Manuel Comncnus — JVars oj the Greeks and Xurmans — Extinction of the Xonnans The thi'ee great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, conflict of the and the Franks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy. ^latms, and The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of itaiy. ^a.d. Naples, were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum : ^ so powerful in war that they checked for a moment the genius of Charlemagne ; so liberal in peace that they maintained in their capital an academy of thirty- two philosophers and grammarians. The division of this flourish- ing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua ; ^ and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the 1 For the gener.il history of Italy in the ixth and xth centuries, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books of Sigonius de Regno Italias (in the second volume of his works, Milan, 1732) ; the Annals of Baronius, with the Criticism of Pagi ; the viith and viiith books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli of Giannone; the viith and viiith volumes (the octavo edition) of the Annali d'ltalia of Muratori, and the iid volume of the Abr6g6 Chronologique of M. de St. Marc, a work which, under a superficial title, contains much genuine learning and industry. But my long accustomed reader will give me credit for saying that I myself have ascended to the fountain-head, as often as such ascent could be either profitable or possible ; and that I have diligently turned o%'er the originals in the first volumes of Muratori's great collection of the Scriptores Rcnim Italicarum. '^Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his two books, Historia Principum Longo- bardoruni, in the Scriptores of Muratori, torn. ii. pars i. p. 221-345, •''"d torn. v. p. 159-245. •'[The duchy of Beneventum first split up into two parts, an eastern and a western — the western under the name of the Principality of Salerno. Soon after this the Count of Capua threw off his allegiance to the Prince of Salerno ; so that the