Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/221

 OF THE ROMAX EMPIRE 199 procured a supply of some thousand Turks ; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. " You behold," said he, " your danger ; it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and standards ; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety ; and I am ready to yield the com- mand to a more worthy leader." The vote and acclamation, even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence ; and the duke thus continued : " Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity and our burial." The resolution was unanimously approved ; and, without confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle- arrav the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river ; his right wing extended to the sea ; his left to the hills ; nor was he conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly disputed the empire of the world.90 Affainst the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved Battle of ^5 Ti ll 7* 3. 717. to risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the garrison ad. losi, _ ^ 1 IT 1 11 1^- 1 n October 18 of Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally from the toAvn. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans before day -break on two different sides : his light cavalry was scattered over the plain ; the archers formed the second line ; and the Varangians claimed the honours of the vanguard. In the first onset, the battle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs ; they fled to- wards the river and the sea ; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Robert, [Sigeigaita] is painted by the Greeks as a warlike Amazon, a second Pallas ; less skilful in arts, but not less terrible in arms, than the Athenian ""Seethe simple and masterly narrative of Caesar himself (Comment, de Bell. Civil, iii. 41-75). It is a pity that Quintus Icilius (M. Guischard) did not live to analyse these operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain.