• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 21884 0

But if courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayed galleys were boldly launched against the enemy; but instead of the single tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the sides and stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid combustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was propitious; many thousand Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the sea; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and soldiers. Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow water; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his disgrace and claim his revenge. ^63 After a long peace, Jaroslaus, the great grandson of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval invasion. A fleet, under the command of his son, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same artificial flames. But in the rashness of pursuit, the vanguard of the Greeks was encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their provision of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty- four galleys were either taken, sunk, or destroyed. ^64

[Footnote 56: The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ixth, xth, and xith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals, especially those of Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their testimonies are collected in the Russica of Stritter, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 939 - 1044.]

[Footnote 57: Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758]

[Footnote 58: See Beauplan, (Description de l'Ukraine, p. 54 - 61: ) his descriptions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the circumstances of fire-arms, we may read old Russians for modern Cosacks.]

[Footnote 59: It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given a Dissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 265 - 391.) After disentangling some chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the years 864 or 865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in the beginning of M. Leveque's history.]

[Footnote 60: When Photius wrote his encyclic epistle on the conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently ripe.]

[Footnote 61: Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini Continuator in Script. post Theophanem, p. 121, 122. Symeon Logothet. p. 445, 446. Georg. Monach. p. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 551. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 162.]

[Footnote 62: See Nestor and Nicon, in Leveque's Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 74 - 80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75 - 79) uses his advantage to disprove this Russian victory, which would cloud the siege of Kiow by the Hungarians.]

[Footnote 63: Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. p. 263, 264 Symeon Logothet. p. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. p. 588, 589. Cedren tom. ii. p. 629. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 190, 191, and Liutprand, l. v. c. 6, who writes from the narratives of his father-in-law, then ambassador at Constantinople, and corrects the vain exaggeration of the Greeks.]

[Footnote 64: I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 758, 759) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 253, 254;) but they grow more weighty and credible as they draw near to their own times.]

Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war were more frequently diverted by treaty than by arms. In these naval hostilities, every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks; their savage enemy afforded no mercy: his poverty promised no spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire indulged an opinion, that no honor could be gained or lost in the intercourse with Barbarians. At first their demands were high and inadmissible, three pounds of gold for each soldier or mariner of the fleet: the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest and glory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the hoary sages. "Be content," they said, "with the liberal offers of Caesar; it is not far better to obtain without a combat the possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects