Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/220

 198 THE DECLINE AND FALL and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea ; his majesty was displayed in the silver ai'ms and rich trappings of the companies of horsegiiards ; and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardour might animate the multitude ; but their love of pleasure and con- tempt of subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamours for speedy and decisive action disconcerted tiie prudence of Alexius, who might have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman world : the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror ; and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks. The strength of the Greek army con- sisted in the Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British island ofThule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppressed and united : a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery ; the sea was open to their escape ; and, in their long pilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek emperor ; and their first station was in a new city on the Asiatic shore : but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his person and palace ; and bequeathed to his successors the inherit- ance of their faith and valour. ^^ The name of a Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs : they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle of Hastinijs. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins ; and the rebels, Avlio had fled to Constantinople from the tyranny of Guiscard, were eager to signalise their zeal and gratify their revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure aid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria ; and these heretics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valour. ^^ The treaty with the sultan had ^See William of Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, 1. ii. p. 92. Alexius fideni Anglorum suscipiens prascipuis familiaritatibus suis eos applicabat, amoreni eorum filio transcribens. Ordericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. p. 508, I. vii. p. 641) relates their emigration from England, and their service in Greece. ^^^See the Apulian, 1. i. p. 256. The character and story of these Manichaeans has been the subject of the livth chapter.