n with the inhabitants, who
admitted a garrison of one thousand Norman troops into their citadel.
The Corfutes complained with great reason of the intolerable weight of
taxation to which they were subjected; of the utter neglect of their
interests by the central government, which consumed their wealth, and of
the great abuses which prevailed in the administration of justice; but
the remedy they adopted, by placing themselves under the rule of foreign
masters, was not likely to alleviate these evils.

The Sicilian admiral, after landing the Norman garrison at Corfu, sailed
to Monembasia, then one of the principal commercial cities in the East,
hoping to gain possession of it without difficulty; but the maritime
population of this impregnable fortress gave him a warm reception and
easily repulsed his attack. After plundering the coasts of Euboea and
Attica, the Sicilian fleet returned to the West, and laid waste
Acarnania and Etolia; it then entered the Gulf of Corinth, and debarked
a body of troops at Crissa. This force marched through the country to
Thebes, plundering every town and village on the way. Thebes offered no
resistance and was plundered in the most deliberate and barbarous
manner. The inhabitants were numerous and wealthy. The soil of Boeotia
is extremely productive, and numerous manufactures established in the
city of Thebes gave additional value to the abundant produce of
agricultural industry.

A century had elapsed since the citizens of Thebes had gone out
valiantly to fight the army of Slavonian rebels in the reign of Michael
IV (the Paphlagonian), and that defeat had long been forgotten. But all
military spirit was now dead, and the Thebans had so long lived without
any fear of invasion that they had forgotten the use of arms. The
Sicilians found them not only unprepared to offer any resistance, but so
surprised that they had not even adopted any effectual measures to
secure or conceal their movable property. The conquerors, secure against
all danger of interruption, plundered Thebes at their leisure. Not only
gold, silver, jewels, and church plate were carried off, but even the
goods found in the warehouses, and the rarest articles of furniture in
private houses, were transported to the ships. Bales of silk and dyed
leather were sent off to the fleet as deliberately as if they had been
legally purchased in time of peace. When all ordinary means of
collecting booty were exhausted, the citizens were co