ok of William Appulus. His words are
applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters:--

Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos

Confugiebat eum gratanter suscipiebant:

Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant

Informant propria; gens efficiatur ut una.

And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy:--

Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae:

Pars, quia de magnis majora subire volebant.]

[Footnote 1911: This account is not accurate. After the retreat of the
emperor Henry II. the Normans, united under the command of Rainulf, had
taken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in the duchy of Naples.
They had been masters of it a few years when Pandulf IV., prince of
Capua, found means to take Naples by surprise. Sergius, master of
the soldiers, and head of the republic, with the principal citizens,
abandoned a city in which he could not behold, without horror, the
establishment of a foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, with
the assistance of the Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to their
country, he had collected money enough to satisfy the rapacity of the
Norman adventurers, he advanced at their head to attack the garrison of
the prince of Capua, defeated it, and reentered Naples. It was then that
he confirmed the Normans in the possession of Aversa and its territory,
which he raised into a count's fief, and granted the investiture to
Rainulf. Hist. des Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267]

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been
anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however
strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly
armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and
disgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops
were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the
policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of
their women, but with the command of their men [20] After a reign of
two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. [21]
The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose
against the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner
rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two
rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every
service of danger the Normans were prompt and use