fall of Kiow, the navigation of the
Borysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and Moscow
were separated from the sea and Christendom; and the divided monarchy
was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of Tartar servitude. The
Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms, which had been converted by
the Latin missionaries, were exposed, it is true, to the spiritual
jurisdiction and temporal claims of the popes; but they were united in
language and religious worship, with each other, and with Rome; they
imbibed the free and generous spirit of the European republic, and
gradually shared the light of knowledge which arose on the western
world.

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.--Part I.

The Saracens, Franks, And Greeks, In Italy.--First
Adventures And Settlement Of The Normans.--Character And
Conquest Of Robert Guiscard, Duke Of Apulia--Deliverance Of
Sicily By His Brother Roger.--Victories Of Robert Over The
Emperors Of The East And West.--Roger, King Of Sicily,
Invades Africa And Greece.--The Emperor Manuel Comnenus.--
Wars Of The Greeks And Normans.--Extinction Of The Normans.

The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, and the
Franks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy. The southern
provinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were subject,
for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum;
so powerful in war, that they checked for a moment the genius of
Charlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in their capital
an academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division of
this flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento,
Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of
the competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their common
inheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy was
exposed to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable
of healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect conquest. Their
frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo,
and were entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians of
Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast;
and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist or
oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of human
events, a new ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine Forks