mpelled to take an
oath on the Holy Scriptures that they had not concealed any portion of
their property; yet many of the wealthiest were dragged away captive, in
order to profit by their ransom; and many of the most skilful workmen in
the silk manufactories, for which Thebes had long been famous, were
pressed on board the fleet to labor at the oar.

From Boeotia the army passed to Corinth. Nicephorus Caluphes, the
governor, retired into the Acro-Corinth, but the garrison appeared to
his cowardly heart not strong enough to defend this impregnable
fortress, and he surrendered it to George Antiochenus, the Sicilian
admiral, on the first summons. On examining the fortress of which he had
thus unexpectedly gained possession, the admiral could not help
exclaiming that he fought under the protection of heaven, for if
Caluphes had not been more timid than a virgin, Corinth should have
repulsed every attack.

Corinth was sacked as cruelly as Thebes; men of rank, beautiful women,
and skilful artisans, with their wives and families, were carried away
into captivity. Even the relics of St. Theodore were taken from the
church in which they were preserved; and it was not until the whole
Sicilian fleet was laden with as much of the wealth of Greece as it was
capable of transporting that the admiral ordered it to sail. The
Sicilians did not venture to retain possession of the impregnable
citadel of Corinth, as it would have been extremely difficult for them
to keep up their communications with the garrison. This invasion of
Greece was conducted entirely as a plundering expedition, having for its
object to inflict the greatest possible injury on the Byzantine empire,
while it collected the largest possible quantity of booty for the
Sicilian troops. Corfu was the only conquest of which Roger retained
possession.

The ruin of the Greek commerce and manufactures has been ascribed to the
transference of the silk trade from Thebes and Corinth to Palermo, under
the judicious protection it received from Roger; but it would be more
correct to say that the injudicious and oppressive financial
administration of the Byzantine emperors destroyed the commercial
prosperity and manufacturing industry of the Greeks; while the wise
liberality and intelligent protection of the Norman kings extended the
commerce and increased the industry of the Sicilians.

When the Sicilian fleet returned to Palermo, Roger determined to employ
all the silk manufact