Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/624

 616 SHORT NOTICES October and doubtless many of our soldiers (and ofl&cers) will have been puzzled by the carving of it on the west front of Abbeville. Lastly, there is the episode of the stag with the crucifix between its horns, which figures, P6re Delehaye tells us, in at least six other lives of saints. Most of us connect it with St. Hubert, and think of Diirer's engraving and a sculpture in the chapel at Amboise ; or again, recollect Flaubert's beautiful version of it in his legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller. But probably St. Eustace's is the earliest Christian romance in which it appeared, and St. Hubert's the latest. M. R. J. For the Historisch Genootschap of Utrecht, Dr. A. Hulshof has edited the text of the Hanover MS. of Alperti Mettensis de Diversitate Temporum (Amsterdam : Miiller, 1916), with a Dutch translation of the Latin intro- duction prefixed to the facsimile edition of this manuscript published by the late Mr. C. Pijnacker Hordijk in 1908. X. In the monograph of M. J. Laurent, Byzance et les Turcs Sddjouddes dans VAsieOccidentalejusqu'en 1081 {Annales de VEst, 27® annee. Fascicule 1. Paris : Berger-Levrault, 1913), we have a detailed account of the advance of the Seldjouk Turks into Asia Minor down to 1081, the date of the acces- sion of Alexios Comnenos, when they had overrun the whole country, and shown themselves on the Bosphorus. The book is divided into two parts : the first gives an account of their progress before 1071, the date of the battle of Manzikert, and describes the Greek resisuince and the organization of the eastern frontier, and the second carries us from 1071 to the end of the struggle in 1081. Of the whole 111 pages perhaps not far short of a half is occupied by foot-notes containing references and citations of authorities, and almost every statement in the text is supported in this way. The list of sources and modern works consulted fills some nine pages, and the deepening of the study of Byzantine history is shown by the fact that the sources used are no longer entirely or even mainly Greek : the author's list contains translations from Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, and Georgian. When they first appeared the Seldjouks were no more than nomad bands, frequently at odds amongst themselves. If the Byzantine government had been strong enough, all might have been retrieved, and the Turks driven back like the Arabs before them. Alexios Comnenos, the author thinks, might have done this, but the empire had now too many enemies. The Normans were pressing on the west : it was, indeed, in the very year of Manzikert that Bari fell. And the Normans were followed by the Crusaders. But the writer shows that multiplicity of enemies was not the only trouble. It was the disaffection and disunion amongst the subjects of the empire in Asia Minor that enabled the Sel- djouks to overrun the country so easily and so rapidly, and here the disloyalty of the Armenians played a great part. But the errors of the Greek policy might well have been stated more strongly. Of the religious quarrel he gives some details, and in a foot-note on p. 51 remarks, U est juste de ne pas oublier, en ^numerant les m^faits des Arm^iiiens, que les Greoa ont provoqud toutes ces trahisons en pers^cutant leurs vassaux arm^niens pour les ameacr k se soumettrc k Tobedience du patriarche de Constantinople ;