d forty thousand Moslems to the aid of his Christian
ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that
the conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved
by the justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the
gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and oppression.
A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into the palace of
Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were dispelled by the easy
and rapid success of the Norman adventurers.

The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria a
melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and the tenth century
of the Christian aera. At the former period, the coast of Great Greece
(as it was then styled) was planted with free and opulent cities: these
cities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the
military strength of Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to
that of a powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishing
provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny, and
depopulated by Barbarian war nor can we severely accuse the exaggeration
of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to the
same desolation which had covered the earth after the general deluge.
Among the hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, in the
southern Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressive of
their national manners. _1._ It was the amusement of the Saracens to
profane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches. At
the siege of Salerno, a Mussulman chief spread his couch on the
communion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginity
of a Christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the
roof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the
death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which
was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. _2._
The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua: after a vain
appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored the
clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. A fearless citizen dropped from
the walls, passed the intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and
fell into the hands of the Barbarians as he was returning with the
welcome news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceive
his countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honors shou