urers in their original occupations. He
consequently collected all their families together, and settled them at
Palermo, supplying them with the means of exercising their industry with
profit to themselves, and inducing them to teach his own subjects to
manufacture the richest brocades and to rival the rarest productions of
the East.

Roger, unlike most of the monarchs of his age, paid particular attention
to improving the wealth of his dominions by increasing the prosperity of
his subjects. During his reign the cultivation of the sugar-cane was
introduced into Sicily. The conduct of Manuel was very different; when
he concluded peace with William, the son and successor of Roger, in
1158, he paid no attention to the commercial interests of his Greek
subjects; the silk manufactures of Thebes and Corinth were not reclaimed
and reinstated in their native seats; they were left to exercise their
industry for the profit of their new prince, while their old sovereign
would have abandoned them to perish from want. Under such circumstances
it is not remarkable that the commerce and the manufactures of Greece
were transferred in the course of another century to Sicily and Italy.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME

A.D. 843-1161

JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals
following give volume and page.

Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of
famous persons, will be found in the INDEX VOLUME, with volume and page
references showing where the several events are fully treated.

A.D.

843. Messina in Sicily captured by the Saracens.

Feudalism may be said to become an actuality from about this time. See
"FEUDALISM: ITS FRANKISH BIRTH AND ENGLISH DEVELOPMENT," v, 1.

The Danes--called by Arabian writers "_Magioges_," people of Gog and
Magog--land at Lisbon from fifty-four ships and carry off a rich booty.

The treaty of Verdun, between the three sons of Louis _le Debonnaire_.
See "DECAY OF THE FRANKISH EMPIRE," v, 22.

844. Lothair gives the title king of Italy to his son Louis, who is
crowned at Rome.

Abderrahman fits out a fleet to resist the Danes who have infested the
neighborhood of Cadiz and Seville.

845. Paris is pillaged for the first time by the Danes or Northmen. See
"DECAY OF THE FRANKISH EMPIRE," v, 22.

Hamburg is looted and destroyed by the Danes.

846. Rome is attacked by