Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/234

 212 THE DECLINE AND FALL Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast ; ^^^ the fortresses were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast, that it held Africa in subjection, might be inscribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger. ^-^ After his death, that sword was broken ; and these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign of his successor. 1-'^ The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved that the African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible ; yet the great princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and long servitude of Spain. His invasion Since the dcccase of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had re- a.dI^um linquished, above sixty years, their hostile designs against the empire of the East. The policy of Roger solicited a public and private union with the Greek princes, whose alliance would dignify his regal character ; he demanded in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed to promise a favourable event. But the contemptuous treatment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch ; and the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, accord- ing to the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people.^^^ With a fleet of seventy galleys George the admiral of Sicily ap- peared before Corfu ; and both the island and city were delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is still moi-e calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the provinces of Greece ; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were scaled by the 125 Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests of Roger ; and his criticism was supphed by his friend the Abbe Longuerue with some jVrabic memorials (a.d. 1147, No. 26, 27, A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D. 1153, No. 16). i^Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. A proud inscription, which denotes that the Norman conquerors were still dis- criminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects. i-^Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script, torn. vii. p. 270, 271) as- cribes these losses to the neglect or treachery of the admiral Majo. 1^ The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end too soon or begin too late, must be supplied by Otho of Frisingen, a German (de Gestis Frederici I. 1. i. c. 33, in Muratori, Script, tom. vi. p. 668), the Venetian Andrew Uandulus (id. torn, xii. p. 282, 283), and the Greek writers Cinnamus (1. iii. c. 2-5) and Nicetas (in Manuel. 1. ii. c. 2-6).