an founder: it is strongly built on a neck of land, but
the imperfection of the harbor is not compensated by the fertility of
the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George the Sicilian admiral,
with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men
and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish
governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and irresistible
assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitants abandoned
the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In successive
expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieutenants reduced the cities
of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; the
fortresses were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that
it held Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on
the sword of Roger. After his death, that sword was broken; and these
transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the
troubled reign of his successor. The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius
have proved, that the African continent is neither inaccessible nor
invincible; yet the great princes and powers of Christendom have
repeatedly failed in their armaments against the Moors, who may still
glory in the easy conquest and long servitude of Spain.

Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished,
above sixty years, their hostile designs against the empire of the East.
The policy of Roger solicited a public and private union with the Greek
princes, whose alliance would dignify his regal character: he demanded
in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of
the treaty seemed to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuous
treatment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch;
and the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to the
laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. With the
fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily, appeared before
Corfu; and both the island and city were delivered into his hands by the
disaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is still
more calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the
annals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over
the provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and
Corinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens,
no memorial remains. The ancient walls, w