rmed a march of five hundred miles. His troops were
levied in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his
majesty was displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of the
companies of Horse-guards; and the emperor was attended by a train of
nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed
with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a
life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate the
multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination were
pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamors for
speedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, who
might have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration of
provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the
Roman world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror;
and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the
evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the
Turks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the
Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colony
of exiles and volunteers from the British Island of Thule. Under the
yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppressed
and united; a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a land
of slavery; the sea was open to their escape; and, in their long
pilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty
and revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek emperor;
and their first station was in a new city on the Asiatic shore: but
Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his person and palace; and
bequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their faith and valor.
[70] The name of a Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs:
they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted
to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle of
Hastings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or
Latins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the tyranny
of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their
revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure
aid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these
heretics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline
of active valor. [71] The treaty with the sultan