e the field in
person. He therefore hastened to Constantinople, as a suppliant, to sue
for peace; but Manuel, before admitting him to an audience, required
that he should repair to the tomb of the emperor John and ask pardon for
having violated his former promises. When the Hercules of the Franks, as
Raymond was called, had submitted to this humiliation, he was admitted
to the imperial presence, swore fealty to the Byzantine empire as Prince
of Antioch, and became the vassal of the emperor Manuel. The conquest of
Edessa by the Mahometans, which took place in the month of December,
1144, rendered the defence of Antioch by the Latins a doubtful
enterprise, unless they could secure the assistance of the Greeks.

Manuel involved himself in a war with Roger, King of Sicily, which
perhaps he might have avoided by more prudent conduct. An envoy he had
sent to the Sicilian court concluded a treaty, which Manuel thought fit
to disavow with unsuitable violence. This gave the Sicilian King a
pretext for commencing war, but the real cause of hostilities must be
sought in the ambition of Roger and the hostile feelings of Manuel.
Roger was one of the wealthiest princes of his time; he had united under
his sceptre both Sicily and all the Norman possessions in Southern
Italy; his ambition was equal to his wealth and power, and he aspired at
eclipsing the glory of Robert Guiscard and Bohemund by some permanent
conquests in the Byzantine empire. On the other hand, the renown of
Roger excited the envy of Manuel, who, proud of his army and confident
of his own valor and military skill, hoped to reconquer Sicily. His
passion made him forget that he was surrounded by numerous enemies, who
would combine to prevent his employing all his forces against one
adversary. Manuel consequently acted imprudently in revealing his
hostile intentions; while Roger could direct all his forces against one
point, and avail himself of Manuel's embarrassments. He commenced
hostilities by inflicting a blow on the wealth and prosperity of Greece,
from which it never recovered.

At the commencement of the Second Crusade, when the attention of Manuel
was anxiously directed to the movements of Louis VII of France, and
Conrad, Emperor of Germany, Roger, who had collected a powerful fleet at
Brindisi, for the purpose either of attacking the Byzantine empire or
transporting the crusaders to Palestine, availed himself of an
insurrection in Corfu to conclude a conventio