William of Apulia: GESTA ROBERTI WISCARDI

Gesta ducum veterum veteres cecinere poetae;
Aggrediar vates novus edere gesta novorum.
Dicere fert animus, quo gens normannica ductu
Venerit Italiam, fuerit quae causa morandi,
Quosve secuta duces Latii sit adepta triumphum.
Parce tuo vati pro viribus alta canenti,
Clara, Rogere, ducis Roberti dignaque proles,
Imperio cuius parere parata voluntas
Me facit audacem: quia vires quas labor artis
Ingeniumque negat, devotio pura ministrat.

The deeds of ancient leaders the poets of old sang;
I, a new poet, will undertake to publish the deeds of the new.
To tell it my spirit impels me—under what leadership the Norman nation
came to Italy, what cause there was for delaying,
and following which leaders it has obtained the triumph of Latium.
Spare your poet, singing lofty things to the measure of his powers,
illustrious Roger, worthy offspring of Duke Robert,
at whose command a will prepared to obey
makes me bold: for the strengths which the labor of art
and natural talent deny, pure devotion supplies.

Et patris Urbani reverenda petitio segnem
Esse vetat; quia plus timeo peccare negando
Tanti pontificis quam iussa benigna sequendo.

And Father Urban’s reverend petition forbids me to be sluggish;
for I fear more to sin by denying
so great a pontiff than by following his benign commands.

EXPLICIT PROLOGUS. INCIPIUNT GESTA

THE PROLOGUE ENDS. THE DEEDS BEGIN.

LIBER PRIMUS

BOOK ONE

Postquam complacuit regi mutare potenti
Tempora cum regnis, ut Graecis Apula tellus
Iam possessa diu non amplius incoleretur,
Gens Normannorum feritate insignis equestri
Intrat, et expulsis Latio dominatur Achivis.
Hos quando ventus, quem lingua soli genialis
Nort vocat, advexit boreas regionis ad oras
A qua digressi fines petiere latinos,
Et man est apud hos, homo quod perhibetur apud nos,
Normanni dicuntur, id est homines boreales.
Horum nonnulli Gargani culmina montis
Conscendere, tibi, Michael archangele, voti
Debita solventes.

After it pleased the mighty king to alter the times along with the kingdoms,
so that the Apulian land, long possessed by Greeks, should no longer be inhabited,
the nation of the Normans, notable for equestrian ferocity,
enters, and, the Achaeans having been expelled, holds dominion in Latium.
Hos when the wind, which the native tongue calls Nort,
the Boreas conveyed to the shores of the region,
from which, having departed, they sought the Latin borders,
and man is among them what is called homo among us;
they are called Normanni, that is, northern men.
Some of these climbed the summits of Mount Garganus,
paying to you, Michael the archangel, vows owed.

Ibi quendam conspicientes
More virum Graeco vestitum, nomine Melum,
Exulis ignotam vestem capitique ligato
Insolitos mitrae mirantur adesse rotatus.
Hunc dum conspiciunt, quis et unde sit ipse requirunt.
Se Langobardum natu civemque fuisse
Ingenuum Bari, patriis respondit at esse
Finibus extorrem Graeca feritate coactum.

There, beholding a certain man
a man clothed in the Greek mode, by name Melus,
the unknown garment of an exile, and with his head bound,
they marvel that the unaccustomed coils of the mitre are present.
As they behold him, they ask who he is and whence he comes.
He said that he was by birth a Langobard and had been
a freeborn citizen of Bari, but that he was
an exile from his native borders, compelled by Greek ferocity.

Exilio cuius dum Galli compaterentur,
« Quam facilem reditum, si vos velletis, haberem,
Nos aliquot vestra de gente iuvantibus » inquit.
Testabatur enim cito Graecos esse fugandos
Auxiliis horum, facili comitante labore.
Illi donandum patriae munimine gentis
Hunc celeri spondent, ubi forte redire licebit.

While the Gauls were sympathizing with his exile,
« How easy a return I would have, if you were willing,
with several from your people giving aid, » he said.
For he was attesting that the Greeks were soon to be routed
by the assistance of these men, with easy toil accompanying.
They pledge that this man is to be given to his fatherland with the bulwark of their nation
swiftly, whenever perchance it shall be permitted to return.

Ad fines igitur postquam rediere paternos,
Coeperunt animos mox sollicitare suorum
Italiam secum peterent. Narratur et illis
Appula fertilitas ignaviaque insita genti.
Sola quibus peragi possit via ferre monentur;
Tutor ibi prudens promittitur inveniendus,
Quo duce de Graecis facilis victoria fiat.

Therefore, after they returned to their paternal borders,
they soon began to stir the spirits of their own
that they might seek Italy with them. They are also told
of Apulian fertility and the inborn indolence of the race.
They are advised to endure the way, which can be accomplished only by the help of these men;
there it is promised that a prudent guardian will be found,
under whose leadership an easy victory over the Greeks may be made.

Arrectis igitur multorum mentibus ire
Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae,
Pars quia de magnis maiora subire volebant:
Est adquirendi simul omnibus una libido.
Aggrediuntur iter, sumptis quae cuique videtur
Ferre necesse viam pro viribus ad peragendam.
Postquam gens Romam Normannica transit inermis,
Fessa labore viae Campanis substitit oris:
Fama volat Latio Normannos applicuisse.

Therefore, with the minds of many aroused,
a part prepares to go, since resources were scant or even none,
a part because from great things they wished to undergo greater:
there is for all alike at the same time one libido of acquiring.
They set about the journey, taking up what to each seems
necessary to carry for the way, according to his strength, to be accomplished.
After the Norman race passes to Rome unarmed,
wearied by the labor of the road it halted at the Campanian shores:
Rumor flies through Latium that the Normans have made landfall.

Melus ut Italiam Gallos cognovit adisse,
Ocius accessit; dedit arma carentibus armis;
Armatos secum comites properare coegit.
Hactenus insolitas hac tempestate Latini
Innumeras cecidisse nives mirantur, et harum
Casibus extinctae pleraeque fuere ferarum,
Nec fuit arboribus fas inde resurgere lapsis.
Huius portenti post visum, vere sequenti,
Emptis Normannos Campanis partibus armis
Invadenda furens loca duxit ad Appula Melus.

When Melus learned that the Gauls had come to Italy,
he approached more swiftly; he gave arms to those lacking arms;
he compelled armed companions to hasten with him.
Thus far the Latins marvel that in this season,
hitherto unwonted, innumerable snows have fallen, and by their
downfalls most of the wild beasts were extinguished,
nor was it permitted for the trees, once fallen, to resurge thence.
After the sight of this portent, in the following spring,
the Normans, with arms bought in the Campanian parts, Melus the Apulian,
raging, led to the places to be invaded.

Hunc habuere ducem sibi gens Normannica primum
Partibus Italiae. Gallos tremit Appulus omnis,
Quorum praevalido multi periere rigore.
Turnicii tandem rumor pervenit ad aures,
Qui catapan fuerat Graecorum missus ab urbe
Cui Constantinus nomen dedit editor urbis,
Et Constantinus pariterque Basilius illi
Tunc dominabantur, Gallos venisse feroces
Conductu Meli, qui factus utrique rebellis
Appula Normannos loca depopulanda monebat.

The Norman people had this man as their first leader in the parts of Italy;
all Apulia trembles at the Gauls,
by whose mighty rigor many perished.
At last the rumor reached the ears of Turnicius,
who had been catapan of the Greeks, sent from the city
to which Constantine, builder of the city, gave his name;
and Constantine and likewise Basil then held sway there,
that the fierce Gauls had come,
by the hiring of Melus, who, having become a rebel to both,
was urging the Normans to lay waste Apulian places.

His ita Turnicio fama referente relatis,
Agmina Graecorum propere direxit in hostes.
Non etenim per se certamina prima paravit,
Sed per legatum, cognomen cui Pacianus
Et Leo nomen erat, qui iuxta fluminis undam
Nomine Fertorii—locus est et Arenula dictus—
Deduxit secum multos ad bella Pelasgos.
Maii mensis erant aptissima tempora Marti:
Hoc ad bella solent procedere tempore reges.

With this thus reported to Turnicius by rumor,
he swiftly directed the battle-lines of the Greeks against the enemies.
For he did not prepare the first contests by himself,
but through a legate, whose cognomen was Pacianus
and whose name was Leo, who beside the wave of the river
by the name of Fertorius—the place is also called Arenula—
led with him many Pelasgians to war.
The times of the month of May were most fitting for Mars:
at this time kings are accustomed to advance to wars.

Fortunaque pari primo pugnatur utrimque.
Auctis militibus comites fuit inde secutus
Turnicius, sed terga dedit victusque recessit.
Conflictu belli Pacianus corruit huius.

And with equal Fortune at first battle is waged on both sides.
With the troops augmented, he then followed the counts
Turnicius, but he turned his back and, conquered, withdrew.
In the conflict of this war Pacianus fell.

Normannis auget validas victoria vires,
Expertis Graecos nullius roboris esse,
Quos non audaces sed cognovere fugaces.
Imperii fama insinuat rectoribus arva
Appula Normannos Melo duce depopulari.
Hunc, his auditis, sibi curia iudicat hostem;
Si capitur, capitis fieri caesura iubetur.

Victory augments strong forces for the Normans,
by experience they have found the Greeks to be of no vigor,
whom they recognized not as audacious but prone to flight.
The fame of the Empire insinuates to the rulers that the Normans
with Melo as leader are depopulating the Apulian fields.
This man, these things having been heard, the Curia judges an enemy to itself;
if he is captured, it is ordered that there be a decapitation.

Multa Graecorum cum gente Basilius ire
Iussus, in hunc audax anno movet arma sequenti,
Cui catapan facto cognomen erat Bagianus.
Quod catapan Graeci, nos iuxta dicimus omne.
Quisquis apud Danaos vice fungitur huius honoris,
Dispositor populi parat omne quod expedit illi,
Et iuxta quod cuique dari decet omne ministrat.

Basil, ordered to go with many a nation of the Greeks,
audacious, moves arms against him in the following year,
whose cognomen, once he was made catapan, was Bagianus.
What the Greeks call catapan, we similarly call the over‑all commander.
Whoever among the Danaans performs the vice of this honor,
the Disposer of the people prepares everything that is expedient for him,
and accordingly he ministers to each whatever it is fitting should be given.

Vicinus Cannis qua defluit Aufidus amnis,
Circiter Octobris pugnatur utrimque Kalendas.
Cum modica non gente valens obsistere Melus
Terga dedit, magna spoliatus parte suorum.
Et puduit victum patria tellure morari;
Samnites adiit superatus, ibique moratur.

Neighbor to Cannae, where the river Aufidus flows down,
Around the Kalends of October a battle is fought on both sides.
Since Melus, not strong to withstand with a moderate force,
turned his back, despoiled of a great part of his men.
And it shamed him, conquered, to linger on his fatherland’s soil;
defeated, he went to the Samnites, and there he stays.

Post Alemannorum petiit suffragia regis
Henrici, solito placidus qui more precantem
Suscipit, auxilii promittens dona propinqui.
At Melus regredi praeventus morte nequivit.
Henricus sepelit rex hunc ut regius est mos.

Afterwards he sought the suffrages of King Henry of the Alemanni,
who, placid in his accustomed manner, receives the suppliant,
promising the gifts of aid of a kinsman.
But Melus, forestalled by death, was not able to return.
Henry the king buries him, as the royal custom is.

Funeris exequias comitatus adusque sepulcrum,
Carmine regali tumulum decoravit humati.
Defuncto Melo, cuius suffragia Galli
Affore sperabant, spe tota deficientes
Campanae maesti redeunt regionis ad oras.
Atque locis nullis figunt temptoria certis.

Having accompanied the funeral rites even to the sepulcher,
he adorned the tomb of the interred with a regal song.
With Melus deceased, whose support the Gauls
were hoping would be at hand, their whole hope failing,
the sad Campanians return to the shores of their region.
And they pitch their tents in no fixed places.

Perterrebat eos plebs paucificata suorum,
Viribus et validis circumstans plurimus hostis;
Quare nullus eis tutus locus esse videtur,
Montibus interdum, nunc vallibus inde remotis.
Sed cum iam nullum sperarent posse parari
Auxilium—victis incommoda quippe videntur
Omnia, victores fors creditur ipsa iuvare—
Cumque vagi, instabiles, iam per loca multa vagantes,
Nullis sede locis possent insistere certa,
Consilium tandem dat rixa propinqua morandi.
Nam Longobardo, norant cui robur adesse
Maius, adhaerebant, aderantque fideliter eius
Auxiliis, huius quo per famulamina tuti
A reliquis fierent, et eorum nacta secundos
Successus belli clarescere fama valeret.

The populace, thinned of their own, was terrifying them,
and a most numerous enemy, surrounding with strong forces;
wherefore no place seemed safe to them,
sometimes on mountains, now in valleys far removed from there.
But when they now no longer hoped that any
help could be procured—for to the vanquished, indeed, all things seem
incommodities, while Fortune herself is believed to aid the victors—
and since, wandering, unstable, now roving through many places,
they could in no places stand upon any fixed seat,
at length the near-at-hand fray gives the counsel of staying.
For they adhered to the Longobard, whom they knew to have
greater might, and they were faithfully present for his
aids; through this man’s services, whereby they might be safe
from the rest, and, having gotten favorable
successes of war, their fame might have power to shine forth.

Hac ratione loco metantur castra decenti,
Qui limphis, herbis simul arboribusque redundans
Omne ministrabat populo quod habere necesse est.
Egregium quendam mox elegere suorum,
Nomine Rannulfum, qui princeps agminis esset,
Cuius mandatis fas contradicere non sit.
Cumque locum primae sedis munire pararent,
Undique densa palus, nec non et multa coaxans
Copia ranarum prohibet munimina sedis.

By this plan they measure out the camp in a fitting place,
which, overflowing with waters, herbs, and likewise trees,
supplied to the people everything that it is necessary to have.
They soon chose a certain distinguished man of their own,
by name Rannulf, to be leader of the army,
to whose commands it would not be lawful to gainsay.
And when they prepared to fortify the site of the first position,
on every side a dense marsh, and also the much‑croaking
multitude of frogs, prevents the defenses of the position.

Haut procul inde suis alium stationibus aptum
Invenere locum, quem nullo dante iuvamen
Cultorum patriae, pro se munire tuendis
Conantur. Sic se facto munimine cuidam,
Qui princeps Capuanus erat, coniungere gaudent.
Principibus Latii prior atque potentior ipse
Tunc erat.

Not far from there they found another place apt for their stations,
which, with no succor given by the cultivators of the country,
they attempt to fortify for themselves for defense.
Thus, with a muniment made, they rejoice to join themselves to a certain man,
who was the Capuan prince.
He himself was then preeminent and more powerful
than the princes of Latium.

Affines properant hoc principe tuti
Devastare locos, hostesque viriliter angunt.
Sed quia mundanae mentis meditamina prona
Sunt ad avaritiam, vincitque pecunia passim,
Nunc hoc nunc illo contempto, plus tribuenti
Semper adhaerebant; servire libentius illi
Omnes gaudebant, a quo plus accipiebant,
Bella magis populi quam foedera pacis amantes;
Servitiique vices pro viribus et ratione
Temporis expendunt; plus dantem pluris habebant.
Illis principibus dominandi magna libido
Bella ministrabat.

Allies hasten, safe under this prince,
to devastate places, and they manfully press the enemies.
But because the meditations of the worldly mind are prone
to avarice, and money conquers everywhere,
now this one, now that one being despised, they always adhered to the one giving more;
all rejoiced to serve more willingly him
from whom they received more,
the people loving wars more than the treaties of peace;
and the vicissitudes of servitude, according to strengths and the reckoning
of time, they weigh; they held as of greater worth the one who gave more.
For those princes a great lust of dominating
furnished wars.

Vult quisque potentior esse,
Alter et alterius molitur iura subire.
Procedunt lites hoc fomite, proelia, mortes;
Inter mortales ideo mala plurima crescunt.
Heu miseri, mundo quicquid conantur inane est:
Innumeros vana passi pro laude labores,
Plus cruciabuntur postquam mundana relinquent.

Each one wants to be more powerful,
and each contrives that the other submit to his jurisdiction.
From this fuel proceed quarrels, battles, deaths;
among mortals therefore very many evils increase.
Alas, wretches, whatever they attempt for the world is vain:
having endured numberless vain labors for praise,
they will be more tormented after they relinquish the mundane.

Numquam Normannis, ne poena rediret in ipsos,
Longobardorum placuit victoria prorsus.
Funditus everti discordem quemque vetabat
Nunc favor additus his, et nunc favor additus illis.
Decipit Ausonios prudentia Gallica; nullum
Plena lance capi permittit ab hoste triumphum.

Never did the victory of the Lombards wholly please the Normans, lest the penalty return upon themselves,
They forbade that any discordant party be overturned from the foundations—now favor added to these, and now favor added to those.
Gallic prudence deceives the Ausonians; no
with the scale-pan full does it permit any triumph to be seized by the foe.

Sic desperatos Latii discordia Gallos
Ad spem, quae fuerat prius extirpata, reformat.
Et vires et opes augmentum sic capiebant.
Si vicinorum quis perniciosus ad ipsos
Confugiebat, eum gratanter suscipiebant.

Thus the discord of Latium reforms the desperate Gauls
to hope, which had previously been extirpated.
And both strength and resources were thus receiving augmentation.
If anyone pernicious among the neighbors took refuge with them
they gladly received him.

Moribus et lingua, quoscumque venire videbant,
Informant propria, gens efficiatur ut una.
Post annos aliquot, Gallorum exercitus urbem
Condidit Aversam Rannulfo consule tutus.
Hic opibus plenus locus utilis est et amoenus;
Non sata, non fructus, non prata arbustaque desunt.

By customs and by language, whomever they saw coming,
they fashion to their own, so that one nation might be made.
After several years, the army of the Gauls the city
founded—Aversa—secure under Consul Rannulf.
Here, a place full of resources, is useful and pleasant;
neither sown fields, nor fruits, nor meadows and vine‑arbors are lacking.

Nullus in orbe locus iocundior. Hunc generosi
Consulis elegit prudentia praememorati.
Huius praeclara processit stirpe Ricardus
Qui post successit, quo non animosior ullus,
Nemo magis largus.

No place in the world more jocund. The prudence of the aforesaid
noble Consul chose this. From his illustrious stock proceeded Richard
who afterwards succeeded, than whom none more spirited,
no one more generous.

Qui non virtute minorem
Iordanem genuit, Iordanis et inde Ricardum;
Iamque viro vires condignas fert adolescens.
Moenibus Aversa Rannulfus ab urbe peractis
Ad patriam misit legatos, qui properare
Normannos facerent, et quam sit amoena referrent
Appula fertilitas; inopes fore mox opulentos,
Divitibus multo plus polliceantur habendum.
Talibus auditis, et egentes et locupletes
Adveniunt multi; properat quod fasce levetur
Paupertatis inops, ac quaerat ut optima dives.

who begot Jordan not lesser in virtue, and from Jordan then Richard;
and now the adolescent bears strength condign to a man.
With the walls of the city Aversa completed,
Rannulf sent envoys to the homeland, to make the Normans hasten,
and to report how charming the Apulian fertility is; that the needy would soon be opulent,
they promise that to the rich much more is to be had.
With such things heard, both the needy and the wealthy
many arrive; the destitute hastens that he may be lightened of the burden
of poverty, and the rich man, that he may seek the best things.

Interea multo decurso tempore, nullus
Partibus Ausoniis Gallorum terror habetur,
Ex quo Normannos catapan abscedere fecit
Imperii Melum superando Basilius hostem.
Aversam subito venit Hardoinus, et inde
Pluribus abductis secum, tremit Appulus omnis.
Is Lambardus erat, Graecosque fugare volebat.

Meanwhile, with much time having run its course, no
terror of the Gauls is held in the Ausonian parts,
since the catapan made the Normans withdraw,
Basil, by overcoming Melus, the enemy of the Empire.
Hardoinus came suddenly to Aversa, and from there
with many drawn off with him, all Apulia trembles.
He was a Lombard, and he wished to put the Greeks to flight.

Cur inimicus eis, cur Gallos duxerit, edam.
Dum sedi Michael Epilenticus imperiali
Praesidet, in Siculos hostes iubet arma moveri,
Qui fines Calabros non cessant depopulari.
Dirigitur Michael Dochianus ad id peragendum,
Qui multis equitum peditumque potenter in arma
Undique collectis, Siculos compescuit hostes.

Why he was an enemy to them, why he led the Gauls, I will set forth.
While Michael the Epileptic presides on the imperial seat,
he orders arms to be moved against the Sicilian enemies,
who do not cease to devastate the Calabrian frontiers.
Michael Dochianus is directed to accomplish this,
who, with many of horse and of foot powerfully gathered into arms
from every side, restrained the Sicilian foes.

Inter collectos erat Hardoinus, et eius
Asseculae quidam, Graecorum caede relicti,
Plebs Lambardorum Gallis admixta quibusdam,
Qui profugi fuerant ubi bella Basilius egit.
Cumque triumphato remeans Dochianus ab hoste
Praemia militibus Regina solveret urbe,
Graecis donatis, nichil Ardoinus habere
Donorum potuit, miser immunisque remansit.
Convenit inde suos iratus et arguit Argos
Turpis avaritiae, populo quia dantur inerti
Munera danda viris, cum sit quasi femina Graecus.

Among the gathered was Hardoinus, and certain of his
attendants, left after the slaughter of the Greeks,
a plebs of Lombards admixed with certain Gauls,
who had been refugees where Basil waged wars.
And when, the enemy having been triumphed over, Dochianus returning
was paying out prizes to the soldiers in the city Regina,
the Greeks having been endowed, Ardoinus could have nothing
of the gifts—he remained wretched and without a share.
Then he convenes his own, angered, and arraigns the Argives
for foul avarice, because gifts to be given to men
are given to an inert people, since the Greek is as if a woman.

Iratus Michael propter convicia iussit
Graecorum ritu caedendus ut exueretur,
Corrigiis caesum graviter peccasse puderet.
Dedecoris tanti cruciatibus exagitatus,
Mulctae commissum non dimissurus inultum,
Clam cum gente sua Graecorum castra reliquit.
Missa Pelasgorum manus hunc ut persequeretur
Repperit in campo.

Angry, Michael, on account of the insults, ordered
that, by the rite of the Greeks, he be stripped for a beating,
that, smitten with straps, he might be ashamed to have sinned gravely.
Hounded by the torments of so great a disgrace,
not about to let the offense of the mulct go unavenged,
secretly with his people he left the camp of the Greeks.
A band of Pelasgians having been sent to pursue him
found him in the plain.

Cum quo confligere temptans,
Cedit, et occisis decies ibi quinque Pelasgis
Aversam properat. Normannis omnia narrat
Quae sibi contigerant, vehementer et increpat illos,
Appula multimodae cum terra sit utilitatis,
Femineis Graecis cur permittatur haberi,
Cum genus ignavum sit, quod comes ebrietatis
Crapula dissolvat, minimo saepe hoste fugatos
Vestituque graves, non armis asserit aptos.
Normanni, quamvis Danaum virtute coacti
Appula rura prius dimittere, rursus adire
Hoc stimulante parant, numero cum viribus aucto.

Attempting to engage him in battle,
he gives way, and, with fifty Pelasgians slain there,
he hastens off in retreat. He tells the Normans everything
that had befallen him, and vehemently rebukes them,
since Apulia is a land of manifold utility,
why it is permitted to be held by effeminate Greeks,
since it is a slothful race, which, the companion of drunkenness,
crapulence dissolves, often routed by the slightest foe,
and heavy in dress, he asserts them not fit for arms.
The Normans, although compelled by the valor of the Danaans
previously to abandon the Apulian fields, to approach again
with this man spurring them on they prepare, with numbers and forces increased.

Omnes conveniunt, et bis sex nobiliores,
Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et aetas,
Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum
His alii parent: comitatus nomen honoris
Quo donantur, erat. Hi totas undique terras12 -
Divisere sibi nisi fors inimica repugnet.

All assemble, and the twice-six more noble men,
whom birth and the gravity of manners and age adorned,
chose leaders. To these, advanced to the comital rank,
the others obey: comitatus was the name of the honor
with which they are endowed. These men the whole lands on every side12 -
divided among themselves, unless hostile chance should gainsay.

Singula proponunt loca, quae contingere sorte
Cuique duci debent, et quaeque tributa locorum.
Hac ad bella simul festinant condicione.
Nullus tunc Italis exercitus imperialis
Partibus audiri, Graecorum tota quieta
Res erat, et solum tranquillo tempore bellum
Adversus Siculos agitari fama ferebat.

They propose the several places, which ought by lot to fall to each leader, and the respective tributes of the places.
On this condition they hasten together to the wars.
At that time no imperial army was heard of in the Italian parts; the whole affair of the Greeks was quiet, and rumor reported that only a war against the Sicilians was being agitated in a tranquil season.

Appula Normannis intrantibus arva, repente
Melfia capta fuit. Quicquid praedantur, ad illam
Urbem deducunt. Hac sede Basilius ante,
Quem supra memini, modicas fabricaverat aedes,
Esse locum cernens inopinae commoditatis.

As the Normans were entering the Apulian fields, suddenly
Melfi was captured. Whatever they plunder, they bring to that
city. At this seat Basil before,
whom I mentioned above, had built modest houses,
seeing it to be a place of unexpected advantage.

Accessu populi nunc urbs illustris habetur,
Finibus Italiae celeberrima, dives amoeni
Fertilitate loci, Cereris nec egena nec amnis,
Et qua parte sita est, insignis honore ducali.
Audito reditu Siculis Michaelis ab oris,
Sese ad bella parant Normanni, copia quamvis
Multa sit Argorum, sua quam paucissima gens sit.
Nam pedites tantum quingentos turba pedestris,
Et septingentos comitatus habebat equestris;
Obtectos clipeis paucos lorica tuetur.

By the influx of people the city is now held illustrious,
within the borders of Italy most celebrated, rich in the pleasing
fertility of the place, needy neither of Ceres nor of the river,
and, in the quarter where it is situated, distinguished by ducal honor.
On hearing of Michael’s return from the Sicilian shores,
the Normans prepare themselves for wars, although the forces
of the Argives are many, while their own nation is very few.
For the infantry throng had only five hundred foot,
and the cavalry company had seven hundred;
a corselet protects only a few, covered with shields.

Armati pedites dextrum laevumque monentur
Circumstare latus; aliquot sociantur equestres,
Firmior ut peditum plebs sit comitantibus illis.
His interdicunt omnino recedere campo,
Ut recipi valeant, si forte fugentur ab hoste.
Taliter instructis illis et utrimque locatis,
Digreditur cuneus longe paulisper equestris.

Armed infantry are admonished to surround the right and the left flank;
several horsemen are associated, so that the mass of infantry may be firmer with those companions.
To these they altogether forbid to recede from the field,
so that they may be able to be received, if perchance they are put to flight by the enemy.
With them thus drawn up and stationed on both sides,
the cavalry wedge withdraws some distance for a little while.

Contra quos cuneus Graecorum mittitur unus.
Non etenim totas Danai laxare cohortes
Primo Marte solent; legionem sed prius unam,
Inde aliam mittunt ut virtus aucta suorum
Hostes debilitet, terroremque augeat illis.
Sic equitum princeps, obniti dum videt hostes,
Cum magis electo qui restat milite secum
Proripitur subito, viresque retundere prorsus
Sic solet hostiles, animos reparando suorum.

Against whom a single wedge of the Greeks is sent.
For indeed the Danaans are not accustomed to let loose their whole cohorts at the first onset of Mars;
but first one legion, then another they send, so that the valor of their own, being augmented, may debilitate the enemies and increase terror for them.
Thus the leader of the cavalry, when he sees the foes striving in resistance,
with the more select soldiery which remains with him,
suddenly rushes forth, and is thus accustomed utterly to blunt hostile forces, by restoring the spirits of his own.

Utrorumque acie conserta, maxima pugna
Fit iuxta rapidas Lebenti fluminis undas.
Vincuntur Danai; Gallorum exercitus illos
Fortiter insequitur; caesorum corpora multa
Appula planicies, fluvius sed plura recepit.
Gens Argiva quidem, nimio perculsa pavore,
Dum tremebunda fugit, non asperitate locorum,
Non prohibetur aquis vehementibus ut fugitiva
Non se praecipitet.

With the battle-line of both sides joined, a very great battle
is waged beside the swift waves of the Lebentus river.
The Danaans are defeated; the army of the Gauls
follows them bravely; many bodies of the slain
the Apulian plain received, but the river received more.
Indeed the Argive race, smitten by excessive fear,
while, trembling, it flees, is hindered neither by the roughness of the places
nor by the impetuous waters from, as a fugitive, hurling itself headlong.

Plures in flumine mersos
Alveus involvit, quam morti traderet ensis.
Hos iaculis, illos gladiis gens Gallica stravit,
Fitque modis variis Graecorum maxima caedes.
Cum paucis montem Michael elapsus adivit,
Vicinos montes superare cacumine visum.

More, plunged in the river, did the channel engulf
than the sword consigned to death.
These with javelins, those with swords the Gallic nation laid low,
and a very great slaughter of the Greeks comes about in various modes.
Michael, having slipped away with a few, approached a mountain,
which seemed with its summit to surpass the neighboring mountains.

Gallorum vires victoria mentibus auget,
Nec contra Danaos iam bella gerenda pavescunt.
Haut secus accipiter solitus captare minores
Indubitanter aves, dubitans maioris inire
Alitis assultum, poterit si forte vel unam
Essuperare gruem, non inde timebit olorem,
Et magnis avibus iam nil obstare pavebit.
Agmine collecto Graecorum, rursus ad amnem
Cannis adfinem, qui dicitur Aufidus, omnes
Quos secum potuit Michael deducere duxit.

Victory augments the Gauls’ strength in their minds,
nor do they now quake at waging wars against the Danaans.
Not otherwise, a hawk accustomed to seize smaller
birds without doubting, while hesitating to enter an assault on a larger
winged creature—if by chance he can even overmaster a single
crane—will not from then fear the swan,
and he will no longer dread that anything stands in the way before great birds.
With the battle-line of the Greeks gathered, back to the river
adjacent to Cannae, which is called the Aufidus, Michael led all
whom he was able to lead away with him.

Ad pugnam Galli redeunt. Ut cesserat ante,
Cedit eis Michael. Victi fugere Pelasgi;
Caeduntur multi; labentis equo Dokiani
Armigeri auxilio servatur vita fugacis.

The Gauls return to the fight.
As he had yielded before, Michael yields to them.
The Pelasgians, defeated, fled;
many are cut down; by the help of Dokianus’s armor-bearer, the life of the fugitive slipping from his horse is saved.

Corruit offenso pede forte caballus ad amnis
Ingressum. Michael manibus iam pene tenendus
Hostilis turbae, proprium ducente ministro
Est elapsus equum. Normanni plus animantur,
Quo magis augetur felix succesus in armis.

By chance the horse fell, with its foot having stumbled, at the river’s ingress;
Michael, now almost to be seized by the hostile throng,
while his own attendant was leading his own horse,
slipped off the horse. The Normans are animated the more,
the more happy success in arms is augmented.

Pelusii montis Michael petit ardua victus.
Hinc exercitui Graecorum nuncia mittit,
Qui Siculis inerat tunc partibus, ut reparandis
Viribus accedat, quibus hoste fugatus egebat.

Michael, defeated, seeks the steep heights of Mount Pelusius.
From here he sends messages to the army of the Greeks,
which was then in the Sicilian parts, so that it might come for the repairing of forces,
of which, put to flight by the enemy, he was in need.

Melfia Normannis victoribus ut repetatur
Complacet. Hic spoliis collectis gentis Achaeae
Stant aliquantisper tranquilla pace quieti.
Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas,
Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe.

It pleases that Melfi be revisited by the victorious Normans.
Here, the spoils of the Achaean race having been collected,
they remain for a little while, quiet in tranquil peace.
In keeping with the number of the counts they established twice six (12) streets,
and houses of the counts, the same number, are constructed in the city.

Sed quia terrigenis terreni semper honores
Invidiam pariunt, comitum mandata recusant
Quos sibi praetulerant Galli servare feroces.
Indigenam Latii propriae praeponere genti
Dilexere magis. Beneventi principis huius
Nomen Adenolfus; quos forsitan ipse vel aurum
Dando vel argentum, pacti mutare prioris
Compulerat votum: quid non compellit inire
Ambitio census?

But because earthly honors always beget envy in the earth-born,
they refuse to observe the mandates of the counts
whom the fierce Gauls had set over them in preference to themselves.
They preferred rather to set a native of Latium over their own people.
The name of this prince of Benevento was Adenolfus; whom perhaps he himself,
by giving either gold or silver, had compelled to change the vow
of their earlier compact: what does the ambition for wealth not force one to undertake?

sanos evertere sensus
Haec valet, ac fidei Agidos dissolvere nexus.

to overturn sound senses
this has the power, and to dissolve the bonds of Agis’s fidelity.

Postquam delatos Dochiani exercitus audit
Partibus in Siculis apices, et de reparandis
Viribus admonitus, Dochianum novit egentem
Auxilio, properat Calabrisque virisque quibusque
Undique collectis, it ad ulciscenda suorum
Corpora, quae campis et aquis inhumata iacebant.
Cum Graecis aderant quidam, quos pessimus error
Fecerat amentes, et ab ipso nomen habebant:
Plebs solet ista Patrem cum Christo dicere passum,
Et fronti digito signum crucis imprimit uno;
Non aliam Nati personam quam Patris esse,
Hanc etiam Sancti Spiramirus esse docebant.
Hi simul ad bellum properant, mens omnibus una,
Vires quas Michael amiserat ut reparentur.

After he hears that the dispatches of Dochianus’s army have been delivered
in the Sicilian parts, and, being admonished about restoring
his forces, learns that Dochianus stands in need
of help, he hastens, with Calabrians and with men of every sort
gathered from everywhere; he goes to avenge his people’s
bodies, which lay unburied in fields and in waters.
With the Greeks there were certain men, whom a most pernicious error
had made demented, and from that very thing they took their name:
that plebs is wont to say that the Father suffered with Christ,
and with one finger they imprint the sign of the cross on the forehead;
they taught that the Person of the Son is no other than the Father’s,
and that this same was also the Holy Spirit.
These together hasten to war, one mind in all,
so that the forces which Michael had lost might be repaired.

Hunc tamen esse ducem vetat amplius agminis huius,
Imperii sub quo Romani cura manebat.
Contra Normannos quia nullum prosperitatis
Successum obtinuit, iubet Exaugustus ut huius
Officium subeat, Danaos in proelia ducat.
Dicitur hunc victor genuisse Basilius ille,
Qui duce sub Melo Gallos dare terga coegit.

Yet he forbids that this man any longer be the leader of this host,
under whom the care of the Roman Empire remained.
Because he obtained no success of prosperity against the Normans,
he orders that Exaugustus assume his office,
and lead the Danaans into battles.
He is said to have been begotten by that Basil the Victor,
who forced the Gauls, under the leader Melo, to turn their backs.

Inde redit Siculas Michael Dochianus ad oras.
Exaugustus eos, quorum sibi tradita cura est,
Taliter alloquitur: « Prudentia vestra virili
Condicione vigens, non vos permittat habere
Cor muliebre, viri. Quae vos ignavia semper
Cogit inire fugam?

Thence Michael Dochianus returns to the Sicilian shores.
Exaugustus thus addresses those, whose care has been entrusted to him:
« Your prudence, vigorous in a virile condition,
let it not permit you to have a womanish heart, men. What cowardice always
compels you to enter upon flight?

Memores estote priorum,
Quorum strenuitas totum sibi subdidit orbem.
Hector Achilleis fortissimus occidit armis.
Troia Michaenei ruit ignibus usta furoris.

Be mindful of your predecessors,
by whose strenuity the whole orb was subjected to them.
Hector, the bravest, fell by Achilles’ arms.
Troy fell, scorched by the fires of Michaenean fury.

Philippi quantus fuerit vigor, India novit;
Huius Alexander proles fortissima nonne
Fortia multorum subiecit regna Pelasgis?
Partibus occiduis Graecorum fama timori
Omrubus et mundi regionibus esse solebat.
Quae gens audito Graecorum nomine stare
Audebat campo?

How great Philip’s vigor was, India knows;
of him Alexander, the most valiant offspring—did he not
subject the strong kingdoms of many to the Pelasgians?
In the occidental parts the fame of the Greeks used to be for fear
to all peoples and the regions of the world.
Which nation, on hearing the name of the Greeks, dared to stand
in the field?

Vix oppida, castra, vel urbes
Reddebant tutos ab eorum viribus hostes.
State, precor, validi, memores virtutis avitae,
Degeneresque pedum non vos fiducia reddat.
Hosti adimit vires, qui stare viriliter audet.

Hardly did towns, camps, or cities
render the enemies safe from their forces.
Stand, I pray, strong, mindful of ancestral virtue,
and let confidence in your feet not render you degenerate.
He deprives the enemy of strength, who dares to stand manfully.

Procurate sequi vestigia prima parentum,
Iam fuga displiceat; totus vos sentiat orbis
Fortes esse viros. Non est ad bella timendus
Francorum populus, numeroque et viribus impar ».
His dictis animos Graecorum accendit, et omnes
Praecipit Argolicos montana relinquere, campi
Quaerere planiciem; campis et castra locavit.
Exploratores Galli misere, paratus
Ut Danaum videant.

Take care to follow the earliest footprints of your ancestors,
now let flight be displeasing; let the whole world perceive you
to be brave men. The people of the Franks are not to be feared for war,
and are inferior in numbers and in strength ».
With these words he inflamed the spirits of the Greeks, and he
bids all the Argives to leave the mountains, to seek the level plain;
and on the plains he pitched the camp.
The Gauls sent scouts, prepared
to see the Danaans.

Referunt ad bella paratos,
Et non mutata mutatum gente magistrum.
Nil metuunt. Multi sociis in monte relictis,
Quo tuti redeant, fuerit si forte necesse,
Indigenae Danais descendunt auxiliari.

They report them prepared for war,
and that, with the people not changed, the leader changed.
They fear nothing. Many, with comrades left on the mountain,
to which they may return in safety, if by chance it should be necessary,
the natives descend to give aid to the Danaans.

Campi planicie populus convenit uterque.
Pugna fit inde gravis. Ut vincat uterque laborat.

On the field’s plain both peoples convene.
From there a grave battle ensues; each labors to conquer.

Nunc hi, nunc illi fugiuntque fugantque fugantes.
Cumque diu pugnam Gallis patientibus Argi
Acriter instarent victores iam prope facti,
Proripitur subito medios Gualterus in hostes,
Normannos hortans ad bella redire fugaces.
Ipse electorum comitum fuit unus, Amici
Filius insignis.

Now these, now those, both flee and rout the rout-ers.
And when for a long time, with the Gauls enduring, the Argives
were pressing hard, now almost made victors,
Walter suddenly rushes forth into the midst of the enemies,
urging the fleeing Normans to return to the wars.
He himself was one of the chosen counts, the illustrious
son of Amicus.

Nullum certamen Achivi
Experti gravius; sed plurimus hic quia miles
Occidit, heroes multi simul interiere.
Ductus Adenolfi miser Exaugustus ad urbem
Praecedebat equum victoris, ab hoste ligatus
Ostentare sui pompam cupiente triumphi.

No contest have the Achaeans
experienced more grievous; but here the most, since many a soldier
perished, and many heroes perished together.
Led to Adenolf’s city, the wretched Exaugustus
went before the victor’s horse, bound by the enemy,
who was eager to display the pomp of his triumph.

Ter Gallis anno victoria contigit illo.
Confusis Danais iam spes est nulla trophaei.
Omnia praeclarum super Appula moenia Barum,
Illis temporibus, Monopolis et Iuvenacus,
Atque urbes aliae quam plures, foedere spreto
Graecorum, pactum cum Francigenis iniere.

Thrice did victory befall the Gauls in that year.
With the Danaans thrown into confusion, now there is no hope of a trophy.
All—illustrious Bari above the Apulian walls—
in those times, Monopoli and Giovinazzo,
and many other cities, the treaty of the Greeks spurned,
entered into a pact with the French.

Inde manere Deo nolente diucius eius
Imperium, moritur Michael, Michaele nepote
Succedente sibi, qui Constantinus et idem
Nomine dictus erat. Quendam, solamen ut inde
Auxilii caperet gens Appula, Sinodianum
Destinat. Hic veniens et primo appulsus Hydruntum,
Legatos socias Francorum misit ad urbes,
Se recipi rogitans.

Thence, with God unwilling that his Empire remain longer,
Michael dies, Michael his nephew succeeding him, who was likewise
called by the name Constantine. A certain Sinodianus he dispatches,
that from there the Apulian nation might take solace of aid.
He, coming and first making landfall at Hydruntum,
sent legates to the allied cities of the Franks,
entreating that he be received.

Nolunt parere roganti.
Militiam reparare cupit; sed milite multo
Caeso ac disperso, paucos retinere valebat.
Sinodianus ob hoc muros non deserit urbis.

They do not wish to obey the one asking.
He desires to repair the soldiery; but with much soldiery
cut down and scattered, he was able to keep only a few.
Because of this Sinodianus does not abandon the walls of the city.

Hunc tamen edictum facit imperiale reverti.
Multa per hoc tempus sibi promittente Salerni
Principe Guaimano, Normanmica gens famulatum
Spernit Adenolfi. Sed se tantummodo cives
Aversae dederant dicioni Guaimarianae;
Nam reliqui Galli, quos Appula terra tenebat,
Argiroo Meli genito servire volebant.

However, an imperial edict makes this man return.
During this time, Guaiman, Prince of Salerno, promising many things,
the Norman people spurn the service of Adenolf.
But only the citizens of Aversa had given themselves to Guaimarian authority;
for the remaining Gauls, whom the Apulian land held,
wished to serve Argyrus, son of Melo.

Nam pater ipsius prior introducere Gallos,
His et in Italia studuit dare munera primus.
Argirous pauper, licet audax et generosus,
Se tantae genti dominari posse negavit,
Cum nichil argenti valeat praebere vel auri
Hi se non aurum profitentur amare, sed ipsum,
Cuius eis placidus fuerat pater. Ipse precantem
Exaudit populum; nocturno tempore secum
Deducit Barum natu sensuque priores,
Quos sancti ductos Apollinaris ad aedem
Taliter affatur: « Pretii cum nulla facultas
Sit mihi, quo possim populum donare potentem,
Cur populus vester me vult sibi praefore, miror.

For his father earlier strove to introduce the Gauls,
and he too in Italy was the first to endeavor to give gifts to these.
Argyrus, poor though bold and well-born,
denied that he could dominate so great a people,
since he is able to furnish nothing of silver or of gold;
these profess that they love not gold, but the man himself,
to whom his father had been kindly. He himself hears the people praying;
in the nighttime he leads with him the foremost men of Bari, foremost in birth and in sense,
whom, when they had been led to the church of Saint Apollinaris,
he addresses thus: « Since I have no means of price
by which I might be able to gift a powerful people,
I marvel why your people wants me to preside over them.

Vos etenim novi diversis rebus egere;
Quas cum non dedero, me non dare posse dolebo ».
Illi respondent: « Nostrum te principe nullus
Pauper erit vel egens, duce te fortuna favebit,
Consiliique vias, duce quas genitore solebat
Pandere, te nobis effecto principe pandet ».
Hoc ubi dixerunt, sublimant protinus illum
Omnes unanimes. Communi fit prece princeps.
Interea magno Danaum comitante paratu,
Nequitia plenus venit Maniacus Idrontum,
Imperio Latium iussus Michaelis adire.

For I indeed know that you are in need of diverse things;
which, if I shall not have given, I shall grieve that I am not able to give them ».
They answer: « With you as prince, none of our people will be poor or needy,
with you as leader Fortune will favor, and the ways of counsel, which with your father as leader
used to be laid open, will be laid open to us, you having been made prince ».
When they had said this, they at once raise him on high,
all unanimous. By common prayer he is made prince.
Meanwhile, with a great preparation of the Danaans accompanying,
full of wickedness Maniacus comes to Hydruntum,
ordered by the imperial command of Michael to go to Latium.

Is praeter formam nil dignum laude gerebat.
Mente superbus erat, dira feritate redundans.
Classibus Idronti dimissis, agmen iniquum
Francis conpactas invadere commovet urbes,
Et Monopoleis primum diffunditur arvis.

He, apart from form, accomplished nothing worthy of praise.
Proud in mind, overflowing with dire ferocity.
With fleets dispatched from Idrontum, the hostile column
he sets in motion to invade the cities bound by compact to the Franks,
and first he spreads into the fields of Monopoli.

Interimit multos Maniacus, et arbore quosdam
Suspensos, alios truncato vertice mactat.
Caedis inauditum genus exercere tirannus
Audet in infantes, viventis adhuc quia capti
Corpus humo sepelit pueri, caput eminet extra.
Sic perimit multos, et nulli parcere curat.

Maniacus slays many, and certain men, suspended from a tree,
he kills; others he sacrifices with the crown cut off.
The tyrant dares to exercise an unheard-of kind of slaughter
upon infants, for the body of a captured boy, still living,
he buries in the earth, the head stands out outside.
Thus he destroys many, and cares to spare no one.

Post haec Matheram, qua fixa fuisse feruntur
Poeni castra ducis, cum subderet Annibal Afris
Italiam, Maniacus adit; campisque ducentos
Agricolas captos furibunda mente trucidat.
Non puer aut vetulus, non monachus atque sacerdos
Impunitus erat; nulli miseratur iniquus.

After these things, to Matera, where the Punic leader’s camp is said to have been pitched,
when Hannibal was subjecting Italy to the Africans, Maniacus goes; and in the fields he slaughters two hundred
farmers taken captive with a frenzied mind.
Neither boy nor little old man, neither monk nor priest
was unpunished; the iniquitous man takes pity on no one.

Interea Michael, qui miserat hunc Maniacum,
Captus caecatur, caecatus ab arce fugatur.
Hoc fecere Zoe simul et Teodora sorores.

Meanwhile Michael, who had sent this Maniacus,
captured, is blinded; blinded, he is driven from the citadel.
This Zoe and Theodora, the sisters, did together.

Prima fuit patrui coniunx Michaelis adusque
Huius successum; cum qua quia noluit ipse
Partiri regnum, ratus hanc prohibente senatu
Exheredandam, privatur lumine captus.
Est Constantino sociata Zoe Monomacho.
Huic inimicus erat Maniacus, et hic Maniaco,
Alterius quoniam fuit alter abusus amica.

She was first the consort of his uncle Michael all the way up to this one’s succession;
with whom, because he himself was unwilling
to share the kingdom, thinking that she, the senate forbidding it,
ought to be disinherited, he is deprived of light, taken captive.
Zoe is joined to Constantine Monomachus.
To this man Maniaces was an enemy, and he to Maniaces,
since the one had abused the other’s mistress.

Zelotypo imperii Monomacho tradita sedes
Concussit mentem nimio terrore tiranni,
Et probrosa refert odiis agitatus et ira;

With the seat of the empire delivered to Monomachus, jealous for the empire,
The mind was shaken by the excessive terror of the tyrant,
And, driven by hatreds and wrath, he reports opprobrious things;

Omnibus et, secum quos duxerat, imperat Argis,
Principe se facto, iam nullus obediat illi.

He commands all, and those whom he had led with him, at Argos;
with himself made prince, now let no one obey him.

Assumens habitum sibi perfidus imperialem
Imperii sancti non nomen adire veretur.

Assuming to himself the imperial habit, the perfidious man
does not shrink to approach the name of the sacred empire.

Postquam suscepit solii Monomachus honorem,
Argiroo mandat studeat convertere Gallos,
Procuretque suis sociare fidelibus illos,

After Monomachus assumed the honor of the throne,
he orders Argyros to strive to convert the Gauls,
and to see to it that he associate them with his faithful.

Et promittit eis se praemia magna daturum.
Argirous, nolens sibi desit ut imperialis
Gratia, Normannos compescit ab obsidione

And he promises them that he will give great rewards.
Argirous, unwilling that imperial favor be lacking to himself,
restrains the Normans from the siege.

Trani, quod solum tunc agmina Graeca fovebat,
Confinesque locos desistit depopulari.
Nuncius interea qui venerat imperialis,

Trani, which alone then was favoring the Greek armies,
and he ceases to ravage the bordering places.
Meanwhile, the imperial messenger who had come,

Maxima dona ferens, capitur miser a Maniaco.
Diversas poenas adhibens et stercus equinum
Purgamento inmixto naribus, auribus, ori,

Bearing the greatest gifts, the wretch is seized by Maniaces.
Applying diverse punishments, and equine dung
mixed with offscourings to his nostrils, ears, and mouth,

Hunc facit affligi graviter, stabuloque necari.
Ipse videns auri tantum se pondus habere,
Extolli nimium cepit. Redit inde Tarentum,

He causes him to be grievously afflicted, and to be killed in a stable.
He himself, seeing that he had so great a weight of gold,
began to exalt himself excessively. From there he returns to Tarentum,

Atque auri multum, quo plus sibi concilientur,
Erogat Argolicis. Assumitur imperialis
Purpura; pes dexter decoratur pelle rubenti,
Qua solet imperii qui curam suscipit uti.
Inde venit multo vallatus milite Barum,
Argiroum sperans promissis fallere posse,
Ut collega suus fieret contra Monomachi
Imperium.

And much gold, so that they might be more won over to him,
he disburses to the Argives. The imperial
purple is assumed; the right foot is adorned with red leather,
which he who takes up the care of the Empire is wont to use.
Then he comes to Bari, walled about with many soldiers,
hoping that by promises he can deceive Argyrus,
so that he might become his colleague against Monomachus’s
Empire.

Gallos etiam sibi pacificare
Temptabat, quorum si posset habere iuvamen,
Caedere posse suis sperabat viribus hostem,
Et Constantino facili diadema labore
Ablatum retinere sibi. Quod sperat inane est.
Nam neque Normannos nec eorum vertere mentem
Principis evaluit, contemptus at inde recessit.

He was also attempting to pacify the Gauls for himself,
of whom, if he could have aid,
he hoped he could cut down the enemy by his own forces,
and, with easy labor, to retain for himself the diadem taken from Constantine.
What he hopes is vain.
For he did not prevail to turn either the Normans or the mind of their prince,
but, contemned, he withdrew from there.

Unde furore gravi plenus, quia spretus abibat,
Quatuor in partes diviso milite, mandat
Pergere praedatum. Circumcursantibus ipsis,
Est hominum, pecorum pars maxima ducta Tarentum.
A Constantino sub eodem tempore missis
Argirous multis auri argentique talentis
Normannos donans, sibi postulat auxiliari,
Auxiliis horum Maniacus ut occidat hostis
Imperii sancti; sic plurima promerituros
Hoste triumphato pro votis asserit illos.

Whence, full of grave fury, because he was departing spurned,
with the soldiery divided into four parts, he commands
to proceed to plunder. While they run around, the greatest part of men and of herds
was led to Tarentum.
By Constantine at the same time sending him, Argirous, with many talents
of gold and silver gifting the Normans, asks that they aid him,
that by these aids Maniacus, the enemy of the holy Empire, may be slain;
thus he asserts that, the enemy having been triumphed over, they will earn very many things
according to their vows.

Quam plures igitur Normannos non amor aeris,
Sed ducis Argiroi, Maniaco reddidit hostes.
Aversae comites etiam cum pluribus ultro
Advenere suis. Tancredi filius, horum
Maxima spes, aderat Guillermus ad arma paratus,
Hunc Drincanocto comitem comitante Radulfo,
Qui post Rannulfi discessum praefuit urbi.

Therefore a great many Normans were made enemies to Maniacus not by love of coin, but by the leader Argyrus.
The counts of Aversa too came of their own accord with many of their men.
The son of Tancred, William—the greatest hope of these—was present, ready for arms,
he accompanied by Count Ralph Drincanoctus,
who, after Ranulf’s departure, presided over the city.

Terrebat Danaos Guilermi nobile nomen;
Is quia fortis erat, est ferrea dictus habere
Brachia, nam validas vires animumque gerebat.
Huius Robertus frater fuit ille, ducatum
Qui post optinuit, Guiscardus ad omnia prudens.
Tantorum comitum comitatu fisus in hostem
Argirous properat.

He was terrifying the Danaans, the noble name of William;
he, because he was brave, was said to have iron arms,
for he bore mighty strength and spirit.
This was Robert, his brother, who afterward obtained the duchy—
Guiscard, prudent in all things.
Relying on the retinue of so many counts,
Argirous hastens against the enemy.

Taram Maniacus ad amnem
Venerat, his inibi metatus castra diebus.
At non audito tantae subsistere gentis
Praevalet adventu conclusus in urbe Tarenti.
Ad fluvium Galli veniunt; castrisque repertis
Graecorum vacuis, loca pontis adusque propinquant.

To the Tara river Maniacus had come,
in those days he had in that place measured out a camp.
But, with the advent of so great a people heard of,
he does not prevail to stand his ground, shut up in the city of Tarentum.
To the river the Gauls come; and, the camp found
empty of Greeks, they draw near all the way to the place of the bridge.

Hunc utrimque maris circumvolat unda, sed altis
Rupibus obiectis sic interciditur aequor,
Pontis ut auxilio transiri possit ad urbem;
Quaeque viatori via nunc brevis esse videtur,
Longa videretur giranti littoris oras;
Namque mari septum maiori parte Tarentum
Insula mox fieret, modicus nisi collis adesset.
Moenibus inclusos pugnae Guilermus Achivos
Provocat; at numquam dimissis moenibus illi
Conseruere manus: non fluminis impetus ulli
Plus est quam tanti ducis hostibus hasta timori.
Sic incantator studiosus pro capienda
Aspide, multimoda conatur ut abstrahat arte
Visceribus terrae, quibus abdita tuta moratur.

Around this on both sides the wave of the sea circles, but with high
cliffs thrown up, thus the level of the sea is cut off in between,
so that with the aid of a bridge it can be crossed to the city;
and the way which to the wayfarer now seems short,
would seem long to one circling the coasts of the shore;
for Tarentum, hedged by the sea in the greater part,
would soon become an island, did not a small hill be present.
William challenges to battle the Achaeans enclosed by walls;
but they, never letting the walls go, did not join hands:
no one’s fear of the river’s onrush is greater
than the enemies’ fear of the spear of so great a leader.
Thus a zealous enchanter, for the purpose of taking
an asp, tries with manifold art to draw it forth
from the bowels of the earth, where, hidden, it abides safe.

Auribus haec nequid grave sentiat, obstruit unam
Affixa cauda, defigitur altera terrae.
Dissimulant Danai Gallos audire cientes
Ad pugnam, positisque seris remorantur in urbe.
Ad bellum postquam procedere nolle Pelasgos
Galli conspiciunt, et moenibus in capiendis
Spem gravitas adimit, quia munitissimus urbis
Est situs, abscedunt.

Lest it perceive anything grievous of these with its ears, it blocks one,
fastened by the tail; the other is fixed to the earth.
The Danaans dissemble to hear the Gauls calling to battle, and, the bars set, they linger in the city.
After the Gauls perceive that the Pelasgians are unwilling to proceed to war, and gravity removes hope in the taking of the walls, because the site of the city is most fortified, they withdraw.

Post haec remoratus in urbe
Per tempus modicum repetit Maniacus Idruntum:
Rursus et Argirous nec non Teodorus, at iste
Milite cum multo, cum multis classibus ille,
Imperii iussu properare paratus in ipsum,
Hostilem quatiunt varia formidine mentem:
Et titubans animo, nunc huc, nunc fluctuat illuc.
Urbe metu tandem nimio prodire coactus,
Rupibus incisis iuxta maris alta locavit
Difficili sua castra loco, qua pervius ulli
Non aditus fieret, scopulis haerere carinas
Impositas gradibus faciens. Ut pacificato
Aequore transiret, quasdam, quas aequora credit
Perturbasse magas, cruciat, succendit et igni;
Necdum sedatis tranquillo tempore prorsus
Fluctibus aequoreis, naves petit et mare transit.

After these things, having delayed in the city
for a small time Maniacus revisits Hydruntum:
Again both Argyrus and also Theodore—yet the latter
with much soldiery, the former with many fleets—
ready, by the Empire’s command, to hasten against him,
shake his hostile mind with manifold fear:
and, wavering in spirit, now here, now he fluctuates there.
At last from the city, forced by excessive dread to go forth,
he placed his camp, rocks having been cut, near the sea’s high places,
in a difficult spot, where an approach might be passable to no one,
causing the keels, set upon steps, to cling to the crags.
That he might cross with the sea pacified, certain women—
witches—whom he believes to have disturbed the waters, he tortures
and also sets to the fire; and not yet with the sea-waves
thoroughly calmed in a tranquil time, he seeks the ships and crosses the sea.

Transitus ille tamen misero nil profuit illi:
Occurrente quidem Monomachi milite stratus
Occidit, et scelerum persolvit corpore poenas.

That passage, nevertheless, profited the wretch nothing:
indeed, laid low by the soldiery of Monomachus as they met him,
he perished, and paid in full, with his body, the penalties of his crimes.

Explicit liber primus

Here ends Book One.

INCIPIT SECUNDUS

HERE BEGINS THE SECOND

Argirous, Latii dimoto finibus hoste,
Vadit Idrontinam multis comitatus ad urbem.
Traditur urbs illi, cives hoc principe gaudent.
Hinc Barum repetens Gallos permittit abire.

Argirous, with the enemy removed from the borders of Latium,
goes to the Idrontine city accompanied by many.
The city is handed over to him; the citizens rejoice in this prince.
Thence, returning to Bari, he permits the Gauls to depart.

Illi Gaimario vadunt servire Salernum.
Gaimarius princeps confisus viribus horum,
Hos secum Barum deducit et obsidet illud.
Imperat Argiroo sibi pareat, urbe relicta
Transeat ad Graecos.

They go to serve Gaimarius at Salerno.
Prince Gaimarius, trusting in the forces of these men,
leads them with him to Bari and besieges it.
He orders Argyrus to obey him, and, the city left behind,
to pass over to the Greeks.

Monitis parere monentis
Abnuit Argirous: confligere non tamen audens
Invalidus pugnae se custodivit in urbe.
Depopulans agros et amoena novalia Bari,
Moenia Gaimarius propriae repedavit ad urbis.
Constantinus, eo qui tempore iura regebat
Imperii, mandat, properet quantocius ad se
Argirous.

To obey the monitions of the admonisher
Argirous refused: not, however, daring to engage in conflict,
invalid for battle, he kept himself in safeguard within the city.
Devastating the fields and the pleasant fallow-lands of Bari,
Gaimarius stepped back to the walls of his own city.
Constantine, who at that time was administering the laws
of the Empire, orders that Argirous hasten to him as quickly as possible.
Argirous.

Iussis favet imperialibus ille.
Aequoris Adriaci transvectus fluctibus, urbem
Appetit imperii. Placidus, qui praesidet urbi,
Suscipit egressum, magnis et honoribus illum
Promovet.

He favors the imperial commands.
Borne across by the waves of the Adriatic sea, he makes for the imperial city.
Placidus, who presides over the city,
receives him as he disembarks, and with great honors
promotes him.

Interea populus quem rexerat ipse,
Pars comiti Petro, pars est sociata Drogoni
Tancredi genito: modico quia vixerat eius
Tempore germanus, vir ferrea dictus habere
Brachia Guilermus, cui vivere si licuisset,
Nemo poeta suas posset depromere laudes,
Tanta fuit probitas animi, tam vivida virtus.
Umfredum totus cum fratre Drogone tremebat
Italiae populus, quamvis tunc temporis esset
Ditior his Petrus consanguinitate propinquus.
Edidit hic Andrum, fabricavit et inde Coretum,
Buxilias, Barolum maris aedificavit in oris.

Meanwhile the people whom he himself had ruled,
part attached themselves to Count Peter, part were allied to Drogo,
begotten of Tancred: because his brother,
the man William said to have iron arms, had lived but a short time
in his day; if he had been allowed to live,
no poet could draw forth his praises,
so great was the probity of his spirit, so vivid the virtue.
The whole people of Italy trembled at Humphrey together with his brother Drogo,
although at that time Peter, a kinsman by consanguinity,
was richer than these. This man founded Andria, and thereafter built Corato,
Bisceglie, and he constructed Barletta on the shores of the sea.

Fama super comites alios excreverat huius.
Sed comes Unfredus cum fratre Drogone superbam
Deponunt mentem, quia dum certamen inire
His parat, infelix felicia tempora perdens
Vincitur et capitur. Curru fortuna rotato
Tancredi natos sublimes reddere coepit.

The fame of this man had grown above the other counts.
But Count Unfredus, with his brother Drogo, put down their proud mind,
because, while he prepares to enter a contest with these men,
the unlucky one, losing his felicitous times, is conquered and captured.
With Fortune’s chariot turned, she began to make Tancred’s sons exalted.

Imperii rector scrutatur praememoratus
Argiroum, Gallos depellere qualiter oris
Italiae valeat, neque vi iam posse fugari
Comperit. Ergo alios molitur adire paratus
Consilii, quia quos fortes ad arma, nec armis
Vincendos novit, promissis fallere sperat.
Audit enim quia gens semper Normannica prona
Est ad avaritiam; plus, qui plus praebet, amatur.

The rector of the empire, the aforementioned, scrutinizes Argyrus, how he may be able to drive the Gauls from the shores of Italy, and discovers that they can no longer be put to flight by force.
Therefore, prepared to resort to other counsel, he contrives to approach it, because those whom he knows to be strong for arms, nor to be conquered by arms, he hopes to beguile with promises.
For he hears that the Norman nation is always prone to avarice; he who proffers more is loved more.

Traditur Argiroo portanda pecunia multa,
Argenti multum pretiosaque vestis et aurum,
Ut sic Normanni fallantur, et egredientes
Finibus Hesperiae, propere mare transgrediantur,
Magna sub imperii famulamine promerituIi.
Imperat hic etiam, quod si trandre negarent,
Haec aliis, illis quae danda fuere, darentur,
Opprimeret quorum gravis infestatio Gallos.
Paruit Argirous; loca transt ad Apula iussus;
Francorum comites vocat, et se magna daturum
Munera promittit, si transgrediantur ad Argos,
Dimisso Latio, grave qui certamen habebant
Cum Persis, et eos inrans promittit ab illo
Qui regit impenum gratater suscipiendos,
Et magnis opibus ditandos affore spondit.

Much money is delivered to Argyrus to be carried,
much silver and precious garment and gold,
so that thus the Normans might be deceived, and, going out
from the borders of Hesperia, they might quickly cross the sea,
about to earn great recompense under the empire’s service.
He also commands this: that if they should refuse to cross,
these things be given to others—the things which were to be given to them—
whose heavy infestation would oppress the Gauls.
Argyrus obeyed; ordered, he crossed over to the Apulian places;
he calls the counts of the Franks, and promises that he will give great
gifts, if they cross over to Argos,
Latium having been left behind, who were having a grave contest
with the Persians, and he promises that they, upon entering, will be
received gladly by him who rules the empire,
and he pledged that they would be enriched with great resources.

Callida Graecorum promissio calliditatem
Non latuit gentis Latium superare volentis,
Et dimissuros loca se non Apula dicunt
Dum conquirantur, nisi forte potentior illis
Turba superveniens depellat et opprimat illos.
Vir Leo mirificus hac tempestate regebat
Romanam sedem. Tanti gens Appula papae
Audit ut adventum, varias deferre querelas
Coepit, et accusat diverso crimine Gallos,
Veris commiscens fallacia Nuntia mittit
Argirous papae, precibusque frequentibus illum
Obsecrat Italiam quod libertate carentem
Liberet, ac populum discedere cogat iniquum,
Cuius pressa iugo pessumdatur Apula tellus.

The crafty promise of the Greeks did not escape the craft
of the nation wishing to overcome Latium,
and they say they will not abandon the Apulian places
while negotiations are being pursued, unless perhaps a crowd
stronger than they, arriving, should drive them off and crush them.
A wondrous man, Leo, at this season was ruling
the Roman See. When the Apulian people hear of the coming
of so great a pope, they began to bring various complaints,
and accuse the Gauls with diverse crime,
mixing deceits with truths. Argirous sends
messages to the pope, and with frequent prayers he beseeches him
to free Italy, because it lacks liberty,
and to compel the iniquitous people to depart,
under whose yoke the Apulian land, pressed down, is being ruined.

Hoc Normannorum Drogo Guaimariusque priores
Tempore defuncti fuerant, a civibus alter
Et consanguineis occisus fraude Salerni,
Alter ab indigenis, nimium quia credulus illis,
Montilari caesus. Se gens rectore carentem
Gallica conqueritur. Papae tamen obvia verlit
Cum quantis equitum valuit peditumque catervis.

By this time the earlier leaders of the Normans, Drogo and Guaimarius, had died,
the one slain at Salerno by the treachery of his fellow citizens and kinsmen,
the other by the natives, because too credulous of them,
cut down at Montilari. The Gallic people complains that it is lacking a rector;
nevertheless it went to meet the pope with as many bands of horsemen and foot-soldiers as it could muster.

Advenisse quidem Latii cum milite multo
Audierant papam, comitantibus hunc Alemannis
Innumeris et Teutonicis, ad bella paratum.
Nonnanni licet insignes fulgentibus armis,
Agminibus tantis visis obstare timentes,
Legatos mittunt, qui pacis foedera poscant,
Quique rogent papam, placidus famulamen eorum
Suscipiat: sese papae parere paratos
Omnes testantur, non hunc offendere velle,
At quaesitorum cognoscere munus ab ipso:
Si placet, hunc dominum poscunt sibi seque fideles.
Teutonici, quia caesaries et forma decoros
Fecerat egregie proceri corporis illos,
Corpora derident Normanica, quae breviora
Esse videbantur, nec eorum nuntia curant,
Utpote nec numero populi nec viribus aequi.

They had indeed heard that the pope had arrived in Latium with much soldiery,
accompanied by countless Alemanni and Teutonics, prepared for wars.
The Normans, although distinguished with gleaming arms,
fearing to oppose such great battalions when they were seen,
send envoys to ask for treaties of peace,
and to request that the pope, being placid, accept their service;
they all attest that they are ready to obey the pope, not wishing to offend him,
and to learn from him the charge that is being required;
if it pleases, they ask to have him as their lord and themselves as faithful.
The Teutonics, because hair and comeliness of form had made them handsome,
men of remarkably tall stature,
mock the Norman bodies, which seemed shorter,
and they do not care about their messages,
inasmuch as they are equal neither in the number of people nor in strengths.

Conveniunt papam verbis animoque superbi:
« Praecipe Normannis Italas dimittere terras
Abiectis armis, patriosque revisere fines.
Quod si noluerint, nec foedera pacis ab ipsis
Suscipias volumus, nec eorum nuntia cures.
Nondum sunt gladios experti Teutonicorum.

They meet the pope, proud in words and in mind:
«Order the Normans to leave the Italian lands,
their weapons cast aside, and to revisit their native bounds.
But if they will not, we wish that you accept neither treaties of peace from them
nor care for their messages.
They have not yet experienced the swords of the Teutons.

Intereant gladiis, aut compellantur abire,
Invitique solum, quod nolunt sponte, relinquant ».
Papa licet tumidis varia ratione renitens,
Non animos gentis potuit sedare superbae.
Spem dabat his Italae fex indignissima gentis,
Gens Marchana, probis digne reprobata Latinis:
Cum plures Itali magna virtute redundent,
His erat irmatus pavor et fuga luxuriesque.
Teutonici populi non copia magna videtur.

Let them perish by the sword, or be compelled to depart,
and, unwilling, let them leave the soil which they refuse to leave of their own accord ».
Although the Pope, resisting the puffed-up in various ways,
could not calm the spirits of the proud nation.
The most unworthy dregs of the Italian people gave them hope,
the Marchan tribe, deservedly reprobated by upright Latins:
Although many Italians overflow with great virtue,
for these, fear and flight and luxury were their armament.
The multitude of the Teutonic people does not seem great.

Turbati redeunt Normanni pace negata,
Atque Alemannorum responsa tumentia pandunt.
Tempus erat iam triticeis confine metendis
Frugibus; at virides nondum legere maniplos
Agricolae, quos Francigenae, quia pane carebant,
Igni torrebant, et vescebantur adustis.
Talem degebant ob castra rebellia vitam
Undique Teutonicis famulantia, nec sibi quidquam
Dantia corporeae vitae quod postulat usus.

Disturbed, the Normans return, peace having been denied,
and they disclose the swelling responses of the Alemanni (Germans).
It was now the season bordering upon the wheat-crops to be reaped;
but the farmers did not yet gather the green sheaves,
which the Frank-born, because they lacked bread,
were roasting by fire, and they fed on the scorched.
Such a life they passed because of the rebellious camps,
everywhere subserving the Teutonics, and giving to them nothing
of what the use of corporeal life demands.

Frater defuncto qui fratre Drogone supestes
Estitit Unfredus procerum de Francigenarum
Unus habebatur maioribus, inde Richardus
Aversa paulo ante comes delectus in urbe.
Paulisperque suos fratres erat ante secutus
Robertus, qui magnanima virtute priores
Transcendit fratres: hic bello interfuit illi
Cognomen Guiscardus erat, quia calliditatis
Non Cicero tantae fuit aut versutus Ulixes.
Inter eos aderant Petrus et Galterus Amici
Insignis soboles, simul Aureolanus, Ubertus
Muscaque Rainaldus, comes Hugo, comesque Girardus;
Hic Beneventanis praelatus, at hi Thelesinis.

Humphrey, the brother surviving his deceased brother Drogo,
stood forth, and was held among the nobles of the French-born
as one of the greater; next Richard,
chosen a little before as count in the city of Aversa.
And for a short while Robert had previously followed his brothers,
who by great-souled virtue surpassed his elder
brothers: he took part in that war;
his cognomen was Guiscard, because in callidity
neither Cicero was of so great a measure nor wily Ulysses.
Among them were present Peter and Walter of the Amici,
a distinguished offspring; likewise Aureolanus, Hubert,
and Rainald Musca, Count Hugh, and Count Gerard;
this man was set over the Beneventans, but those over the Thelesini.

Hos Bovianensis comitis comitata Radulfi
Est virtus et consilio pollentis et armis.
Vix proceres istos equites ter mille sequuntur,
Et pauci pedites. Triduo quia panis egentes
Anna petunt, cuncti magis ut moriantur honeste
Bellando cupiunt, quam corpora tanta virorum
Opprimat esuries inhonestae funere mortis.

The valor of Count Radulf of Bovino, powerful in counsel and in arms, accompanies these;
scarcely do three thousand knights follow those nobles,
and a few foot-soldiers. Since, lacking bread for three days,
they seek provisions, all desire rather to die honorably
by fighting than that hunger should oppress so many bodies of men
with the funeral of dishonorable death.

Gens Alemannorum stipata satellite multo,
Longobardorum frustra confisa fugacis
Auxilio turbae, Normannos terga daturos
Credebat primis conflictibus aut perimendos.
At non in numero, nec equis, nec gente, nec armis,
Sed cui de coelo datur, est victoria belli.
Inter Teutonicos Normannorumque catervas
Collis erat medius.

The nation of the Alemanni, thronged with many attendants,
trusting in vain in the aid of the flight-prone crowd of Longobards,
believed that the Normans would give their backs in the first encounters or be slain.
But not in numbers, nor in horses, nor in race, nor in arms,
but to whom it is given from heaven, is the victory of war.
Between the Teutons and the bands of the Normans
there was a hill in the middle.

Gens innumerabilis illis
Appula, Balbensis, Campanica, Marsa, Thetensis,
Venerat auxilio. Guarnerus Teutonicorum
Albertusque duces non adduxere Suevos
Plus septingentos. Haec gens animosa feroces
Fert animos, sed equos adeo non ducere cauta.

An innumerable people to them
Apulian, Balbensian, Campanian, Marsian, Theatine,
had come for aid. Guarnerus of the Teutonics
and Albert, their leaders, did not bring Swabians
more than 700. This high-spirited folk bears fierce
souls, but is so cautious as not to bring horses at all.

Ictibus illorum, quam lancea, plus valet ensis
Nam nec equus docte manibus giratur eorum,
Nec validos ictus dat lancea, praeminet ensis.
Sunt etenim longi specialiter et peracuti
Illorum gladii; percussum a vertice corpus
Scindere saepe solent, et firmo stant pede, postquam
Deponuntur equis. Potius certando perire,
Quam dare terga volunt.

In their blows, the sword is worth more than the lance
For neither is the horse skillfully turned by their hands,
Nor does the lance deliver strong blows; the sword prevails.
For indeed particularly long and very sharp are
their swords; the body struck from the crown
they are often wont to cleave, and they stand with firm foot, after
they are dismounted from their horses. Rather to perish by fighting,
than to turn their backs they wish.

magis hoc sunt marte timendi,
Quam dum sunt equites: tanta est audacia gentis.
Italiae populo, qui se sociaverat illis,
Germani comites praesunt Trasmundus et Atto,
Et Burrellina generosa propagine proles.
Hi simul ad bellum properant, Campique Marini
Accola Malfredus, Molinensisque Rodulfi
Rofredus socer — huius castrum Gardia nomen —
Et plures alii, quorum non nomina novi.

more in this way are they to be feared in war,
Than while they are horsemen: so great is the audacity of the people.
Over the people of Italy, who had allied themselves with them,
the German counts Trasmundus and Atto preside,
and the progeny of Burrellina, of noble lineage.
These together hasten to war, and the inhabitant of the Camp of Marinus,
Malfredus, and Rofredus, father-in-law of Rodulfus of Molinensis
— the name of his castle is Gardia —
and many others, whose names I do not know.

Huc quoque Romani, Samnites et Capuani
Auxilium mittunt, nec opes Ancona negavit.
Huc Spoletini, simul accessere Sabini,
Huc quoque Firmani: non evalet enumerari
Carminibus nostris quam multus venerit hostis,
Francigenae gentis nomen delere laborans.
Hi cum Teutonicis ad ripam fluminis omnes
Nomine Fertorii tentoria fixca locarant.

Hither also the Romans, the Samnites, and the Capuans
send aid, nor did Ancona deny her resources.
Hither the Spoletans, and at the same time the Sabines, drew near,
hither also the Firmani: it cannot be enumerated
by our songs how numerous an enemy came,
laboring to delete the name of the Frank-born race.
These, together with the Teutonics, all to the bank of the river
by the name of Fertor, were placing their fixed tents.

Proxima nomen habens erat urbs a civibus ipsis.

The nearest city had its name from the citizens themselves.

Postquam Normanni pacisque fugaeque negatam
Spem sibi cognoscunt, nil quo fugiatur habentes,
Collem conscendunt, ut castra hostilia spectent.
Spectatis castris armantur, et agmine dextro
Aversauorum comitem statuere Ricardum,
Qui Longobardos adeat. Prior hunc comitatur
Clara cohors equitum, mediaeque cohortis agendae
Unfredus contra fortes ad bella Suevos
Eligitur ductor.

After the Normans recognize that the hope of peace and of flight is denied to them,
having nothing by which escape might be effected,
they climb a hill, to look upon the hostile camp.
With the camp surveyed, they arm themselves, and over the right column
they appointed Richard, Count of the Aversans,
to approach the Lombards. First, a famous cohort of horse accompanies him,
and for the leading of the middle cohort
Unfredus is chosen as commander against the brave Suevi for battle.

Cornu servare sinistram
Robertus frater Calabra cum gente iubetur,
Ut succurrendum cum viderit esse, paratus
Ausilio properet sociis, viresque reformet.
Teutonici dextrum contra duo cormia cornu
Armarant. Itali simul omnes conglomerati,
Parte alia stabant: etenim certamine belli
Non aptare suas acies recto ordine norant.

Robert the brother is ordered to keep the left wing
with the Calabrian people, so that, when he shall see there is need
to succor, being ready he may hasten with aid to his allies,
and restore their strength. The Teutonics had armed the right wing
in two horns. The Italians, all at once conglomerated,
were standing on the other side: for in the contest of war
they did not know how to fit their battle-lines in straight order.

Hos contra coepit prior arma movere Ricardus,
Et petit audacter. Non sustinuere petentem
Viribus aversis Itali; tremor arripit omnes,
Inque fugam versi per plana, per ardua, cursim
Diffugiunt; multos cogit subcombere stratos
Impetus ipse fugae; iaculis caeduntur et ense.
Qualiter aerias; ubi convenere, palumbes,
Dum petit accipiter, fugitivo summa volatu
Et scopulosa facit celsi iuga quaerere montis;
Quas tamen ipse capit, non possunt amplius ullum
Quaerere confugium: sic dantes terga Ricardus.

Against these Richard was the first to begin to move arms,
and he presses on audaciously. The Italians did not withstand the assailant,
their forces turned away; a tremor seizes all,
and, turned to flight, over the flats, over the steeps, at a run
they scatter; the very impetus of the rout compels many, strewn on the ground,
to be crushed beneath; they are hewn down with javelins and with sword.
Just as the wood-pigeons, when they have gathered, in the airy heights,
while the hawk seeks them, with fugitive highest flight
they make for the rocky ridges of the lofty mountain to seek them;
which, however, he himself seizes, they can no longer seek any
refuge at all: thus, as they turn their backs, Richard captures them.

Diffugiunt Itali, sed quos capit ipse, vel ipsi
Haerentes socii, fuga nil iuvat. Occidit illuc
Plurima gens Latii bello, pars maxima fugit.
Unfredi contra non segnis ad arma Suevi
Bella parant aciem; telis prior eminus illos
Appetit Unfredus, telis hostilibus ipse
Rursus et appetitur; tandem concurrit uterque
Ad gladios populus, mirabilis ictus utrimque
Fit gladiis; illic humanum a vertice corpus
Vidisses et equos hominis cum corpore caesos.

The Italians scatter in all directions, but those whom he himself seizes, or whose allies cling to them, flight helps not at all. There a very great tribe of Latium perishes in war, the greatest part flees.
Against Unfredus the Suevi (Swabians), not sluggish for arms, prepare the battle line; Unfredus first assails them from a distance with missiles, and he himself in turn is assailed with hostile missiles; at length both peoples run together to swords, a wondrous stroke on both sides is dealt by the blades; there you might have seen a human body from the crown downward, and horses cut down together with the man’s body.

Postquam Robertus fratri tam conspicit hostes
Acriter instantes, et ei nullatenus ullo
Cedere velle modo, comitis comitante Girardi
Praeditus auxilio, Calabrisque sequentibus illum,
Quos conducendi fuerat sibi tradita cura,
Irruit audacter medios animosus in hostes.
Cuspide perforat hos, gladio detruncat et illos;
Et validis manibus horrendos incutit ictus;
Pugnat utraque manu, nec lancea cassa, nec ensis
Cassus erat, quocumque manum deducere vellet.
Ter deiectus equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis,
Maior in arma redit; stimulos furor ipse ministrat.

After Robert sees that the enemies are pressing so keenly upon his brother,
and that they are in no way willing to yield to him by any means, with Count Girard accompanying,
furnished with his aid, and with the Calabrians following him,
for whose hiring the charge had been entrusted to him,
he rushes boldly, spirited, into the midst of the enemies.
With the spear-point he perforates these, and with the sword he hews down those;
and with strong hands he inflicts dreadful strokes;
he fights with both hands, and neither the lance was vain, nor the sword
ineffectual, wherever he wished to bring down his hand.
Thrice thrown from his horse, thrice, his strength having been resumed,
he returns greater to arms; fury itself supplies the spurs.

Ut leo, cum frendens animalia forte minora
Acriter invadit, si quid reperire quod obstet
Coeperit, insanit, magis et maioribus ira
Accensa stimulat; nil iam dimittit inultum;
Hoc trahit, hoc mandit, quod mandi posse negatur
Dissipat, affligens pecus exitialiter omne:
Taliter obstantes diversa caede Suevos
Caedere non cessat Robertus; et hos pede truncat,
Et manibus quosdam; caput huic cum corpore caedit;
Illius ventrem cum pectore dissecat, huius
Transadigit costas absciso vertice; magna
Corpora corporibus truncata non affore tantum
Corporibus magnis, qua saepe minora redundant.
Nullus in hoc bella, sicut post bella probatum est,
Victor vel victus tam magnos edidit ictus.
Patrata rediens ingenti caede Ricardus
Ausoniae gentis, cuius pars altera fugit,
Altera pars gladiis et cuspide caesa remansit,
Dum sic Teutonicos sociis obstare videret,
Proh dolor » exclamat, « quam credebamus adesse
Finito bello, nondum victoria finem
Obtinet!

As a lion, when, gnashing, he fiercely invades lesser animals,
if he begins to find anything that stands in the way,
he goes mad, and anger, inflamed more and by greater things,
goads him; now he leaves nothing unavenged;
this one he drags, this one he chews; that which is said not to be able to be chewed
he scatters, laying low the whole herd fatally:
so Robert does not cease to cut down the Suevi who resist, with diverse slaughter;
these he truncates with his foot, and some with his hands; this one he smites the head together with the body;
that one’s belly with the breast he dissevers; this one’s ribs he transfixes, the crown lopped off; great
bodies, bodies truncated from bodies, would be found not only among great bodies,
where smaller ones often abound.
No one in this war, as after the war it was proved,
victor or vanquished, delivered blows so great.
Richard, returning after a huge slaughter,
a man of the Ausonian race, of whom one part fled,
the other part remained cut down by swords and spear-point,
while he saw the Teutons thus blocking their allies,
“Alas, grief,” he exclaims, “the end which we believed to be at hand,
with the war finished, victory does not yet obtain an end!”

»; et medios ruit incunctanter in hostes.
Hi, quia spes iam nulla fugae, spes nulla salutis,
Acnus obsistunt; sed nil obsistere prodest,
Tot circumveniunt. Acies praeclara Ricardi
Addita victoris, magnae fit causa ruinae
Hostibus, et miseri diversis interimuntur
Caedibus, et tanta superest de gente nec unus.

»; and he rushes unhesitatingly into the midst among the enemies.
They, because now there is no hope of flight, no hope of salvation,
and now they stand against; but to stand against profits nothing,
so many hem them in. The renowned battle-line of Richard,
added to that of the victor, becomes the cause of great ruin
for the enemies, and the wretched are slain by diverse slaughters,
and of so great a people not even one remains.

Exitus hic belli papam moeroribus implet,
Afflictusque grari luctu confugit ad urbem.
Sed cives papam non excepere decenter,
Normanis veriti grave ne victoribus esset.
Hunc genibus flexis Normannica gens veneratur
Deposcens veniam.

This outcome of the war fills the pope with sorrows,
and, afflicted with grave grief, he flees for refuge to the city.
But the citizens did not receive the pope decently,
fearing lest it would be grievous to the Norman victors.
Him, with knees bent, the Norman nation venerates
demanding pardon.

Curvatos papa benigne
Suscipit, oscula dant pedibus communiter omnes.
Vocibus ille piis hos admonet ac benedicit,
Conquestusque nimis, quia pacis spreta fuere
Nuncia, defunctis lacrimans pro fratribus orat.

The pope kindly receives the bowed,
they all in common give kisses to his feet.
With pious words he admonishes these and blesses them,
and complaining exceedingly, because the messages of peace were spurned,
weeping, he prays for the departed brethren.

Audito tantae successu prosperitatis
Normannis habitae, non sollicitudine parva
Angitur Argirous; nec enim, vel fraude, vel armis
Posse sibi peragi videt imperalia iussa,
Ut Francos Latio moneat vel cogat abire.
Copia tanta quidem, quibus hi non marte repugnent,
Nec erat Argiroo, nec eos promissa movere
Ut fines alios peterent, vel dona valebant.
Hoc meditans Bari dimissa transfretat urbe.

Having heard of the success of such great prosperity
enjoyed by the Normans, with no small solicitude
Argyrus is anguished; for he sees that neither by fraud nor by arms
the imperial commands can be carried through for him,
to warn or to compel the Franks to depart from Latium.
So great indeed was their force, against which these men would not contend by battle,
nor did Argyrus have it, nor could promises move them
to seek other borders, nor did gifts avail.
Pondering this, with Bari left, he crosses the strait.

Ad dominum rediit, populi responsa ferocis
Ordine cuncta refert et belli gesta recentis
Contra Teutonicos. Iam Constantinus amare
Desinit Argiroum, nec, ut ante solebat haberi,
Est iam consilii comes intimus imperialis.
Exilium passus, longo post tempore vitam
Degit in aerumnis, et corporis anxietate
Vesatus misere vitam finisse refertur.

He returned to the lord, reports in order all the replies of the fierce people
and the deeds of the recent war against the Teutons.
Now Constantine ceases to love Argirous, nor, as he used before to be regarded,
is he now the most intimate companion of the imperial council.
Having suffered exile, after a long time he passes his life
in hardships, and, vexed by bodily affliction,
he is reported to have miserably finished his life.

Crescit Normannis animus victoribus ingens,
Iamque rebellis eis urbs Appula nulla remansit.
Omnes se dedunt aut vectigalia solvunt.
Tune comes Unfredus fraterni funeris ultor,
Funesto cunctos fuerant qui participati
Consilio punit; hos truncat, perfodit illos,
Multos suspendit; memorata morte Drogonis,
Parcere vult nulli; iacet alto pectore fixus
Fraternae mortis succensus fornite moeror,
Omnibus horrendus.

The spirit grows immense in the victorious Normans,
and now no Apulian city rebellious to them remained.
All surrender themselves or pay the tributes.
Then Count Humphrey, avenger of his brother’s funeral,
punishes all who had been participants
in the baleful counsel; these he hews down, those he pierces through,
many he hangs; with the death of Drogo remembered,
he wishes to spare no one; grief for a brother’s death, kindled with tinder,
lies fixed in his deep breast, dreadful to all.

Multas sibi subdidit urbes:
Solvere Troiam comiti coepere tributum;
Hunc et Barini, Tranenses et Venusini,

He subdued many cities to himself:
Troia began to pay tribute to the count;
him also the Barines, the Tranenses and the Venusini,

Cives Ydrunti famulantur et urbs Acernnti.
Roberto fratri Calabras adquirere terras
Concedit. Iuvenis patiens erat iste laboris,
Vir prudens et habens ad quaeque negotia promtas
Esercenda manus Robertus et ingeniosus,
Semper celsa petens, et laudis amans et honoris.

The citizens of Ydrunti render service, and the city Acernnti likewise.
He grants to his brother Robert to acquire the Calabrian lands.
This youth was patient of labor,
a prudent man, and Robert, having hands ready for exercising every business, and ingenious,
always seeking lofty things, and a lover of praise and of honor.

Si contingebat sibi palma vel arte vel armis,
Aeque ducebat, quia quod violentia saepe
Non explere potest, esplet versutia mentis.
Clarus in eloquto dabat hic responsa repente
Optima consultus; si quis quaerebat ab illo
Consilium, sapienter ei dare noverat illud.
Hic sibi concesso Calabrorum munere gaudet.

If the palm befell him either by art or by arms,
he deemed it equal, since what violence often
cannot fulfill, the craftiness of the mind accomplishes.
Renowned in eloquence, he gave answers at once,
excellent when consulted; if anyone asked from him
counsel, he knew how to give it to him wisely.
Here he rejoices in the gift of the Calabrians granted to him.

Secum nonnullos equites collegerat ante,
Qua poterat, sed praecipue regionibus illis
Multiplicem praedam peragens, quas frater habebat.
Quodque capi poterat dum dividit omnibus aeque,
Omnes sunt cari sibi, carus et omnibus ipse.
Captus ab Unfredo secum prandente, volebat
In fratrem gladio consurgere, sed Gocelinus
Comprensum manibus tenuit; custodibus inde
Traditur, et multa non tempestate retentum
Dimisit frater, Calabrae regionis et urbes
Castraque concessit, equitum suffragia praebens.

He had gathered to himself some knights before,
as he could, but especially in those regions,
carrying out manifold plunder in the regions which his brother held.
And whatever could be taken he divides to all equally,
all are dear to him, and he himself dear to all.
Captured by Unfredus while lunching with him, he wanted
to rise against his brother with a sword, but Gocelinus
held him, seized in his hands; thence he is handed over
to guards, and, not retained for much time,
his brother released him, and granted the cities and camps
of the Calabrian region, providing the suffrages of the knights.

Ille capessundae cupidus telluris, amorem
Omnibus ostentat; non plus affabilis illo
Aut humilis quisquam studuit dominator haberi.
Undique gens clarum Normannica nomen habebat;
At non experti virtutem nominis huius,
Terrentur Calabri tanta feritate repleti
Ad ducis ingressum. Robertus milite fultus
Non modico, praedas; incendia iussit ubique
Terrarum fieri quas appetit et spoliari,
Quodque metum incutiat cultoribus omne patrari.

He, desirous of seizing land, displays love to all;
no ruler strove to be held more affable or more humble than he.
On every side the Norman race had an illustrious name;
but the Calabrians, not having experienced the virtue of this name,
are terrified, filled with such ferocity, at the duke’s entry.
Robert, supported by no small soldiery,
ordered plunder; burnings to be carried out everywhere
through the lands which he aims at, and that they be despoiled,
and that everything be done which might strike fear into the cultivators.

Militibus remorans dimissis fratris abire
Non multo Calabros, sed atroci milite vexat.
Qui cum discedens huc praedabundus et illuc
Non aliquod castrum posset captare vel urbem,
Arte locum quendam molitur adire; sed eius
Difficilis conscensus erat, quia plurimus huius
Accola, grex habitans etiam monasticus illic,
Non alienigenam quemvis intrare sinebant.
Utile figmentum versutus adinvenit, atque
Mandat defunctum quod quemlibet esse suorum
Gens sua testetur.

Delaying to depart with his brother’s dismissed soldiers,
he vexes the Calabrians not with many, but with a ferocious soldiery.
Who, departing plunder-bent here and there,
when he could not capture any fortress or city,
by art endeavors to approach a certain place; but its
ascent was difficult, because a very numerous
inhabitant-hood of that place, a flock even monastic dwelling there,
did not allow any alien-born person to enter.
He devises a useful figment, crafty, and
orders that his own gens testify that the defunct is any one of his men.

Qui cum, quasi mortuus, esset
Impositus feretro, pannusque obducere cera
Illitus hunc facie iussus latitante fuisset,
Ut Normannorum velare cadavera mos est,
Conduntur feretro sub tergo corporis enses;
Ad monasterii subhumandum limina corpus
Fertur, et ignaros fraudis quos fallere vivi
Non poterant homines, defuncti fictio fallit.
Dumque videretur simplex modus exequiarum,
Erigitur subito qui credebatur humandus;
Evaginatis comitantes ensibus illum
Invasere loci deceptos arte colonos.
Quid facerent stolidi?

Who, when, as if dead, had been placed on a bier, and a cloth smeared with wax had been ordered to cover him, his face concealed,
as it is the custom of the Normans to veil cadavers,
swords are hidden in the bier beneath the back of the body;
the body is borne to the thresholds of the monastery to be interred,
and the fiction of the defunct deceives the men ignorant of the fraud, whom, while alive, they had not been able to deceive.
And while the mode of the exequies seemed simple,
he who was believed about to be buried suddenly rises;
his companions, with swords drawn, attacked the colonists of the place, deceived by the stratagem.
What could the dull-witted do?

Nec se defendere possunt,
Quo fugiant nec habent; omnes capiuntur; et illic
Praesidium castri primum, Roberte, locasti.
Non monasterii tamen est eversio facta,
Non extirpatus grex est monasticus inde.
Agmina magna legens castro Robertus in illo,
Carior esse suis coepit, quia strenuus armis
Consilioque sagax.

Nor can they defend themselves,
nor have they whither to flee; all are captured; and there
you, Robert, first placed the garrison of the castle.
Yet the overthrow of the monastery was not effected,
nor was the monastic flock extirpated from there.
Robert, levying great bands in that castle,
began to be dearer to his own men, because he was strenuous in arms
and sagacious in counsel.

Comes hac regione vocatus
Est et ab his habitus praesertim quos comitati
Sunt equites aliquot: Torstenus dicitur unus,
Alter Arenga, valensque gerenda ad bella Rogerus.
His sibi concessae quaedam dedit oppida terrae.

The count, summoned to this region,
was also welcomed by them, especially by those who were accompanied
by several knights: one is called Torstenus,
another Arenga, and Roger, valiant for waging wars.
His sibi concessae quaedam dedit oppida terrae.

Appulus hoc princeps infirmans tempore mandat
Unfredus fratri, veniat velociter ad se.
Robertus properat; fratrem dum conspicit aegrum
Compatiens plorat. Solatia magna dat aegro
Adventus fratris, deposcit et advenientem,
Rector terrarum sit eo moriente suarum,
Et geniti tutor puerilis, quem vetat aetas
Rectorem fieri. Frater favet anxius illi,
Et se facturum quae praecipit omnia dicit.

The Apulian prince, Unfredus, being infirm at this time, sends word
to his brother to come swiftly to him.
Robert hastens; while he beholds his ailing brother,
compassionate, he weeps. Great consolations the advent of the brother gives to the sick man,
and he requests the one who has arrived
to be the ruler of his lands as he is dying,
and the tutor of his begotten son, a boy, whom age forbids
to become ruler. The brother, anxious, favors him,
and says that he will do all the things he enjoins.

Non infirma valens iam reddere membra saluti
Interit Unfridus. Lacrimans Apulia tota
Flet patiis interitum; patriae pater ille benignus
Hanc placide rexit; vitam decoravit honestas.
Non studuit populum vexare tirannide dira;
Iusticiamque colens, quam laedere, parcere multis
Maluit offensis.

No longer strong enough now to restore his limbs to health Unfridus perishes. All Apulia, weeping, laments his demise in her native lands; that kindly father of the fatherland ruled her gently; honor adorned his life.
He did not strive to vex the people with dire tyranny; and, cultivating justice, he preferred to spare many offenses rather than to inflict injury.

Fratres prope praememoratos
Est monasterii Venusini sede sepultus.

Near the afore-mentioned brothers,
he was buried at the seat of the monastery of Venosa.

Funeris obsequiis Robertus rite peractis
Ad Calabros rediit. Cariati protinus urbem
Obsidet, hac capta reliquas ut terreat urbes.
Interea papae Nicholai forte secundi
Comperit adventum; dimittitur obsidione
Plurima pars equitum, comitatur pars minor illum.

With the obsequies of the funeral duly performed, Robert returned to the Calabrians.
He at once besieges the city of Cariati, this taken so that he might terrify the remaining cities.
Meanwhile he learned by chance of the arrival of Pope Nicholas II.; from the siege the greater part of the horsemen is dismissed, the lesser part accompanies him.

Melfia suscipit hunc; et ibi susceptus honore
Magno papa fuit. Hic ecclesiastica propter
Ad partes illas tractanda negotia venit.
Namque sacerdotes, levitae, clericus omnis
Hac regione palam se coniugio sociabant.

Melfi receives him; and there, received with great honor,
was the pope. Here, on account of ecclesiastical
business to be handled, he came to those parts.
For priests, deacons, every cleric,
in this region were openly joining themselves to marriage.

Concilium celebrans ibi papa, faventibus illi
Praesulibus centum ius ad sinodale vocatis,
Ferre sacerdotes monet altarisque ministros
Arma pudicitiae; vocat hos, et praecipit esse
Aecclesiae sponsos, quia non est iure sacerdos
Luxuriae cultor. Sic extirpavit ab illis
Partibus uxores omnino presbiterorum,
Spretores minitans anathemate percutiendos.
Finita sinodo, multorum papa rogatu
Robertum donat Nicholaus honore ducali.

The pope, holding a council there, with a hundred prelates favoring him,
called by synodal right, urges priests and ministers of the altar
to bear the arms of pudicity; he calls these, and bids them be
spouses of the Church, for by law a priest is not a devotee of luxury.
Thus he extirpated from those parts altogether the wives of presbyters,
threatening that despisers would be smitten with anathema.
The synod finished, at the request of many,
Nicholas the pope bestows upon Robert the ducal honor.

Hic comitum solus concesso iure ducatus
Est papae factus iurando iure fidelis.
Unde sibi Calaber concessus et Appulus omnis
Est locus, et Latio patriae dominatio gentis.
Romam papa redit, cum magno dux equitatu
Obsessum repetit Cariatum, quo sibi fida
Maxima pars equitum dimissa remanserat ante.

Here, the only one of the counts, with the right of a duchy conceded,
was made faithful to the pope by an oath in law.
Whence to him the Calabrian and every Apulian place
was conceded, and in Latium the dominion of the country’s people.
The pope returns to Rome; with a great cavalry the duke
revisits the besieged Cariatum, where for him the faithful
greatest part of the horse, having been left, had previously remained.

Gens Cariatensis, duce perturbata reverso,
Non obstare valens, illi se dedit et urbem.
Prima ducem vocat hunc gens ista, ducemque salutat
Partibus in Calabris. Hinc ad loca caetera transit.

The Cariatensian people, perturbed with the duke returned,
not able to obstruct, surrendered themselves and the city to him.
This people is the first to call this man duke, and salutes him as duke
in the Calabrian parts. From here he transits to the other places.

Tunc Rossana potens, Cossentia fortis in armis,
Tunc quoque dives opum Geratia subditur illi,
Et subiecta illi fit pene Calabria tota.
Cumque potentatus coepisset crescere nomen
Virtutisque suae, legatos mittere coepit,

Then mighty Rossana, Cossentia strong in arms,
then also rich in wealth Geratia is subjected to him,
and almost all Calabria becomes subject to him.
And as the name of his power and of his virtue began to grow,
he began to send legates,

Qui sua deferrent generoso verba Gisulfo
Guaimarii genito, germanae nobile poscens
Coniugium, quia coniugio tunc ipse carebat,
Prima coniuge pro consanguinitate repulsa,
De qua natus erat Buamondus strenua proles,
Insignis nimia virtute potensque futurus.
Primo Roberti sprevit mandata Gisulfus,
Non quod maiori posset vel nobiliori
Consociare viro germanam, sed quia Galli
Esse videbantur gens effera, barbara, dira,
Mentis inhumanae, primaeque repulsio facta
Coniugis alterius producit tempora dandae.
Assentit tandem princeps, natuque priorem
Tradit in uxorem tibi, dux Roberte, sororem.

who would carry his words to the high-born Gisulf,
begotten of Guaimarius, requesting a noble
marriage with the sister, because he himself then lacked a wife,
his first consort rejected on account of consanguinity,
from whom Bohemond was born, a vigorous offspring,
distinguished by excessive virtue and destined to be powerful.
At first Gisulf scorned Robert’s mandates,
not because he could join his sister to a greater or more noble
man, but because the Gauls seemed a savage, barbarous, dire
people, of inhuman mind; and the repulse of the first consort
prolongs the time for giving another wife.
At length the prince assents, and, elder by birth,
he hands over to you, Duke Robert, the sister as wife.

Gattelcrima minor, haec Sichelgata vocatur.
Nubsit Iordani post Gaitelcrima nepoti,
Qui Capuae princeps utriusque ducisque patrisque
Virtutes animi virtutibus aequiparavit.
Coniugio ducto tam magnae nobilitatis,
Augeri coepit Roberti nobile nomen,
Et gens, quae quondam servire coacta solebat,
Obsequio solvit iam debita iuris aviti.

Gattelcrima the younger, this one is called Sichelgata.
She later married Jordan, grandson of Gaitelcrima,
who, prince of Capua, equaled, in the virtues of his spirit, the virtues of both duke and father.
With a marriage contracted of such great nobility,
the noble name of Robert began to be augmented,
and the people, who once used to be forced to serve,
now discharged, by obedience, the debts due to ancestral right.

Nam proavis et avis subiectam coniugis huius
Noverat Italiam gens Longobarda fuisse.
Edidit haec pueros sibi tres et quinque puellas,
Egregiam sobolem sexus utriusque futuram.
Gloria Roberti, quae tanta augmenta subire
Coeperat, invidiam, laus unde adhibenda fuisset,
Non modicam adquirit: quia dum virtutibus eius
Invidere viri comites a plebe vocati
Qui numero bis sex fuerant, communiter illum
Morti tradendum coniuravere dolose,
Tempus ad hoc aptum fieri cum forte viderent.

For the Lombard race had known Italy to have been subject to the forefathers and grandfathers of this spouse.
He had from her three boys and five girls, — a distinguished offspring of both sexes to be.
The glory of Robert, which had begun to undergo such augmentations,
gained no small envy—where commendation ought to have been applied—,
because, while men called counts by the plebe envied his virtues,
who had been twice six in number, they jointly conspired deceitfully
that he be delivered to death,
when by chance they perceived a time become apt for this.

Horum Gosfridus, Gocelinus et Abagelardus,
Filius Unfredi, sibi iura paterna reposcens,
Praecipui fuerant auctores consiliorum.
Dux igitur postquam sibi coniuratio nota
Facta fuit comitum, bellum molitur, in omnes
Acriter exarsit; capit hos, et proiicit illos,
Afflixit variis quorumdam corpora poenis.
Iratum metuens fugit Gocelinus ad Argos.

Of these, Gosfrid, Gocelin, and Abagelard,
the son of Unfred, claiming for himself paternal rights,
had been the principal authors of the counsels.
Therefore the duke, after the conspiracy of the counts
had become known to him, undertakes war; he blazed fiercely against all;
he seizes these, and casts out those,
he afflicted the bodies of certain men with various punishments.
Fearing him enraged, Gocelin fled to Argos.

Pelusii montis castrum pavefactus adire
Gosfridus properat; dux quod non evalet armis
Arte capit castrum; promissis decipit huius
Custodem castri Godefridum, dans sibi quaedam,
Pluraque pollicitus castrumque valentius illo.
Pelusii montis dominatio non Godefridi
Ex toto fuerat; mediam concesserat illi
Gosfridus partem. Sed dux quia nobilioris
Castelli totum promiserat huic dominatum,
Scilicet Oiani, solus cupiens dominari,
Mandat Roberto desistat ab obsidione,
Dissimulans reditum; sed mos ut norit abesse
Gosfridum, redeat, castrum securus et intret
Clavibus acceptis, Oianum conferat illi.

Terrified, Gosfrid hastens to approach the fortress of Mount Pelusius;
the duke, because he does not prevail by arms, takes the castle by stratagem;
with promises he deceives this castle’s custodian, Godefrid, giving him certain things,
and having promised more—and a castle stronger than that one.
The dominion of Mount Pelusius had not been entirely Godefrid’s;
Gosfrid had granted him the half part. But since the duke had promised to this man
the whole lordship of a nobler castle, namely Oianum, wishing to be sole lord,
he orders Robert to desist from the siege, dissembling a return; but with the plan that
he may know Gosfrid to be away, let him return, and, secure, enter the castle,
the keys having been received, and confer Oianum upon him.

Hac illi castrum Godefredus tradidit arte;
Accipit Oianum; sed quis post crederet illi?
Traditor est Latii populo vocitatus ab omni.
Sic ducis astuti prudentia, quod superare
Non armis potuit, superavit saepius arte.

By this stratagem Godefrid handed the castle over to him;
he receives Oianum; but who thereafter would trust him?
He was called a traitor by all the people of Latium.
Thus the prudence of the astute duke, what he could not overcome
by arms, he more often overcame by art.

Hostibus edomitis et captis undique castris,
Contra Barensem populum parat obsidionem.

With the enemies subdued and the castles captured on every side,
he prepares a siege against the people of Bari.

Appula nulla erat urbs, quam non opulentia Bari
Vinceret. Hanc opibus ditatam, robore plenam,
Obsidet, ut victis tantae primatibus urbis,
Nondum subiectas repleat terrore minores.
Urbibus illa quidem, quas continet Appula tellus,
Maior habebatur.

There was no Apulian city that the opulence of Bari did not surpass.
He besieges this one, enriched with resources, full of robustness,
so that, with the chief men of so great a city conquered,
he may fill the not-yet-subjected lesser ones with terror.
As for the cities which the Apulian land contains,
that one indeed was considered greater.

Dux munit milite castra,
Atque replet Calabris advectis navibus aequor.
Imperii sancti cives suffragia poscunt;
Qui coniurati fuerant cum civibus illuc
Legstos mittunt; simul imperiale iuvamen
Omnes deposcunt. Dux mandat civibus, aedes
Argiroi sibi dent, quas noverat editiores
Contiguis domibus; quas si conscendit adeptus,
Urbem Robertus totam sibi subdere sperat.

The duke fortifies the camp with soldiery,
and he fills the sea with ships conveyed from Calabria.
The citizens of the Holy Empire ask for support;
those who had conspired with the citizens there
send envoys; at the same time they all demand imperial aid.
The duke commands the citizens to give him the houses
of Argyrus, which he knew to be more elevated
than the neighboring houses; which, if he should obtain and ascend,
Robert hopes to subject the whole city to himself.

Barenses austera duci responsa dederunt.
Ille repugnantes obpugnat fortiter urbis
Indigenas validos, non ad certamina segnes;
Ad portarum aditus crates prudenter adorsus,
Sub quibus armatos obstantibus insidiantes
Ordinat, et turrim fabricat, quae lignea muris
Prominet; ac iuxta de quaque petraria parte
Ponitur, adiuncto muros quo evertere possit
Diversi generis tormento. Nec minus urbem
Cives defendunt; non intra moenia clausi,
Cum duce pugnantes astant pro moenibus urbis.

The Barensians gave austere responses to the duke.
He stoutly assails the resisters, the city’s strong natives, not sluggish for combats;
at the approaches of the gates, having prudently applied hurdle-screens,
under which he arranges armed men, lying in wait for those who stand in their way;
and he builds a tower, wooden, which projects above the walls;
and nearby, on every side, a petrary is set,
with engines of various kinds added, by which he might be able to overthrow the walls.
No less do the citizens defend the city; not shut within the walls,
they stand fighting with their leader before the city’s ramparts.

Hos pugnando fugant, prosternunt ictibus illos;
Ut mos est belli, fugat hostis et hoste fugatur,
Et petit et petitur, repetens ferit et referitur.
Ut duo cum certant productis dentibus apri,
Alter ab alterius perfunditur ore saliva
Dentes exacuens, ut acutos perferat ictus,
Ictibus et validis feriunt sua terga vicissim;
Nunc pede, nunc costis laeduntur; uterque resistit
Acriter, et neuter vult cedere, saucia donec
Membra fatigatum fusis clamoribus aprum
Velle subire fugam doceant, victusque recedat.
Acriter insistunt Normanni, nec minus acres
Obsistunt cives, diversaque machina muris
Additur, eversis ut moenibus urbis apertae
Normannis aditus pateat, quem clausa negabat

They drive these to flight by fighting, they lay those low with blows;
as is the custom of war, the foe puts to flight and is put to flight by a foe,
and he assails and is assailed, repeating he smites and is borne back.
As when two boars contend with teeth thrust forth,
the one is drenched by the other’s mouth with saliva,
sharpening his teeth, that he may deliver acute blows,
and with strong blows they strike each other’s backs in turn;
now by foot, now in the ribs they are wounded; each resists
keenly, and neither wills to yield, until the wounded
limbs, with cries poured forth, teach the wearied boar
to wish to undergo flight, and, conquered, he withdraws.
Keenly the Normans press on, and no less keen
the citizens oppose; and a diverse engine to the walls
is added, so that, the walls overturned, the city laid open,
an access may be patent to the Normans, which, closed, it had denied

Undique septa mari, quod non est insula, terrae
Exiguae diodus. Ex hac tentoria parte
Fixa ducis fuerant. Obiectis navibus aequor
Parte replens alia, naves prodire vetabat
Barinas, portumque suis pontemque paravit,
Atque super pontem posito munimine turris,
Urbanis nusquam prodire licebat ab urbe,
Tutaque servabat classis normannica portum.

A passage of scant earth, enclosed on every side by the sea, which is not an island.
On this side the leader’s tents had been fixed.
By setting ships in the way, filling the water on the other side, he forbade the Barians’ ships to put out,
and he prepared a harbor for his own men and a bridge,
and, upon the bridge, with the bulwark of a tower set in place,
it was nowhere permitted for the townspeople to go forth from the city,
and the Norman fleet kept the port secure.

At cives turrim capiunt, et maxima pontis
Aequorei cecidit pars, evertentibus illis.

But the citizens seize the tower, and the greatest part of the sea-bridge
fell, as they overturned it.

Urbem Barenses terraque marique tuentur.
Post, ubi Robertus desperat moenia Bari
Posse capi pugna, coepit promittere multa
Nobilibus patriae, quorum pollebat in urbe
Nobilitas potius, quorumque potentia maior.
Et sic allectis maioribus, alliciendos
Promissis credit fore muneribusque minores;
Saepe minas faciens, ut civibus incuteretur
Terror, omnimodis pro deditione laborat
Urbis, cuius erat capiendae magna libido.

The Barians defend the city by land and by sea.
Afterward, when Robert despairs that the walls of Bari
can be taken by combat, he began to promise many things
to the nobles of the fatherland, whose nobility prevailed more in the city,
and whose power was greater.
And thus, the greater men being enticed, he believes the lesser
will be to-be-allured by promises and by gifts;
often making threats, so that terror might be struck into the citizens,
he labors in every way for the surrender
of the city, for the capture of which he had a great libido (desire).

Venturum auxilio Gocelinum fama ferebat
Multis imperii cum navibus. Ad capiendum
Esploratores posuit dux callidus illum.
Praetor erat Stephanus Barensibus imperiali
Traditus edicto, cognomen cui Pateranus,
Vir probus et largus, studio laudabilis omni,
Praeter quod tanti studuit ducis edere mortem.

Rumor reported that Gocelin would come to aid with many ships of the Empire.
To seize him the crafty duke placed scouts.
Praetor was Stephen to the Barensians by imperial edict assigned,
whose cognomen was Pateranus,
a worthy and generous man, praiseworthy in every zeal,
except that he strove to bring about the death of so great a duke.

Miles erat Bari, cui dedecus a duce quondam
Illatum fuerat grave, partibus ex alienis,
Promtus ad omne malum, levis, iracundus et audax.
Castra ducis Stephanus monet hunc sollerter adire,
Incautumque ducem nocturno tempore morti
Tradere letiferi percussum cuspide conti,
Pollicitus multum, si dux occumberet, auri.
Dedecoris memor illati cupidusque lucrandi,
Miles abit noctu, circumspicit undique castra;
Nil obstare videt; Roberti pervenit usque
Ad ducis hospitium, quod culmo texerat ipse,
Frondibus et sepsit, fieret quo frigore tutus
Temporis hyberni.

There was a soldier at Bari, to whom a grave disgrace had once been inflicted by the duke, from alien factions,
ready for every evil, light-minded, irascible and audacious.
Stephen cleverly advises this man to approach the duke’s camp,
and to deliver the unsuspecting duke at night-time to death,
struck by the lethal point of a pike, promising much gold if the duke should fall.
Mindful of the disgrace inflicted and eager for lucre,
the soldier goes by night, surveys the camp on every side;
he sees nothing to obstruct; he comes all the way to Robert’s
lodging of the duke, which he himself had thatched with straw,
and he fenced it with fronds, whereby he might be safe from the cold
of the hibernal season.

Coenatum vespere facto
Venerat. Explorat ducis ille sedile sedentis
Ad coenam, mediis et contum frondibus illam
Intulit in partem, qua sederat ille; sed ori
Flegmatis ubertas superaddita fecerat illum
Sub mensa curvare caput: locus unde repertus
Est conto vacuus, cassos et pertulit ictus.
Ille redit fugiens.

When supper had been taken in the evening,
he had come. He explores the duke’s seat as he sat
for supper, and amid the fronds he thrust the spear-shaft
into that part where he had been sitting; but to his mouth
an abundance of phlegm, superadded, had made him bend his head
beneath the table: whence the spot was found
empty for the spear, and the blows proved vain.
He goes back in flight.

It totam fama per urbem
Occubuisse ducem. Cives laetantur, et omnis
Congaudens populus clamorem tollit ad astra.
Hi dum clamarent, dux advenit, atque salutis
Ipse suae testis, clamores fundere frustra
Civibus exclamat.

Rumor goes through the whole city that the duke has met death.
The citizens rejoice, and all the people, rejoicing together, raise a clamor to the stars.
While these were shouting, the duke arrives, and, himself a witness of his own safety, he cries out to the citizens that they are pouring forth their clamors in vain.

Clamantis vocibus huius
Auditis, clamor cessavit, laetitiaeque
Finis verborum datus est cum fine suorum.

When the voices of this one shouting had been heard,
the clamor ceased, and to their joy
an end of words was given together with an end of their own words.

Explicit Liber Secundus.

Here ends the Second Book.

INCIPIT TERTIUS

HERE BEGINS THE THIRD

Interea Michael Romani iura regebat
Imperii cum fratre suo, qui nomine dictus
Constantinus erat: quorum dominatio Graecis
Perniciosa fuit, quia bellis otia semper
Postpositis studuere sequi, luxusque dolosi
Illecebris captos foedarat inertia turpis.
Horum temporibus Turchos orientis ab oris
Egressos fugit gens territa cristicolarum,
Qui Romaniae loca deliciosa colebant.
Maxima pars horum ruit iuterfecta nefandis
Turchorum gladiis, et captis urbibus omnis
Subditus his populus dans vectigalia servit.

Meanwhile Michael was administering the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire
with his brother, who by name was called
Constantine: whose domination was pernicious to the Greeks,
because, wars being set aside, they always strove to pursue leisures,
and base inertia had defiled them, captured by the enticements
of deceitful luxury. In their times the Turks, having gone out from the shores
of the East, the terrified nation of Christ‑worshipers fled,
who were inhabiting the delightful places of Romania.
The greatest part of these fell, slain by the unspeakable
swords of the Turks; and with the cities captured, the whole
people subjected to them serves, paying tribute.

Hos contra nullos equites ignavia misit
Rectorum: quare decreto nupta senatus
Est equiti egregio Romano mater eorum,
Pectus amans plus quam genus Eudochia mariti.
Diogenes cognomen erat, quia barba bifurcis.
Is regimen subiens sibi quaeque negotia belli,
Otia privignis elegit, inire paratus
Cum Persis bellum miseros populantibus Argos.

Against these, the sloth of the rulers sent no cavalry;
of the rulers: wherefore, by decree of the senate,
their mother was wed to an outstanding Roman knight,
Eudochia, who loved the heart more than a husband’s lineage.
Diogenes was the cognomen, because of a forked beard.
He, taking up the governance and all the business of war upon himself,
chose leisure for his step-sons, being prepared to enter
upon war with the Persians, who were ravaging wretched Argos.

Est belli variis eventibus usus in illos.
Saepe quidem victor Persas bellando fugavit,
Saepe pari populus fortuna pugnat uterque.
Postremo comites dum dirigit ipse tuendis
Urbibus innumeros, quarum famulatus ad ipsum
Transierat fama probitatis ubique probatae,
Castris cum paucis melioribus ipse remansit:
Multus Persarum populus cum rege repente
Illum cumclausit, disrumpere castra laborans.

There was the use of war with various outcomes against them.
Often indeed, as victor, he routed the Persians by warring,
Often with equal fortune each people fought.
At last, while he himself was directing countless companions to the defending
of the cities, whose service had passed over to him through the fame of probity
everywhere approved, he himself remained in the camp with a few better men:
A great multitude of the Persians with their king suddenly
enclosed him, striving to break asunder the camp.

Proelia commuttunt immania, dum capiendis
Imperii castris inhiant. Primo atque secundo
Depulsi cedunt bello. Prudentia tandem
Anxia Romani, desperans castra tueri,

They engage in immense battles, while they are eager to seize
the camps of the Empire. At first and at the second time
repulsed, they cede in war. At length the anxious prudence
of the Roman, despairing of defending the camp,

Quam sibi plus hominum vitae studiosa suorum,
Quos graviter fessos belloque fameque videbat,
Praecipit ut quicquid castris inerat solidorum,
Omnis vestitus pretiosus, et omnia vasa

which, more zealous for the lives of its own men than for itself,
whom it saw grievously wearied by war and by hunger,
ordered that whatever solidi were in the camp,
all precious attire, and all vessels

Auri aut argenti, castris spargenda ferantur:
Ut si contigerit Turchis irrumpere castra,
Horum prospectu desistant laedere Graecos.

Let gold or silver, to be scattered through the camp, be brought:
so that, if it should befall the Turks to burst into the camp,
at the sight of these they may desist from injuring the Greeks.

Invitam—profugis collecta pecunia servis—
Insomnem Danu coguntur ducere noctem.
Adveniente die venit innumerabilis ille

An unwelcome—money collected for the fugitive slaves—
sleepless night at the Danube they are compelled to pass.
With day arriving, that innumerable multitude came

Persarum populus, circumdans undique castra.
Undique tela volant; circumtegit aera totum

the Persian people, encircling the camp on every side.
On every side missiles fly; a cloud enshrouds the whole air

Grando sagittarum; non ferre valentibus Argis,
Irrumpunt Thurci; munitio rumpitur omnis.
Sed plures praedae quam militibus feriendis
Intenti Persae faciunt evadere multos.

A hailstorm of arrows; with the Argives not strong to bear it,
the Turks break in; every fortification is broken.
But the Persians, intent on booty rather than on striking soldiers,
make many escape.

Indiciis aquilae, quae plus dabat omnibus armis
Aurea conspicuum loricae innixa nitorem,

By the insignia of the eagle, which bestowed more than all weapons,
a golden, conspicuous luster, leaning upon the cuirass,

Graecorum dominus cognoscitur, ense recidens
Hostiles hastas, neque se defendere cessans.
Forte sagitta volans incauti sauciat artus;

The lord of the Greeks is recognized, with his sword cutting back
hostile spears, and not ceasing to defend himself.
By chance a flying arrow wounds his incautious limbs;

Sic tandem capitur quadam cum parte suorum.
Direptis castris Romanum Persica ducit

Thus at length he is captured, along with a certain part of his own.
With the camp despoiled, the Persian leads off the Roman.

Ad sua castra phalanx, et eum statuere sedili
Egregio, iuxta Persarum rege sedente.

To its own camp the phalanx [brought him], and they set him on a distinguished seat
with the king of the Persians sitting nearby.

Rex percunctatur, si forte fuisset ab illo
Captus, quid faceret? Romanus retulit illi:
« Si mihi sive meis ita subiicerere, iuberem
Vel truncare caput, vel te suspendere furcis ».

The king inquires, if by chance he had been captured by him,
captured, what he would do? The Roman reported to him:
« If you should thus submit yourself either to me or to mine, I would order
either to cut off your head, or to hang you on the gallows ».

Ille refert facinus numquam sibi tale patrandum,
Sed secum posthac fruiturum pace perhenni,
Quam per legatos iam saepe poposcerat ipse,
Et baptizatam natam pro coniuge nato
Se concessurum, quo sic pax firmior esset.
Foederibus tali firmatis conditione,
Ad sua Romanum dans maxima dona remisit
Persarum rector, captos et reddidit omnes.
Longo terrarum spatio comitatus euntes
Duxit honorifice; ductum permisit abire.

He replies that such a crime must never be perpetrated by him,
but that thereafter he would enjoy perennial peace with him,
which he himself had already often demanded through legates,
and that he would grant his baptized daughter as a spouse for the son,
in order that thus the peace might be firmer.
With the treaties confirmed by such a condition,
the ruler of the Persians sent the Roman back to his own, giving very great gifts,
and he also returned all the captives.
Having accompanied them for a long stretch of lands as they went,
he conducted them honorably; he permitted the escorted man to depart.

Sed non privignis firmatae commoda pacis
Condicio placuit, minus ad tutanda peritis
Agmina Graiorum. Nec enim decernitur ultra
Arcis ad augustae Romanus iura redire.
Hos ubi Diogenes factos sibi comperit hostes,
Auxilio fisus Persarum temptat in illos
Civilis belli varios agitare paratus.

But the advantageous condition of the peace made firm did not please the step-sons,
less experienced for guarding the ranks of the Graians.
For neither is it decreed any further that the Roman return to the jurisdiction of the august citadel.
When Diogenes learned that these had been made his enemies,
trusting in the aid of the Persians he attempts against them,
prepared to set in motion the various devices of civil war.

Privigni se non obsistere posse videntes,
Illum conantur seducere pace dolosa.
Ignari fraudis, portantes nuncia pacis,
Bis sex pontifices mittuntur cum Gocelino,
Cuius Romanus totiens expertus amorem,
Non dubitabat ei se credere sicut amico.
Credit Romanus pastoribus et Gocelino,
Securus factus iurando iure fideque
Ut petit ipse data.

The step-sons, seeing that they could not withstand, try to draw him aside with a deceitful peace.
Unaware of the fraud, bearing messages of peace, twice six pontiffs are sent with Gocelinus,
whose love the Roman had so often experienced,
he did not hesitate to entrust himself to him as to a friend.
The Roman trusts the pastors and Gocelinus,
made secure by oath, by right, and by faith,
with what he himself requested given.

Misero placet imperialis
Incassum reditus; quia mox ubi pervenit ille
Eracleam, capitur, privatur lumine captus;
Cuius et imperii fuerat tam nobile nomen,
Monachus efficitur. Securi iam duo fratres
Regni tranquillis agitant moderamen habenis.
Non tamen omnino sua restat inulta tirannis;
Namque sibi socios Romani filius addens
Annenios, Persas, terras Orientis eorum
Subtrahit imperio, ferro populatus et igni.

It pleases the wretch, the imperial return, in vain; for as soon as he reached Heraclea,
he is captured, deprived of light when seized;
he whose name of empire had been so noble is made a monk.
Now the two brothers, secure, ply the helm of the kingdom with tranquil reins.
Yet his tyranny does not remain wholly unavenged;
for the son of Romanus, adding to himself as allies the Armenians and the Persians,
withdraws the lands of their East from their dominion, having laid them waste with iron and fire.

Tempore Persarum gens perfida coepit ab illo
In Romaniam consurgere caede, rapinis.
Imperii nec adhuc redigi sub iura valeret,
Gens nisi Gallorum, quae gente potentior omni
Viribus armorum, nutu stimulata superno,
Hanc libertati superato redderet hoste,
Quae spirante Deo sanctas aperire Sepulcri
Est animata vias longo iam tempore clausas.
Consiliis quorum fuit excaecatio tanti
Perpetrata viri, miseri capiuntur, et aula
Depulsi meritas coguntur solvere poenas.

At that time the perfidious nation of the Persians began from then
to rise up against Romania with slaughter and rapine.
Nor as yet could it be brought back under the laws of the empire,
unless the nation of the Gauls, which is more powerful than every people
in the forces of arms, stirred by the supernal nod,
would restore this to liberty, the enemy having been overcome,
who, with God breathing, to open the holy ways of the Sepulcher
has been animated, long now closed.
By whose counsels the blinding of so great a man was perpetrated,
the wretched are captured, and, driven from the court,
are compelled to pay deserved penalties.

His, quibus insontem puniri consuluerunt
Puniri sontes vario cruciamine mandant.

For those, by whose counsel they resolved that the innocent be punished,
They mandate that the guilty be punished with various torments.

Nuncius imperio Bari legatus ad Urbem
Supplicat ut miseris iam civibus auxilietur.
Piratis aptae naves ex more parantur,
In quibus efferri frumenta iubentur et arma,
Classe quibus tuta transiri possit ad urbem,
Nautarumque metus pellatur et urbis egestas.
Navibus his iussu praeponitur imperiali,
Quem ducis Italia timor expulerat, Gocelinus,
Exosus fuerat quia coniuratus in ipsum.

A messenger by imperial command, the legate of Bari, to the City
supplicates that aid now be given to the wretched citizens.
Ships apt against pirates are prepared according to custom,
in which grain and arms are ordered to be carried out,
with a fleet by which it may be possible to cross safely to the city,
and the mariners’ fear be driven away and the city’s want.
Over these ships, by imperial order, is set in command
Gocelinus, whom fear of the Duke of Italy had driven out,
he had been hated because he had conspired against him.

Navibus armatis celer advenit, ut tremebundos
Hortetur cives, et erat iam proximus urbi,
Ingressum sperans nocturno tempore tutum:
Cum subito Danaum classi venit obvia classis
Roberti, cuius reparare advenerat hostes.
Nocte ducis pugnam naves iniere libenter,
Esse sibi levius loca cognoscentibus, illis
Certamen gravius, minime quia gnara locorum
Gens erat illa, ratae. Multo superata labore
Postremo capitur Gocelini navis, et ipse
Ante ducem captus deducitur.

He comes swiftly with armed ships, to hearten the trembling
citizens, and he was now already nearest to the city,
hoping for a safe entry at night-time:
when suddenly the fleet of Robert, whose enemies he had come to restore,
came to meet the fleet of the Danaans.
At night the duke’s ships gladly entered battle,
for themselves it was lighter, as they knew the places; for those
the struggle was heavier, since that people, as was supposed, was in no way acquainted with the places.
Overcome by much toil, at last Gocelinus’s ship is captured, and he himself,
captured, is led before the duke.

Altera navis
Mersa fuit Danaum, vix evasere sequentes.

The other ship
of the Danaans was sunk; those following scarcely escaped.

Gens Normannorum navalis nescia belli
Hactenus, ut victrix rediit, spem principis auget.
Sentit enim Danaos non tantum civibus urbis
Praesidii ratibus vexisse, quod obsidionem
Impediat; multum simul et novitate triumphi
Aequorei gaudet, securius unde subire
Iam cum Normannis navalia proelia sperat.
Inclusus longo Gocelinus carcere degens
Vitam infelicem, vitae cum fine laborum
Excepit finem, diversa pericula passus.

The nation of the Normans, unacquainted with naval war,
thus far has returned as victor and augments the prince’s hope.
For he perceives that the Danes have harried not only the citizens of the city
by the ships of the garrison, which hinders the siege;
and he rejoices greatly as well at the novelty of the Aequorean triumph,
whence he now hopes to enter naval battles more securely
together with the Normans. Shut in, Goscelin, living in a long prison,
enduring an unhappy life, received with life’s end the end of his labors,
having suffered diverse perils.

Tertius obsessa iam venerat annus ab urbe.
Multiplici tandem superatur fessa labore,
Plus tamen esurie. Tunc Argiricius urbis
Primus habebatur: quem dux ubi deditionem
Urbis inire facit, reliquos non ardua cives
Vincere poena fuit; maiores namque minorum
Ad quam corda volunt partem deflectere possunt.

The third year had now arrived since the city was besieged.
At last, worn out by manifold labor, it is overcome—more, however, by hunger.
Then Argiricius was held as First of the city: when the duke brings him to enter upon the surrender
of the city, it was no arduous trouble to conquer the remaining citizens;
for the greater can deflect the hearts of the lesser to whatever side they wish to incline.

Civibus exhibuit placidum Robertus amorem,
Et quia dilectos, sibi quos allexerat, omnes
Semper habebat, erat dilectus ab omnibus ipse.
Plurima, quae fuerant vel vi subtracta vel astu,
Reddidit urbanis dux, agros, praedia, fundos;
Perdita restituit; nil civibus intulit ipse,
Nil alios permisit eis inferre molestum,
Et circumpositis solitos deferre tributum
Normannis donat iam libertate quieta.
Canitiem Stephani tractare misertus ut hostis
Noluit; immo suae, de qua tractaverat ille,
Oblitus caedis, studet hunc tractare benigne.

Robert showed to the citizens a placid love,
And because all the beloved—those whom he had drawn to himself—
he always kept, he himself was beloved by all.
Very many things which had been taken away either by force or by craft,
the duke gave back to the townsmen—fields, estates, farms;
He restored what was lost; he himself inflicted nothing on the citizens,
He allowed no others to bring anything troublesome upon them,
And to the surrounding people accustomed to carry tribute
to the Normans, he now grants quiet liberty.
In pity, he did not wish to treat Stephen’s gray hairs as an enemy;
nay rather, forgetful of his own slaughter, about which that man had bargained,
he strives to treat this man kindly.

Hunc impunitum custodia libera servat
Cum Baro captum, multis mirantibus Argis.
Perque dies aliquot hac victor in urbe moratus,
Mandat cum sumptu Barensibus arma parari,
Ut properent secum, quo se properare videbunt.
Hos cum gente sua Reginam ducit ad urbem.

A free custody keeps this man unpunished
Though the Baron had captured him, with many Argives marveling.
And, through several days, having stayed as victor in this city,
he orders that arms be prepared by the Barensians at expense,
that they hasten with him, wherever they will see him hasten.
These, with his own people, he leads to the queenly city.

Piscem fama refert a littore non procul esse
Ftuctibus Adriacis horrendo corpore magnum
Forma incredibili, qualem non viderat ante
Italiae populus, quem verni temporis aura
Propter aquas dulces properare coegerat illuc.
Per varias artes ducis hunc prudentia cepit.
Qui cum delabens in retia funiculosa,
Retibus innexo cuncto cum pondere ferri
Ille maris mersus mersisset ad usque profundum,
A nautis tandem vario iam culmine caesus,
Littore vix tractus, populo spectabile monstrum
Cernitur, inde ducis iussu per frusta secatur:
Unde sibi atque suis longus datur usus edendi,
Et populo Calabris quicumque manebat in oris.

Report relates that a fish was not far from the shore,
with Adriatic waves, great with a horrendous body,
of incredible form, such as the people of Italy had not seen before,
whom the breeze of the springtime, on account of the fresh waters,
had compelled to hasten thither.
Through various arts the duke’s prudence captured this one.
Who, when slipping down into rope‑woven nets,
entangled in the nets, to be borne with his entire weight,
he, plunged in the sea, would have sunk to the very depth,
at last by the sailors, now from varied heights, was struck,
hardly dragged to the shore, a spectacle‑monster to the people
is beheld; then by the duke’s order it is cut into pieces:
whence to himself and his own a long use for eating is granted,
and to whatever people were dwelling on the Calabrian shores.

Hoc etiam passim gens Appula participatur.
Os spinae sectum palmorum quatuor orbe
Mensuram obtinuit. Paulo post inde moratus
Dux ibi Robertus Reginam tendit ad urbem.

This too is everywhere shared by the Apulian nation.
The bone of the spine, cut in a circle, held the measure of four palms.
A little later, having tarried there, the leader Robert heads toward the city Regina.

Dumque moratur ibi, pons est quia conditus unus,
Pons modo Guiscardi totus locus ille vocatur.
Actu Barenses huius praecepta secuti,
Quaeque paranda parat Reginae moenibus urbis.
Dux ibi militibus, sumptu ratibusque paratis,
Transvehitur Siculum multis comitantibus aequor,
Quod licet angustum, tamen est grave praetereundum:
Scilla, Caribdis ibi diversa pericula praebent;
Una rotat naves, illidit et altera saxis.

And while he lingers there, because a single bridge was constructed,
now that whole place is called the Bridge of Guiscard.
At once the Barians, following his precepts,
prepare whatever is to be prepared for the walls of the Queen’s city.
The duke there, with soldiers, expense, and ships made ready,
is ferried across the Sicilian sea, many accompanying,
which, although narrow, is nevertheless hard to be passed:
Scylla and Charybdis there offer diverse perils;
the one whirls ships, and the other dashes them against the rocks.

Partibus in Siculis conferta iuvarnina fratris
Iam conquisitis ex magna parte Rogeri
Spem ducis accumulant. Erat hoc aetate Rogerus,
Non virtute minor; nullus de fratribus eius
Quamlibet egregius iniit tam nobile bellum.
Nam contra Siculos divini nominis hostes
Semper pugnavit, sanctam qua vivimus omnes
Exaltare fidem cupiens, operamque iuventus
Hanc sua praecipue coluit, dum digna quietis
Causa suae fieret Siculae subiectio gentis.

In the Sicilian parts, the brother’s massed aids,
now for the most part collected by Roger,
accumulate the duke’s hope. At that age Roger
was not lesser in virtue; none of his brothers,
however outstanding, undertook so noble a war.
For against the Sicilians, enemies of the divine name,
he always fought, desiring to exalt the holy faith
by which we all live; and his youth especially cultivated
this endeavor, until the subjection of the Sicilian nation
should become the cause of his own worthy quiet.

Hoc sibi dux socio confisus et agmine multo
Secum deducto non obsidione Panormum
Viucere desperat, Siculis quam nobiliorem
Urbibus audierat. Roberti milite multo
Urbs vallata pavet; muros turresque reformant,
Arma virosque parant, detecta foramina claudunt;
Ponitur et vigilum custodia crebra per urbem.
Dux iubet armatos equites accedere portis,
Ut sic inclusos ad pugnam provocet hostes.

Trusting in this for himself, the Duke, confident in his ally and with a great host led with him,
does not despair to conquer Palermo by siege, which he had heard to be more noble
than the other Sicilian cities. With Robert’s much soldiery
the city, encompassed, trembles; they restore the walls and towers,
they prepare arms and men, they close the exposed openings;
and a frequent guard of watchmen is set through the city.
The Duke orders armed horsemen to approach the gates,
so that thus he may provoke the shut-in enemies to battle.

Omne, quod incutiat poenam pariterque laborem,
Civibus inferri versuta potentia mandat.
Procedunt portis Siculi, non stare ferentes,
Egressique foras audaci mente repugnant;
Verum Normannos nequeunt tolerare feroces.
Cultores Christi, dum gens Agarena resistit,
Non perferre valet; fugiunt, nostrique sequuntur,
Multos prosternunt gladiis, et cuspide multos.

Everything that might inflict penalty and likewise labor
the wily power commands to be imposed upon the citizens.
The Sicilians advance from the gates, not bearing to stand still,
and, having gone out, with audacious mind they resist;
but they cannot endure the fierce Normans.
The cultors of Christ—while the Agarenian race resists—
it cannot withstand; they flee, and our men pursue,
they lay many low with swords, and many with the spear-point.

Moenibus e summis volat undique missile telum;
Saxaque cum pilis iacientes laedere temptant
Corpora nostrorum. Nostri vi moenibus urbis
Hos impellentes, laeti sua castra requirunt.
Inde Panormenses Affros accire laborant
Auxilio, quorum sibi viribus associatis,
Quod non sunt ausi terra committere bellum,
Commisere mari.

From the highest walls on every side the hurled missile flies;
and, throwing stones together with javelins, they try to wound
the bodies of our men. Our men, driving these back from the city’s
walls by force, gladly make for their own camp.
Then the Panormitans strive to call in Africans
for assistance; with whose forces joined to themselves,
what they had not dared to commit to battle on land,
they committed on the sea.

Bellantibus hoc elementum
Commodius credunt. Instructis ergo carinis
Exigit ut belli navalis rite paratus,
Proque repellendis saxorum vel iaculorum
Ictibus obtectis rubicundis undique filtris,
Ad pugnam veniunt sub condicione virili,
Ut quo iure viri vel vivant vel moriantur.
Mandat Normannis, Calabris, Barensibus, Argis
Dux a se captis, muniri corpore Christi;
Quo iubet accepto cum sanguine bella subire.

They believe this element to be more commodious for combatants.
Therefore, with the hulls equipped,
it demands that, duly prepared for naval war,
and, for repelling the blows of stones or of javelins,
their bodies covered on every side with ruddy felts,
they come to the fight under a virile condition,
that by that law men either live or die.
The Duke mandates to the Normans, the Calabrians, the Barensians, the Argives—taken by himself—that they be fortified with the body of Christ;
and, with this received together with the blood, he orders them to undergo war.

Tali tuta cibo procedit turba fidelis,
Navibus aptatis quo praevaluere paratu.
Perfida gens totum lituis sonituque tubarum
Magnarumque replet vocum clamoribus aequor.
Christicolae contra suffragia sola petentes
Principis aeterni, cuius sunt carne refecti,
Nullo terrentur clangore, sed acriter illis
Obstant, et feriunt quassantque viriliter hostes.

Thus, safe with such food, the faithful throng goes forth,
with ships made ready, whereby they prevailed by their preparation.
The perfidious race fills the whole sea with the blasts of litui and the sound of trumpets,
and with the outcries of great voices it fills the level deep.
The Christ-worshipers, on the contrary, seeking only the suffrages
of the eternal Prince, by whose flesh they have been refreshed,
are terrified by no clangor, but sharply they withstand them,
and they smite and shake the enemies manfully.

Principio naves Affrae Siculaeque resistunt;
Nutu divino tandem cessere coactae,
Cumque fugam peterent, aliquot capiuntur earum,
Quaedam submersae pereunt, pleraeque frequenti
Remorum ductu vix evasere fugaces.
Dum portum subeunt, mox opposuere cathenas,
Cum quibus aequoreos aditus prohibere solebant.
His etiam fractis, quasdam de navibus horum
Christicolae capiunt, flammis plerasque perurunt.

At the beginning the African and Sicilian ships resist;
by the divine nod at last, compelled, they yielded,
and when they were seeking flight, several of them are captured,
some, submerged, perish; most, by the frequent
stroke of oars, scarcely escaped as they fled.
While they put in to port, they straightway set up chains,
with which they were accustomed to forbid the sea-approaches.
These too being broken, some of their ships
the Christ-worshipers seize, and most they sear with flames.

Dat validas animo ducis haec victoria vires.
Hinc pervadendam solers intentus ad urbem,
Molitur variis conatibus ut capiatur.
Muniri pedites fundis facit atque sagittis;
Armatos equites secum procedere iussit.

This victory gives powerful strength to the leader’s spirit.
Hence, skillful and intent to pervade the city,
he labors with various endeavors that it may be captured.
He has the infantry furnished with slings and arrows;
he ordered the armed horsemen to proceed with him.

Accedunt muro pedites, et moenia saxis
Ac telis quatiunt. Egressus iniquus ab urbe
Obstat eis populus, quem non perferre valentes
Diffugiunt pedites. Quos dux ut cedere vidit
Diffusos campis, legiones protinus omnes
Bella dato signo monet incunctanter adire,
Voce manuque suos sicut dux strenuus hortans.

The foot-soldiers approach the wall, and they batter the ramparts with stones and missiles.
Having gone forth in hostile fashion from the city, the populace stands against them;
the foot-soldiers, not strong enough to endure them, scatter.
When the leader saw them yielding, scattered over the fields,
he immediately, the signal for battle having been given, urges all the legions
to enter the fight without delay, encouraging his men with voice and hand like a strenuous commander.

Paulisper Siculi commixto Marte morati,
Ad ducis aspectum tremefacti terga dederunt.
Dux ferit atque suos hortatur terga ferire
Perversae gentis, nec caedere desinit hostes,
Adversae portas dum perveniatur ad urbis.
Gens comitata ducem diversis sauciat hostem
Vulneribus, quosdam gladiis, et cuspide quosdam,
Multos fundali iactut plerosque sagittis;
Unde supergrediens caesorum corpora, temptat
Cum Siculis portas fugientibus urbis adire,
Ut finem tanto praeberet capta labori.

For a little while, with Mars commingled, the Sicilians tarried,
At the leader’s aspect, trembling, they gave their backs. The leader strikes and exhorts his men to strike the backs
of the perverse race, nor does he cease to hew down the enemies,
until the gates of the adverse city are reached. The people accompanying the leader wounds the foe with diverse
wounds, some with swords, and some with the spear-point,
many with a sling-cast and most with arrows;
whence, stepping over the bodies of the slain, he attempts
to approach the city’s gates with the fleeing Sicilians,
so that, the city captured, he might proffer an end to so great a labor.

Sed cives portis adhibent dum claustra seratis,
Non modicam partem foris exclusere suorum.
Impetus hostilis tantis terroribus urbem
Implet, ut exclusos caedi permiserit omnes.
Robertus quamquam longo certamine vidit
Diffisos equites, coeptis insistere poscit.

But the citizens, while they set the bars upon the barred gates,
shut out no small portion of their own outside.
The hostile onrush fills the city with such terrors
that it permitted all the excluded to be cut down.
Robert, although he saw in the long contest
the horsemen disheartened, bids them to stand firm in the enterprises begun.

« Virtus vestra, viri, varios experta labores,
Vel modo laudis, ait, vel erit modo digna repulsae.
Urbs inimica Deo, divini nescia cultus,
Subdita daemonibus, veteri spoliata vigore,
Iam quasi fracta tremit. Si vos instare potenter
Viderit, obstandi nullos meditabitur ausus;
At si deficitis, cras viribus haec reparatis
Acrius obstabit.

« Your virtue, men, having been tested by various labors,
either now worthy of praise, he says, or soon will be worthy of rebuke.
The city hostile to God, ignorant of divine worship,
subject to demons, despoiled of its ancient vigor,
now, as if broken, trembles. If it sees you press on mightily
it will plan no ventures of resistance;
but if you lose heart, tomorrow, with its forces restored,
it will stand against you more fiercely.

Dum tempus adesse videtis,
Currite! dura capi, Christo miserante, patebit.
Difficilem quemvis facilem facit ipse laborem.

While you see the time to be at hand,
Run! what is hard to capture will lie open, Christ showing mercy.
He himself makes any labor, however difficult, easy.

Hoc duce confisi, bellis imponite finem,
Atque invadendam cuncti properemus ad urbem ».
His animat dictis Robertus corda suorum.
Ascensis scalis properant conscendere muros,
Seque voluntati promtos ducis affore spondent.
Sic auriga bonus veloces cedere cursu
Dum cognoscit equos, parcit, patiturque morari;
Inde reformatos reparatis flatibus ire
Coeptum cogit iter, stimulisque frequentibus urget,
Dum cursum peragant, et eos praecedere victi
Vincere qui soleant, cauto ducente magistro.

Trusting in this leader, put an end to wars,
and let us all hasten to invade the city ».
With these words Robert animates the hearts of his men.
With ladders set in place they hasten to mount the walls,
and they pledge that they will be present, prompt to the leader’s will.
Thus a good charioteer, when he recognizes the swift horses
giving way in their running, spares them and allows them to tarry;
then, restored and with breaths recovered, he compels them to go
the course begun, and with frequent goads he urges them on,
until they complete the race, and, though beaten, outstrip those
who are wont to conquer, with the cautious master leading.

Dux ubi persensit capiendis moenibus omnes
Insudare suos, insudat et ipse ferendis
Sollicitus scalis; ut progrediantur ad alta
Praecipit inde suis. Illi conscendere muros
Unanimes properant; e contra tota Panori
Gens astat muris per propugnacula sparsa.

The Duke, when he thoroughly perceived that all his men were sweating for the taking of the walls,
sweats he too, anxious, in seeing to the carrying of the ladders;
then he orders his men to advance to the heights.
They, unanimous, hasten to climb the walls; on the other side the whole Panormitan
people stands at the walls, scattered through the battlements.

Unus utrique labor populo, diversa sed illis
Causa fuit; cupit hic urbem capere, ille tueri;
Altera pars pro se, pro natis, coniuge constat,
Altera grata duci fieri studet urbe subacta.
Dum tanto populus confligit uterque labore,
Prospera Roberto fuit et miserabilis urbi
Actio fortunae, subito quia coetus equestris
Egressus scalis murorum dum petit alta,
Propugnatores Siculi dant terga trementes.
Urbe nova capta veteri clauduntur in urbe.
Gens Agarena, videns se viribus omnibus esse
Exutam, tota spe deficiente salutis

One toil was common to each people, but the cause for them was different;
this one desires to seize the city, that one to guard it;
the one party stands fast for itself, for its children, for its spouse,
the other strives to become pleasing to the duke, the city subjugated.
While each people clashes with so great a labor,
the action of Fortune was prosperous for Robert and pitiable for the city,
because suddenly a knightly company, having gone forth, while it seeks the heights
by the ladders of the walls, the Sicilian defenders turn their backs, trembling.
With the new city taken, they are shut up in the old city.
The Agarene people, seeing itself stripped of all strength,
with all hope of safety failing

Supplicitel poscit, miseros miseratw ut eius
Respiciat casus, neque dux condigna rependat.
Cuncta duci dedunt, se tantum vivere poscunt.
Deditione sui facta meruere favorem
Esorare ducis placidi; promittitur illis
Gratia.

Suppliantly they beg, that he, pitying the miserable, may regard their misfortunes, and that the leader not repay with condign recompense.
They surrender all things to the leader, they ask only to live.
With their surrender made they deserved to win favor
to mollify the placid leader; grace is promised to them.

cum vita. Nullum proscribere curat,
Observansque fidem promissi, laedere nullum,
Quamvis gentiles essent, molitur eorum.
Omnes subiectos sibi lance examinat aequa,
Glorificansque Deum templi destruxit iniqui
Omnes structuras, et qua muscheta solebat
Esse prius, matris fabricavit Virginis aulam;
Et quae Machamati fuerat cum daemone sedes,
Sedes facta Dei, fit dignis ianua coeli.

with life. He is careful to proscribe no one,
and, observing the faith of his promise, to injure no one,
Although they were gentiles, he undertakes nothing against them.
He tests all subject to him with an equal balance,
and, glorifying God, he destroyed the iniquitous temple’s
entire structures; and where the mosque used
to be before, he constructed the hall of the Virgin Mother;
And the seat which had been of Machamatus with the demon,
made the seat of God, becomes for the worthy a gate of heaven.

Munia castrorum fecit robusta parari,
Tuta quibus contra Siculos sua turba maneret,
Addidit et puteos alimentaque commoda castris.
Obsidibus sumptis aliquot castrisque paratis,
Reginam remeat Robertus victor ad urbem,
Nominis eiusdem quodam remanente Panormi
Milite, qui Siculis datur amiratus haberi.
Omnes cum Stephano Paterano protinus Argos,
Qui Bari fuerant capti, permisit abire.

He had the robust camp-works prepared,
by which his troop might remain safe against the Sicilians,
and he added wells and provisions convenient for the camps.
With several hostages taken and the camps prepared,
Robert the Victor returns to the Queen at the city,
with a certain soldier of the same name remaining at Palermo,
who is given to be held by the Sicilians as amiratus (admiral).
He permitted all, together with Stephen Pateranus, straightway to Argos,
who had been captured at Bari, to depart.

Sic impunitos quia dux placidissimus hostes
Dimittebat, eis ut amantibus ipse placebat.
Barinis, Calabris, dux obsidibusque Panormi
Militibusque suis vadit comitatus ad urbis
Moenia Melfensis. Caput haec erat urbibus illis
Omnibus, est et adhuc, quas continet Appula tellus.

Thus, because the most placid leader was releasing the enemies unpunished,
he himself was pleasing to them as lovers.
The duke, with the Barines, the Calabrians, and the hostages of Palermo,
and with his own soldiers, goes accompanied to the walls of the city
of Melfi. This was the head (capital) for all those cities,
and still is, which the Apulian land contains.

Illius comites regionis et undique clari
Confluxere viri; vult quisque revisere tanti
Principis aspectum; Petro genitore creatus
Praedicto solus Petrus huc accedere sprevit.
Huius, defuncto Gosfrido fratre priori,
Ius patrium manibus successerat atque nepotum,
Donec provectus soboles fraterna Ricardus
Esset ad aetatem dominandi legibus aptam.
Dus Petro suspectus erat, quia prorsus eunti
Ad fines Siculos vires adhibere negarat.

His companions of the region, and men renowned from every side,
converged; each one wishes to revisit the aspect of so great
a Prince; Peter, begotten of the aforesaid sire Peter,
alone spurned to come hither. Of this man, with his elder brother
Geoffrey deceased, the paternal right had passed into the hands of him and of the nephews,
until Richard, the fraternal offspring, advanced
to an age apt by the laws for ruling.
The Duke was suspect to Peter, because he had utterly refused
to apply forces to him as he was going to the Sicilian borders.

Dux tamen ablata formidine convocat illum,
Et sibi concessum dicens a fratre Tarentum,
Fraterni repetit ius muneris. Ipse negavit
Reddere quae fuerant armis superata paternis.
Hac gravis inter eos oritur dissensio causa;
Ac veniens Andrun, varios ad bella paratus
Coepit irure Petrus; nova praecipit arma parari,
Auget militiam, suffragia poscit ubique,
Quaeque sui iuris servari tuta laborat.

Nevertheless the duke, fear removed, summons him,
and, saying that Tarentum had been granted to him by his brother,
claims again the right of the fraternal gift. He himself denied
to return what had been won by paternal arms.
From this cause a grievous dissension arises between them;
and, coming to Andria, prepared for diverse wars,
Peter began to make an onrush; he orders new arms to be prepared,
he increases the soldiery, he asks everywhere for backing,
and labors that whatever is of his own right be kept secure.

Interea Tranum praeclari nominis urbem
Divitiis, armis et multa gente repletam,
Obsidione parat dux subdere. Petrus ad urbem
Electos bis sex equites agit, ut sibi aves
Alliceret monitis, confortarentur et eius
Aspectu viso. Qui dum sua verba loquendo
Protrahit in longum, subito Robertus et eius
Diffusus campis apparuit undique miles.

Meanwhile Trani, a city of illustrious name,
filled with riches, arms, and a great multitude of people,
the duke prepares to subject to siege. Peter to the city
drives twice six chosen knights, that to himself the ears
he might allure by monitions, and that they might be strengthened
at the sight of his aspect. While he, by speaking, prolongs
his words at length, suddenly Robert and his soldiery,
diffused over the fields, appeared on every side.

Obsessi cives decies iam quinque diebus
Convellere Petrum simul intra moenia clausum;
Orant, ut faveat comes urbis deditioni:
Damna quidem nequeunt perferre diutius urbis.
Hoc primo fieri nimio moerore gravatus
Ille negat; tandem lacrimans, cogentibus illis,
Poscit cum sociis ut liber abire sinatur;
Sicque duci fieri concessit deditionem.
A duce non patitur discedens urbe videri
Atque ducem voluit nullatenus ipse videre,
Tam ducis horrendum ducebat cernere vultum.

The besieged citizens, now for fifteen days,
endeavored to tear away Peter, shut up within the walls together;
they beg that the count favor the city’s surrender:
indeed they cannot endure the city’s damages any longer.
He, weighed down at first with excessive mourning, refuses that this be done;
at length, weeping, with them compelling,
he asks that he with his companions be allowed to depart free;
and thus he granted that surrender be made to the duke.
As he departed from the city he did not suffer himself to be seen by the duke,
and he himself in no way wished to see the duke,
so dreadful did he deem it to behold the duke’s visage.

Trani, cuius erat laus clarior, urbe recepta,
Se Iuvenacenses dedunt et Buxilienses.
Buxiliae Petri fuerant, Iuvenacus Amici,
Cui patruus Petri pater extitit. Hunc, quia fratri
Contulit auxilium, dux oderat, et quia fines
Dalmaticos sine velle suo temptavit adire.

Trani, whose renown was more illustrious, the city having been recovered,
the Iuvenacenses and the Buxilienses surrender themselves.
Buxilia had been Peter’s; Iuvenacus, Amicus’s,
whose father was Peter’s paternal uncle. This man the duke hated, because he had given aid to his brother,
and because he tried to approach the Dalmatian borders without his consent.

His dux espertis, cupiens sibi subdere Petrum,
Obsidione parat circumvallare Coretum.

With these things experienced, the duke, desiring to subject Peter to himself,
prepares to circumvallate Coretum with a siege.

Petrus, ut hunc audit castrum circumdare castris,
Non audens armis contendere, moenibus Andri
Escipitur tutus. Qui dum prodisset ab Andro,
Tranensi praedam deferre profectus ab urbe,

Peter, when he hears that he is surrounding that castle with camps,
Not daring to contend with arms, is received safe within the walls of Andria.
Who, when he had gone out from Andria,
Having set out from the city to carry the plunder to the city of Trani,

Atque equites essent decies hunc quinque secuti,
Guido quater denos eqtutes induxerat urbi,

And the horsemen, fifty, had followed this man;
Guido had led forty horsemen into the city,

Ex ducis edicto, germanus coniugis dus.
Egreditur subito, diffuso milite campis.
Inde Petrum capiunt, et se prius inficiatum
Praesentare duci vel praesentare coactum.

By the duke’s edict, the spouse’s full brother, the leader, goes out suddenly, with the soldiery diffused over the plains.
From there they seize Peter, and (that) he had earlier refused to present himself to the duke, or had been compelled to present himself.

Imposuit finem ducis haec captura labori.
Sed tandem fidei iurando iure ligatus

This capture imposed an end to the duke’s labor.
But at length, bound by law in swearing faith

Solvitur, et recipit quae perdidit omnia Petrus.
Liber abit, solo Trani privatus honore.

He is released, and Peter receives back all that he lost.
He goes free, deprived only of the honor of Trani.

Interea ducis egregii populosa frequenter
Poscit Amalfis opem, cui vectigalia dudum
Annua detulerat, nimis impugnante Gisulfo,
Semper turbatam terraque marique reclamans.
Robertus questu populi stimulante, Gisulfo

Meanwhile the populous Amalfi frequently asks the aid of the eminent duke, to whom it had long since delivered annual imposts, with Gisulf assailing too much, crying out that it was always troubled by land and sea.
Robert, the complaint of the people goading him, to Gisulf

Mandat Amalficolas cesset vexare, tributum
Ferre sibi solitos; veteris corrumpere nolit
Foedus amicitiae; cessare sororius illum

He commands that he cease to vex the Amalfitans, who were accustomed to bear tribute to him; let him not corrupt the old covenant of amity; the brother-in-law bids that man to cease.

Cogat amor; meritasque vices se reddere spondet.
Haec sibi legatis mandata ferentibus ille

Let love compel; and he pledges to render merited returns.
He said these things to the envoys bringing the mandates to him

Dicta superba refert; negat esse sua fruiturum
Pace ducem, nisi digna sibi famulamina solvat.

He reports haughty words; he denies that the leader will enjoy his peace,
unless he render services worthy to him.

Non perferre valens tanti responsa tumoris,
Fervidus innumera comitatus gente Salernum
Dux adit, et terrae parat et maris obsidionem.
Quartus erat mensis completus ab obsidione;
Tanta fames miserae cives invaserat urbis,

Not able to endure the replies of such great arrogance,
the Duke, ardent, accompanied by an innumerable host, approaches Salerno,
and prepares a siege both by land and by sea.
The fourth month was complete since the siege;
so great a famine had invaded the citizens of the wretched city,

Ut canibus vel equis vel muribus aut asinorum
Turba cadaveribus vix vivere posset edendo.

So that by eating the cadavers of dogs or of horses or of mice or of asses
the crowd could scarcely live.

Egressus quidam patre civis in urbe relicto
In castris aderat. Canis hunc rimata sagaci
Nare petit, laribus fuerat quae fota paternis.
Huic dabat ille cibos, et postquam sufficienti
Pasta cibo fuerat, circa praecordia quosdam
Apposito sacco panes inferre solebat,
Quorum commoditas vitae foret apta diurnae.

A certain citizen, having gone out, his father left in the city, was present in the camp.
A dog, having searched him out with a sagacious nose, sought him, which had been reared at his paternal home.
Huic dabat ille cibos, et postquam sufficienti
To her he would give food, and after she had been fed with sufficient food,
he was accustomed to insert certain loaves around her breast, with a sack set on,
whose supply would be suitable for daily life.

Hos celeri cursu rediens—mirabile dictu—
Et nusquam remorans canis ad sua tecta ferebat;
Sic alimenta sagax dominoque sibique parabat.
Esuriem tantam quidam non ferre valentes,
Egressi cives octavi tempore mensis,
Interrupta duci Roberto moenia pandunt,
Aptior ingressus potuit qua parte videri.
Terruit urbs animum Roberto capta Gisulfi.

These, returning at swift run—marvelous to say—
and delaying nowhere, the dog carried to its own house;
thus, sagacious, it prepared aliments for its master and for itself.
Certain citizens, not able to bear so great hunger,
having gone out at the time of the eighth month,
throw open to Duke Robert the breached walls,
where a more apt ingress could seem possible.
The city—Gisulf’s—when taken, terrified Robert’s spirit.

Conscendit tumm, quae facta cacumine montis
Praeminet urbanis, natura cuius et arte
Est gravis accessus; non hac munitior arce
Omnibus Italiae regionibus ulla videtur.
Expugnat validis Robertus viribus arcem.
At valido cum forte ducis petraria saxi
Ictu dimissi perculsa fuisset ab alto,
Avulsum lignum Roberti nobile pectus
Sauciat incauti; sed non post tempore multo,
Auxiliante Deo, recipit caro laesa salutem.

He then ascends the fortress, which, built on the mountain’s summit,
towers over the city; whose approach by nature and by art
is hard of access; in all the regions of Italy no fortress
seems more fortified than this. Robert storms the citadel with mighty forces.
But when by the strong blow of a rock, discharged from the leader’s petrary,
the citadel had been battered from on high, a torn-off timber
wounds the noble breast of unwary Robert; but not long after,
with God aiding, the injured flesh regains health.

Redditus incolumis, magis expugnare Gisulfum
Nititur. Ille suam fortunam dum videt esse
Casibus extremis positam, quia nulla salutis
Spes erat, arbitrio sese ducis et sua dedit;
Orat sola sibi libertas detur eundi,
Iusque duci proprium dimittens, liber abivit.
Gregorium papam spoliatus honore Salerni
Appetiit primum.

Returned unharmed, he strives the more to storm Gisulf.
He, while he sees his fortune set in extreme hazards, since there was no hope
of safety, surrendered himself and his property to the duke’s discretion;
he begs that to himself alone liberty of departing be granted,
and, remitting his proper right to the duke, he went away free.
Gregory the pope, stripped of honor, at Salerno
he sought first.

Venientem papa benigne
Suscipit, et regio Campanica traditur illi.
Urbe triumphata gaudet Robertus et arce,
Et ne posterius sibi gens infida repugnet,
Munivit summam fidis custodibus arcem.
Inferiore situ fit inexpugnabile castrum,
Quo sibi subiecti valeant consistere tuti.

The pope kindly receives him as he comes,
and the Campanian region is handed over to him.
With the city and the citadel triumphed over, Robert rejoices,
and lest thereafter the faithless people resist him,
he fortified the highest citadel with faithful guards.
In the lower position the fortress is made inexpugnable,
where those subject to him may be able to stand secure.

Urbs Latii non est hac deliciosior urbe;
Frugibus, arboribus vinoque redundat et unda;
Non ibi poma, nuces, non pulchra palatia desunt,
Non species muliebris abest probitasque virorum.
Altera planiciem pars obtinet, altera montem,
Et quodcunque velis terrave marive ministrat.
Hac adquisita simul adquisivit Amalfin.

No city of Latium is more delightful than this city;
It overflows with crops, trees, wine, and water;
There, fruits, nuts, and fair palaces are not lacking,
Nor are female beauty and the probity of men absent.
One part occupies the plain, another the mountain,
And it supplies whatever you wish, by land or by sea.
With this acquired, at the same time he acquired Amalfi.

Urbs haec dives opum, populoque referta videtur,
Nulla magis locuples argento, vestibus, auro,
Partibus innumeris. Hac plurimus urbe moratur
Nauta, maris coelique vias aperire peritus.
Huc et Alesandri diversa feruntur ab urbe,
Regis et Antiochi; gens haec freta plurima transit;
His Arabes, Libi, Siculi noscuntur et Afri:
Haec gens est totum notissima paene per orbem
Et mercanda ferens et amans mercata referre.

This city seems rich in wealth, and replete with people,
No city more wealthy in silver, garments, gold,
With innumerable wares. In this city a very great number of sailors tarry
skilled to open the routes of sea and sky.
Hither too diverse things are carried from the city of Alexandria,
and from the king’s Antioch; this people crosses very many straits;
By these Arabs, Libyans, Sicilians, and Africans are known:
This people is almost the most well-known throughout the whole world
both bearing merchandise to sell and loving to bring back things bought.

His sibi subiectis, quae disponenda fuere
Omnia disponit; Troiam dux ipse revisit.
Dumque moraretur Troianae moenibus urbis,
Nobilis advenit Lambardus marchio quidam,
Nobilibus patriae multis comitantibus illum.
Azo vocatus erat; secum deduxit Hugonem
Illustrem natum; ducis huic ut filia detur
Exigit in sponsam.

With these subjected to himself, the things that had to be arranged
he arranges all; the leader himself revisits Troy.
And while he lingered within the walls of the Trojan city,
There arrived a certain noble Lombard marquess,
with many nobles of the fatherland accompanying him.
He was called Azo; he brought with him Hugh
an illustrious son; that to him the duke’s daughter be given
he demands as his betrothed.

Comites proceresque vocari
Quaque facit super his dux consulturus ab urbe.
Horum consiliis Roberti filia nato
Traditur Azonis; taedas ex more iugales
Et convivando celebrant et multa ferendo.
Cunctis, coniugii quae postulat ordo, peractis,
Sollicitat comites dux et quoscunque potentes,
Dona petens, laeti quibus et vir et uxor abire
Donati valeant.

He orders the counts and nobles to be called,
and, to consult upon these matters, the duke has them summoned from the city.
By their counsels Robert’s daughter is delivered to Azo’s son;
the nuptial torches, according to custom,
they celebrate both by banqueting and by bringing many gifts.
With all the things accomplished which the order of marriage demands,
the duke solicits the counts and whomever are powerful,
seeking gifts, by which both husband and wife may be able to depart glad,
endowed.

Nec enim prius, imperiales
Altera cum proles thalamos Michael adisset
Quodlibet auxilium dederant. Communiter illi
Omnes tristantur, quasi vectigalia posci

For not before had they given any aid,
until Michael, with the other offspring, had entered the imperial bridal chambers.
They all together are saddened,
as if tribute were being exacted

A duce mirantes; sed non obstare valentes,
Et mulos et equos diversaque munera praebent.
His generum donans, addens sua, classe parata
Ad sua cum magno patremque remisit honore.
Normanni comites conquesti saepe vicissim
A duce tractari se tam male tamque moleste,
Occuluere diu male fidi pectoris iram.
Tandem consiliis Iordanem patre Ricardo
Participant natum; patruo simul omnia pandunt
Rannulfo comiti; quorum sibi consociatis

Amazed at the duke; but not able to oppose,
they offer mules and horses and diverse gifts.
Giving these to his son-in-law, adding his own, with the fleet prepared,
he sent him back to his own—and his father too—with great honor.
The Norman counts, often in turn complaining,
A duke’s handling of them so badly and so vexatiously,
concealed for a long time the ire of a ill-faithful heart.
At length into their counsels they admit Jordan, born of his father Richard;
at the same time they lay everything open to his paternal uncle,
Count Ranulf; with these allied to themselves

Fisi praesidiis, Petrus et Gosfridus aperta
Mentis fraude ducem coepere lacessere bellis.
Amissaeque nepos-terrae memor Abagelardus,
Filius Unfredi, toto conamine temptat
Infestare ducem, socio Gradilone, sororem

Fisi’s garrisons as backing, Peter and Geoffrey with manifest fraud of mind
began to provoke the duke with wars.
And Abagelard, the grandson mindful of the lost land,
son of Humphrey, with his whole endeavor attempts
to infest the duke, with Gradilo as associate, the sister

Cui dedit uxorem. Nec Balduinus eorum
Defuit auxiliis, et lingua doctus et armis.
His comes Henricus, comes et sociatus Amicus,
Doctior his derat Robertus de Scabioso
Monte comes dictus, Gosfredi frater, et ambo

To whom he gave as wife.
Nor did Baldwin fail them with aids, skilled both in tongue and in arms.
To these there joined Count Henry, and Count Amicus as ally,
More learned than these, there was lacking Robert, count called “of Scabious Mount,”
brother of Gosfrid, and both

Orti germana fuerant ducis. Ira nepotes
Accendebat in hunc cunctis praestare volentem.
Omnes hi privare ducem conantur honore.
Haec dissensio non loca concutit Appula tantum,
Sed Catabris etiam ac Lucanis regnat in oris

They had been sprung from the duke’s sister. Anger was inflaming the nephews
against this man, willing to excel all.
All these strive to deprive the duke of honor.
This dissension shakes not the Apulian places only,
but it reigns also on the Calabrian and Lucanian shores.

Nec non Campanis. Metus est hostilis ubique;
Latronum rabies passim bachatur, et omnes
Per partes Italas raptorum copia crevit.
In partes varias Normannica contio tendit;
Sed quamvis hostes essent ducis agmine plures,

And likewise in Campania. The hostile fear is everywhere;
the frenzy of brigands runs riot far and wide, and in all
the Italian regions the abundance of plunderers grew.
Into various parts the Norman assembly extends;
but although the enemies were more numerous than the duke’s array,

Pars bello melior Roberto semper adhaeret.
Redditur urbs Petro Tranensis, et Abagelardo,

The party better at war always adheres to Robert.
The city is returned to Peter of Trani, and to Abagelard,

Coniuge prole data, dedit Argiricius urbem
Egregiam Bari, quam dux commiserat ipsi.
Non tamen, urbibus his hac tempestate remotis,
Gens ab amore ducis Iuvenaci fida recedit.
Unanimes optant parere fideliter illi.

With a consort and progeny bestowed, Argiricius gave up the distinguished city of Bari, which the duke had committed to him.
Not, however, with these cities at this time removed, does the faithful people withdraw from the love of Duke Iuvenachus.
Of one mind they opt to obey him faithfully.

Argiricius hos monet ut reddatur Amico
Urbs, sua quae fuerit; quam si non reddere vellent,
Obsidibus natis hunc se donare minatur
A duce commissis dudum sibi. Non tamen illi
Postposuere fidem, contempto prolis amore,
Seque duci dicunt servare perhenniter illam.
Hanc adipiscendam multis stipatus ad urbem
Cum Petri comitis oomitatu vadit Amicus.

Argiricius advises these men that the Urbs be returned to Amicus,
which had been his; if they should be unwilling to return it,
he threatens to give himself over to him with offspring as hostages,
long ago committed to his charge by the duke. Nevertheless they
did not postpone their faith, with the love of their progeny despised,
and say that they keep it for the duke perennially.
To acquire this, thronged with many, to the city
Amicus goes with the retinue of Count Peter.

Affuit obsessae simul Argiricius urbi
Cum populo Bari, Trani pariterque Choreti.
Andrenses etiam cum Buxiliensibus assunt.
Gens Iuvenacensis non obsidione vel armis
Territa stat fortis; defendere moenia « at,
Et ponit vigiles, obsistit et acriter illis,
Qui foris insistunt.

Argiricius was present at the besieged city at the same time
with the people of Bari, and likewise of Trani and of the Choreti.
The Andrenses also are present with the Buxilienses.
The Iuvenacensian people, not terrified by siege or by arms,
stand brave; to defend the walls « at,
and it posts sentries, and it also opposes sharply those
who stand without.

Hi pugnant, illa repugnat.
Impugnata licet terra marique fuisset,
Arte capi nulla valuit. Legatus ab urbe
Forte Betontina fictos deferre iubetur
Rumores; caute Guilerrnus adinvenit illos
Filius Ivonis, cui dux concesserat urbem.

They fight; she fights back.
Although it had been assailed by land and sea,
it could not be taken by any stratagem. A legate from the city
of Bitonto, by chance, is ordered to carry fabricated rumors;
cautiously William, the son of Ivo, discovered them—
to whom the duke had granted the city.

« Ecce Rogerus adest Roberti filius », inquit
Nuncius, « et multas equitum peditumque catervas
Dux sibi ducendas dedit ». Hunc properasse putantes,
Diffugiunt cuncti quos urbis ad obsidionem
Duxerat, ut captam sibi subdere possit, Amicus.
Dux licet audierit tot convenisse rebelles,
Nullo concutitur terrore; vel arte vel armis
Omnes exsuperat; monitis quam dulcibus illos
Allicit, hos bello domitat; versutus et audax
Novit utrosque modos; adimit sua castra quibusdam,
Quosdam blanditiis verborum commovet ultro
Tradere, quae nequeunt violento marte parari.
Sic iuxta Bradanum dimissa flumen equestri

« Behold, Roger is here, the son of Robert », says
the messenger, « and the duke has given to him many companies of horsemen and footmen
to be led ». Thinking that he had hastened hither,
all those scatter whom Amicus had led to the siege of the city,
that, once captured, he might subject it to himself. Though the duke had heard that so many rebels
had assembled, he is shaken by no terror; either by art or by arms
he overmasters all; with counsels how sweet he entices those,
these he tames by war; wily and bold,
he knows both modes; he deprives certain men of their own camp,
he moves some by blandishments of words to surrender of their own accord
things which cannot be procured by violent Mars.
Thus, near the river Bradanum, a cavalry engagement being joined

Gente sua, Calabras cum parte profectus ad oras,
Et Cusentinos sibi pacificavit, et illos
Deduxit rediens ad bella pedestria promtos.

With his own people, having set out with a part to the Calabrian shores,
he also pacified the Cusentines for himself, and he,
returning, led them down ready for infantry battles.

His comitatus abit; tamen erogat ante sequaci,
Quod potuit, populo. Properat confligere contra
Omnes infidos. Iuvenacus fida recepit

Accompanied by these he departs; yet beforehand he disburses to the following people what he could.
He hastens to clash in battle against all the faithless.
Iuvenacus received him in loyal fashion.

Hinc equites aliquot. Qua noverat Abagelardum
Esse, petit primum violento robore Barum.
Barensis populus numero confisus et eius

From here several cavalrymen.
Where he knew Abagelardus to be, he first seeks Bari with violent might.
The Barian people, confident in their number and in its

Quem sequitur ductu, ducis utpote Marte valentis
Cum duce congreditur. Lorica sed Abagelardi

Whom he follows under his leadership, the leader being indeed valiant in Mars,
he engages with the leader. But the cuirass of Abagelardus

Cuspide perfoditur; corpus perfossa tueri
Non valet armati; bellorum saucius ultra
Vim perferre nequit; sua gens fugit urbis adusque
Moenia. Robertus Iuvenacum victor adire

It is perforated by the spear-point; pierced, it cannot guard the body of the armed man;
war-wounded, he can no longer endure the violence; his gens flees right up to the city’s
walls. Robert, as victor, moves to approach Iuvenacum

Mox parat. Huic properat procedere turba fidelis
Obvia. Quis posset tantas expromere grates,

Soon he makes ready. To him the faithful throng hastens to go forth
to meet. Who could express such great thanks,

Quantas cuique refert! LŠudat communiter omnes,
Pignoribus caris quia praeposuere tenorem

How great he renders to each! He praises all in common,
because they have preferred the steady tenor to dear pledges.

Promissae fidei. Tunc omnibus oscula praebens,
« Ne timeatis, ait; non deformabit Amicus

of the promised faith. Then, offering kisses to all,
« Do not be afraid, he says; the Friend will not deform you

Quemlibet ex pueris, omni quia postulat arte
Ut mea reddatur sibi gratia ». Taliter illi

Whichever of the boys, since he requests with every art
that my grace be returned to himself ». Thus to them

Respondet populus: « Tua nos praecepta paratos
Crede sequi, totam domino committere curam

The people answer: « Believe us ready to follow your precepts,
to commit the whole care to the Lord »

Natorum; quia nullus amor removere valebit
Nos ab amore tuo. Tantum servator amoris
Sis petimus nostri dominator et esto benignus ».
Auditis populi precibus favet ille precantis.
Annis tota sui tribus est solvenda tributi
Pactio, dimidii concessa perenniter illis.

Of the children; because no love will be able to remove
us from your love. Only be the preserver of love—
of our love, lord—and be benign ».
With the prayers of the people heard, he favors the suppliant.
An entire pact of his tribute is to be paid in three years,
a concession of a half granted to them in perpetuity.

His ita dimissis properat remeare Salernum.
Dum redit, hostiles vicos et castra subacta
Donat militibus. Faciebat proelia saepe
Diversis diversa locis. Fortuna favoris
Auxilium praebebat ei, quod, dum male fida
Ascolus appetitur, certamine captus equestri

With these thus dismissed, he hastens to return to Salerno.
While he returns, he gifts to the soldiers the hostile villages and the subdued camps.
He was often making battles, different in different places.
Fortune of favor was providing aid to him, in that, while the ill‑faithful Ascolus was being assailed,
he was captured in an equestrian contest.

Vi capit; hic Gradilo privatur lumine captus,
Testibus exuitur; sed Balduinus habere
Illaesos artus permittitur; hunc tamen arcent
Carcere custodes, quia faveat Abagelardo.

He seizes by force; here Gradilo, captured, is deprived of light,
he is stripped of his testicles; but Baldwin is permitted to have
his limbs unharmed; yet the guards confine this man
in prison, because he favors Abagelard.

Pervenit his gestis, quo coeperat ire, Salernum.
A Iordane duci poscentes foedera pacis
Assunt legati. Dux, ni discordia cesset,
Dilapsura brevi quia plurima praemeditatus
Commoda, legatis placido respondet amore.

He arrives at Salerno, whither he had begun to go, after these deeds.
Envoys are present from Duke Jordan, requesting pacts of peace.
The duke, having premeditated many advantages, which would soon slip away unless discord should cease, responds to the envoys with placid goodwill.

Inducias ponit; fit sponsio colloquiorum,
Constituitque diem. Legati non sine magna
Laetitia redeunt, quia tam gratanter ab ipso
Suscepti fuerant, et nuntia laeta reportant.
Iordani placuere satis quaecunque recensent.

He sets a truce; a pledge of colloquies is made,
and he appoints a day. The envoys return not without great
joy, because they had been received so graciously by him,
and they bring back glad tidings.
Iordan’s were sufficiently pleasing whatever things they recount.

Hoc infra tempus Iuvenacum mittere quosdam
Dus equites lectos procurans, praeciplt illis
Non tantum prodesse suis, sed obesse laborent
Hostibus, hosque modo poterunt quocunque molestent.
Hii postquam longo—nec enim fas pergere recto
His erat—adveniunt Iuvenacum tramite ducti
Callibus obliquis, aderat quia plutimus hostis,
Infestare ducis coepere viriliter hostes;
Quique prius soliti fuerant inferre rapinas,
Se doluere pati; nequeunt incedere tuti.
Iordanis princeps et dux studuere statuto
Ire die Sarnum.

Meanwhile, the Duke, arranging to send certain chosen horsemen to Iuvenacum,
enjoins them not only to benefit their own, but to strive to harm
the enemies, and to harass them however and wherever they can.
These, after a long— for it was not permissible for them to proceed by a straight
route— arrive at Iuvenacum, led by a track
through oblique by-paths, since a very great host of the enemy was at hand;
they began manfully to infest the duke’s enemies;
and those who previously had been accustomed to inflict rapine,
grieved to suffer it themselves; they cannot advance safely.
Jordan, prince and duke, endeavored on the appointed
day to go to Sarnum.

Pax firma fit inter utrumque;
Est cum Rannulfo simili firmata tenore.
Alter erat patruus Iordanis, avunculus alter.
His ita sedatis, dux Appula castra requirit,
Et Spinaciolum, muro quod Amicus et armis
Munierat castrum, quo non cum milite pauco
Filius eius erat, equites comprendit et omnes.

A firm peace is made between the two;
It is with Ranulf ratified on a like tenor.
The one was Jordan’s paternal uncle, the other his maternal uncle.
These matters thus settled, the Apulian duke revisits the camp,
And Spinaciolum, the fort which Amicus had fortified with wall and arms,
in which, with no small soldiery,
his son was; he apprehends the knights and all.

Filius est solus fugiens elapsus Amici.

The son of Amicus alone escaped by fleeing.

Perdere plura timens pacem deposcit Amicus.
Dux illi placidus favet, obsidibusque receptis
Laetificat moestos reddendo pignora patres,
Et Iuvenacenses desistunt plangere matres.

Fearing to lose more, Amicus presses for peace.
The duke, gentle, favors him, and, the hostages received,
he gladdens the sorrowing fathers by returning the pledges,
and the Iuvenacensian mothers cease to lament.

Perterrent tumidos haec foedera facta nepotes;
Roberti comitis dux Gofridique nepotum

These treaties made terrify the swollen descendants;
the leader of the descendants of Count Robert and of Geoffrey

Non mala respexit tolerata, sed immemor irae,
Dum veniam poscunt, indulget avunculus illis.
His fisus sociis, comitatus milite multo,
Obsedit Barum. Socer Argiricius huius
Qui solus pacem vitaverat Abagelardi,
Urbe ducem recipit, genero qui pacis et urbis
Extorri facto ducis est reparatus amori.

He did not look back to the evils endured, but, unmindful of wrath,
while they ask for pardon, the uncle indulges them.
Trusting in these allies, accompanied by much soldiery,
he besieged Bari. The father-in-law of this Argiricius,
who alone had shunned Abagelard’s peace,
receives the duke into the city; his son-in-law having been made an exile
from peace and from the city, he was restored to the duke’s love.

Sic quia pace ducis non fungitur Abagelardus,
Et patrii iuris loca deserit, et Danaorum
Exul adit terras, cum rector Alexius esset
Imperii: clemens hunc suscipit ille benigne,

Thus, because Abagelard does not enjoy the duke’s peace,
and deserts the places of his ancestral right, and, an exile,
goes to the lands of the Danaans, when Alexius was rector
of the Empire: the clement man receives him benignly,

Tractat honorifice, dat multa. Sed invida, nulli
Parcere quae curat, iuveniles mors subit artus;
Quique regressurum se credidit esse potentem
Diversi generis cum fascibus atque triumphis,
Exul apud Danaos et mortuus est et humatus.

He treats him honorifically, gives much. But envious
death, which cares to spare no one, comes upon youthful limbs;
and he who believed that he would return powerful
with fasces and triumphs of diverse kind,
as an exile among the Danaans both died and was buried.

Dux sibi coniunctis Barensibus obsidet auctis
Agminibus Tranum, Petro stimulante rebelle.
Hac dux uxorem dimittit in obsidione.

The duke, with the Barese joined to him and his columns augmented, besieges Trani,
with Peter the rebel urging him on.
On this, the duke sends away his wife amid the siege.

Non sine militibus multis petit ipse Tarentum;
Protinus obsessum terraque marique recepit.
Hinc positis castris Castellum victor Aneti

Not without many soldiers he himself makes for Tarentum;
straightway he recovered it, besieged by land and sea.
From here, with the camp pitched, the victor makes for the Castle of Anetum

Obsidet. Inde Petrum comitem miserabilis angit
Anxietas, quia visa duci fortuna favere

He besieges it. Then miserable Anxiety torments Count Peter,
because fortune seemed to favor the duke.

Est inimica sibi, pacem veniamque requirit.
Dux per legatos, quos miserat ille, relegat,
Ut sibi cum Trano Castellum donet Aneti;
Ni dabit ista, frui non pace merebitur eius.
Vestibus incultis Petrus est ad castra profectus;
Subintrat, veniam pacis cum foedere poscens.

She is inimical to herself, and seeks peace and pardon.
The leader, through the legates whom he had sent, sends back word
that he grant to him the Castle of Anetum together with Trani;
if he will not give these things, he will not merit to enjoy his peace.
In rough garments Peter set out to the camp;
he slips in, asking pardon and a pact of peace.

Custodes castri vocat et descendere iussit
Turribus; hi iussi Roberto moenia tradunt.
Tradidit et Tranum, duas ut sibi gratia detur,
Efficiturque suus iurando iure fidelis.
Cervices rigidas sic dux astutus et audax
Flectere, sic finem bellis imponere novit.

He calls the castle’s guards and orders them to descend
from the towers; these, when ordered, hand over the walls to Robert.
He also hands over Trani, that a twofold favor be granted him,
and by swearing an oath he is rendered, by law, his faithful man.
Thus the shrewd and bold duke knows how to bend stiff necks,
thus to impose an end upon wars.

Explicit liber tertius.

Here ends the third book.

INCIPIT QUARTUS

HERE BEGINS THE FOURTH

His Michael solii deiectus ab arce diebus,
Cuius in insontem Romanum dira voluntas
Arserat indigne, socio sibi fratre repulso,
Monachus efficitur. Roberti filia moeret
Deponi socium; miser exulat ille coactus.

In these days Michael, cast down from the citadel of the throne,
whose dire will had burned outrageously against the innocent Roman,
with his brother, his associate, repulsed,
is made a monk. Robert’s daughter mourns
that her consort is deposed; wretched, he is driven into exile, compelled.

Urbibus et castris sibi circumquaque subactis,
Appula dimittens loca dux parat ire Salernum.
Partibus Esperiae, quem Barcilona tremebat,
Venerat insignis comes hanc Raimondus ad urbem,
Ut nuptura ducis detur sibi filia poscens.
Huic maior natu nubtum datur.

With cities and camps on every side subjugated to himself,
the duke, leaving the Apulian places, prepares to go to Salerno.
From the parts of Hesperia, whom Barcelona used to tremble at,
the distinguished count Raymond had come to this city,
asking that the duke’s daughter, about to be married, be given to him.
To him the elder by birth is given in marriage.

Altera nubsit
Egregio comiti Francorum stemmate claro;
Ebalus hic dictus, subcombere nescius hosti,
Belligeras acies ad proelia ducere doctus
Et facundus erat, linguaque manuque vigebat.
Illis Gregorius Beneventum papa diebus
Advenit. Urbs erat haec Romano subdita papae
Atque sui iuris.

The other married
to an excellent count, of illustrious lineage of the Franks;
this one was called Ebalus, unknowing to succumb to an enemy,
skilled to lead belligerent battle-lines to battles,
and he was eloquent, and he flourished in tongue and in hand.
In those days Pope Gregory came to Beneventum.
This city was subject to the Roman pope
and of its own right.

Quia dux obsederat urbem,
Aegre papa tulit. Veniam Robertus ut huius
Impetret offensae, papae properavit ad urbem,
Supplicat et pedibus sancti dans oscula patris,
Suscipitur (tanti persona vigoris honore
Digna videbatur), considere papa coegit.
Soliloquum, cunctis astantibus inde remotis,
Consilium tenuere diu; tum papa fideles
Convocat; ex papae secretum iussibus horum
Panditur; allatus liber est evangeliorum;
Dux papae iurat, fuerit dum vita superstes,
Observaturum fidei se iura perhennis
Ecclesiae sanctae, totus cui subiacet orbis.

Because the duke had besieged the city,
the pope bore it with difficulty. That Robert might obtain pardon for this offense,
he hastened to the pope’s city,
he supplicates and, giving kisses to the feet of the holy father,
he is received (the person of such vigor seemed worthy of honor), the pope compelled him to sit.
A soliloquy, with all bystanders then removed,
they held counsel for a long time; then the pope summons the faithful;
from the pope’s secret commands this is disclosed to them;
the book of the Gospels was brought in;
the duke swears to the pope that, so long as life remains surviving,
he will observe the rights of the faith of the everlasting holy Church,
to which the whole world lies subject.

Romani regni sibi promisisse coronam
Papa ferebatur, quia rex Henricus ab illo
Damnatus fuerat propter commissa nefandis
Accumulata modis. Nec enim venundare sanctas
Ecclesias veritus, perversum dogma colebat
Symonis, et nullum donabat pontificali
Culmine praeter eos, qui maxama dona tulissent.
Incestus etiam turpes et turpe subire
Ausus adulterium, vitam ducebat iniquam;
Sacrilegus, moechus, consortia nulla proborum,
Sed reprobi coetus collegia semper amabat.

It was reported that the Pope had promised to him the crown of the Roman realm,
because King Henry had been condemned by him
on account of crimes committed, heaped up by nefarious ways.
For he did not fear to vend the holy
churches, and he cultivated the perverse dogma
of Simon, and he granted no one to the pontifical
summit except those who had brought the greatest gifts.
Even, foul with incest and daring to undergo
shameful adultery, he led an iniquitous life;
a sacrilegious man, an adulterer, no companionships of the upright,
but he always loved the gatherings, the fellowships of the reprobate.

His vitiis virtus sancti contraria papae
Gregorii, regno deponi iudicat illum.
Saxonibus mandat perhiberi rex apud ipsos
Desinat ulterius, totis et viribus obstent;
Accitosque duces Guelfumque ducemque Rodulfum
Admonet, Henrico Petri pro parte resistant
Et Pauli, Symon quibus insurrexerat alter.
Esse putabatur concessa corona Rodulfo.

Against these vices, the virtue of the holy pope Gregory, being contrary, judges him to be deposed from the kingdom.
He commands it to be reported to the Saxons that the king cease among them any further, and that they oppose with all their forces;
and he admonishes the summoned leaders, Welf and the duke Rudolf,
that they resist Henry on the part of Peter
and Paul, against whom the other, Simon, had risen up.
It was thought that the crown had been granted to Rudolf.

Is sibi Saxonibus multo cum milite iunctis
Indixit bellum papae venerabilis hosti.
Et populus regi dampnato multus adhaeret,
Ius patrium recolens, aliumque inducere nolens
Haeredem regno. Grave fit certamen utrimque:
Dura quidem gens est et cedere nescia; magnis
Ictibus inter se, hinc Lotharingi, Saxones inde
Certatim feriunt; alternis vulnera reddunt
Vulneribus; stat quisque studens obstare vicissim;
Et perhibentur ibi triginta caesa virorum
Milia, sed neutro populo cedente Radulfus
Occidit, et fessus populus defecit uterque.

He, with the Saxons joined to himself with much soldiery,
declared war upon the venerable pope, his enemy.
And a great multitude of the people adheres to the condemned king,
recalling the ancestral right, and unwilling to introduce another
heir to the kingdom. The contest becomes grievous on both sides:
it is indeed a hard nation and unknowing how to yield; with great
blows among themselves—here the Lotharingians, there the Saxons—
they strike in rivalry; by turns they render wounds for
wounds; each stands, striving in turn to oppose;
and there thirty thousand men are reported slain; but with neither people
yielding, Rudolph fell, and the weary people on both sides gave out.

Se quasi victorem percepta morte Rodulfi
Gaudens Henricus, quem regni depositorem
Noverat esse sui, papam infestare laborat.
Romam obsessurus magna cum gente venire
Nititur. Hoc prudens comperto papa favorem
Curat habere ducis, succurrat ut ipse labori
Promptus ad arma suo, vires et deprimat hostis.

Henry, rejoicing as though a victor, with Rudolf’s death perceived,
labors to assail the pope, whom he had known
to be the deposer of his own realm.
He strives to come to Rome with a great host, intending to besiege it.
Prudent, on learning this, the pope takes care to have the favor
of the duke, that he himself, prompt to arms, may succor his own struggle
and depress the forces of the foe.

Pacis perpetuae Beneventi foedere pacto,
Gregorius Romam remeavit, duxque Salernum.
Hac, Mathaee, tibi construxit in urbe decoris
Aecclesiam miri; sibi nobilis aula paratur.
Dedecus illatum genero prolique repulsae
Sedibus augustis non sollicitudine parva
Cor ducis accendit.

With a treaty of perpetual peace at Benevento concluded,
Gregory returned to Rome, and the duke to Salerno.
In this city, Matthew, he built for you a church of wondrous adornment;
for himself a noble hall was prepared.
The disgrace inflicted upon his son-in-law and the repulse of his offspring
in the august seats inflamed the duke’s heart with no small solicitude.

Gravis haec iniuria multis
Esse videbatur ducis: hanc desiderat ultum
Ire. Senex quidam regni Nichoferus habenas
Sumpserat, ignavus bello, tamen ingeniosa
Mente sagax; contra furtiva pericula cautus,
Imbellis, metuens plus quam metuendus habetur.
Militiae princeps sustentat Alexius illum,
Astuta ratione vigens et strenuus armis.

This grievous injury seemed to many to be the duke’s;
he desires to go to avenge this.
A certain old man, Nicephorus, had taken up the reins of the kingdom,
cowardly in war, yet shrewd with an ingenious mind;
cautious against stealthy dangers,
unwarlike, he is held to fear more than to be feared.
The chief of the soldiery, Alexius, supports him,
thriving in astute counsel and strenuous in arms.

Pectore clarus erat clarisque parentibus ortus.
Annos iste suae plures aetatis ab ipso
Flore iuventutis primaevo duxit in armis;
Si quid oportebat fieri grave, non dubitabat
Imperio sancto sibi praecipiente subire.
Hostes imperii, Basilachius atque Brienus,
Insignes Graeci, bellis opibusque potentes,
Hoc duce sunt victi; victori cessit uterque.

He was illustrious in heart and sprung from illustrious parents.
This man led many years of his life in arms from the very flower of first youth;
if anything weighty ought to be done, he did not hesitate to undergo it, the sacred command enjoining him.
The enemies of the Empire, Basilachius and Brienus,
distinguished Greeks, powerful in wars and in resources,
were defeated with this leader; each yielded to the victor.

Nam sibi non longe dum congrederetur ab Urbe,
Bellando victus cedit capiturque Brienus.
Victus Alexina cessit Basilachius arte.
Alter in alterius congressum dum properaret,
Proxima castra die cedente locantur utrimque.

For, as he was joining battle with him not far from the City,
Brienus, overcome in fighting, gives way and is taken captive.
Basilachius, defeated, yielded to the Alexian art.
While the one was hastening into an engagement with the other,
the next camps are pitched on both sides as the day was waning.

Nocte fugam prudens simulavit Alexius illa,
Castris dimissis, neque tota remota supellex
Eius erat, quaedam tentoria fixa manebant.
Haec dimissa fugae iumentaque luce sequenti
Effecere fidem, castrisque relicta supellex.
Contra se nullos ubi vidit adesse paratus
Hostilis belli, castris sine gente relictis,
Circumquaque suis Basilachius imperat ire,
Siquos excipiunt ab equis vel gente tumultus,

On that night prudent Alexius simulated a flight,
the camp having been dismissed, nor was all his equipment removed;
certain tents remained fixed. These things left behind as of a flight, and the pack-animals on the following morning,
produced belief, and the equipment left in the camp. When he saw that no preparations
of hostile war were present against him, the camp having been left without troops,
Basilachius orders his men to go around on all sides,
if they intercept any tumults from horsemen or from a host,

Ut sibi notificent. Mussantis nulla cohortis
Vox, nullus potuit sonus aut hinnitus equorum
Audiri. Sperat Basilachius omnia tuta,
Atque suis hostem pro viribus expavefactum
Credit inisse fagam.

That they notify him. No voice of a muttering cohort
no sound or neighing of horses
could be heard. Basilachius hopes all is secure,
and believes that by his men the enemy, to the utmost panic‑stricken,
has entered upon flight.

Coenantem crapula somno
Aggravat, et castris gens tota quieta iacebat.
Callibus occultis advectus Alexius hostes
Irrumpens subito perterruit. His, quia noctis
Obstabant tenebrae, nusquam loca tuta patebant;
Spes est nulla fugae; capiuntur et interimuntur.

Crapulence aggravates the diner with sleep,
and in the camp the whole host lay quiet.
Alexius, borne along by hidden byways, upon the foes
bursting in suddenly, terrified them. For them, because the shadows
of night stood in the way, nowhere did safe places lie open;
there is no hope of flight; they are captured and put to death.

His sopor et vini dederat violentia multa
Segnitiem; nec abire valent nec ad arma reverti.
Lumine privatus Basilachius et tibi captus
Legatur, nichil ipse videns, Nichofore, videndus,
Imperio cuius praesumpserat esse rebellis.
Impiger et cautus sic victor Alexius hastes
Imperii multos armis superavit et arte.

To these, sleep and the great violence of wine had given sluggishness;
nor could they depart nor return to arms.
Deprived of light, Basilachius and taken for you
let him be sent—to be seen by you, Nicephorus—seeing nothing himself,
against whose command he had presumed to be rebellious.
Energetic and cautious, thus the victor Alexius many enemies
of the Empire overcame by arms and by art.

Dux transire volens mare praecipit arma parari,
Militibusque suis se praestolentur Idrunthi
Imperat; aptari naves facit; ipse Salerni,
Undique dona petens et supplementa, moratur,
Huc illuc apices non cessans mittere; secum
Navibus ornatis fidas monet ire cohortes.
Insolitum multis iter illud et acre videtur;
Praeapue quibus uxores et pignora cara
In domibus fuerant, non exercere volebant
Militiam talem; sed verba minantia blandis
Dus addens precibus, multos properare coegit.
Conveniunt omnes, sicut mandatur, Hidronti.

The Duke, wishing to cross the sea, orders the arms to be prepared,
and commands his soldiers to await him at Idrunthi; he has the ships made ready; he himself at Salerno,
seeking gifts and reinforcements from every side, lingers,
not ceasing to send dispatches hither and thither; he urges
faithful cohorts to go with him in outfitted ships.
To many that journey seems unaccustomed and harsh;
especially those for whom wives and dear pledges were in their homes
did not wish to exercise such soldiery; but the Duke, adding threatening words to gentle entreaties,
compelled many to hasten.
All assemble, as it is ordered, at Hidronti.

Dalmaticas naves oneri dux eligit aptas,
Ausilio sibi quas gens miserat illa petitas:
Has armis et equis sumptuque virisque repletas
Ad Corifum mittit. Haec insula non procul urbe
Distat Hidrontina. Placidis spirantibus auris
Huc cito transitur; dimissis navibus illam
Acriter invadunt equites ducis, atque timorem
Omnibus incutiunt qui circumquaque morantur.

The duke chooses Dalmatian ships fit for burden,
which that people, having been asked, had sent for his aid:
these, filled with arms and horses, with provisions and men,
he sends to Corifus. This island is not far from the Hidruntine city.
With placid breezes breathing, one crosses hither quickly; the ships dismissed,
the duke’s knights fiercely invade it, and they strike fear
into all who dwell round about.

Regni sede senex hac tempestate repulsus
Praedictus fuerat; bellator Alexius illum
Expulit iratus, quia non iniuria fratris
Propter eum dimissa fuit, qui viribus auxit
Imperium totis, tot nactus ab hoste triumphos.
Omnibus imperii legionibus huic comitato,
Praesidiis vacua facilis labor Urbe reperta
Est superare senem; fit monachus ille coactus.
Depraedanda tribus datur Urbs invasa diebus
Dus quibus extiterat; manibus quoque sancta nefandis
Atroces Persae loca non violare verentur.

From the seat of the kingdom the aforesaid old man at this time was repulsed;
the warrior Alexius expelled him in anger, because the injury to his brother
had not been remitted on his account—the brother who by his forces augmented
the Empire on all sides, having obtained so many triumphs from the enemy.
With all the Empire’s legions accompanying this man,
the City, found empty of garrisons, made the task easy: to overcome the old man;
he is made a monk, compelled. The City, once stormed, is granted to be despoiled
for three days—by the Leader under whom it had come to pass; and the atrocious Persians
do not fear to violate even holy places with unspeakable hands.

Ducit Alexius hos, magis ut timeatur, ad Urbem.
Imperii regimen bellis bellator adeptus,
Roberti genitae non parvum blandus honorem
Exhibet, audierat quem velle venire, laborans
Pacificare ducem, quo sic avertere mentem
Posset ab inceptis. Sed mens ducis ardua nescit
Cedere proposito; modico remoratus Idronti
Tempore, praestolans adventum coniugis atque
Multorum comitum, quos noverat ipse futuros
Esse viae socios.

Alexius leads these to the City, so that he may be more feared.
Having attained the governance of the Empire by wars, the warrior,
gracious, he shows no small honor to the daughter of Robert,
whom he had heard wished to come, laboring
to pacify the duke, whereby thus he might avert his mind
from his undertakings. But the lofty mind of the duke does not know
to yield from his purpose; having tarried for a short time at Hydruntum,
awaiting the arrival of his spouse and also
of many companions, whom he himself knew would be
companions of the road.

Mentitus se Michaelein
Venerat a Danais quidam seductor ad illum,
Inmerito raptum ius imperiale reposcens,
Se profugum lacrimans. Lacrimantem dux et honeste
Suscipit et tractat, placidoque favore benignum
Exhibet obsequium; populus quoque credulus omnis
Assurgebat ei flexa cervice salutans.
Hunc adhibens socium sibi dux, ut iustior esset
Causa viae, secum, dum transfretat ipse, reducit.

Feigning himself Michael
there came from the Danaans a certain seducer to him,
demanding back the imperial right unjustly snatched,
weeping that he was a fugitive. The duke both honorably
receives and treats the weeping man, and with placid favor he displays benign
compliance; the whole credulous people too
were rising to him with bent neck, saluting.
Taking this man to himself as an associate, that the cause
of the journey might be more just, the duke brings him back with him while he himself crosses the strait.

Ante tamen paulo quam transeat, accelerare
Hunc regis mandata monent, quem papa notarat
Regno privari censens, ut conferat illi
Ausilium contra papam tumidosque Quirites,
Qui facti fuerant non cum ratione rebelles.
Tempore rex Romam veniens obsederat illo.
Dux quamquam dederit placidi responsa favoris,
Legati redeunt sine quolibet emolumento.

Yet a little before he crosses, the king’s mandates admonish him to accelerate—this king whom the pope had marked, judging that he be deprived of the kingdom—so that he might confer to him aid against the pope and the puffed‑up Quirites,
who had become rebels not with reason.
At that time the king, coming to Rome, had besieged it.
Although the duke had given answers of placid favor,
the legates return without any emolument.

Gregorio papae, cui pura mente favebat,
Omnia notificat damnati nuncia regis,
Seque fatetur iter nullatenus illud inisse,
Adventum hostilem praenoscere si valuisset;
Sed quia iam tantos compleverat ipse paratus,
A tantis se posse negat desistere coeptis.
Advenit interea coniunx, comitesque rogati.
Egregiam sobolem multo spectante Rogerum
Accersit populo, cunctisque videntibus illum
Haeredem statuit, praeponit et omnibus illum,
Ipse quibus praelatus erat.

To Pope Gregory, whom he favored with a pure mind,
he notifies all the messages of the condemned king,
and admits that he had in no way entered upon that journey,
if he had been able to foreknow the hostile arrival;
but because he had already completed such great preparations,
he declares that he cannot desist from such great undertakings.
Meanwhile the consort arrives, and the invited companions.
He summons Roger, the distinguished progeny, with a great populace looking on,
before the people, and with all beholding him,
he appoints him heir, and sets him over all,
those very persons over whom he himself had been set.

Dignissimus haeres
Iste patris tanti, patruelibus atque paternis
Moribus ornatus, quantae foret indolis, ipso
Primaevae cultu virtutis significabat.
Jus proprium Latii totius et Apula quaeque
Cum Calabris Siculis loca dux dat habenda Rogero;
Roberto comiti committitur atque Girardo;
Alter fratre satus, fidissimus alter amator,
Et virtutis amans erat et probitatis uterque.
Hos rogat ut papae solatia, siqua valebunt,
Non adhibere negent.

The most worthy heir
this one of so great a father, adorned with paternal-uncle and paternal
manners, by the very early cultivation of virtue signified of what great
natural disposition he would be.
The duke gives to Roger to have the proper right of all Latium and each Apulian
place, together with the Calabrian and Sicilian places;
it is committed to Count Robert and to Girard;
the one sprung from the brother, the other a most faithful adherent,
and each was a lover of virtue and of probity.
He asks these men that they not refuse to apply solaces to the pope, if any will avail,
not to withhold their aid.

Quod coeperat ipse subire
Acceleravit iter, decies et quinque liburnis
Adria sulcatur; Corifi tremit insula tanti
Principis accessus electo milite fulti.
Illa Botruntinam gens quae praecesserat urbem
Ceperat; hunc Corifi genialibus urbs operumque
Praedita praesidiis in deditione recepit;
Obsidibusque datis, vehit insula tota tributum.
Bundiciam nautae vi captam depopulantur.

He accelerated the journey which he himself had begun to undertake,
the Adriatic is furrowed with fifteen liburnae; the island of Corifi trembles
at the approach of so great a Prince, supported by a chosen soldiery.
That people who had gone ahead had taken the city of Botruntum;
this one the city of Corifi, endowed with natural and man‑made defenses,
received in surrender; and, hostages having been given, the whole island conveys tribute.
The sailors plunder Bundicia, seized by force.

Magnae mentis eques Boamundus, filius alter
Qui fuerat prima natus de coniuge, cunctis
A duce deductis equitum peditumque catervis
Militiae princeps praeponitur; imperat ipse
Ut populus totus iussis obtemperet huius.
Dirachium pater hinc et filius obsidet illinc;
Obsessum superare mari terraque laborant.
Hortatus fuerat iam saepe Georgius illuc
Accelerare ducem; quia qui commiserat urbem,
Audierat solii Nichiforum sede repulsum.

Bohemond, a knight of great mind, the other son who had been born from the first spouse, with the bands of horse and foot having been led out by the duke, is set over as commander of the soldiery; he himself orders that the whole people obey this man’s commands.
The father here and the son there besiege Dyrrhachium; they strive to overcome the besieged city by sea and by land.
George had often already urged the duke to hasten thither; because he had heard that Nicephorus, to whom the city had been committed, had been driven from the seat of the throne.

Sed ducis aestivo perpessae tempore naves
Naufragium impediere viam; navique procellis,
In qua dux aderat, vehementibus undique fracta,
Vix evadendi fuit impertita facultas.
Delati panes pro corporibus recreandis
Perfusi pluviis in frusta teruntur, et undis
Littore proiectis olidi cumulantur acervi.
Dux tristatur iter peragi non posse paratum.

But the leader’s ships, having suffered shipwreck in the summer season, impeded the way; and the ship in which the leader was present, shattered on every side by vehement storms, scarcely had the faculty of escape imparted to it.
The loaves brought for the refreshing of bodies, drenched by rains, are ground into fragments, and by the waves the things cast upon the shore are heaped up in fetid piles.
The leader is saddened that the prepared journey cannot be accomplished.

Aeris atque maris non fracto turbine, longas
Hoc agitante moras, multos Paliologus Argos
Dirachium duxit, pulsusque Georgius urbe
Fraude fuit. Missum sibi gaudet Alexius hostem.
Dux tamen a coeptis, ubi comperit affore tempus,
Noluit avelli.

With the whirlwind of air and sea unbroken, this driving long delays,
Paleologus led many Argives to Dyrrhachium,
and George was driven from the city by fraud.
Alexius rejoices that an enemy has been sent to him.
Yet the Duke, when he learned that the time would be at hand,
did not wish to be torn away from his undertakings.

Corifi prior insula cessit.
Hinc Avellona simul urbibus atque quibusdam
Littoreis captis, munitius esse quod audit,
Dirachium obsedit. Quondam fuit urbs opulenta
Magnaque praecipue tegulosis obsita muris.

The island Corifi yielded first.
From here Avellona too, with cities and certain littoral ones captured,
on hearing that it was more fortified, he besieged Dyrrhachium.
Once it was a wealthy city
and great, especially clothed with tile‑clad walls.

Rex Epirotarum dicier hanc Epidamnum
Pyrrhus praecepit, quia fortia ferre Quiritum
Bella Tarentinis sociatus non dubitavit.
Inde frequens bellum varios et passa labores
Evacuata viris fuit ad nihilumque redacta.
Destructam spatio post composuere minori
Zetus et Amphion et praecepere vocari
Dirachium.

Pyrrhus, king of the Epirotes, ordered that this be called Epidamnus,
because, allied with the Tarentines, he did not hesitate to face the strong wars of the Quirites.
Thence, through continual war and having suffered various labors,
it was evacuated of men and reduced to nothing. Afterwards, destroyed,
Zethus and Amphion rebuilt it on a smaller space and ordered it to be called Dirachium.

Duacis hoc circumdatur obsidione.
Fit pavor obsessae non parvus civibus urbis,
Et vigiles statuunt; custodia fida per urbem
Ponitur; imperio factam ducis obsidionem
Notificant, et opem legatis poscere curant.
Obpugnare modis dux nititur omnibus urbem,
Atque operis miri fabricatur lignea turris.

By this Douai is encircled with a siege.
No small fear arises for the citizens of the besieged city,
and they set watches; a faithful guard throughout the city
is posted; they notify that the siege has been made by the command of the duke,
and they take care to seek aid by envoys.
The duke strives to assail the city by all methods,
and a wooden tower of wondrous workmanship is constructed.

Hanc super est ingens erecta petraria, magnos
Proiciens iactus, ut moenia diruat urbis.
Assidue cives augeri castra videntes,
Omnia vastari, praedas accedere magnas,
Hibernique domos pro frigoris aedificari
Incursu, vana spe quae deceperat illos
Hostilis reditus, coepere carere coacti.
Stare ducem credunt, et non abscedere velle,
Dum sibi subdat et hanc, alias qui subdidit urbes.

Above this an enormous petrary is erected, hurling great casts, so that it may tear down the city’s walls.
Continually the citizens, seeing the camp being augmented,
everything being laid waste, great spoils accruing,
and winter-quarters houses being built against the incursion of cold,
began, compelled, to be without the empty hope—which had deceived them—
of the enemy’s going back.
They believe the leader stands fast, and is unwilling to depart,
until he brings under himself this one too, he who has subjected other cities.

Legatos mittunt; cur venerit ille requirunt.
Dux venisse refert se, regni sede repulsus
Immerito Michael ut restituatur honori.
Illi promittunt urbis, quos ipse petebat,
Ingressus numquam viso Michaele negandos.

They send legates; they inquire why he has come.
The leader reports that he has come, so that Michael, unjustly repulsed from the seat of the kingdom, may be restored to honor.
They promise that the city’s entrances, which he himself was seeking, are never to be denied once Michael is seen.

Cornicinum sonitu circumdatus atque tubarum
Et plectris, qui se Michaelem finxerat esse,
More coronatus deducitur imperiali,
Circumvallatus cantantibus undique turbis.
Unanimi cives, hunc ut videre, cachinno
Visum derident dicentes: « Iste solebat
Crateras mensis plenos deferre Lieo,
Et de pincernis erat inferioribus unus ».

Surrounded by the sound of horn-blowers and of trumpets
and plectra, he who had feigned himself to be Michael,
crowned in imperial fashion is led forth,
encircled by crowds singing on every side.
The citizens with one mind, when they saw him, with a guffaw
mock the spectacle, saying: «This fellow used
to carry bowls full to the tables for Lyaeus,
and was one of the lower cupbearers.»

Postquam Robertum cognovit Alexius urbes
Invasisse suas, veritus ne subdat et urbem
Dux sibi Dirachii, magna cum gente paravit
Occursare duci. Bellis navalibus illi
Praemonuit sociam pugnando resistere gentem.
Non ignara quidem belli navalis et audax
Gens erat haec; illam populosa Venetia misit,
Imperii prece, dives opum divesque virorum,
Qua sinus Adriacis interlitus ultimus undis
Subiacet Arcturo.

After Alexius learned that Robert had invaded his cities,
fearing lest the Duke also should subject to himself the city of Dyrrhachium,
he prepared, with a great host, to confront the duke.
For naval wars he fore-advised the allied nation to resist by fighting.
Not indeed unknowing of naval war and audacious,
this nation it was; populous Venice sent it,
at the petition of the Empire, rich in wealth and rich in men,
where the gulf, laved by the outermost Adriatic waves,
lies beneath Arcturus.

Sunt huius moenia gentis
Circumsepta mari; non ab aedibus alter ad aedes
Alterius transire potest, nisi lintre vehatur.

The walls of this people are surrounded by the sea;
from the house of one to the house of another no one can cross,
unless he be conveyed by a skiff.

Semper aquis habitant; gens nulla valentior ista
Aequoreis bellis, ratiumque per aequora ductu.
Civibus obsessis hortatur Alexius illos
Auxilium conferre, suas et ducere naves,
Et pugnare ducis cum navibus, ut superatis
Hostibus his bello, facilis labor esset inire
In terris bellum, populo ducis extenuato.
Imperio parent, ducis et cum navibus ire
Pugnatum properant.

They always dwell upon the waters; no nation is stronger than that one
in marine wars, and in the conduct of ships across the seas.
With the citizens besieged, Alexius exhorts them
to confer assistance, and to lead their ships,
and to fight against the duke’s ships, so that, these enemies
having been overcome in war, it would be an easy task to enter upon
war on land, with the duke’s people attenuated.
They obey the command, and to go with ships to fight
they hasten.

Iam vesper adesse diei
Coeperat; occurrunt naves ducis, at quia noctis
Hora propinquabat, bellum differtur utrimque.
Crastina progrediens aurora fugaverat umbras;
Ad bellum populus navale paratur uterque.
Amplius huius erat quia gnara Venetica belli
Gens, ruit audacter; classis ducis expavefacta
Ad portum fugitiva redit, sic pugna remansit.

Now evening of the day had begun to be at hand;
the duke’s ships come up, but since the hour of night
was approaching, battle is deferred on both sides.
The next, advancing dawn had put the shades to flight;
for battle each people is prepared for the naval fight.
Being more practiced in this, since the Venetian people were knowing of war,
they rush boldly; the duke’s fleet, thoroughly terrified,
returns as a fugitive to the harbor; thus the fight remained.

Ter redeunte die gens multa Venetica portum
Appetit, et naves Roberti marte lacessit.
Gens comitata ducem cum Dalmaticis Ragusea
Telorum crebris consternit iactibus aequor;
Non tamen a portu procul audent ducere naves.
Castrorum dederat tutum vicinia portum.

Thrice, as the day returned, the numerous Venetian people seeks the port,
and with martial force provokes Robert’s ships.
The Ragusan people, accompanying the leader with the Dalmatians,
bestrews the sea with frequent casts of missiles;
yet they do not dare to lead their ships far from the port.
The vicinity of the camp had afforded a safe harbor.

Funibus incisis quasdam violenter ab ipso
Littore propulsas vi turba Venetica ducit.
Non hoc terretur ducis imperterrita casu
Mens aliud meditans, et adhuc certare paratu
Maiori statuens, aliasque adducere naves,
Quae plus ferre queant et plus inferre laboris.
Facta libens turbae victricis Alexius audit.

With the cables cut, the Venetian throng by force leads away some vessels,
driven violently from the very shore. Not by this mishap is the undaunted
mind of the leader terrified, pondering another plan, and determining still
to contend with a greater preparation, and to bring in other ships,
which can bear more and bring more labor to bear. Alexius gladly hears of
the deeds of the victorious crowd.

Roberto soliti, quos insula quaeque fovebat,
Ferre tributa, mari naves minus esse valentes
Dum ducis accipiunt, aequa feritate rebelles
Proponunt fieri. Laus personat imperialis.
Imperii iussu, ne belli praescius hostis
Cautelas adhibens ventura pericula vitet,
Montibus et fluviis munitur transitus omnis.

Those accustomed to bear tributes to Robert—whom each island cherished—, declare the ships to be less strong at sea while they receive the duke; they propose to become rebels with equal ferocity. Imperial praise resounds. By the command of the Empire, lest the enemy, prescient of war, by applying precautions should avoid the coming dangers, every passage is fortified at the mountains and rivers.

Irruere incauto sic sperat Alexius hoste,
Invictumque ducem assultu superare latenti.
Innumeras ducit varia de gente catervas.
Maxima barbaricae cum Graecis copia gentis
Hunc comitabatur; tamen ire Basilius ante,
Electorum equitum secum duo milia ducens,
Castraque Roberti ducis explorare iubetur.

Thus Alexius hopes to rush upon the incautious enemy,
and to overcome the invincible leader by a latent assault.
He leads innumerable cohorts from various peoples.
A very great multitude of the barbarian race together with the Greeks
was accompanying him; however Basilius is to go before,
leading with him two thousand chosen horsemen,
and he is ordered to reconnoiter the camp of Duke Robert.

Mesopotamites erat hic, bellique labores
Expertus varios. Sequitur praecepta iubentis;
Cumque Botrontinae fieret iam proximus urbi,
Rumor adest, equites ducis haud procul ire, ferentes
Non modicam praedam. Cum pars iam multa fuisset
Sauaa Tutchorum, quos duxerat ille, sagittis,
Marte mori potius, quam cedere turpiter Argis
Unanimes statuunt, et convertuntur in hostes,
Gente coartata, quo praevaluere paratu.

He was a Mesopotamian, and experienced in various labors of war.
He follows the precepts of the one commanding; and when he had now become very near to the Botrontine city,
a report arrives that the duke’s horsemen are going not far off, bearing no small booty.
Since already a great part had been wounded by the savage arrows of the Turks, whom he had led,
they resolve unanimously to die by Mars rather than to yield shamefully to the Argives,
and they turn upon the enemies, with the host hemmed in, there where they prevailed by their equipment.

Turchi terrentur conversis hostibus, illos
Acriter obniti graviterque ferire videntes.
Agmine stare nequit fugiente Basilius horum,
Et capitur fugiens. Acies normanica captum
Praesentare duci properat.

The Turks are terrified, with the enemies turned upon them, seeing those men resist sharply and strike grievously.
In the column of these fleeing men Basilius cannot stand his ground,
and, fleeing, is captured. The Norman battle-line hastens to present the captured man
to the duke.

Robertus ab illo
Omnia perquirit: quid temptet Alexius in se
Vel quid inire velit; quantas ad bella cohortes
Moverit. Adventum postquam dux esse propinquum
Hostilem didicit, quantis et Alexius illum
Impetat agminibus, proceres quos duxerat omnes
Convocat; accitis quae noverat omnia pandit,
Et quid opus facto sit consulit. Effera quorum
Mens erat, audaci dimittere castra quibusdam
Consilio placuit, venientibus indubitanter
Hostibus occurrens ut terreat impetus illos.

Robert inquires from him about everything:
what Alexius attempts against him, or what he wishes to undertake;
how large cohorts he has moved for war.
After the duke learned that a hostile advent was near,
and with how great columns Alexius assails him,
he summons all the nobles whom he had led;
with them called in, he discloses all that he knew,
and takes counsel as to what need there is for action. Of whom the mind
was savage, it pleased some, by a daring counsel, to leave the camp,
meeting the undoubtedly coming enemies, so that the onset might terrify them.

Esse refert melius dux, non abscedere castris,
Copia dum propius conspecta sit imperialis,
Et frustra quaeri vincendi praedicat artem,
Cum nisi de coelo nulli victoria detur.
Is licet egregios equites sibi sciret adesse,
Nil ineundo tamen temerarius esse volebat.
Congressura quidem gens innumerabilis esse
Dicebatur ei, nec adhuc natura virorum
Nota sibi fuerat; catus unde sagaciter omnes
Ordinat ante suos, et quaeque paranda coaptat.

The duke reports it better not to withdraw from the camp,
while the imperial force is seen at closer range,
and he proclaims that the art of conquering is sought in vain,
since victory is given to no one unless from heaven.
Though he knew that distinguished horsemen were at hand for him,
yet he wished to be nothing temerarious in engaging.
A nation innumerable, destined to join battle,
was said to him to be at hand; nor yet had the nature of the men
been known to him; wherefore, shrewd, he sagaciously arrays all
in order before his troops, and coapts whatever must be prepared.

Non a Dirachio procul expectare volebat
Hostiles cuneos. Subito venientibus illis
More locustarum montes et plana teguntur.
Proximus oceano iam sol erat, unde nec illis
Bella subire, nec his placuit; dant membra quieti.

He did not wish to await the hostile wedges far from Dirachium.
As they came suddenly, in the manner of locusts the mountains and the plains are covered.
The sun was now near the ocean, whence it pleased neither them
to enter upon war, nor these; they give their limbs to rest.

Dirachii populo mandarat Alexius omni,
Hostis congressi post terga venire studeret,
Ut tutus fieri nec retro nec ante valeret.
Castra cremat veniente die dux providus horum
Ut duce digresso sit fas irrumpere nulli.
Commovit prior ipse suas ad bella cohortes.

Alexius had mandated to the whole people of Dyrrhachium,
that, once the enemy were engaged, they should strive to come upon their backs,
so that he might be able to be safe neither behind nor in front.
The prudent leader of these burns the camp as day is coming,
so that, with the leader departed, it may be permitted to no one to break in.
He himself first stirred his cohorts to wars.

Agmina plura movens occurrit Alexius illi.
Cum Langobardis Calabri terrentur, et omnis
Pene fugam petiit, fuerat qui sub duce nauta;
Ipsaque concursu primo terretur equestris
Gens ducis, hostilis dum praegravat impetus illam.
Venit ad angustos transgresso flumine quosdam
Haec incauta locos.

Alexius, moving several columns, went to meet him.
Along with the Langobards the Calabrians are terrified, and almost
all sought flight, even the one who had been a sailor under the leader;
and the very equestrian force of the duke is terrified at the first
encounter, while the hostile impetus overpowers it.
This incautious force, the river having been crossed, came to certain
narrow places.

Dus, nequis ab urbe venire
Contra se posset vel ad urbem pergere, pontem
Fecerat everti. Loca dum sic arta suorum
Impediunt aditus, vehementi nube teguntur
Undique telorum, nec maior visa refertur
Grando sagittarum; locus et quia tutus abesse
Coeperat interea, cum nec pugnare valerent
Cedere nec retro, se dilatare laborant
Praecipitando mari, quia non minus hostibus ipsa
Turba coartatis sibi plebibus officiebat:
Aspera Normannis angustia tanta videtur.
Imperialis eos exercitus exsuperatos
Defecisse putans, classisque Venetica, victos
Quod caperet sperans, quae proxima nabat in undis,
Aggreditur spoliis inhians agitare rapinas.

The duke, lest anyone from the city could come
against him or go to the city, had caused the bridge
to be overturned. While thus the cramped positions of his own men
block the approaches, they are covered on every side by a vehement cloud
of missiles, nor is a greater hail of arrows reported to have been seen;
and because meanwhile safety had begun to be absent from the place,
since they could neither fight nor withdraw backward,
they strive to extend themselves by precipitately hurling into the sea,
because the throng itself, with its plebs constrained,
was hindering them no less than the enemies:
such a constriction seems harsh to the Normans.
The imperial army, thinking them overborne
had collapsed, and the Venetian fleet, hoping to capture the defeated,
which was sailing close on the waves,
advances, gaping for spoils, to ply rapine.

Arripiuntur equi diversaque sarcina rerum,
Quas ducis accelerans ad proelia spreverat agmen.
Interea digressa mari vix se sociare
Turba duci valuit, qui praetergressus iniqui
Exitiale loci multo sudore periclum,
In primis aderat. Quem iusserat hic, acierum
Ordo prior mutatus erat; miseranda locorum
Omnia mutari sic artatura coegit.

The horses are snatched up, and the diverse baggage of goods,
which the army of the leader, hastening to battles, had scorned.
Meanwhile the throng, having departed from the sea, scarcely
was able to join itself to the leader, who, having passed beyond the fatal
peril of the unfavorable place with much sweat,
was present in the forefront. Here what he had ordered—the earlier
order of the battle-lines had been changed—the pitiable narrowness
of the places, destined thus to hem them in, forced everything to be changed.

Gaudet adesse suos, et paucis vocibus illos
Dux prior hortatur, solum tutamen in armis
Affore conclamans, et si dant terga Pelasgis,
Quemque trucidandum pecorino more minatur;
Captivis vitam morti praenunciat aequam.
His hortamentis accendit corda suorum,
Et licet innumeras videat properare catervas
Pariis Alexinae, vexillo, quod sibi papa
Ad Petri dederat summi pastoris honorem,
Et meritis sancti, cuius fabricaverat aedes,
Mathaei fidens, non diffidenter in hostem
Irruit, atque ferox obsessa non procul urbe
Commisit bellum. Superatur Alexius, atque
Terga dedere sui, quia plus quam milia quinque
Argolicae gentis sunt hoc certamine caesa;
Pars quoque Turchorum cum Graecis interit ingens,
Captus et armorum varius nitor est et equorum,
Captaque sunt Danaum diversi signa decoris.

He rejoices that his own are at hand, and with few words the earlier Leader exhorts them,
loudly proclaiming that the only safeguard will be in arms,
and, if they give their backs to the Pelasgians, he threatens each to be butchered after the sheep-fashion;
to captives he foreshows a life equal to death.
With these exhortations he inflames the hearts of his men,
and although he sees the countless companies of Alexius hastening,
trusting in the banner which the pope had given him for the honor of Peter, the highest shepherd,
and in the merits of the saint whose temple he had built,
Matthew, he, not diffidently, rushes upon the enemy, and, fierce, not far from the besieged city,
he joined battle. Alexius is overcome, and his men gave their backs, because more than 5 thousand
of the Argolic race were cut down in this contest;
a huge part also of the Turks perishes among the Greeks,
and the varied glitter of arms and of horses is captured,
and the diverse standards of the Danaans in their adornment were taken.

Vis equites de gente duas potuere perempti
Cerni triginta. Lacrimatur Alexius, hostem
Praevaluisse sibi, cui nec par copia gentis,
Nec par census erat, discedit saucius ipse,
Cogitur et lacrimans inglorius ille reverti,
Gloria cui fuerat frustra sperata triumphi.
Uxor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta
Quadam laesa fuit.

A great many—thirty-two—horsemen of the nation could be seen slain.
Alexius weeps that the enemy has prevailed over him, for whom neither equal manpower of the nation
nor equal treasury was at hand; he himself departs wounded,
and, weeping, that inglorious man is compelled to return,
for whom the glory of triumph had been hoped in vain.
By chance in this war Robert’s wife was wounded by a certain arrow.

Quae vulnere territa, nullam
Dum sperabat opem, se pene subegerat hosti:
Navigio cuius se commendare volebat,
Instantis metuens vicina pericula lethi.
Hanc Deus eripuit, fieri ludibria nolens
Matronae tantae tam nobilis et venerandae.
Occidit hoc bello regni spoliatus honore
Constantinus, et est subhumatus honore decenti.

Who, terrified by the wound, while she was hoping for no aid, had almost subjected herself to the enemy:
To whose ship she wished to commend herself,
fearing the neighboring perils of imminent death.
God snatched her away, unwilling that so great a matron, so noble and venerable, become a laughingstock.
Constantine fell in this war, despoiled of the honor of the realm, and was interred with becoming honor.

Dirachii proceres amisit Graecia multos,
Quorum per campos inhumata cadavera tabent.

Greece lost many nobles of Dyrrhachium,
whose unburied cadavers rot across the fields.

Dux in Alexinis remorari tempore castris
Non multo propter putrefacta cadavera curat.
Imperii iussis gens fida Venetica servat
Urbem Durachii. Dux hac digressus ab urbe
Pervenit ad quendam, cui nomen Divalis, amnem.

The Duke does not care to linger for much time in the camp at Alexina
on account of the putrefied corpses.
At the Empire’s orders the faithful Venetian people guard
the city of Dyrrhachium. The Duke, having departed from this city,
came to a certain river whose name is Divalis.

Hic sibi castellum fabricans, loca se comitatos
Per diversa locat, quibus incumbente pruina
Temporis hyberni securi vivere possent.
Gens cruciat variis plerosque Venetica poenis
Cum duce transgressos, non hunc ad bella secutos,
Oui profugi fuerant. Studiis servilibus illos
Addicunt; alios ergastula carceris artant
Ad patriam missos, alii traduntur Achivis.

Here, fabricating for himself a castle, he assigns his companions places through diverse quarters, where, with the hoarfrost of the hibernal season pressing, they might live secure.
The Venetian people cruciates with various penalties most who had crossed over with the duke, not having followed him to the wars, who had been fugitives. To servile pursuits they assign them; others, sent back to their fatherland, the prison ergastula confine; others are handed over to the Achaeans.

Dirachii quidam, quem terra Venetica misit,
Vir praeclarus erat, nomenque Dominicus illi.
Oderat hic quendam, quia non se participabat
Consilio, sociis quod pluribus insinuabat.
Hunc quasi primatem gens illa studebat habere:
Dux dicebatur genuisse Veneticus illum.

A certain man of Dyrrhachium, whom the Venetian land sent,
was a very distinguished man, and his name was Dominicus.
He hated a certain man, because he did not make himself a participant
in the counsel, which he was insinuating to many associates.
That people strove to have this man as a sort of chief:
the Venetian Doge was said to have begotten him.

Primatu temptat privare Dominicus illum.
Quendam de profugis Barinum convocat ad se,
Qui sibi carus erat fideique tenore probatus.
Hunc monet ut noctu Roberti castra requirat,
Et se velle duci sua pandere commoda dicat,
Et properare loco moneat, qui Petra vocatur.

Dominicus attempts to deprive him of primacy.
He summons to himself a certain Barinus from among the refugees,
who was dear to him and approved by the tenor of his fidelity.
He advises him to seek Robert’s camp by night,
and to say that he wishes to lay open his own advantages to the duke,
and to bid him hasten to the place which is called Petra.

Aecclesiae sancti Nicholai proximus iste
Est locus. Hunc Robertus adit cum milite pauco.
Accitus profugo redeunte Veneticus illum
Convenit, et facilem promittit deditionem
Dirachii, nisi dux sibi quod petit esse daturum
Abneget.

This place is next to the Church of Saint Nicholas.
Robert approaches it with a few soldiers.
Summoned by the returning exile, the Venetian meets him,
and promises an easy surrender of Dyrrachium,
unless the duke denies that he will give him what he seeks.

Ille libens iurando iure spopondit
Quod petit explendum, neptim pro coniuge dandam.
Colloquio facto remeavit uterque latenter.
Constituere prius, quo tempore deditionem
Is foret acturus, quo tempore dux rediturus.

He, gladly, by a lawful oath, pledged
that what he sought would be fulfilled—the niece to be given as spouse.
With the colloquy held, each returned secretly.
They first set the time at which he would carry out the surrender,
and the time at which the duke would be returning.

Iamque dies aderat consensu utriusque statuta.
Dux Cusentinos quosdam, quos praefore cursu
Noverat, elegit; quosdam simul his sociavit
Electos equites, et ad urbem nocte quieta
Accelerans, caute profugum praemittere curat,
Ut quod opus facto sit ab urbe renunciet ipsi.
Non modica noctis iam parte Veneticus illum
Praestolatus erat somno correptus, at illum.

And now the day appointed by the consent of both was at hand.
The duke chose certain Cusentines, whom he knew to be foremost in speed;
to these he at the same time associated certain chosen horsemen,
and, hastening to the city in the quiet night,
carefully takes care to send the exile ahead,
so that he may report back to him from the city what needs to be done.
For no small part of the night already the Venetian, having awaited him,
was seized by sleep, but him.

Perfuga Barinus mox evigilare coegit.
Indicat adventum ducis Imperat ille fideles
Absque pavore suos celer introducat in urbem.
Ille redit, peditesque ducis facit ire priores;
Moenia tradidit his custode carentia turris.

The defector Barinus soon compelled him to wake.
He points out the arrival of the duke; he commands that the faithful man quickly bring his own men, without fear, into the city.
He returns, and makes the duke’s foot-soldiers go first;
he handed over to them the ramparts of the tower, lacking a guard.

Tempore nocturno nullos fecere tumultus;
Albescente die variis clangoribus hostes
Percipit ingressos urbs tota; Veneticus omnis
Arma capit, praeter quos ille domesticus hostis
Robato monitis allexerat; incola quisque,
Hoste supergresso, fodit infra moenia vallum,
Hostibus ut facilis non sit descensus ad urbem.
Iusserat a castris dux illa, nocte cohortes
Accelerare suas. Auditis iste suorum
Vocibus accurrens, has porta mittit ab omni.

In the nocturnal hours they made no tumult;
as the day was whitening, with various clangors the whole city perceives the enemies entered;
every Venetian takes up arms, except those whom that domestic enemy
had lured with monitions furnished by plunder; each inhabitant,
the foe having overpassed, digs a rampart within the walls,
so that the descent to the city may not be easy for the enemies.
The leader had ordered from the camp that his cohorts
make haste that night. Hearing the voices of his men,
running up, he sends these through every gate.

Sic habitatores intusque forisque videntes
Sese impugnari, malefida Venetica clamant
Agmina. Turbatus fugit inde Veneticus omnis.
Quidam caeduntur, quidam capiuntur; ad aequor
Pars fugit Adriacum; sic evasere fugaces
Navibus impulsis.

Thus the inhabitants, inside and outside, seeing
themselves being assailed, cry out “treacherous Venetian
ranks.” Confounded, every Venetian flees from there.
Some are cut down, some are captured; to the level sea
a part flees, the Adriatic; thus the fugitives escaped
with the ships driven off.

Quicumque Veneticus armis
Obstiterat, nec non ducis horum filius, urbe
Sunt capti capta, dimotaque litore classis.
Sic sibi Dirachium dux subdidit, atque quod armis
Vincere non potuit, victoria subiugat artis;
Et quae pollicitus fuerat, post deditionem
Cuncta sibi gaudet completa Veneticus esse.
Interea populus Troianus et Ascolitanus,
Alter ius soliti nolens explere tributi
Amplius, atque dolens eversis moenibus alter,
Unanimi studio ducis invasere Rogerum
Haeredem egregium, qui sensu clarus et armis
Cum quantis poterat Troiana clausus in arce
Viribus obstabat.

Whoever of the Venetians had stood opposed with arms,
and likewise the son of their leader, in the captured city
were taken, and the fleet was removed from the shore.
Thus the duke subjected Dyrrachium to himself, and what by arms
he could not conquer, he subjugates by a victory of art;
and the Venetian rejoices that all which he had promised, after the surrender,
have been completed for him.
Meanwhile the Trojan and the Ascolitan people,
the one unwilling any longer to fulfill the right of the accustomed tribute,
and the other grieving that its walls had been overthrown,
with unanimous zeal of the leader assailed Roger,
an excellent heir, who, renowned in sense and in arms,
with as great forces as he could, shut up in the Trojan citadel,
was resisting.

Tandem properantibus illi
Auxilio sociis patrisque suique quibusdam,
Mmissa ruit arce furens, populumque rebellem
Diversis punit cruciatibus. Huic manus, illi
Pes erat abscisus; hunc naso, testibus illum
Privat; dentibus hos, deformat et auribus illos.
Saepe solet captae sic tigridis ira latenter,
Dum nullos agitare potest inclusa furores,
Quae si forte valet ruptis escedere claustris,
Quod videt omne vorat, rapit, insolitumque furorem
Exerit; occursus leo perfugit ipse furentis,
Quamvis ista minor sit corpore, fortior ille.

At length, aid hastening to him, with some associates both of his father and of his own,
sent forth from the citadel he rushes, frenzied, and punishes the rebellious populace
with diverse torments. From this man the hand, from that one the foot had been cut off; this one he
deprives of the nose, that one of the testicles; these of their teeth, and those he disfigures in the ears.
Saepe the anger of a captured tigress is wont thus to lie hidden,
while, shut in, she can stir no furies; if by chance she has the strength, the bars having been broken,
to go forth, she devours all that she sees, she snatches, and displays an unusual frenzy;
the lion himself flees the encounter of her raging,
although she is smaller in body, he the stronger.

Robertus geminis exacto navibus anno
Adriacis undis loca rursus ad Apula transit.
Is primogenito populum commiserat omnem,
Cui nomen Buamondus erat, pariterque Brieno.
Dus postquam Cannas sibi comperit esse rebelles,
Obsidet; obsessas evertit humotenus illas.

Robert, with the twin year completed in ships,
again crosses by the Adriatic waves to the Apulian places.
He had entrusted the whole people to his firstborn,
whose name was Bohemond, and equally to Briennus.
The Duke, after he discovered that Cannae were rebellious to him,
besieges; them, once besieged, he overturns down to the ground.

Rexerat has genitus genitrice Hermannus eadem,
Unfredi fuerat qua filius Abagelardus.
Non tamen unus eis pater extitit. Illa duobus
Est sociata viris; miles praeclarus in armis
Frater uterque fuit, sed cessit uterque potenti
Roberto, cui vix par orbe potentia toto.

Herman, begotten of the same mother, had ruled these,
by whom Abelard had been born to Humphrey.
Yet they did not have one and the same father. She was joined to two husbands
each brother was a renowned soldier in arms,
but each yielded to powerful Robert,
whose power scarcely had a peer in the whole orb.

Cannis destructis, Romam molitur adire
Contra Gregorii Romani praesulis hostem
Henricum, cuius iamdudum obsederat urbem
Plurima barbaries annis remorata duobus,
Altaque tormentis murorum moenia fregit,
Et turres multas invictae diruit urbis.
Iamque sibi fuerat pars subdita Transtiberina;
Gregorius quadam fuerat conclusus in arce,
Quae munita satis, non espugnabilis ulli
Esse videbatur miri strunctura laboris;
Hanc et munierat fidae custodia gentis.
Robertum tantos ubi novit inisse paratus,
Et sibi cum tantis inferre paratibus arma,
Res fugit Henricus.

With Cannae destroyed, he strives to go to Rome
against the enemy of Gregory the Roman prelate—
Henry—whose city a very great barbarity had long since besieged,
delayed for two years,
and with engines broke the high walls of the ramparts,
and demolished many towers of the unconquered city.
And already the Transtiberine quarter had been subjected to him;
Gregory had been shut up in a certain citadel,
which, sufficiently fortified, seemed assailable by no one,
a structure of wondrous labor;
and he had also strengthened this with the guard of a faithful people.
When he learned that Robert had undertaken such great preparations,
and was bringing arms against him with such great equipage,
Henry fled the field.

Ducis hunc audacia terret
Et virtus totum iam notificata per orbem.
Expectare verens hunc ad loca tuta recessit.
Robertus Romam properans vi perforat urbis
Egregiae muros, tamen auxiliantibus ipsi
Paucis Gregorii fautoribus.

The duke’s audacity terrifies him,
and his valor, now made known through the whole world.
Fearing to wait for him, he withdrew to safe places.
Robert, hastening to Rome, by force pierces the walls of the distinguished city,
yet with only a few of Gregory’s partisans assisting him.

Inde quibusdam,
Aedibus exustis, violenter ab obsidione
Liberat obsessum iam tanto tempore. papam
Hunc secum magno deducit honore Salernum.
Henrico rursus cupidi cessere Quirites
Post ducis abscessum.

Thence, with certain houses burned,
he forcefully frees from the siege the one besieged for so great a time. The pope
he leads with him, with great honor, to Salerno.
To Henry the Romans again, eager, yielded
after the duke’s departure.

Papam concesserat illis
Ipse Ravennatem Guibertum, qui scelerata
Mente patri insurgens regnum praesumpsit adire
Sedis apostolicae, Clemens a plebe vocatus.
Agmina Romulea dux urbe reducta Salerni
Dimisit. Numquam par huic exercitus haesit;
Milia sex equitum, triginta milia Romam
Duxerat hic peditum.

He had granted them a pope—namely Guibert of Ravenna—who, with a criminal mind, rising against the father (i.e., the pope), presumed to approach the rule of the Apostolic See, called “Clement” by the plebs.
The duke, with the city retaken, dismissed the Romulean ranks at Salerno.
Never did an army equal to this adhere to him;
six thousand horsemen, thirty thousand foot-soldiers had he led to Rome.

Sic, uno tempore victi
Sunt terrae domini duo, rex Alemannicus iste,
Imperii rector Romani maximus ille.
Alter ad arma ruens armis superatur, at alter
Nominis auditi sola formidine cessit.
EXPLICIT LIBER QUARTUS

Thus, at one and the same time were conquered
two lords of the land: this German king,
that greatest ruler of the Roman Empire.
The one rushing to arms is overcome by arms, but the other
yielded to the mere fear of the name he had heard.
HERE ENDS BOOK FOUR

INCIPIT QUINTUS

THE FIFTH BEGINS

Post ubi Robertum cognovit AleXius esse
Aequore transvectum, vires reparare minutas
Nititur absentisque ducis perfringere castra.
Haec duo servabant vi consilioque potentes,
Filius ille ducis Buamundus et iste Brienus.
Haud procul a Ianina non parvi nominis urbe,
Partis Alexinae populus sua castra locarat.

Afterward, when Alexius learned that Robert had been borne across the sea,
he strives to repair his diminished forces and to break through the camp of the absent leader.
These two were guarding it, mighty in force and in counsel,
that son of the duke, Bohemond, and this Briennus.
Not far from Ioannina, a city of no small name,
the people of the Alexian party had pitched their camp.

Multiplici partem praemunit Alexius illam
Obice plaustrorum, quam pervia planiciei
Ad pervadendam facilem vicinia reddit.
Ferrea cum tribulis omnes satiunca viarum
Praepedit accessus, ut laxis hostis habenis
Dum dimittet equos, pedibus figatur equorum.
At nebula Danaum prospectus praepediente,
Illuc Normanni per vitibus aspera densis
Plenaque carectis loca pervenere latenter.

Alexius fortifies in advance that section with a multiple barrier
of wagons, which the vicinity of the passable plain
renders easy to be penetrated.
With iron caltrops thickly sown along all the byways
he hampers approaches, so that, with loosened reins, the enemy,
while he lets his horses go, may be fixed by the horses’ feet.
But with a fog impeding the view of the Danaans,
thither the Normans, through places rough with dense vines
and full of reed-beds, arrived stealthily.

Obstat congrediens paulisper Alexius illis,
Sed non instantes sufferre diutius illos
Evaluit, petiitque fugam victusque recessit.
Urbem Thessaliae superatus Marte secundo
Appetit egregiam—vulgus vocat hanc Salonichin—
Et quia bellorum varios non ambigit esse
Eventus, conatur adhuc ad bella redire.
Gaudens audaci magis agmine quam numeroso,
Esultans capti Buamundus honore Civisci,
Obsidet insigni Larissam nomine claram,
Ad quam delatos thesauros imperiales,
Quamque opibus magnis audiverat esse repletam.

Alexius, engaging them, stands in the way for a little while,
but he did not prevail to suffer those pressing on any longer;
he sought flight and, conquered, withdrew.
Overcome, Mars seconding, he aims at an excellent city of Thessaly—
the common folk call this Salonichin—
and because he does not doubt that the outcomes of wars are various,
he strives still to return to wars.
Rejoicing in a column more audacious than numerous,
Bohemond, exulting in the honor of the captured Civiscus,
besieges Larissa, famous with its distinguished name,
to which the imperial treasures had been carried,
and which he had heard was filled with great resources.

Prodiit hac auctor Troianae cladis Achilles.
Obsidione suae turbatus Alexius urbis
Innumera cum gente venit, pugnamque virilem
Contra Normannos exercuit. Obvia namque
Pugnando cedit sibi gens comitata Brienum.

By this there came forth Achilles, the author of the Trojan calamity.
Alexius, troubled by the siege of his city,
came with an innumerable host, and waged a manly battle
against the Normans. For, meeting him,
the people accompanied by Brienus yields to him in fighting.

Non modicum spectans Buamundus collibus agmen,
Imperii pariter rectorem credit adesse.
Irruit et trepidos hostes, ut nisus alaudas,
Insequitur. Populo Graecorum exercitus huius
Terga dat, at tantus contexit pulvis utrumque,
Ut neuter videat quorsum pars altera tendit.

Bohemund, seeing no small column on the hills,
believes likewise that the rector of the Empire is present.
He rushes in and pursues the trembling foes, as the sparrowhawk (nisus) [does] larks.
The army of this people of the Greeks
turns its back, but so great a dust enfolds both,
that neither sees whither the other side is tending.

Abdita silvarum victi petiere Pelasgi.
Occisis victor redit ad montana quibusdam,
Si qua parentur adhuc ipsi certamina spectans.
Hostes digressos ubi novit Alexius esse,
Larissaea petit multo cum milite castra.

The defeated Pelasgians sought the hidden places of the forests.
With certain men slain, the victor returns to the mountains,
watching whether any battles are still being prepared against himself.
When Alexius learned that the enemies had departed,
he makes for the Larissan camp with much soldiery.

Dimissi castris pedites, maioribus hostem
Viribus urgentem non armis ferre valentes,
Vincuntur; maior pars occidit, et fugitiva
Pars minor abscedit. Spoliorum quidquid ab omni.
Victrix turba loco contraxit, Alexius effert.

Dispatched from the camp, the foot-soldiers, not able with arms to bear the enemy pressing with greater forces,
are vanquished; the greater part falls, and the lesser, fugitive part withdraws. Whatever of spoils from every
place the victorious throng gathered, Alexius carries off.

Nuncius ad montem Buamundo pandere casus
Adversos properat; qui se speraverat esse,
Victorem, victam partem dolet esse suorum.
Nil tamen ipse pavens, comites sibi dissociatos
Associare studet; nequeunt incommoda mentem
Perterrere viri. Magis obsidione solutam
Urbem conqueritur, iam victam iamque subactam.

The messenger to the mountain, to Bohemund, to lay open the misfortunes
adverse, hastens; he who had hoped that he himself was,
victor, laments that a part of his men is defeated.
Nothing, however, he himself fearing, his companions separated from him
he strives to associate; the inconveniences cannot thoroughly terrify the man’s mind.
Rather the city released from the siege
he laments, already conquered and now subdued.

Marte fatigatos iam nos admota quieti
Tradere membra monet. Vallem Buamundus opacam
Haut procul inde petit, quae cuncta sibique suisque
Apta ministrabat; sua dant ibi membra sopori.
Plurima post triduum duo conduxere potentes
Agmina Graecorum Buamundo bella parantes:
Alter germanus augusti, Melisianus
Alter cognatus; nomen fuit huic Adrianus.

He now urges us, wearied by Mars, to entrust our limbs to the rest brought near.
Bohemond seeks a shady valley not far from there, which furnished all things apt for himself and his men;
there they give their limbs to sleep.
After three days, two powerful men assembled very many battalions of the Greeks, preparing war against Bohemond:
one was the brother of the Augustus, Melisianus,
the other a kinsman; his name was Adrianus.

Normanni solitae memores virtutis ad arma
Concurrunt celeres; solitique fugacibus Argi
Elabi pedibus, redeunt properanter ad urbis

The Normans, mindful of their accustomed virtue, swiftly converge to arms;
and the Argives, accustomed to slip away with fleet feet,
return in haste to the city.

Moenia Larissae, qua clausus Alexius ipse
Non procul audebat totiens superatus abire.
Nec minus et Turchi clauduntur in urbe fugaces.
Taliter obsessis populus normannicus illis
Non remanere diu valuit, quia terra, labores
Passa rapinarum, victus alimenta negabat,
Et nuper captis fuerant sua perdita castris.

The walls of Larissa, near which, shut in, Alexius himself
did not dare to go far away, so often overcome.
No less, too, the flight‑prone Turks are shut in the city.
With those thus besieged, the Norman people
could not remain long, because the land, having suffered the labors
of rapines, denied victuals, aliments,
and their own camps, though recently captured, had been lost.

Milite diviso vitae Buamundus ad usus
Quaerit Ebellonae loca, Castoreaeque Brienus.
Dimissa magna Saloniki parte suorum,
Ad propriae sedem remeavit Alexius urbis,
A Constantino quae sumpsit condita nomen.
Gens redit interea Venetum ratibus reparatis,
Atque requisitam nullis prohibentibus intrant
Urbem Dirachii, quia rarus in urbe manebat
Civis; egestatis disperserat undique cives
Insolitae casus.

With the soldiery parceled out for the necessities of life, Bohemond seeks the places of Ebellona, and Briennus those of Castorea.
Leaving a great part of his men at Saloniki,
Alexius returned to the seat of his own city,
which, founded by Constantine, took its name.
Meanwhile the Venetian nation returns, its vessels refitted,
and, no one hindering, they enter the long-sought city
of Dyrrachium, because few citizens remained in the city
the mischance had everywhere scattered the citizens
of unprecedented destitution.

Remorans ter quinque diebus
Gens studet utilibus vacuare Venetica rebus
Dirachium; sed praesidiis munitio tuta
A duce dimissis, castelli iura negavit.
Hoc non posse capi postquam videre, recedunt,
Audito reditu geniti ducis advenientis,
Ingressique rates, communiter aequore multas
Erexere trabes, et parvae fit modus urbis.
Castro composito de lignis, omnia classis
Instrumenta suae gens provida seque locavit.

Delaying for fifteen days,
the Venetian people strives to empty Dyrrhachium of useful things;
but the fortification, safe by garrisons sent by the duke,
denied the rights/terms of a castle.
After they saw that this could not be taken, they withdraw,
having heard of the return of the duke’s son who was approaching;
and, having gone aboard the ships, together upon the sea they
raised many timbers, and the measure of a small city is made.
With a camp composed of wood, the provident people placed
all the instruments of their fleet and themselves.

Sicque sub aediculis, algenti tempore, contra
Nimbosas hiemes remorantur in aequore tuti.
Iam cedebat hiems, et verni temporis aurae
Spirabant placidae, cum navibus omnibus omnes
Ad Corifum properant. Haec complacet insula cunctis.

And thus beneath little huts, in the freezing season, against
nimbous winters they linger, safe upon the sea.
Now winter was receding, and the placid breezes of the vernal season
were breathing, when with all their ships they all hasten
to Corfu. This island is well-pleasing to all.

Classis Alexinae dux Mabrica venerat illuc.
Inde placet nautis repetenda Venetia multis,
Mutuus ut fieri valeat redeuntibus illis
Abscessus comitum, patriam sic quisque revisat.
Hoc statuunt fieri; Roberti namque regressus
Protrahitur Dimium; diuturna negotia rerum
Absumendarum sunt illis causa suarum.

The leader of the Alexina fleet, Mabrica, had come there.
Then it pleases many of the sailors that Venetia be revisited,
so that a mutual withdrawal may be able to be made by those returning—
the withdrawal of companions—thus each one may revisit his fatherland.
They resolve this to be done; for Robert’s return
is prolonged to Dimium; the protracted business of their own things
to be expended is for them the cause.

Tempore Robertus multis intentus in illo,
Praecipuas contra Iordanem bella gerendi
Cura, infectum nil dimissurus habebat.
Propterea Latio non ipse redire volebat.
Iordanis princeps perterritus advenientis
Henrici fama, non armis obviat illi
Ut sese finesque suos tutetur ab illo,
Sed firmae secum componens foedera pacis
Illi se subigit; genitus conceditur obses;
Et cum prole dedit solidorum munera multa.

At that time Robert, intent upon many matters,
had as his chief care the waging of wars against Jordan,
resolved to leave nothing undone. Therefore he himself did not wish to return to Latium.
The prince of Jordan, thoroughly terrified by the fame of Henry’s coming,
does not meet him with arms to protect himself and his borders from him,
but, composing with him firm treaties of peace,
submits himself to him; his son is surrendered as a hostage;
and along with the child he gave many gifts of solidi.

Hoc, ne privetur dominatus iure paterni,
Fecit, si regi sit ad Apula transitus arva.
Et quia Iordanis ditioni cesserat eius,
Dux huius terras ferro populatur et igni.
Inde nepos petiit pacem, recipitque petitam.

He did this, lest he be deprived of the right of paternal dominion,
if there should be for the king a passage to the Apulian fields.
And because Jordan had yielded to his jurisdiction,
the duke ravages this man's lands with iron and fire.
Thence the nephew sought peace, and he receives the peace sought.

Gregorio papae, sedatis omnibus ante
Quam repetat fines Graecorum, supplicat orans
Dedicet ecclesiam, quam fecerat hic ad honorem
Mathaei sancti. Placidus favet ille precanti.
His ita completis animos intendit ad illud
Propositum, quod mente diu tractarat agendum.

To Pope Gregory, with all matters settled beforehand
before he should return to the borders of the Greeks, he supplicates, praying
that he dedicate the church which he had made here to the honor
of Saint Matthew. He, gracious, favors the one praying.
With these things thus completed he directs his mind to that
purpose which he had long turned over in his mind to be carried out.

Electos igitur nautas, et quos magis aptos
Militiae novit, secum facit ire Tarentum.
Huc cum gente sua navis convenerat omnis.
Classis magnificos ibi militiaeque paratus
Instruit; expensis naves implentur et armis.

Therefore the chosen sailors, and those whom he knew more apt
for warfare, he makes go with him to Tarentum.
Hither with his people every ship had gathered.
There he equips the fleet and splendid preparations for war;
the ships are filled with supplies and arms.

Portum Brondisii, qui tutior esse videtur,
His comitatus adit. Transire veretur Hidronti,
Quo brevior transcursus erat, quia tempus adesse
Coeperat autumni, tranquilla recesserat aestas.
Unde timens ratibus mora nequa noceret Hidronti
Ex tempestatis subitis incursibus ortae,
In portu tuto fit tutus classe recepta;
Expectat flatus prudenti mente secundos.

He approaches the port of Brondisium, which seems safer, accompanied by these.
He is afraid to cross at Hidronti,
where the passage was shorter, because the time of autumn
had begun to be at hand, the tranquil summer had withdrawn.
Hence, fearing lest any delay might harm the ships at Hidronti
from the sudden incursions of a tempest arisen,
in a safe port he is made safe, the fleet having been received;
with a prudent mind he awaits favorable winds.

Inde vale faciens uxori litore stanti
Restantique simul populo cum coniuge, coepit
Finibus Ausoniis iam non rediturus abire.
Armatis centum viginti navibus aequor
Transfretat Adriacum, genito comitante Rogero,
Qui patris esse sequax armorum strenuitate
Et placida cunctis affabilitate studebat.
Duxit praeterea naves oneraria quarum
Lex erat, has et equis sumptuque replevit et armis
Et variis rebus, quas aequoris exigit usus.

Thence, bidding farewell to his wife standing on the shore,
and at the same time to the people remaining with his consort, he began
to depart from the Ausonian borders, now not to return.
With one hundred and twenty armed ships he
crosses the Adriatic, with his begotten son Roger accompanying,
who strove to be emulous of his father in the strenuity of arms
and in placid affability to all.
He led moreover cargo ships, whose
law it was; these too he filled with horses and provisions and arms
and with various things which the usage of the sea requires.

Aequore transvectis exercitus ille coivit
Quem ducis egregii servabat filius alter.
Exegere fere menses in litore binos,
Tempestate gravi bellum differre coacti.

With them conveyed across the sea, that army assembled,
which the other son of the distinguished leader was keeping.
They spent nearly two months on the shore,
compelled by a grave tempest to defer the war.

Temperie placida portum redeunte relinquunt,
Et contra Venetum naves Danaumque chelindros
Certamen navale parant. Dux quinque triremes
Ducit, ducendas commisit quinque Rogero,
Roberto totidem fratri, totidem Buamundo;
His aderant ratium suffragia iuncta minorum.
Innumeras bello Danai duxere chelindros.

With placid weather returning they leave the harbor,
and against the Venetian ships and the Danaans’ chelanders
they prepare a naval contest. The duke leads five triremes
and entrusted five to Roger to be led,
to Robert his brother as many, as many to Bohemond;
to these were added the suffrages (support) of the lesser vessels joined.
The Danaans led innumerable chelanders to war.

Altera turba, novem confisa triremibus altis,
Quas habiles bello magis esse Venetia novit,
Roberti naves dum conspicit inferiores
Esse suis, audacter eis congressa resistit,
Atque interpositis Danaum praefulta chelindris,
Iactibus innumeris telorum desuper hostes
Sauciat, et ferri se pondera magna minatur
Iacturam, ne classis eis inimica propinquet.
Vix in ea navi; quae fert ad bella Rogerum,
Quilibet illaesus reperitur, et ipse lacerto
Saucius obstanti stat cedere nescius hosti,
Immemor illati sibi vulneris; ardor honoris,
Quantus adesse solet victoribus, incitat illum.
Hunc pater insigni decoratus saepe triumpho
Accit, et accitum maiori classe chelindros
Dissociare iubet.

The other force, relying on nine lofty triremes,
which Venice knows to be more serviceable for war,
while it perceives Robert’s ships to be inferior
to its own, boldly, having met them, withstands them;
and, with the chelindri of the Danaans interposed to give support,
with innumerable casts of missiles from above it wounds the foes,
and threatens to cast down great weights of iron,
lest the hostile fleet draw near to them. Hardly in that ship which bears Roger to the wars
is anyone found unhurt, and he himself, wounded in the upper arm,
stands, not knowing how to yield to the opposing enemy,
unmindful of the wound inflicted on him; the ardor of honor,
such as is wont to be present to victors, incites him.
Him his father, often adorned with distinguished triumph,
summons, and, when summoned, with a larger fleet orders him to separate the chelindri.

Patris impiger ille iubentis
Iussa sequi properans, cum quinque triremibus illis
Quae sibi commissae fuerant, inferre chelindris
Bella parat. Danai nichil hoc pugnante repugnant,
Sed passim fugiunt, ut aves obstare volanti
Non audent aquilae, cursuque latere fugaci
Coguntur lepores, dum ne rapiantur aduncis
Unguibus et rostro metuunt cibus esse voraci.
His ita dimotis stat sola Venetica classis.

That tireless son, with his father giving orders,
hastening to follow the commands, with those five triremes
which had been entrusted to him, prepares to bring war
against the chelinders. The Danaans, with this man fighting, make no resistance,
but flee everywhere, as birds do not dare to stand against a flying
eagle, and hares are compelled to lie hidden in fugitive course,
lest they be snatched by hooked claws, and they fear to be food for the voracious
beak. With these thus driven off, the Venetian fleet stands alone.

Robertus genitique sui, dum stare fugati
Graecorum ratibus solas videre triremes,
Invasere suis cum navibus acriter illas;
Tamque fuit vehemens impulsus et impetas harum,
Ut septem mersis non posse Venetica classis
Elabi speret. Solis sed stare duabus
Navibus ad bellum nil profuit; hostibus omnes
Cedere coguntur; solito dux more triumphat.
Classe triumphata secum duo milia victor
Ad portum ducit de pugnatoribus illis,
Qui magis obstiterant, quorumque audacia maior.

Robert and his son, when they saw that, with the Greeks’ ships routed, only the triremes stood,
attacked them sharply with their own ships;
and so vehement was the impulse and onslaught of these,
that, with seven sunk, the Venetian fleet did not hope to slip away.
But to stand with only two
ships for war availed nothing; all are compelled to yield to the enemies;
the leader triumphs in his accustomed manner.
With the fleet triumphed over, the victor leads with him to port two thousand of those fighters,
who had offered the greater resistance, and whose audacity was greater.

Praeter eos alios quingentos annumeravit,
Qui capti fuerant. Septem, fugientibus Argis,
Argolicae naves sunt hoc certamine captae.
Qui castrum Corifi servare fideliter illi
Solliciti fuerant, solvuntur ab obsidione
Quam passi fuerant, dux dum metuendus abesset.

Besides those he enumerated another five hundred,
who had been captured. Seven, as the Argives were fleeing,
Argolic ships were captured in this contest.
Those who had been solicitous to keep the fortress of Corifi faithfully for him
are released from the siege
which they had suffered, while the fearsome leader was away.

Exin vitrices et victas ducere naves
Procurat, tutis stationibus ut locet illas
Temporis hiberni dux incumbente pruina.
Has ratione sagax Cliceum ducit ad amnem;
Naves et nautas ibi collocat, et remorari,
Dum placidae redeant aestatis tempora, iussit.
Ipse suos equites hiemali tempore secum
Bundiciam ducit, mansurus ibique moratur.

Then he takes care to lead both the victorious and the vanquished ships
so that he may place them in safe stations
as the frost of the winter season presses on, the leader.
By a sagacious plan he leads these to the Clicean river;
he stations the ships and sailors there, and ordered them to tarry,
until the placid times of summer return.
He himself, with his horsemen, in the winter season,
leads to Bundicia, intending to remain, and he tarries there.

Gliceo populum fuerat qui proximus amni,
Asperior solito languere pruina coegit.
Frigoris atque famis pars maxima passa labores
Interit, et tantae crescunt incommoda pestis,
Ut prius exactus mensis quam tertius esset,
Sint praeventa decem quasi milia morte virorum.
Nec reliquus tantae necis est esercitus expers;
Namque brevi morbus communi clade peremit
Quingentos equites, necnon innobile vulgus
Magna parte ruit; nec eques nec nauta nec ullus
Vir valet instantis leti vitare ruinam.

At Gliceo, the people who had been nearest to the river,
a frost rougher than usual forced to languish.
The greatest part, having suffered the labors of cold and hunger,
perishes, and the incommodities of so great a pest increase,
so that before the third month was completed,
almost ten thousand men were forestalled by death.
Nor is the remaining army exempt from so great a slaughter;
for in a short time the disease, by a common calamity, destroyed
five hundred cavalrymen, and likewise the ignoble vulgar crowd
in great part collapsed; neither horseman nor sailor nor any
man is able to avoid the ruin of impending death.

Nulla tamen frangunt ducis infortunia mentem;
Portis et ad casus manet imperterritus omnes.
Filius aegrotans poscit Buamundus ut ipsum
Italiae remeare pater permittat ad oras,
Quae medicis multis medicaminibusque redundat:
Ille licet nolens consensit abire volenti,
Tam clarae sobolis cupiens reparare salutem.
Danda recessuro dedit.

Yet no misfortunes break the leader’s mind;
At the gates, too, he remains undaunted against every chance.
The ailing son, Bohemond, asks that his father permit him himself
to return to the shores of Italy, which abounds in many physicians and medicaments:
He, though unwilling, consented to the one willing to depart,
desiring to restore the health of so illustrious an offspring.
He gave to the one about to withdraw what was to be given.

Hoc abeunte Rogerum
Iussit adire suo cum milite Chephaloniam,
Ut, tanta fuerat quae tempestate rebellis,
Victa refrenetur. Haec insula dum capietur,
Undique terrendas Graecorum noverat urbes.
Iussa patris sequitur iussamque Rogerus ad urbem
Cum ducis agminibus properavit et obsidet illam.

As he was departing, he ordered Roger
to go to Cephalonia with his soldiery,
so that, which had been so rebellious in so great a tempest,
once conquered might be reined in. As this island is being captured,
it had been wont to terrify the cities of the Greeks on every side.
He follows his father’s orders, and Roger to the ordered city
hastened with the duke’s columns and besieges it.

Dux repetit positas Gliceo flumine naves,
Et studet inclusas abducere, non minus undis
Quam terris avidus Graecos domitare tumaces.
Bella parare ferox et equis et classe laborat,
Navibus abductis turbetur ut insula quaeque,
Conferat et fisco ducis imperiale tributum.
Temporis aestivi reditu defecit aquarum
Copia, nec tantis iam defluit alveus undis,
Ut fluvio nautae valeant deducere naves.

The Duke returns to the ships positioned on the Gliceus river,
and strives to draw off those shut in, no less eager by the waves
than by the lands to tame the overweening Greeks.
Fierce to prepare wars, he labors both with horses and with the fleet,
so that, the ships being led off, each island be thrown into turmoil,
and contribute into the Duke’s fisc the imperial tribute.
With the return of the summer season the supply of waters failed,
nor does the channel now flow with such great waves,
that sailors are able to lead down ships by the river.

Dux, qui difficilem facilem facit arte laborem,
Dum fluvium solitis cognovit egere fluentis,
Namque meatus aquae brevis arta fauce fluebat,
Multos afferri palos et ab amnis utraque
Margine configi connexos vimine iussit,
Et multis multa praecisis arbore ramis
Composuit crates, et arenis desuper implet.
Sic aqua lascive dispersa refertur in unum.
Alveus altior hinc coepitque capacior esse,
Cogitur unde viam praebere meabilis unda
Navibus, illaesaeque maris revehuntur ad undas.

The duke, who by art makes a difficult labor easy,
while he recognized the river to lack its accustomed flows,
for the passage of the water, short, was flowing through a narrow throat,
ordered many stakes to be brought and to be fixed from either margin of the river,
connected with withes; and with many branches cut from many a tree
he constructed hurdles, and from above he fills them with sands.
Thus the water, wantonly scattered, is brought back into one.
The channel from this began to be deeper and more capacious,
whence the passable wave is compelled to offer a way
for ships, and unharmed they are carried back to the waves of the sea.

Vir venerabilis hoc in tempore papa Salerni
Gregorius moritur, quem nec persona nec auri
Umquam flexit amor; iustum servare rigorem
Semper proposuit; non cor dare laeta valebant
Absque modo laetum, nec tristia reddere moestum.
Solator moesti, lucis via, doctor honesti,
Legibus arcebat tumidos, humilesque fovebat;
Terror iniquorum, clipeus fuit ille proborum,
Atque salutiferi spargendo semina verbi,
Numquam cessavit populum revocare fidelem
A vitiis ad eos quibus itur ad aethera mores;
Vitaque doctrinae non discordare solebat.
Non fuit instabilis vel arundineae levitatia
Dus non se lacrimis audita forte coercet
Morte viri tanti; non mors patris amplius illum
Cogeret ad lacrimas, non filius ipse, nec uxor,
Estremos etsi casus utriusque videret.

A venerable man in this time, Gregory, pope of Salerno,
dies, whom neither person nor the love of gold
ever bent; he always purposed to maintain just rigor;
joys were not able to make his heart glad beyond measure,
nor sad things to render it mournful. The solacer of the sad, the way of light, the teacher of the honorable,
he by laws kept the puffed-up in check, and cherished the humble;
a terror to the iniquitous, he was the shield of the upright,
and, by scattering the seeds of the health-bringing word,
he never ceased to recall the faithful people
from vices to the habits by which one goes to the aether;
and his life was wont not to be discordant from his doctrine.
He was not unstable nor of reed-like levity.
The leader does not restrain himself from tears, the death of so great a man perchance being heard;
no death of a father would compel him more to tears, not even his son, nor his wife,
even if he should see the utmost fates of each.

Magnus erat de morte dolor, quia magnus amoris,
Vivere dum licuit, nexus coniunxerat illos.
Alter ab alterius numquam discessit amore
Firmatae quondam post mutua foedera pacis.
Aecclesia sancti Mathaei papa sepultus
Nobilitat tanti thesauro corporis urbem.

Great was the grief for the death, because great was the love,
While it was permitted to live, a bond had joined them together.
The one never departed from the other's love
after the mutual covenants of peace had once been ratified.
In the Church of Saint Matthew the pope is buried
and he ennobles the city with the treasure of so great a body.

Hanc, quia translatus Mathaeus apostolus alti
Nomirus esse facit, meritumque vicarius iste
Auget ibi positus, prae cunctis urbibus unam
Dux elegisset, sibi vivere si licuisset.
Verum Gregorii post mortem praesulis illi
Ad loca non licuit Latii dimissa redire.
Continuis huius soboles generosa Rogerus
Perterrere minis non cessat Cephaloniam.

This one, because the translated Apostle Matthew makes it to be of exalted name,
and this vicar, set there, augments its merit, the Leader would have chosen alone before all cities,
if it had been permitted him to live for himself. But after the death of the prelate Gregory,
it was not permitted to him to return to the places of Latium that had been left behind.
In succession, his noble offspring Roger does not cease to terrify Cephalonia with threats.

Insula Roberto proponitur esse petenda
Ad quam missus erat capiendam filius eius.
Navim conscendens, quam castra revisere possit,
Febre prius capitur. Plagrare Canicula fervens
Coeperat, aestiva cuius saevissimus ardor
Tempestate solet mortalibus esse nocivus.

An island is proposed to Robert as one to be sought,
to which his son had been sent to seize.
Boarding the ship, by which he might be able to revisit the camp,
he is first seized by fever. The fervent Dog-star
had begun to blaze, whose most savage summer ardor
at that season is wont to be noxious to mortals.

Uxor ab Italia non multo venerat ante,
Et castris aderat, dum nati castra revisit
Dux, quibus exierat populo cum classe relicto.
Haec ubi Robertum cognovit febricitare,
In quo tota sui sita spes erat, utpote tanto
Coniuge, discissis flens vestibus, acceleratis
Cursibus accessit; quae defecisse maritum
Extremosque videns casus instare propinquos,
Ungue genas lanians, impexos scissa capillos,
« Proh dolor! exclamat, quid inibo miserrima, vel quo
Infelix potero discedere?

His wife had come from Italy not much before,
and was present at the camp, while the Duke revisits the camp of his son,
from which he had gone forth, the people with the fleet having been left behind.
When she learned that Robert was feverish,
in whom the whole hope of herself was placed, as in so great
a husband, with garments torn, weeping, with accelerated
courses she approached; and, seeing that her husband had failed
and that the last extremities were drawing near at hand,
with her nail lacerating her cheeks, her uncombed hair torn,
« Alas, grief! » she cries, « what course shall I enter upon, most wretched, or whither
unhappy can I withdraw? »

Nonne Pelasgi
Audita me morte tui natumque tuumque
Invadent populum, quorum tu gloria solus,
Spes et robur eras, tua quos praesentia fovit
Extremis positos? Quia te praesente tuorum
Hostis nemo minas, congressus nemo timebat.
Pluribus et quamvis acies adversa catervis
Obsita non paucis, tua quos animatio tutos
Fecerat, audebant committere bella, nec umquam
Te viso potuit mundana resistere virtus.

Will not the Pelasgians,
when my death is heard of, assault your son and your people,
of whom you alone were the glory,
you were the hope and the strength, whom your presence
cherished, though placed at the extremes? For, with you present, among your own
no one feared the foe’s menaces, no one feared an encounter.
And although the adverse battle-line was thickly set with many
companies, those whom your animation had made secure
dared to commit to battle, nor ever
could earthly prowess resist at the sight of you.

Filius ecce lupis sinitur rapiendus et uxor
Et populus, nunquam sine te securus habendus.
Te quia, qui populi fueras audacia nostri,
Amisso populus non audax esse valebit.
Quodlibet ignavum poterit praecellere vulgus.

Behold, the son is left to be snatched by wolves, and the wife,
and the people, never to be held secure without you.
For you, who had been the audacity of our people,
with you lost, the people will not be able to be audacious.
Any cowardly mob will be able to excel us.

Impia mors, homini, quo tot pereunte peribunt,
Parce precor; precibus quae cumdescendere nescis,
Expecta saltim dum nos ad nostra reducat,
Ut locus excipiat nos post sua funera tutus.
Ah! Miseram! frustra precor hanc, ingrata precanti
Cum semper fuerit nullique peperceritt umquam ».
Nec minus et flenti flens cum genitrice Rogerus,
Magnos cum gemitu clamores tollit ad astra,
Se prius orbatum lacrimas patre, quam vel habendi
Parta vel ad plenum sit gnarus habenda parandi,
Sectarique sciat virtutis facta paternae.

Impious Death, spare the man, at whose perishing so many will perish,
spare, I pray; you who do not know how to condescend to prayers,
wait at least until he brings us back to our own,
so that a safe place may receive us after his funerals.
Ah! Wretched me! I pray her in vain, since she, ungrateful to the one praying,
has ever been so and has spared no one ever ».
No less, Roger, weeping with his weeping mother,
lifts great cries with groaning to the stars,
complaining that he is bereft of his father before he is either possessed
of things to be had, or fully skilled in procuring things to be had,
and knows how to pursue the deeds of a father’s virtue.

Astantis populi lacrimas quis lumine sicco
Inspiceret? quis tam patiens, tam ferreus esset,
Ut non moestitiam tot passis compateretur?
Inter tot lacrimas cum corpore sanguine Christi
Accepto, moriens vita spoliatur amica:
Sic et in exilio robusti principis artus
Spiritus exutos dimittit et exanimatur,
Qui fortes animos aliis inferre solebat,
Se praesente suis nil passus adesse timoris.

Who would with dry eyes look upon the tears of the bystanding people?
who would be so patient, so iron,
as not to commiserate the mourning of so many who have suffered?
Amid so many tears, with the body and blood of Christ received
dying, he is despoiled of his dear life:
thus even in exile the limbs of the robust prince
the spirit lets go, stripped, and he is exanimated,
he who was wont to infuse brave spirits into others,
allowing, while he was present, nothing of fear to be present to his own.

Non remanere viri Graecorum partibus uxor
Corpus passa, suis conatur reddere terris.
Quamque magis celerem cognovert esse galeram
Scandit, ibi posito Roberti corpore trangit,
Mortuus ut rediens Latio solatia praestet,
Cui non fas vivo fuit ad sua regna reverti.
Castra Rogerus adit patris, interitusque paterni
Notitia populum communicat anxius omnem,
Consiliumque petit.

The wife of the man, not remaining in the parts of the Greeks,
having obtained leave for the body, strives to render it to his own lands.
And since she recognized that a galley was the swifter,
she boards; with Robert’s body placed there, she carries it across,
so that, returning to Latium, the dead man may afford consolations,
to whom it was not lawful while living to return to his own realms.
Roger goes to his father’s camp, and, anxious, communicates to all the people
the news of his father’s death, and seeks counsel.

Privandum namque fatetur,
Ni redeat propere, se iuris honore paterni,
Haeredem cuius pater hunc indixerat esse.
Illi promittunt omnes se corde fideli,
Sicut servierant patri, servire paratos;
Sitque coadiutor transgressibus aequoris illis
Unanimes rogitant. Populo favet ille roganti.

For he confesses to be deprived, unless he return promptly, of the honor of paternal right,
whose heir his father had proclaimed him to be.
They all promise him, with a faithful heart,
ready to serve as they had served the father;
and they unanimously ask that he be a coadjutor for those crossings of the sea.
He favors the petitioning people.

Se tamen expectet, dum Cephalonia petatur
Insula, qua socios dimiserat, obsecrat omnes;
Et « Nullius, ait, fidei me iure vocare
Deberet populus dimissus in obsidione,
Abscedens eius si castra revisere nollem,
Et patris intentum, quem vobis notificavi,
Discessumque meum non illis notificarem ».
His dictis ad castra suae redit obsidionis,
Defunctumque patrem, se velle recedere pandit.
Acturos referunt se quisque quod egerit ille,
Obsequiique sui coeptis desistere nolle,
Si condigna tamen sibi convenientia detur.
Taliter amoto sua castra petente Rogero,
Gens aliis castris tanto remorata pavore
Concutitur, quod se nullatenus emerituram
Elapsum speret, quasi vita salusque negetur.

Yet he beseeches all that they nonetheless wait for him, until the Island of Cephalonia be sought, where he had dismissed his companions;
and: «No one’s, he says, faithfulness would by right call me a man of no faith, the people left in the siege,
if, on departing, I were unwilling to revisit their camp,
and if I should not notify to them my father’s intention, which I have notified to you,
and my departure».
With these words said he returns to the camp of his siege,
and discloses that his father is dead, and that he wishes to withdraw.
Each declares that he will do what he has done,
and that they are unwilling to desist from the undertakings of their obedience,
if, however, fitting terms be given to themselves.
Roger, being thus withdrawn and seeking his own camp,
the people in the other camp, delayed by so great a fear,
is shaken, because it hopes that it will by no means redeem the one who has slipped away,
as if life and safety were denied.

Omnes si Danai, gens Persica, gens Agarena
Hos invasissent, et ab omni climate mundi
Afflueret populus, peteretque armatus inermes:
Non illa hac formido foret formidine maior.
Mors unius erat multorum causa pavoris.
Innumeras gentes, duce qui vivente solebant
Vincere, defuncto paucis obstare timerent.

If all the Danaans, the Persian race, the Hagarene race
had attacked these, and from every clime of the world
a people were to flow in, and the armed seek the unarmed:
not would that fear be greater than this fear.
The death of one was the cause of the dread of many.
Innumerable nations, whom they were wont to conquer while their leader lived,
with him dead they would fear to withstand even a few.

Milibus esse decem sic saepe valentior unus
Atque fugare viri duo milis mille probantur.
Hostis ne subeat, maiori classe cremata,
Territa gens studuit naves servare minores,
Aequor ut Adriacum transvecta pavore levetur.
Tantus erat terror.

Thus often one man is stronger than ten thousand,
and two men are proved to rout a thousand soldiers.
Lest the enemy advance, the larger fleet having been burned,
the terrified nation strove to preserve the smaller ships,
so that, borne across the Adriatic expanse, it might be relieved of fear.
So great was the terror.

Nec opes nec pallia curant;
Omnia postponunt, et corpora sola carinis
Supplicibus precibus poscunt inducere nautas;
Atque licet naves a terra longius essent,
Pars conscendit equos, ut perveniatur ad illas,
Dimissis et equis imponunt corpora tantum,
Pars natat, ut nando valeat conscendere navem;
Pars tamen illorum maior, quia non remeare
Navibus evaluit, remanens se mancipat Argis;
Quique timebantur timidi servire Pelasgis
Incipiunt, animi pulsa feritate ferocis.

Neither wealth nor cloaks do they care for;
they postpone everything, and with suppliant prayers they ask the sailors
to bring only their bodies onto the ships;
and although the ships were farther from the land,
some mount horses, that they may reach them,
and, the horses sent away, they place only their bodies aboard;
some swim, that by swimming they may be able to board the ship;
yet the greater part of them, because they did not manage
to get back to the ships, remaining behind, make themselves the chattel of the Argives;
and they who were feared begin, now timid, to serve the Pelasgians,
the ferocity of their fierce spirit driven away.

Iamque rates fuerant secus Appula litora ductae,
Tempestas tumidum quatit intolerabilis aequor.
Naufragium passi quam plures sunt ibi nautae;
Pars hominum cum classe perit, fractaque procellis,
Qua fuerat corpus transvectum nobile navi,
In mare delapsum non absque labore cadaver
Extrahitur. Foetor ne prodeat inde nocivus,
Viscera corque ducis subhumari iussit Idronti
Praedita consiliis semper prudentibus uxor,
Et multo reliquum condivit aromate corpus,
Hinc deportari Venusinam fecit ad urbem,
Qua fuerant fratrum costructa sepulchra priorum.

And already the ships had been led along the Apulian shores,
an intolerable storm shakes the swollen sea.
Very many sailors there suffered shipwreck;
a part of the men perishes with the fleet, and, broken by the gales,
the noble body, which had been conveyed by ship,
the corpse, having slipped down into the sea, not without labor
is drawn out. Lest a noxious fetor proceed thence,
the entrails and heart of the leader his wife, ever endowed with prudent counsels,
ordered to be inhumed at Idrontum,
and she preserved the remaining body with much aromatic spice,
then had it carried thence to the Venusan city,
where the tombs of the earlier brothers had been constructed.

Hos prope cum magno dux est subhumatus honore.
Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris.
A Caroli Magni vel tempore Caesaris umquam
Nullos terra pares produxit fratribus istis.

Near these, the leader was interred with great honor.
The Venusian city shines, adorned with such great sepulchres.
From the time of Charlemagne, or even of Caesar,
the earth has never produced equals to those brothers.

Hic subhumatorum fabricata iussibus horum
Ecclesia, cuis decor urbis praenitet huius,
Det veniae munus rex illis trinus et unus.

Here a church of the interred, built by the commands of these,
whose adornment outshines that of this city,
may the King, three and one, grant to them the gift of pardon.

EXPLICIT LIBER QUINTUS

HERE ENDS BOOK FIVE

Nostra, Rogere, tibi, cognoscis carmina scribi.
Mente tibi laeta studuit parere poeta.
Semper et auctores hilares meruere datores:
Tu duce Romano dux dignior Octaviano,
Sis mihi, quaeso, boni spes, ut fuit ille Maroni.

You recognize, Roger, that our poems are written for you.
With a joyful mind the poet has endeavored to obey you.
And cheerful donors have always merited authors:
You, a leader more worthy than the Roman leader Octavian,
be, I pray, my hope of good, as he was to Maro.