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138 again invaded the empire. His army, as Finlay remarks, resembled that with which William the Norman conquered England. It was composed of experienced military adventurers who joined Bohemund in the hope of plunder. The Adriatic was crossed nearly at its narrowest part, and siege was again laid to Dyrrachium, the modern Durazzo. Alexis concluded a treaty with Faliero, the Doge of Venice, by which the republic was to aid in the war against Bohemund. By the energy of Alexis and the assistance of the Waring guard the enemy was worn out, and Bohemund had, in 1108, to sue for peace and to accept it on humiliating terms. In the treaty the invader declares that he repents him of what he has done; that he wishes to become for the future the liegeman, the servant, and the subject of the empire; that he will fight all enemies of the emperor; that, in regard to cities which the emperor may choose to give him, he will receive the oath of fidelity from no one, and will take it to no one but the emperor. All these promises he swears to observe by the passion of Christ who is now passionless, by the cross which is invincible, by the gospels which have conquered the world, and by the crown of thorns, the nails, and the holy lance.

In 1130, when Roger the Norman became king of the Two Sicilies, his investiture was made by a legate of the pope. This was in itself a denial of the suzerainty of, and a formal and successful attempt to detach the kingdoms from, the New Rome, and was so regarded on both sides. The power and title of the Roman emperor was in the West held at this time by a German king. Roger made an alliance with Conrad against the Roman emperor in the East. A desultory war followed, which was continued by William, the son of Roger, who conducted it with an energy and thoroughness which would have done credit to his namesake in England. William captured Corfu, sent his fleets into the Ægean, pillaged Corinth and several islands of the Archipelago. In