Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/218

 196 THE DECLINE AND FALL survey the opposite coast, and to secure an harbour in the neigh- bourhood of Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed without perceiving an enemy ; and this successful ex- periment displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks. The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu (I use the modern appellation) ^^ to the siege of Durazzo. That city, the western key of the empire, was guarded by ancient renown and recent fortifications, by George Paloeolo- gus, a })atrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of his enterprise, the coui-age of Guiscard was assailed by every form of danger and mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow un- expectedly arose : the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the old infainy of the Acroceraunian rocks. ^^ The sails, the masts, and the oars were shattered or torn away ; the sea and shore were covered with the fragments of vessels, with arms and dead bodies ; and the greatest part of the provisions were either disowned or damaged. The ducal galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his loss and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiei's. The Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had explored the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept during the tempest ; they were alarmed by the hostile approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and promises of the Byzantine court. The first day's action was not disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth,*^ who led the naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of the republic lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent ; and ^ [Corfu, of course, is not a corruption of Kerkyra, but is the mediaeval Greek name Kopv, which, originally applied to the hill-town {Kopv'f>ri), was extended to designate the island.] decertantcm Aquilonibus ct rabiem Noti, and the monstra natantia of the Adriatic, are somewhat enlarged ; but Horace trembling for the life of Virgil is an interesting moment in the history of poetry and friendship. Normans shaved, and the Venetians wore their beards ; they must have derided the no-hea.rd of Bohemond : an harsh interpretation ! (Ducange, Not. ad Alexiad. p. 283).
 * 5 Infames scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. carm. i. 3. The prrecipitem Africum
 * " Twi/ 6e eis Toi/ TTajyoi'a avToi") ethvApiaafT. II' (Alexias, 1. iv. p. io6 [c. 2]). Yet the