at collection of the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum.]

[Footnote 2: Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last century,
has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his two books
Historia Principum Longobardorum, in the Scriptores of Muratori tom. ii.
pars i. p. 221-345, and tom. v. p 159-245.]

[Footnote 3: See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibus, l. ii. c xi. in
Vit Basil. c. 55, p. 181.]

[Footnote 4: The oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the
emperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published by
Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 871, No. 51-71,) from the Vatican Ms.
of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian of Salerno.] These
lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death of Lewis, and the decay
of the Carlovingian house; and whoever might deserve the honor, the
Greek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the advantage, of the
reduction of Bari The Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or
compelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount
Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of the
kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond that
line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi [5] and Naples, who had never
forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the neighborhood of
their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was enriched by supplying Europe
with the produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard princes
of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, [6] were reluctantly torn from the
communion of the Latin world, and too often violated their oaths of
servitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as
the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy: the title of
patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, [7] was assigned
to the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was
modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople. As long
as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts were
feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces of
Germany, which descended from the Alps under the Imperial standard of
the Othos. The first and greatest of those Saxon princes was compelled
to relinquish the siege of Bari: the second, after the loss of his
stoutest bishops and barons, escaped with honor from the bloody field of
Crotona. On that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by
the valor of the S