Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/199

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 177 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 Maniaces, gover- nor of Lombardy.-*' Before their landing, the brothers were re- [a.d. loss] conciled ; the union of Sicily and Africa were restored ; and the Island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the [Capture of van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the valour of an untried foe. In a second action, the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and trans- [Battle of pierced by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third a.d. loss] engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of [Battle of sixty thousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the lossf* labour of the pursuit: a splendid victory ; but of which the pen of the historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Nor- mans. 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 inter- preter was scourged ; the sufferings were his ; the insult and re- sentment belonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe ^ [It was the emir Akhal who appealed to the Greeks to help him against his brother, Abu Hafs, who headed the Sicilian reljels. The latter were supported by the Zayrid Sultan of Tunis (Muizz ben Bfidis), 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.] ''^ [For a personal description of George Maniaces, a Hercules of colossal height (fi? ItKaTov ai-ta-Trj/.-ajg 7ro5a), see Psellus, Hist. p. 137-8 (ed. Sathas). According to Vdmb6ry 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 I 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 expe- dition : he was not governor of the Theme of Lombardy.] ' VOL. VI, 12