William of Tyre: HISTORIA RERUM IN PARTIBUS TRANSMARINIS GESTARUM

Domino igitur Balduino tertio, Latinorum Hierosolymis rege quarto, absque liberis, ut dictum est, defuncto, successit ei in eadem civitate sancta, Latinorum rex quintus, dominus Amalricus, frater ejus unicus, comes Joppensis et Ascalonitanus, anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1162; a liberatione vero ejusdem Deo amabilis civitatis, sexagesimo secundo; praesidente sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae domino Alexandro, pontificatus ejus anno tertio; sanctae vero Resurrectionis Ecclesiae, domino Amalrico, Latinorum patriarcha nono, pontificatus ejus anno quarto; sanctae autem Antiochenae Ecclesiae, domino Aimerico, Latinorum in eadem civitate patriarch tertio, anno pontificatus ejus vicesimo; sanctae vero Tyrensi Ecclesiae, domino Petro, Latinorum in eadem civitate post urbem captam, archiepiscopo tertio, pontificatus ejus anno tertio decimo. Post fratris tamen obitum dissonantibus inter se regni principibus, et de regis substitutione aliter et aliter affectis, paulo minus se interposuit ingens, cum periculo ex schismate ortum scandalum. Sed optato adfuit divina clementia, quae rebus periclitantibus competentia novit aptare remedia; subito enim, favente sibi potissimum clero et populo, paucisque de magnatibus, evacuatis aliter affectorum moliminibus, in ecclesia Dominici Sepulcri, a supradicto domino Amalrico patriarcha, praesentibus et cooperantibus archiepiscopis, episcopis et universis ecclesiarum praelatis, regiae unctionis gratiam, et diadematis insigne adeptus, et in regni solium haereditario sibi jure debitum, XII Kal.

Accordingly, when lord Baldwin the third, the fourth king of the Latins at Jerusalem, died without children, as has been said, there succeeded to him in the same holy city the fifth king of the Latins, lord Amalric, his only brother, count of Jaffa and Ascalon, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1162; but from the liberation of the same God-beloved city, the 62nd; lord Alexander presiding over the holy Roman Church, in the 3rd year of his pontificate; and over the Church of the Holy Resurrection, lord Amalric, the 9th patriarch of the Latins, in the 4th year of his pontificate; but over the holy Church of Antioch, lord Aimery, the 3rd patriarch of the Latins in the same city, in the 20th year of his pontificate; and over the holy Church of Tyre, lord Peter, the 3rd archbishop of the Latins in the same city after the city was captured, in the 13th year of his pontificate. Yet after his brother’s death, as the princes of the realm were at variance among themselves and differently disposed concerning the substitution of a king, a huge scandal, arising from schism, with danger, all but intruded itself. But divine clemency was present as desired, which knows how to fit suitable remedies to things in peril; for suddenly, with the clergy and the people especially favoring him, and a few of the magnates, the undertakings of those otherwise disposed being annulled, in the church of the Lord’s Sepulchre, by the aforesaid lord Amalric the patriarch, with the archbishops, bishops, and all the prelates of the churches present and cooperating, he obtained the grace of royal unction and the emblem of the diadem, and to the throne of the kingdom owed to him by hereditary right, 12 Kal.

Martii sublimatus est, die octava post fratris obitum. Hic statim, ex quo miles factus, arma coepit gestare militaria, factus est comes Joppensis, cui postea frater ejus inclytae recordationis dominus Balduinus, eximiam Philistinorum metropolim Ascalonam, diebus suis expugnatam, et Christiano post longa tempora nomini restitutam, regia liberalitate concessit; sicut superius, dum de regno ejusdem domini Balduini dissereremus, diligentius comprehensum est. Viginti septem annorum erat dominus Amalricus, cum regnare coepisset.

He was elevated in March, on the eighth day after his brother’s death. He, immediately, from the time that he had been made a knight, began to bear military arms; he was made Count of Joppa, to whom later his brother, lord Baldwin of renowned memory, by royal liberality granted the distinguished metropolis of the Philistines, Ascalon, taken by storm in his own days and restored to the Christian name after a long time; as above, while we were discoursing about the reign of that same lord Baldwin, has been more diligently set forth. Lord Amalric was twenty-seven years of age when he began to reign.

Regnavit autem annis undecim, mensibus quinque.

He reigned, moreover, for eleven years, five months.

CAPUT II. Describitur qualis moribus fuerit; et de vita et conversatione ejus.

CHAPTER 2. It is described what he was like in morals; and concerning his life and conversation.

Fuit igitur vir experientia praeditus saeculari, prudens admodum, et in agendis circumspectus: linguae aliquantulum impeditioris, non adeo tamen, ut ei multum pro vitio posset imputari; sed ita, ut illam sponte fluentis eloquii non haberet elegantiam. Consiliis longe melior, quam verborum affluentia, vel ornatu. In jure consuetudinario, quo regebatur regnum, subtilis plurimum, et nulli secundus; imo qui regni principes et mentis acumine et discretionis praeiret sinceritate universos.

He was therefore a man endowed with secular experience, very prudent, and circumspect in affairs: of a tongue somewhat impeded, yet not so much that much could be imputed to him as a fault; but such that he did not have that elegance of spontaneously flowing eloquence. Far better in counsels than in an affluence of words or in ornament. In the customary law by which the kingdom was governed, exceedingly subtle and second to none; nay indeed, one who outstripped all the princes of the realm both by the acumen of mind and by the sincerity of discretion.

In periculis et summis necessitatibus, quas frequenter incurrit, dum pro regno ampliando viriliter et sine intermissione decertat, fortis et providus; et animum regia quadam constantia conservans imperterritum. Modice litteratus erat, et fratre multo minus; sed ingenii vivacitate, et tenacis memoriae beneficio, interrogatione frequenti, legendi studio, cum aliquid otii regni occupationes indulgebant, juxta id quod regibus solet contingere, satis commode erat instructus; in quaestionibus argutior, in earum solutionibus plurimum recreabatur. Historiarum, prae caeteris lectionibus, erat avidus auditor, memor perpetuo, promptus et fidelissimus recitator.

In dangers and in utmost necessities, which he frequently incurred while he contended virilely and without intermission for the enlarging of the kingdom, he was brave and provident; and he kept his spirit unterrified, preserving it with a certain royal constancy. He was moderately lettered, and much less than his brother; but by the liveliness of his ingenium and the benefit of a tenacious memory, by frequent interrogation, by zeal for reading, when the occupations of the realm granted some leisure—according to what is wont to befall kings—he was sufficiently well equipped; keener in questions, and he was greatly refreshed by their solutions. Of histories, before other readings, he was an avid auditor, perpetually mindful, a prompt and most faithful reciter.

Totus erat in seriis; in mimicis vel alea nunquam. Accipitrum et herodiorum volatu et praeda, libentius delectabatur. Patiens erat laboris; sicut erat corpulentior et pinguis nimium, algoris calorisque inclementia non multum angebatur.

He was wholly about serious matters; in mimes or at the dice, never. In the flight and prey of hawks and herons he took pleasure rather. He was patient of labor; and since he was more corpulent and excessively fat, he was not much afflicted by the inclemency of cold and of heat.

Decimas, in ea parte vir evangelicus, cum omni integritate, et sine molestia Ecclesiae dari praecipiebat. Missam omni die (nisi aegritudo aut ingruens praepediret necessitas) audiebat devotus. Maledictorum conviciorumque quae in eum et publice saepius, et clam ferebantur, etiam a vilibus et contemptibilibus personis, patientissimus exceptor et dissimulator erat egregius, ut nec quae audierat, ea audisse videretur.

Tithes, in that matter a man evangelical, he enjoined to be given with all integrity, and without molestation of the Church. He devoutly heard Mass every day (unless sickness or an impending necessity hindered). Of the maledictions and revilings which against him both publicly rather often and secretly were leveled, even by vile and contemptible persons, he was a most patient accepter and an outstanding dissimulator, so that of the things he had heard, he seemed not to have heard them.

In cibo potuque sobrius, in utroque ebrietatem abominabatur. Procuratoribus etiam suis tantam dicebatur habere fidem, ut ex quo eos negotiis praefecerat suis, nec rationem ab eis exigeret, nec de eorum infidelitate suggerentibus aurem praeberet; quod tamen quidam ducebant pro vitio; quidam virtuti ascribentes, argumentum sincerae fidei asserebant esse. His animi dotibus et bonis potioribus, detrahebant quaedam in eo notabilia, quae prius dictis nubem quamdam inducere videbantur.

In food and drink he was sober; in both he abominated drunkenness. He was said to have such faith in his own procurators that, from the time he had put them in charge of his business, he neither demanded an account from them, nor lent an ear to those suggesting their infidelity; which, however, some took for a vice; others, ascribing it to virtue, asserted it to be an argument of sincere faith. Alongside these endowments of mind and superior goods, certain noteworthy things in him detracted, which seemed to induce a kind of cloud upon the things said before.

Taciturnus enim erat ultra decens, et eximiae urbanitatis expers. Affabilitatis gratiam, quae maxime principibus subjectorum corda conciliat, penitus non habebat. Raro unquam quempiam alloquebatur, nisi compulsus necessitate, aut sermone prius lacessitus; tantoque in eo notabilior occurrebat iste defectus, quanto in fratre fuerat sermonis jucundi et amplectendae affabilitatis gratia cumulatior.

For he was taciturn beyond what is seemly, and devoid of exceptional urbanity. The grace of affability, which most of all wins the hearts of subjects to princes, he did not have at all. He rarely ever addressed anyone, unless compelled by necessity or first provoked to speech; and this defect appeared so much the more notable in him, as in his brother there had been a fuller abundance of pleasant discourse and of embraceable affability.

Lubrico etiam carnis, ut dicitur, impatienter laborans (quod ei clementer indulgeat Dominus) aliena attentare matrimonia dicebatur. Libertatis quoque Ecclesiarum vehemens impugnator, earum patrimonia crebris et indebitis exactionibus, diebus suis, usque ad supremam exinanitionem attrivit, ita quod aere alieno gravari compelleret loca venerabilia, supra suarum obventionum vires. Pecuniae cupidus supra quam regiam deceret honestatem.

Also, laboring impatiently with the slipperiness of the flesh, as it is said (which may the Lord clemently indulge to him), he was said to make attempts upon others’ matrimonies. A vehement impugner, too, of the liberty of the Churches, he wore down their patrimonies by frequent and undue exactions, in his days, unto supreme exinanition, so that he compelled venerable places to be burdened with debt, beyond the strength of their obventions. Greedy of money beyond what regal honesty befitted.

Interventu munerum auferebat saepe, differerebat saepius, aliter quam censurae rigor, et juris modestia pateretur. Avaritiae tamen suae excusationem praetendens, mihi etiam familiarius colloquenti, causas nitebatur assignare, dicens: Principem quemlibet, et maxime regem, semper hanc debere penes se providentiam habere, ne egeat, propter duo; tum quia tuta est opulentia subjectorum, ubi non eget imperator; tum quidem ut prae manibus habeat, unde necessitatibus regni sui, si forte inopinatae occurrant, consulat; et in eo casu, regem providum, oportere esse abunde munificum, et sumptibus omnino non parcere, ut non sibi, sed regni usibus, quidquid id est, videatur possidere. Horum alterum in eo fuisse, nec invidi ejus possunt negare. Nam in regni necessitatibus nec expensis parcebat, nec proprii corporis fatigatione revocabatur.

By the intervention of gifts he often quashed, more often deferred, otherwise than the rigor of censure and the modesty of law would suffer. Nevertheless, putting forward an excuse for his avarice, even when conversing more familiarly with me, he strove to assign causes, saying: Any prince, and especially a king, ought always to have this providence with himself, that he not be in need, for two reasons: first, because the opulence of subjects is safe where the emperor is not in need; then indeed so that he may have at hand whence he may provide for the necessities of his kingdom, if perchance unforeseen ones occur; and in that case, a provident king ought to be abundantly munificent, and by no means to spare expenses, so that he may seem to possess whatever it is, not for himself, but for the uses of the kingdom. The latter of these was in him, nor can even his ill-wishers deny it. For in the necessities of the kingdom he neither spared expenses, nor was he called back by the fatigue of his own body.

Sed non erat tuta omnino subjectorum opulentia; ad quorum exhaurienda patrimonia, sumpta qualibet levi occasione, frequentius recurrebat.

But the opulence of the subjects was not at all secure; for the draining of whose patrimonies, seizing upon any slight occasion, he would resort more frequently.

CAPUT III. De corporis habitudine; et de quadam quaestione, quam cuidam suo familiari solvendam obtulit.

CHAPTER 3. On the condition of the body; and on a certain question, which he offered to one of his familiars to solve.

Corporis autem quadam favorabili statura quasi proportionaliter erat modificatus, ut mediocribus major, et longissimis minor esset. Facie venusta, et quae ignotis etiam reverendi principis merito praetenderet dignitatem. Oculis fulgentibus, mediae quantitatis; naso instar fratris aquilo decenter; capillo flavo, refugoque pusillum.

Of body, however, he was, by a certain favorable stature, as it were proportionally modulated, so that he was greater than men of middling size and lesser than the very tallest. With a comely face, and one which even to strangers would present, by merit, the dignity of a reverend prince. With fulgent eyes, of medium size; a nose, aquiline like his brother’s, decently; hair blond, and a little receding.

Barba, genas mentumque grata quadam plenitudine vestitus. Risum tamen habebat incompositum, et quo totus in ridendo concutiebatur. Prudentibus et discretis viris, et remotorum locorum peritiam habentibus, et externarum consuetudinum tenentibus experientiam, libentissime confabulabatur.

His beard, cheeks, and chin were clothed with a certain agreeable fullness. Yet he had an uncomposed laugh, and in laughing he was shaken all over. With prudent and discreet men, and with those possessing expertise of remote places and holding experience of foreign customs, he conversed most willingly.

Memini me semel, ab eo familiariter evocatum, dum in castello Tyrensi, febricula lenta, non multum periculose laboraret, horis quietis et lucido intervallo, sicut in interpolatis febribus solet contingere, secretius cum eo multa contulisse; et ad quasdam ejus quaestiones, quantum pro tempore occurrebat, adhibuisse solutiones; multum enim nostra collatione recreabatur. Inter quas unam nobis obtulit quaestionem, unde me multum movit interius: tum quia inusitatum erat illud quaeri, quia nec quaestione dignum videbatur, quod fides universalis edocebat, et firmissime tradiderat credendum; tum quia animo graviter vulnus imprimebat, si princeps orthodoxus et orthodoxorum filius, in re tam certa pateretur scrupulum, et in conscientia dubitaret. Quaesivit sane: Si praeter doctrinam Salvatoris et sanctorum qui Christum secuti sunt, de qua non dubitabat, posset ratio inveniri, qua posset probari argumentis evidentibus et necessariis, resurrectionem futuram? Ad quod novitate permotus verbi, respondi: Sufficere Domini ac Redemptoris nostri doctrinam, qua manifestissime multis locis in Evangelio, carnis resurrectionem futuram edocet; venturum se judicem, judicare vivos et mortuos et saeculum per ignem promittit; daturum se electis regnum, praeparatum a constitutione mundi; impiis autem ignem aeternum, qui paratus est diabolo et angelis ejus, pollicetur.

I remember that once, having been familiarly summoned by him, while in the Tyrian castle he was laboring under a slow little fever, not very perilously, at hours of quiet and in a lucid interval, as is wont to happen in intermitting fevers, I discussed many things with him more secretly; and to certain of his questions, so far as occurred for the moment, I applied solutions; for he was greatly refreshed by our colloquy. Among these he offered us one question, by which I was much moved within: both because it was unusual for that to be asked, since what the universal faith taught and had most firmly handed down to be believed did not seem worthy of question; and because it stamped a grievous wound upon the mind, if an orthodox prince and son of the orthodox, in a matter so certain, should suffer a scruple and doubt in conscience. He asked indeed: If, besides the doctrine of the Savior and of the saints who have followed Christ, about which he did not doubt, reason could be found, by which the future resurrection could be proved by evident and necessary arguments? To which, moved by the novelty of the word, I replied: That the doctrine of our Lord and Redeemer suffices, by which most manifestly in many places in the Gospel he teaches that the resurrection of the flesh is to come; he promises that he will come as judge, to judge the living and the dead and the world through fire; that he will give to the elect the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world; but to the impious he promises eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

Sanctorum quoque apostolorum, et Patrum etiam Veteris Testamenti sufficere piam assertionem. Ad quod ille: Haec omnia firmissime teneo; sed rationem quaero, qua alicui haec neganti, et doctrinam Christi non recipienti, futuram resurrectionem et aliam vitam post istam mortem, probari possit. Cui ego: Assumite ergo vobis hujus hominis sic affecti personam, et tentemus aliquid circa hoc invenire. Placet, inquit, Tum ego: Deum justum confiteris esse? Tum ille: Nihil verius, confiteor. Tum ego: Justi autem est, pro bonis bona, pro malis mala retribuere? Tum ille: Verum est. Ego: In praesenti vita autem non fit istud. Nam et boni quidam, in praesenti saeculo, nonnisi molestias patiuntur, et adversa; mali vero quidam felicitate gaudent continua, sicut rerum quotidianarum exempla nos edocent. Tum ille: Certum est. Ego vero processi: Ergo in alia vita fiet; quia non potest Deus non esse justus retributor; ergo alia vita erit et hujus carnis resurrectio; in qua meruit quis bonum vel malum, in ea debet recipere praemium et remunerari. Tum ille: Placet supra modum; et omnem detersisti de corde meo dubitationem. His et similibus plurimum recreabatur collationibus.

The pious assertion of the holy apostles, and also of the Fathers of the Old Testament, suffices. To which he: All these I hold most firmly; but I seek a reason by which, to someone denying these things and not receiving the doctrine of Christ, the future resurrection and another life after this death can be proved by evident and necessary arguments. To whom I: Assume for yourselves, then, the person of this man so affected, and let us attempt to find something about this. “Agreed,” he says. Then I: Do you confess God to be just? Then he: Nothing truer, I confess. Then I: Is it of the just to retribute good for good, evil for evils? Then he: It is true. I: But in the present life this does not happen. For certain good men, in the present age, suffer nothing but troubles and adversities; but certain evil men rejoice in continual felicity, as the examples of daily affairs teach us. Then he: It is certain. I indeed proceeded: Therefore it will be done in another life; because God cannot fail to be a just retributor; therefore there will be another life and a resurrection of this flesh; in which whoever has merited good or evil, in that he ought to receive the prize and be remunerated. Then he: It pleases beyond measure; and you have wiped away all doubt from my heart. By these and similar conferences he was very much refreshed.

Sed ad propositum redeamus. Pinguis erat supra modum, ita ut more femineo mamillas haberet, cingulo tenus prominentes: caeteras autem corporis partes, manu traxerat natura laetior benigniore, ut non solum mediam praetenderent venustatem, verum quadam gauderent formae praerogativa. In sumenda quoque corporis refectione sobrium, vinique abstinentissimum, nec inimici negare possunt.

But let us return to the matter proposed. He was corpulent beyond measure, such that, in a feminine manner, he had breasts, projecting as far as the girdle; but the other parts of the body Nature, more cheerful and more benign, had drawn with her hand, so that they not only displayed a moderate comeliness, but even rejoiced in a certain prerogative of form. Even enemies cannot deny that, in taking bodily refection, he was sober and most abstinent of wine.

CAPUT IV. Quod antequam coronaretur, coactus est ab uxore sua, quam contra sacros duxerat canones, discedere.

CHAPTER 4. That before he was crowned, he was compelled by his wife, whom he had taken contrary to the sacred canons, to leave her.

Denique dum adhuc frater ejus in rebus ageret humanis, et regnum feliciter administraret, uxorem duxit Agnetem, Joscelini junioris comitis Edessani filiam, ex qua vivente fratre, prolem suscepit geminam, filium videlicet Balduinum, quem patruus de sacro fonte suscepit, et filiam natu priorem, nomine Sybillam, comitissae Flandrensis, sororis utriusque, aequivocam. Hanc tamen uxorem, defuncto jam fratre, dum regnum ad se jure haereditario devolutum vindicaret, coactus est abjurare. Nam et in initio dum eam duxisset, invito domino patriarcha Fulchero bonae memoriae, et contradicente, sibi eam matrimonio copulavit; eo quod quarto consanguinitatis gradu se dicebantur contingere, sicut postea in facie Ecclesiae per communes consanguineos solemniter est probatum.

Finally, while his brother was still engaged in human affairs and was happily administering the kingdom, he took to wife Agnes, daughter of Joscelin the younger, count of Edessa, by whom, while his brother yet lived, he received twin offspring: a son, namely Baldwin, whom his uncle received from the sacred font, and a daughter, elder by birth, named Sibylla, a namesake of the Countess of Flanders, the sister of them both. Yet this wife, his brother now deceased, while he was claiming to himself the kingdom devolved by hereditary right, he was compelled to abjure. For also at the beginning, when he had taken her, with Lord Patriarch Fulcher of good memory unwilling and objecting, he joined her to himself in matrimony; because they were said to touch one another in the fourth degree of consanguinity, as afterward in the face of the Church it was solemnly proved through their common kinsmen.

Praesentibus enim domino Amalrico, bonae memoriae patriarcha, domino quoque Joanne, sanctorum Joannis et Pauli presbytero cardinale, et apostolicae sedis legato, juxta juris ecclesiastici solemnitatem, consanguineis utriusque corporaliter juramenta praestantibus et asseverantibus sic esse, ut dicebatur, interveniente divortio, solutum est matrimonium. Hoc addito tamen, ut qui ex ambobus nati erant, legitimi haberentur et in bona paterna successionis plenum jus obtinerent. Quaesivimus sane nos postea diligenter, tanquam circa talia curiosi, quoto consanguinitatis gradu se contingerent; quia nondum de scholis redieramus, sed trans mare adhuc, circa liberalium artium detinebamur studia, quando Hierosolymis haec facta sunt.

For, with lord Amalric, of good memory, the patriarch, present, and with lord John also, presbyter cardinal of Saints John and Paul, and legate of the apostolic see, according to the solemnity of ecclesiastical law, with the consanguines of each bodily rendering oaths and asseverating that it was so as was being said, divorce intervening, the marriage was dissolved. This being added, however, that those who had been born of both should be held legitimate and should obtain full right of succession in the paternal goods. We indeed afterwards diligently inquired, as being curious about such matters, in what degree of consanguinity they touched one another; because we had not yet returned from the schools, but beyond the sea we were still detained about the studies of the liberal arts, when these things were done at Jerusalem.

Et tandem invenimus per dominam Stephaniam, abbatissam ecclesiae Mariae majoris quae Hierosolymis ante Sepulcrum Domini sita est, quae domini Joscelini senioris, comitis Edessani filia fuit, ex sorore domini Rogerii, filii Richardi Antiocheni principis, religiosam et nobilem carne et moribus feminam, jam natu grandaevam, sed memoriter haec tenentem, quod eorum generatio sic erat. Dominus Balduinus de Burgo, secundus Hierosolymorum rex, vir per omnia magnificus (de cujus vita et moribus, et tam dextris quam sinistris eventibus, latius disseruimus, dum de regno ejus tractaremus) et dominus Joscelinus senior, duarum sororum filii fuerant. De domino Balduino nata fuit Milisendis regina: ex Milisende vero nati sunt dominus Balduinus tertius, et dominus Amalricus reges.

And at length we found through Lady Stephania, abbess of the church of Saint Mary Major, which at Jerusalem is situated before the Lord’s Sepulcher—who was the daughter of Lord Joscelin the elder, count of Edessa, by the sister of Lord Roger, son of Richard, prince of Antioch—a woman religious and noble in flesh and in morals, already great in years, yet retaining these things by memory, that their generation was thus. Lord Baldwin of Bourcq, the second king of Jerusalem, a man in all things magnificent (about whose life and morals, and about both the right-hand and the left-hand events, we have more broadly discoursed, when we treated of his reign), and Lord Joscelin the elder, had been sons of two sisters. From Lord Baldwin was born Queen Melisende; from Melisende, in truth, were born Lord Baldwin 3 and Lord Amalric, kings.

Item ex domino Joscelino seniore Joscelinus junior, ex quo praedicta Agnes comitissa, domini Amalrici de facto, non de jure, uxor; et tertius Joscelinus, nunc regius senescalcus, et domini regis Balduini, qui hodie regnat, avunculus, nati sunt. Porro, domino Amalrico rege absque conjugio adhuc perseverante, illa statim nobili et magnifico viro domino Hugoni de Ibelim, senioris Baliani filio, Balduini Ramatensis (qui nunc praedictam urbem, post fratrem sine liberis defunctum, possidet) et Baliani junioris, qui viduam domini Amalrici regis hodie habet uxorem, fratri, copula conjuncta est maritali. Eoque defuncto, domino Amalrico adhuc superstite, apud dominum Rainaldum Sidoniensem, domini Gerardi filium, eadem affectione se contulit; cum quo minus licitum, quam cum domino Amalrico prius, dicitur habere contubernium.

Likewise, from Lord Joscelin the elder were born Joscelin the younger, from whom came the aforesaid Countess Agnes, the wife of Lord Amalric de facto, not de iure; and a third Joscelin, now the royal seneschal, and the avunculus of Lord King Baldwin, who reigns today. Moreover, while Lord King Amalric was still persevering without a marriage, she straightway was joined in the marital bond to the noble and magnificent man Lord Hugh of Ibelin, son of Balian the elder, brother of Baldwin of Ramla (who now possesses the aforesaid city, his brother having died without children) and of Balian the younger, who today has the widow of Lord King Amalric as his wife. And when he died, Amalric still surviving, she betook herself with the same affection to Lord Reynald of Sidon, son of Lord Gerard; with whom she is said to have had a cohabitation less lawful than before with Lord Amalric.

Nam praedictus pater ejus dominus Gerardus, tanquam utriusque consanguineus (sicut et pro certo erat) consanguinitatem inter praedictas personas esse, sicut a majoribus suis audierat, proprio jure jurando firmavit: unde et secutum fuit divortium, ut praelibatum est.

For the aforesaid father of hers, Lord Gerard, as a kinsman of both (as indeed he certainly was), affirmed by his own sworn oath that there was consanguinity between the aforesaid persons, as he had heard from his elders; whence a divorce followed, as has been mentioned above.

CAPUT V. Rex in Aegyptum descendit; cum Dargan soldano pugna committitur. Savar Syraconum introducit in Aegyptum; Dargan ad regem, pacem postulans, legatos dirigit.

CHAPTER 5. The king descends into Egypt; a battle is joined with Sultan Dargan. Savar brings in Shirkuh’s men into Egypt; Dargan sends envoys to the king, asking for peace.

Confirmato igitur domino Amalrico in regni solio, primo ejus regni anno, negantibus Aegyptiis annuam tributi pensionem persolvere, quam cum fratre suo pepigerant; congregatis militaribus copiis, et exercitu copioso, Kal. Septembris manu forti descendit in Aegyptum; ubi cum innumera multitudine occurrens ei regni illius procurator, qui lingua eorum soldanus dicitur, Dargan nomine, circa Aegyptum in solitudine cum eo congredi non est veritus; verumtamen nostrorum impetus non valens sustinere, plurimis suorum interfectis, captis nonnullis, in fugam compulsus, in urbem proximam, quae lingua eorum Belbeis dicitur, cum residuo coactus est se recipere. Timentes autem Aegyptii, ne dominus rex eo confecto, ad ulteriora regni cum exercitu suo vellet contendere, nullum aliud arbitrati se habere contra impetus nostrorum remedium, ruptis aggeribus, qui fluvium restagnantem usque ad certa tempora cohibere solent, Nilum, qui jam consueta susceperat incrementa, exuberantem inducunt; ut saltem vel his repagulis nostrorum cohiberent incursus, et se fluminis beneficio restagnantis tuerentur.

Therefore, with Lord Amalric confirmed upon the throne of the kingdom, in the first year of his reign, the Egyptians refusing to pay the annual pension of tribute which they had covenanted with his brother, with military forces gathered and a copious army, on the Kalends of September, with a strong hand he descended into Egypt; where the procurator of that kingdom, who in their tongue is called the soldan, by name Dargan, encountering him with an innumerable multitude, did not fear to engage with him in the wilderness around Egypt; nevertheless, not able to withstand the onrush of our men, with very many of his killed, and some taken, compelled into flight, he was forced with the remnant to withdraw into the nearest city, which in their tongue is called Belbeis. But the Egyptians, fearing lest the lord king, once he was dispatched, should wish to press on with his army to the further parts of the kingdom, judging that they had no other remedy against the onsets of our men, broke the dikes which are accustomed to confine the river, ponded up until certain times, and they let in the Nile—already having received its customary increases—overflowing; so that at least by these barriers they might restrain our incursions, and protect themselves by the benefit of the river standing back.

Dominus vero rex, habito ex hostibus triumpho, rebus feliciter compositis, inde victor in regnum suum cum gloria reversus est. Porro Dargan iste, quem totius Aegypti procuratorem diximus, et soldanum, quemdam alium potentem admodum, Savar nomine, paucis ante diebus ab eadem administratione partim dolo, partim viribus expulerat; qui cum amicis et familiaribus et copiis quas secum potuit deportare, fuga elapsus, ad Arabes contribules suos, auxilium ab eis postulaturus, se contulit. Exspectans igitur rei exitum, et eventum bellorum operiens, latebat apud suos, ut diximus, tempore opportuno aliquid contra aemulum moliturus.

But the lord king, having held a triumph over the enemies, with affairs happily composed, from there returned as victor into his kingdom with glory. Moreover this Dargan, whom we have called procurator of all Egypt and soldan, had, a few days before, expelled from that same administration a certain other man very powerful, by name Savar, partly by guile, partly by force; who, with his friends and intimates and the forces which he was able to carry off with him, escaping by flight, betook himself to his fellow-tribesmen the Arabs, to request aid from them. Therefore awaiting the issue of the affair, and biding the event of the wars, he lay hidden among his own people, as we have said, intending at an opportune time to engineer something against his rival.

Audiens ergo, quod dominus rex in regnum suum redierat, et quod suus adversarius, in sua administratione solito insolentior, et quasi gloriosior, eo quod tantum principem in praelio sustinuerat, quodque regno non multum laeso abierat, in eodem principatu potens et fortis perseveraret; ad Noradinum potentissimum principem, Damascenorum regem, properat, implorans ab eo auxilium, quo fretus in Aegyptum rediens, excluso aemulo regnum resumere posset. Cui Noradinus, muneribus et promissis illectus, sperans quod si semel exercitus ejus Aegypti fines posset introire, regnum sibi posset comparare violenter, facilem praebuit assensum; tradensque ei principem militiae suae, virum industrium, et in armis strenuum, liberalem supra vires patrimonii sui, gloriae cupidum, et in re militari admodum exercitatum, militibus charum efficiente munificentia et acceptum, Siraconum nomine, cum ingenti militia direxit in Aegyptum. Erat autem homo jam senior, pusillus statura, pinguis multum et corpulentior, ex humili locupletior factus, et suffragantibus meritis, ex servili conditione princeps constitutus; in altero oculorum habens albuginem; laboris patientissimus, sed et sitim et famem aequanimiter tolerans, supra id quod aetas illa soleat sustinere.

Therefore, hearing that the lord king had returned into his kingdom, and that his adversary, in his administration more insolent than usual and, as it were, more glorious, because he had withstood so great a prince in battle, and that, the realm not much harmed, he had gone away, yet was persevering potent and strong in the same principate, he hastens to Noradinus, a most powerful prince, king of the Damascenes, imploring aid from him, by the support of which, returning into Egypt, he might, his rival excluded, be able to resume the kingdom. To whom Noradinus, enticed by gifts and promises, hoping that if once his army could enter the borders of Egypt, he might by force acquire the kingdom for himself, gave ready assent; and delivering to him the prince of his militia, a man industrious and strenuous in arms, liberal beyond the powers of his patrimony, greedy of glory, and in the military art very much exercised, made dear and acceptable to the soldiers by his munificence, by the name Siracon, he sent him with a huge soldiery into Egypt. He was, moreover, already an old man, small in stature, very fat and quite corpulent, from a humble state made more wealthy, and, his merits concurring, from a servile condition established as a prince; having a whitening in one of his eyes; most patient of labor, and bearing both thirst and hunger with equanimity, beyond what that age is wont to sustain.

Verum intercurrentibus nuntiis, et fama publica soldanus Dargan edoctus, hostem quem prius expulerat, cum infinitis Turcorum millibus adventare, diffidens rebus propriis, ad emendicata recurrit suffragia. Legatos enim cum verbis pacificis, ad dominum regem dirigit, orans et petens contra ingruentes hostes auxilium; tributum autem non solum, quale cum domino Balduino rege fuerat constitutum, verum multo majus, et pro domini regis arbitrio praestandum, pollicens subjectionem perpetuam, foedusque perenne, firmare datis paratus obsidibus.

But, with messengers passing between, and by public report informed that the enemy whom he had earlier expelled was approaching with countless thousands of Turks, the sultan Dargan, mistrusting his own resources, had recourse to begged-for aids. For he sends envoys with pacific words to the lord king, praying and asking for help against the inrushing enemies; and he promises tribute not only of the sort that had been established with Lord King Baldwin, but much greater, to be rendered at the lord king’s discretion, promising perpetual subjection, and ready to ratify a perennial covenant by hostages given.

CAPUT VI. Petrus archiepiscopus Tyrensis defungitur; succedit ei dominus Fredericus Acconensis episcopus.

CHAPTER 6. Peter, archbishop of Tyre, passes away; Lord Frederick, bishop of Acre, succeeds him.

Per idem tempus dominus Petrus, venerabilis Tyrensium archiepiscopus piae in Domino recordationis, anno praedicti domini regis secundo, mense Martio, prima die mensis, viam universae carnis ingressus est. Cui intra paucos dies, eodem mense substitutus est, domino rege plurimum ad id aspirante, ejusdem ecclesiae suffraganeus, dominus videlicet Fredericus, Acconensis episcopus; vir secundum carnem nobilis, corpore procerus admodum, natione Lotharingus, modice litteratus, sed militaris ultra modum.

About the same time, lord Peter, the venerable archbishop of the Tyrians, of pious remembrance in the Lord, in the second year of the aforesaid lord king, in the month of March, on the first day of the month, entered upon the way of all flesh. In his place, within a few days, in the same month— the lord king very greatly aspiring to this— there was substituted a suffragan of the same church, namely lord Frederick, bishop of Acre; a man noble according to the flesh, very tall in body, by nation a Lotharingian, moderately lettered, but military beyond measure.

CAPUT VII. Dargan soldanus in Aegypto, dolo suorum occiditur. Savar soldanus efficitur.

CHAPTER 7. Dargan the sultan in Egypt is slain by the treachery of his own men. Savar becomes sultan.

Regem invitat; rex in Aegyptum descendit; Siraconus violenter expellitur.

He invites the king; the king descends into Egypt; Siraconus is violently expelled.

Dum haec cum domino rege praedicti legati tractarent, peneque eorum desideriis esset satisfactum, antequam ad propria redirent, praenominati Savar et Siraconus, in Aegyptum cum suis auxiliis jam descenderant; et cum soldano Dargan hostiliter congressi, primo conflictu inferiores, et graviter prostrati; antequam secundo eadem lege convenirent, saepedictus Dargan, a quodam ex suis clam sagitta percussus, suis lugendus interiit. Quo mortuo, Savar tanquam victor, voti compos, Cahere ingressus, quoscunque de amicis, consanguineis, et familiaribus illius reperire potuit, gladio confossis, iterum sua potitus est dignitate. Nam summo eorum principi pro minimo est, uter de contendentibus aut succumbat, aut obtineat, dummodo non desit, qui sua et regni negotia procuret, et se illius mancipet servituti.

While the aforesaid envoys were treating these matters with the lord king, and their desires had been nearly satisfied, before they returned to their own, the above-named Savar and Siraconus had already descended into Egypt with their auxiliaries; and having engaged the sultan Dargan in hostile fashion, in the first conflict they were the inferior and grievously overthrown; before they might meet a second time on the same terms, the oft‑said Dargan, struck secretly by an arrow from one of his own, perished, to be mourned by his men. He being dead, Savar, as victor, his wish accomplished, on entering Cairo, after piercing with the sword whatever of his friends, kinsmen, and familiars he was able to find, again got possession of his dignity. For to their highest prince it is a matter of the least moment which of the contenders either succumbs or prevails, provided only that there be not lacking someone to manage his own and the kingdom’s affairs, and to make himself over to his servitude.

Siraconus vero civitatem invadens finitimam, Belbeis nomine, eam sibi quasi propriam coepit constanter vindicare, significans opere, et fortasse sermone id ipsum contestans, quod reliquas ejusdem regni partes suae ditioni, si ita daretur, invito soldano et calipha, vellet mancipare. Timens ergo Savar, ne hospitem talem introducendo, suam et domini sui conditionem fecisset deteriorem; neve talem suscepisset, qui tanquam mus in pera, et serpens in gremio, male remuneraret hospites suos; cum omni festinantia legatos et verbum pacis dirigit ad dominum regem in Syriam, qui juxta conventiones inter dominum regem et Dargan soldanum, prius initas, non solum verbo, sed et opere statim adimplerent, et si opus esset, supererogarent ampliora. Pactis igitur hinc inde firmatis, rex cum universo suorum exercitu, anno regni ejus secundo, iter arripiens, descendit denuo in Aegyptum.

Siraconus, however, invading a neighboring city, by name Belbeis, began steadfastly to vindicate it for himself as if proper to him, signifying by deed, and perhaps attesting the same by speech, that he wished to mancipate the remaining parts of that same kingdom to his dominion—if it were so granted—the sultan and the caliph being unwilling. Therefore Savar, fearing that by introducing such a guest he would have made worse both his own condition and that of his lord; and lest he should have received such a one who, like a mouse in the bag and a serpent in the lap, would ill remunerate his hosts; with all haste he directs envoys and a word of peace to the lord king into Syria, that, according to the conventions previously entered between the lord king and Dargan the sultan, they might at once fulfill not only in word but also in deed, and, if there were need, supererogate ampler things. The pacts therefore having been ratified on both sides, the king, with the whole army of his men, in the second year of his reign, taking up the journey, descended again into Egypt.

Ubi occurrens ei Savar cum Aegyptiis, saepedictum Siraconum in civitate Belbeis, quasi in proprium praesidium se receptantem, obsederunt, diutinaque obsidione et alimentorum inopia fatigatum, ad deditionem compulerunt, interpositis conditionibus, quod cum suis omnibus liberum et sine molestia haberet exitum et reditum ad propria: quod ei concessum est: quo obtento, civitatem deserens, per solitudinem reversus est Damascum.

Whereupon Savar, meeting him with the Egyptians, besieged the oft‑mentioned Siraconus in the city Belbeis, who was taking refuge there as in his own stronghold; and, worn out by a long siege and by scarcity of provisions, they compelled him to capitulate, terms being interposed that he, with all his men, should have free and unmolested exit and return to his own possessions: which was granted to him; this obtained, abandoning the city, he returned to Damascus through the wilderness.

CAPUT VIII. Noradinus circa partes Tripolitanas vincitur, et fuga vix nostrorum manus effugit.

CHAPTER 8. Noradinus is defeated around the Tripolitan parts, and by flight scarcely escapes the hands of our men.

Noradinus interea circa partes Tripolitanas, in eo loco qui vulgo appellatur La Bochea, moram faciens, dum prosperis elatus, aliquantulum se gerit incautius, damnum incurrit pene irreparabile. Advenerant illa tempestate quidam nobiles, de partibus Aquitanicis, Gaufridus videlicet, qui cognominatus est Martel, domini comitis Engolismensis frater, et Hugo de Liniziaco senior, qui cognominatus est Brunus, orationis gratia. Hi completis de more orationibus, ad partes se contulerunt Antiochenas.

Meanwhile Noradin, around the Tripolitan parts, at that place which is commonly called La Bochea, making a delay, while, exalted by prosperities, he bore himself somewhat incautiously, incurred a nearly irreparable loss. At that season certain nobles had arrived from the Aquitanian parts, namely Geoffrey, who was surnamed Martel, the brother of the lord count of Angoulême, and Hugh of Lusignan the elder, who was surnamed Brunus, for the sake of prayer. These men, their prayers completed according to custom, betook themselves to the Antiochene parts.

Cognito ergo quod Noradinus circa partes Tripolitanas, in loco supradicto, cum suo exercitu moram faceret, nimisque secure et sine sollicitudine, otio resolutus quiesceret, convocatis militaribus auxiliis, super ejus exercitum irruentes subito, multis captis, pluribus gladio peremptis, exercitum ejus pene usque ad supremam exinanitionem deleverunt. Ille vero relicto gladio et omissis impedimentis universis, nudus altero pede, jumento insidens, confusus nimium et de vita desperans, vix fuga elapsus, nostrorum manus evasit. Nostri vero spoliis et multiplicibus locupletati divitiis, victores, ad propria redierunt.

Therefore, once it was known that Noradinus, around the Tripolitan parts, in the aforesaid place, was making a stay with his army, and, all too secure and without solicitude, relaxed into leisure, was resting, our men, the military auxiliaries having been convoked, suddenly rushing upon his army, with many taken captive and more slain by the sword, destroyed his force almost unto supreme exinanition. But he, having left his sword and abandoned all his impedimenta, with one foot bare, seated on a beast of burden, exceedingly confounded and despairing of life, barely escaped by flight and eluded our men’s hands. Our men, however, enriched by the spoils and by multiple riches, victorious, returned to their own lands.

Fuerunt autem hujus expeditionis duces, Gilbertus de Laci, vir nobilis et in armis exercitatus, praeceptor fratrum militiae Templi in partibus illis; et duo magni praedicti viri, et Robertus Mansel, qui Galensibus in eadem expeditione praeerat, et alii pauci.

Now, the leaders of this expedition were Gilbert de Lacy, a noble man and exercised in arms, preceptor of the brothers of the knighthood of the Temple in those parts; and the two great aforesaid men; and Robert Mansel, who in the same expedition was in command over the Welsh; and a few others.

CAPUT IX. Noradinus in partibus Antiochenis castrum Harenc obsidet; princeps Antiochenus, comes Tripolitanus, Calamannus Ciliciae procurator, capiuntur.

CHAPTER 9. Noradinus in the Antiochene parts besieges the castle of Harenc; the Antiochene prince, the Count of Tripoli, Calamannus, procurator of Cilicia, are captured.

Noradinus autem casu consternatus sinistro, ira succensus, indutus confusione et reverentia, infamiam abolere cupiens, ad ulciscendam suam suorumque injuriam, proximos et amicos sollicitat, universos pene Orientis principes nunc prece nun pretio supplex invitat, vires reparat, militaria suffragia colligit undecunque. Collectis igitur immensis copiis et innumeris millibus conglobatis, oppidum quoddam nostrum in finibus obsidet Antiochenis, Harenc nomine; et ordinatis per gyrum, ut mos est, machinis, oppidanos coepit acriter, nullaque data requie incessanter urgere. Quod factum, postquam principibus nostris innotuit, dominus Boamundus tertius, Raymundi filius, Antiochenus princeps; dominus quoque Raimundus junior, comes Tripolitanus, Raimundi comitis filius; Calamannus etiam praeses Ciliciae, domini imperatoris consanguineus, et imperialium in illa provincia procurator negotiorum; Toros quoque Armeniorum princeps potentissimus, sociatis sibi quae undecunque potuerunt peditum equitumque suffragiis, ordinatis agminibus et in aciem dispositis, obviam ire festinant, et obsidionem solvere invitis hostibus aggrediuntur.

But Nur al-Din, dismayed by the adverse mishap, inflamed with anger, clad in confusion and shame, wishing to abolish the infamy and to avenge his own and his men’s injury, stirs up his neighbors and friends; almost all the princes of the East he, as a suppliant, invites now by prayer, now by price; he repairs his forces, he gathers military aids from everywhere. Therefore, immense troops having been collected and countless thousands massed together, he besieges a certain of our towns on the borders of Antioch, by name Harenc; and, the engines having been set round about, as is the custom, he began sharply, with no respite given, to press the townspeople incessantly. This deed, after it became known to our princes, lord Boamund the third, son of Raymond, the prince of Antioch; and also lord Raymond the younger, the count of Tripoli, son of Count Raymond; likewise Calamannus, praeses of Cilicia, kinsman of the lord emperor and procurator of imperial affairs in that province; and Toros too, the most powerful prince of the Armenians—having associated to themselves, from wherever they could, the aids of foot and horse, their columns ordered and arrayed in battle line—hasten to go to meet him, and attempt to raise the siege against the enemies’ will.

Sane Noradinus, et qui cum eo erant Parthorum principes, communicato consilio, tutius opinantes, obsidione sponte soluta discedere, quam cum hostibus pene jam instantibus incaute congredi, compositis sarcinis, recedere moliebantur: nostri vero nihilominus eis instantes, dato successu et prosperis abutentes, dum eis non sufficit, quod oppidanos obsidione tantorum principum expedierant, dum incautius insequuntur, dissolutisque agminibus, et contra militarem disciplinam passim discurrentibus evagantur, recurrentibus subito, animumque et vires resumentibus Turcis, quibusdam locorum palustrium angustiis comprehensi, primo franguntur impetu; quibusque prius fuerant formidini, ludibrio satis miserabiliter exponuntur. Profligati enim et fracti, turpiter hostium gladiis, victimarum more, caeduntur. Non est qui vigoris meminerit praeteriti, qui paternae memor virtutis, aut propriae, propulsare studeat injuriam, aut pro merenda libertate et honore patrio gloriosus decertare; praecipites ergo, et suae dignitatis immemores, armis depositis, vitam indigna supplicatione merentur, quam pro patria viriliter decertando, excellentius fuerat impendisse, et exempli ad posteros favorabilis.

Indeed Noradinus, and the Parthian princes who were with him, after taking counsel together, thinking it safer to depart with the siege voluntarily lifted than to engage incautiously with foes now almost upon them, with their packs made up set about withdrawing; but our men, nonetheless pressing upon them, taking advantage of the success granted and of prosperous circumstances, since it did not suffice them that they had delivered the townsmen from the siege of such great princes, while they pursue too incautiously, and their columns being dissolved, and contrary to military discipline running about everywhere and straying, the Turks suddenly turning back and regaining spirit and strength, they, caught in certain narrows of marshy places, are broken at the first onset, and to those whom previously they had been a terror, they are exposed to mockery most miserably. For routed and shattered, they are shamefully hewn down by the enemies’ swords, after the manner of victims. There is no one who remembers former vigor, who, mindful of paternal virtue or of his own, strives to repel the injury, or to contend gloriously for earning liberty and the fatherland’s honor; headlong, therefore, and forgetful of their dignity, laying down their arms, they purchase life by unworthy supplication, which it would have been more excellent to have expended by fighting manfully for the fatherland, and more favorable as an example for posterity.

Porro Toros Armenius videns hostium praevalere cuneos, nostrorum vero e converso acies corruisse, fuga saluti consulens, bellicis se exemit tumultibus. Displicuerat sane ab initio sibi, quod hostes ab obsidione discedentes, fuerant insecuti; et dissuadere adorsus fuerat, sed praevaluit inutilior aliorum sententia. Dominus autem Boamundus princeps Antiochenus, dominus quoque Raimundus comes Tripolitanus, Calamanus etiam Ciliciae procurator, Hugo quoque de Liniziaco, de quo superius fecimus mentionem; Joscelinus etiam tertius, comitis Edessani secundi Joscelini filius, et multi alii nobiles, ut vitae cum probro et ignominia consulerent, hostibus se tradentes, vinculis tanquam vilia mancipia, miserabiliter alligantur; et Halapiam traducti, spectaculum facti sunt populis infidelibus et carceribus mancipati.

Moreover Toros the Armenian, seeing the enemy’s wedges prevail, while, conversely, our battle-lines had collapsed, consulting for safety by flight, withdrew himself from the warlike tumults. It had, indeed, displeased him from the beginning that the enemies, departing from the siege, had been pursued; and he had set about to dissuade it, but the more unprofitable opinion of others prevailed. But lord Boamund, prince of Antioch, and likewise lord Raymond, count of Tripoli, and Calamanus also, procurator of Cilicia, and Hugh too of Liniziac, of whom we made mention above; Joscelin also the Third, son of Count of Edessa Joscelin the Second, and many other nobles, that they might consult for life with reproach and ignominy, surrendering themselves to the enemies, are miserably bound in chains like cheap slaves; and, conveyed to Aleppo, they were made a spectacle to the unbelieving peoples and consigned to prisons.

Successibus tandem et prospera nimium fortuna, Noradinus, et qui cum eo erant, erecti castrum quod prius obsederant, confidentius repetunt, et obsidione iterum vallantes, infra paucos dies expugnant et potenter occupant violenter expugnatum. Factum est hoc anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1165, regni vero domini Amalrici anno secundo, IV Idus Augusti, dum ipse adhuc in Aegypto detineretur propriis negotiis occupatus.

At length, by successes and a fortune overly prosperous, Noradinus, and those who were with him, uplifted, more confidently revisit the castle which they had previously besieged, and, encircling it with a siege again, within a few days they storm it and powerfully occupy what was taken by force. This happened in the year from the Lord’s Incarnation 1165, and indeed in the 2nd year of the reign of lord Amalric, on the 4th day before the Ides of August (August 10), while he himself was still detained in Egypt, occupied with his own affairs.

CAPUT X. Comes Flandrensium Theodoricus in Syriam descendit. Noradinus Paneadem obsidet, et occupat obsessam.

CHAPTER 10. Theodoric, Count of Flanders, descends into Syria. Noradinus besieges Paneas, and occupies it once besieged.

Rebus interea nostris tanta rerum mutatione tamque sinistris eventibus usque ad supremam exinanitionem pene afflictis, cum neque saltem spei residuum superesset, jam animo consternati, per singulos dies deteriora formidarent universi, ecce comes Flandrensis Theodoricus, domini regis sororius, cum uxore religiosa et Deum timente femina, et aliquanta militum manu applicuit; cujus tanta laetitia suscepit adventum omnis populus, ut quasi post immoderatum solis ardorem, auram gratissimam et praesens remedium videretur suscepisse; sperabant enim, quod ejus freti auxilio, domini regis et Christiani exercitus possent adventum praestolari. Sed hoc qualequale serenum, orta subito nubes caliginosa, mutilavit miserabiliter, et convertit in tenebras. Noradinus enim rebus secundis et casu prosperiore factus sublimior, videns regnum solitis carere solatiis et majoribus regni principibus, quos ipse captivos tenebat, destitutum; ad hoc et dominum regem et militiae robur abesse universum sumpta ex tempore occasione opportuna, apposuit ut Paneadensem obsideret civitatem.

Meanwhile, while our affairs, afflicted almost to utter exinanition by so great a mutation of things and by such sinister events, when not even a residuum of hope remained, all, now with spirit dismayed, were fearing worse things with each single day, behold, Theodoric, Count of the Flemings, the lord king’s brother-in-law, with his wife, a religious and God-fearing woman, and with some band of soldiers, arrived; whose arrival the whole people received with such joy that it seemed to have welcomed, as if after the immoderate heat of the sun, a most pleasing breeze and a present remedy; for they hoped that, relying on his aid, they might be able to await the coming of the lord king and of the Christian army. But this somewhat fair weather a suddenly risen murky cloud miserably mutilated and turned into darkness. For Noradin, by favorable circumstances and a more prosperous chance made more exalted, seeing the kingdom to lack its accustomed consolations and to be destitute of the greater princes of the realm, whom he himself held captive; and, in addition, that both the lord king and the entire strength of the knighthood were absent, taking from the moment an opportune occasion, set himself to besiege the city of Paneas.

Est autem Paneas urbs antiquissima, ad radicem Libani famosissimi promontorii sita, antiquissimis temporibus et Israelitici populi diebus, Dan dicta; terminus a septentrionali plaga possessionis eorum, sicut et Bersabee ab austro. Unde quoties longitudo terrae promissionis describitur, ducitur a Dan usque ad Bersabee (I Reg. III, 20). Diebus autem Philippi, senioris Herodis filii, qui erat Tetrarcha Itureae et Traconitidis regionis, sicut in Luca legitur (cap.

Now Paneas is a most ancient city, situated at the root of Lebanon, the most famous promontory; in the most ancient times and in the days of the Israelitic people, it was called Dan; the terminus from the septentrional quarter of their possession, just as Beersheba from the south. Whence, as often as the length of the land of promise is described, it is drawn from Dan as far as Beersheba (1 Kings 3, 20). But in the days of Philip, son of Herod the elder, who was Tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, as is read in Luke (chap.

III,) qui eam ampliavit in honorem Tiberii Caesaris, et in perpetuam sui nominis memoriam, Caesarea Philippi dicta est. Dicitur autem et Paneas; sed nostri Latini corrumpentes nomen, sicut pene omnium aliarum urbium, Belinas vocant. Est autem ab Oriente agro Damasceno contermina, juxta quem fluentorum suorum Jordanis habet originem.

3,) who enlarged it in honor of Tiberius Caesar, and for the perpetual remembrance of his own name, it was called Caesarea Philippi. It is also called Paneas; but our Latins, corrupting the name, as of almost all other cities, call it Belinas. Moreover, on the east it is conterminous with the Damascene countryside, near which the Jordan has the origin of its streams.

Haec est illa civitas de qua in Evangelio legitur: Quod venit Jesus in partes Caesareae Philippi, et interrogavit discipulos suos (Matth. XVI, 13). Ubi et Petrus apostolorum princeps, ob egregiae confessionis meritum, regni claves coelestis Domino tradente, suscepit (ibid., 19). Hanc obsidens et immunitam reperiens, absente domino Henfredo regio constabulario et cum domino rege moram in Aegypto faciente, cujus erat haereditaria possessio, episcopo quoque ejusdem loci absente, populo quoque imminuto, machinis et tormentis bellicis in gyrum collocatis, suffosso muro, turribus assiduo lapidum jactu ex parte maxima debilitatis, intra paucos dies expugnat; eos qui intus erant, ad deditionem compellens, pactis intervenientibus, quod cum rebus suis omnibus egredientes, liberum haberent et pacificum exitum; civitatem recepit, anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1167. Regni vero domini regis Amalrici anno secundo, XV Kal.

This is that city of which it is read in the Gospel: That Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, and asked his disciples (Matt. 16, 13). Where also Peter, the prince of the apostles, on account of the merit of an egregious confession, received, with the Lord handing over the keys of the heavenly kingdom, (ibid., 19). Besieging this place and finding it unfortified, with lord Humphrey, the royal constable, absent and making a stay with the lord king in Egypt, of whom it was the hereditary possession, with the bishop of the same place also absent, and the people likewise diminished, with machines and engines of war set all around, the wall undermined, the towers for the most part weakened by the continual hurling of stones, within a few days he took it by storm; compelling those who were inside to surrender, with terms intervening, that, going out with all their belongings, they should have free and peaceful departure; he took the city, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1167. But in the second year of the reign of lord King Amalric, on the 15th day before the Kalends.

Novembris. Commiserat autem eamdem civitatem, in Aegyptum proficiscens dominus constabularius, cuidam militi fideli suo, qui dicebatur Galterus de Quaisneto, quem in custodia loci quidam dicunt negligentem fuisse. Addunt etiam, et in deditione cum quodam sacerdote Rogerio nomine, qui canonicus erat illius ecclesiae, sumpta pecunia, malitiose versatum; unde et in reditu domini regis ex Aegypto, timuerunt admodum, verentes ne imputaretur eis ad mortem.

of November. Moreover, the lord constable, setting out to Egypt, had entrusted that same city to a certain faithful knight of his, who was called Walter of Quesnay, whom some say was negligent in the guarding of the place. They add also that, at the surrender, with a certain priest by the name Roger, who was a canon of that church, after money had been taken, he behaved maliciously; whence also, on the return of the lord king from Egypt, they were very much afraid, fearing lest it be imputed to them as a capital charge.

Nos autem horum nihil pro certo compertum habemus, nisi hoc, quod civitas illa hostibus tradita est.

We, however, have nothing of these things ascertained for certain, except this: that that city was handed over to the enemies.

CAPUT XI Rex ab Aegypto rediens, Antiochiam proficiscitur. Princeps data pro se pecunia restituitur libertati. Spelunca Sidoniensis hostibus traditur.

CHAPTER 11 The king, returning from Egypt, sets out for Antioch. The Prince, upon money paid on his behalf, is restored to liberty. The Sidonian Cave is handed over to the enemies.

Item trens Jordanem aliam speluncam hostes accipiunt.

Likewise, across the Jordan, the enemies receive another cave.

His interea sic gestis in Syria, dominus rex, Siracono de Aegypti finibus excluso, Savar vero soldano in administratione sua confirmato, ad propria cum gloria victoriosus remeavit: ubi, etsi ita prius audierat, compertis quae in regno acciderant tristibus, et calamitatibus ex integro cognitis, vocatus ab Antiochenis ut rebus eorum pene desperatis subveniret, vocantibus eis fraterna miseratione compatiens, assumpto secum comite Flandrense, maturatis itineribus Antiochiam properat, eorum afflictioni optata solatia praestiturus. Adveniens ergo, praesensque factus, negotia domini principis tanta diligentia, tantaque sollicitudine, quanta vix propria tractare consueverat, fideliter prudenterque administrans, nobiles et plebeios multa mansuetudine providoque moderamine regens; dispositisque per urbes singulas prudentibus viris, qui res ad dominicalia principis pertinentes, bona fide sanoque consilio procurarent; ad propria reversus, non desinens tamen, sed cum ejusdem fidelibus et amicis satagens, de ejusdem redemptione tractare. Effectum est autem per ejus industriam, quod in eadem aestate, multo tamen interveniente pretio, vix per annum integrum apud hostes detentus, libertati simul et honori pristino restitutus est; qui Antiochiam reversus, non quievit deses, sed vivacitate qua potuit, ut obsides quos dederat soluto pro eis pretio, recipere non moraretur, ad imperatorem Constantinopolitanum festinat, qui paucis ante diebus sororem ejus juniorem Mariam uxorem duxerat.

Meanwhile, with these things thus done in Syria, the lord king, Syracon having been excluded from the borders of Egypt, but Savar the sultan confirmed in his administration, returned with glory victorious to his own; where, although he had previously heard as much, yet when the sad things which had happened in the realm were ascertained, and the calamities learned afresh in full, being called by the Antiochenes that he might succor their affairs, well-nigh desperate, and, in fraternal compassion sympathizing with those calling him, taking with him the Flemish count, with journeys hastened he makes speed to Antioch, to render the desired consolations to their affliction. Arriving, therefore, and being present, he administered the business of the lord prince with such diligence and such solicitude as he had scarcely been wont to handle his own, ruling nobles and commons with much mildness and provident moderamen; and, appointing in each several city prudent men who should in good faith and with sound counsel look after the matters pertaining to the prince’s demesne, he returned to his own, yet did not cease, but, striving with that same man’s faithful and friends, to negotiate his redemption. Now it was brought about by his industry that in that same summer, yet with much price intervening, after scarcely a full year detained among the enemies, he was restored at once to liberty and to his former honor; who, having returned to Antioch, did not rest slothful, but, with such liveliness as he could, that he might not delay to receive the hostages which he had given, the price for them having been paid, hastens to the emperor of Constantinople, who a few days before had taken to wife his younger sister Mary.

Unde ab eo honorifice susceptus, benigne tractatus, munificentissime donis imperialibus cumulatus, intr paucos dies Antiochiam est reversus. Videtur autem mirum, quod Noradinus tam prudens, tamque providus princeps; et qui captivos nostros tam invitus a suis dimittebat carceribus, et in hoc maxime gloriabatur, quod multos ex nostris, et praesertim nobilibus, suis haberet vinculis mancipatos, cui Antiochenum principem tam cito permisit libertati restitui. Super quo duae nobis occurrunt solutiones: vel quia domini imperatoris preces timebat, ne forte gratis ab eo dominus imperator vellet eum habere, cui aliquid tale negare verecundaretur; vel quia cum esset juvenis, nihilque bonae spei de se promitteret, verebatur ne si diutius eum teneret, Antiocheni fortiorem subrogando, sibi consulerent, et ei durior objiceretur adversarius; tutius enim videbatur viro discreto, et circumspecto plurimum, quod hic, de quo non multum bene sperabatur, Antiochenae praeesset provinciae, quam vice ejus aliquis prudentior robustiorque eamdem administraret regionem, cum quo periculosius esset negotia partiri.

Whence, by him honorably received, kindly treated, and most munificently heaped with imperial gifts, within a few days he returned to Antioch. It seems, however, a wonder that Nuradin, so prudent and so provident a prince; and he who so unwillingly released our captives from his prisons, and in this especially gloried—that he had many of our men, and especially nobles, mancipated to his chains—permitted the prince of Antioch to be so quickly restored to liberty. Upon which two solutions occur to us: either because he feared the prayers of the lord emperor, lest perhaps the lord emperor would wish to have him from him gratis, to whom he would be ashamed to deny something of that sort; or because, since he was young, and promised nothing of good hope from himself, he feared lest, if he held him longer, the Antiochenes, by subrogating a stronger man, would consult their own interests, and a tougher adversary would be set before him; for it seemed safer to a very discreet and most circumspect man that this one, of whom not much good was hoped, should preside over the Antiochene province, than that in his stead someone more prudent and more robust should administer the same region, with whom it would be more perilous to divide dealings.

Haec nobis videtur viri vigilantissimi mens fuisse.

This seems to us to have been the mind of a most vigilant man.

Eadem tempestate, Siraconus, unde saepius fecimus mentionem, vir in nostram argumentosus perniciem, municipium quoddam nostrum in territorio Sidoniensi situm, speluncam videlicet inexpugnabilem quae vulgo dicitur Cavea de Tyrum, corruptis, ut dicitur, pretio custodibus, subitis et improvisis occupat machinationibus. Argumentum est, quod per consensum illorum quibus custodienda tradit fuerat, in manus hostium devenisset, quia statim tradito municipio, qui intus erant, omnes ad hostium fines declinaverunt, excepto eorum domino, qui casu fortuito comprehensus, suspendio apud Sidonem, vitam infelicem finivit.

At the same time, Siraconus, of whom we have more often made mention, a man ingeniously bent on our destruction, seizes by sudden and unforeseen machinations a certain municipality of ours situated in the Sidonian territory, namely an inexpugnable cave which is commonly called the Cavea of Tyre, the guards, as it is said, having been corrupted with a bribe. There is proof that it had come into the hands of the enemy by the consent of those to whom it had been entrusted to be guarded, because immediately upon the municipality being handed over, all who were inside turned to the borders of the enemy, except for their lord, who, having been apprehended by a fortuitous chance, ended his unhappy life by hanging at Sidon.

Eodem anno, dominus Willelmus inclytae recordationis, Siciliae rex, domini Rogeri regis filius, extremum clausit diem, morte praeventus.

In the same year, lord William, of illustrious memory, king of Sicily, son of lord king Roger, closed his last day, overtaken by death.

Per idem quoque tempus, ejusdem generis praesidium, spelunca iterum inexpugnabilis, ultra Jordanem in finibus Arabiae situm, fratrum militiae Templi diligentiae deputatum, eidem Siracono traditur; ad quam eripiendam dominus rex properans cum multa militia, dum supra Jordanem castrametatus esset, recepit nuntium, quod praesidium in manus jam devenerat inimicorum; quo audito, dominus rex confusus et ira succensus, de fratribus Templi, qui hostibus castrum tradiderant, patibulo fecit suspendi circa duodecim. Sicque rebus nostris eo anno, qui erat regni domini Amalrici tertius, peccatis nostris exigentibus, plurimum accessit detrimenti; ita ut regnum universum in arcto nimis esset constitutum.

At the same time also, a garrison of the same kind, an impregnable cave again, situated beyond the Jordan on the borders of Arabia, deputed to the diligence of the brethren of the Militia of the Temple, is handed over to that same Siraconus; to rescue which the lord king, hastening with much soldiery, while he was encamped above the Jordan, received word that the garrison had already come into the hands of the enemies; which heard, the lord king, confounded and kindled with wrath, caused about twelve of the brothers of the Temple, who had handed over the castle to the enemies, to be hanged on the gallows. And so to our affairs in that year, which was the third of the reign of lord Amalric, our sins demanding it, there accrued very great detriment; so that the whole kingdom was set in most narrow straits.

CAPUT XII. Describitur compositoris hujus historiae in patriam reditus; et de ejus processu aperiuntur nonnulla. Siraconus in Aegyptum descendit, multam secum trahens militiam.

CHAPTER 12. The return to his homeland of the composer of this history is described; and some particulars concerning his progress are opened. Siraconus descends into Egypt, drawing much soldiery with him.

Dum haec circa nos aguntur, rumor frequens personuit, et fama celebri divulgabatur, quod saepe dictus Siraconus cum magnifico apparatu, convocatis infinitis militibus, ab orientali et septentrionali tractu, in Aegyptum denuo parabat descensum; nec erat vana opinio. Adierat enim illum maximum Saracenorum principem, qui quasi singularis monarcha, cunctis excellentior, omnibus praeesse intelligitur, calipham, videlicet de Baldac; ad quem perveniens, exhibita solita reverentia, coepit exponere diligenter, innumerabiles Aegypti divitias, bonorum omnium, et singularium commoditatum copias admirabiles; principis illius inaestimabiles thesauros, census, vectigalia, de terrestribus et maritimis urbibus, annuas obventiones quantitatis infinitae; ad haec populum deliciis deditum, rei militaris expertem, longa quiete dissolutum; adjiciens et inculcans et ad memoriam frequenter revocans, quomodo tam hic, qui modo regno illi praeerat, quam ejus progenitores, contra eum suosque praedecessores sedem sibi erexerant aemulam, singulari eorum excellentiae imprudenter se parificantes; quod etiam legem aliam, contradictoriasque traditiones docere praesumpserant. His et aliis caliphae animae reverberans, quae intendebat persuasit.

While these things were being done around us, a frequent rumor resounded, and by celebrated fame it was being divulged, that the oft-mentioned Siraconus, with magnificent apparatus, having convoked innumerable soldiers from the eastern and northern tract, was preparing anew a descent into Egypt; nor was the opinion vain. For he had approached that greatest prince of the Saracens, who, as a singular monarch, excelling all, is understood to preside over all, the caliph, namely of Baghdad; to whom, upon arriving and having shown the usual reverence, he began diligently to set forth the innumerable riches of Egypt, the goods of every sort, and the admirable stores of singular commodities; that prince’s inestimable treasures, revenues, and imposts, and from the terrestrial and maritime cities annual receipts of infinite quantity; in addition, a people given over to delights, unskilled in the military art, dissolved by long repose; adding, inculcating, and frequently recalling to memory how both he who now presided over that kingdom and his progenitors had set up for themselves a rival seat against him and his predecessors, imprudently making themselves equal to their singular excellence; that they had also presumed to teach another law and contradictory traditions. By these and other things, battering the caliph’s mind, he persuaded him to that which he intended.

Scripsit ergo universis erroris sui principibus, districte praecipiens, ut vires conferant, impendant auxilium, eumque sequantur. Audiens haec dominus Amalricus, volens illius molimina praevenire, curiam apud Neapolim convocat generalem; ubi praesentibus domino patriarcha, archiepiscopis, episcopis et aliis ecclesiarum praelatis, principibus et populo, necessitates regni docet ex ordine, omnium suppliciter implorans auxilium. Decretum est ergo, et communi voto susceptum, ut omnes generaliter, nemine excepto, ad regni subsidium, universarum rerum mobilium decimas darent; quod et factum est.

He therefore wrote to all the princes of his faction, strictly enjoining that they contribute forces, expend assistance, and follow him. Hearing this, Lord Amalric, wishing to forestall his machinations, convokes a general court at Neapolis; where, with the lord patriarch, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the churches, the princes and the people present, he sets forth in order the necessities of the kingdom, humbly imploring the aid of all. It was therefore decreed, and adopted by common vote, that all in general, with no one excepted, should give tithes of all movable things for the subsidy of the kingdom; and so it was done.

Rumor interim erat non remissior, quod procul dubio Siraconus, sumptis necessariis ad dies multos alimoniis, utribusque aquam deferens, per solitudinem, qua populus Israel ad terram venerat promissionis, iter arripuerat. Rex autem collectis, quos habere poterat, militibus, obviam exiens, usque ad Cadesbarne, quae est in solitudine, cum omni celeritate properat, ut euntem impediret; eoque non invento, celerius revertitur.

Meanwhile the rumor was no less persistent, that beyond doubt Siraconus, having taken the necessary provisions for many days and carrying water in skins, had set out through the wilderness by which the people of Israel had come to the Promised Land. But the king, having gathered the soldiers he was able to have, going out to meet him, hastens with all speed as far as Kadesh-barnea, which is in the wilderness, to impede his advance; and, not finding him there, he returns the more swiftly.

CAPUT XIII. Rex Siraconum subsequens, similiter descendit in Aegyptum, Aegyptiis auxilium ministraturus.

CHAPTER 13. The king, following Siraconus, likewise descended into Egypt, to minister assistance to the Egyptians.

Convocatis ergo ex urbibus singulis per vocem praeconiam, tam equitum quam peditum viribus universis, et apud Ascalonam unanimiter congregatis, III Kal. Februarii, coeptum aggredientes iter, assumptis sibi ad dies constitutos necessariis alimentis, vastitatem solitudinis, quae interjecta est media inter Gazam, ultimam regni nostri civitatem, et Aegyptiacam dioecesim, recensito suorum numero, et novissimis exspectatis, apud Laris, antiquissimum ejusdem solitudinis oppidum, maturatis transeunt itineribus; tandem apud eam quae hodie dicitur Belbeis civitatem, unde frequentem fecimus mentionem, quae olim dicta est Pelusium, cujus frequens memoria est in prophetis, universus applicat exercitus. Cognito ergo domini regis adventu, Savar soldanus, de subito nostrorum stupefactus occursu, timens ne adversus eum strueretur omnis apparatus et de fide nostrorum dubitans, formidine nimia corripitur; nam, licet alias vir prudens et industrius, providusque plurimum haberetur, in ea tamen parte tam supinus, tamque crassa laborans ignorantia repertus est, ut viae causam nostrorum edoctus, vix crederet; peneque sero, lentusque miserit exploratores per solitudinem, qui ei certa de hostium exercitu nuntiarent.

Therefore, having been called together from each city by the herald’s voice, with the entire forces both of horse and of foot, and having unanimously assembled at Ascalon, on the 3rd day before the Kalends of February, addressing the journey that had been begun, and having taken for themselves the necessary provisions for the appointed days, they traverse the vastness of the wilderness which lies interposed midway between Gaza, the last city of our kingdom, and the Egyptian diocese; their own number having been reviewed and the rearmost awaited, at Laris, the most ancient town of that same wilderness, they press on with hastened marches; at length, at the city which today is called Belbeis, of which we have made frequent mention, which in former times was called Pelusium, whose memory is frequent in the prophets, the whole army arrives. Therefore, when the coming of the lord king was known, Savar the sultan, astounded at the sudden encounter of our men, fearing lest all the apparatus were being contrived against him and doubting the good faith of our men, is seized with excessive fear; for although otherwise he was held a prudent and industrious man, and most provident, yet in that matter he was found so supine and laboring under such gross ignorance that, though instructed as to the cause of our men’s journey, he scarcely believed it; and almost too late, and slow, he sent scouts through the wilderness to announce to him sure tidings concerning the enemy’s army.

Redeuntes autem qui missi fuerant, Turcorum expeditiones, ad eum locum qui dicitur Attasi, pervenisse denuntiant. Tunc vero soldanus fidei nostrae admirans, et laudibus attollens sinceritatem, diligenter considerans, quantam pro amicis sollicitudinem Christianus impendisset exercitus, universas regni et caliphae, regis obsequiis exponit divitias, universorumque mandatorum ejus sedulum ab illa die se praebuit exsecutorem; ejusque dominus rex, ad omnia necessariis utebatur ministeriis.

However, those who had been sent, returning, announce that the expeditions of the Turks had reached that place which is called Attasi. Then indeed the sultan, admiring our faith and exalting with praises its sincerity, diligently considering how great a solicitude the Christian army had expended for its friends, laid open all the riches of the kingdom and of the caliph to the king’s service, and from that day showed himself a sedulous executor of all his commands; and the lord king availed himself, for all things, of the necessary ministries.

CAPUT XIV. Describitur Cahere; et quis ejus loci primus fundator fuerit, aperitur.

CHAPTER 14. Cahere is described; and it is revealed who was the first founder of that place.

Transeuntes igitur Pelusium et Cahere, ubi regni solium et totius Aegypti culmen magnificis decoratum aedificiis monstratur, ad laevam habentes nobilem et egregiam metropolim, quae vulgo Babylonia dicitur, lingua vero Arabica Macer appellatur, supra ripam fluminis castra locaverant. Hujus civitatis nomen non potuimus reperire antiquius; nam Babylon, sive Babylonia, civitas fuit antiquissima in Oriente. Juxta enim veteres et vetustissimas etiam historias, nulla unquam in Aegypto hujus nominis audita est civitas.

Passing therefore Pelusium and Cahere, where the throne of the realm and the summit of all Egypt, adorned with magnificent edifices, is displayed, having on the left the noble and outstanding metropolis which is commonly called Babylonia, but in the Arabic tongue is named Macer, they had pitched their camp above the bank of the river. The more ancient name of this city we were not able to discover; for Babylon, or Babylonia, was a most ancient city in the East. For according to the old and most ancient histories, never at any time in Egypt was a city of this name heard of.

Unde verisimile est, post tempora Pharaonum, qui primi in Aegypto regnaverunt, et Ptolemaeorum qui posteriores; sed etiam post Romanorum tempora, qui regnum Aegypti in provinciam redegerunt, hanc urbem conditam, sicut de Cahere constat, quod Johar princeps militiae Mehezedinalla, qui tunc in Africa regnabat postquam domino suo Aegyptiacam omnem dioecesim acquisivit, fundasse dignoscitur: quod qualiter acciderit, in sequentibus dicemus. Aliqui tamen confidenter asserunt, quod ista sit illa antiqua et nobilis et famosissima Memphis, cujus in veteribus historiis et in prophetis multa est memoria, quae totius regni illius, et multarum finitimarum provinciarum caput et moderatrix dicitur fuisse. Usque hodie tamen, ultra Nilum, qui hanc, de qua loquimur, urbem praeterfluit, quasi ad decem milliaria apparet urbs annosa, infinita, vetustae nobilitatis et eximiae magnitudinis argumenta praeferens; quam etiam incolae regionis Memphim veterem fuisse, pro certo asseverant.

Whence it is very likely that, after the times of the Pharaohs, who first reigned in Egypt, and of the Ptolemies who were later; but even after the times of the Romans, who reduced the kingdom of Egypt into a province, this city was founded, just as it is established concerning Cahere, that Johar, commander of the militia of Mehezedinalla, who then reigned in Africa, after he had acquired for his lord the whole Egyptian diocese, is recognized to have founded it: how this befell we shall tell in what follows. Some nevertheless confidently assert that this is that ancient and noble and most famous Memphis, of which there is much mention in ancient histories and in the Prophets, which is said to have been the head and governess of that whole kingdom and of many neighboring provinces. To this very day, however, beyond the Nile, which flows past this city of which we speak, at about ten miles there appears an aged city, displaying countless proofs of ancient nobility and of exceptional magnitude; which also the inhabitants of the region assert for certain to have been Old Memphis.

Probabile est ergo, aut necessitate compulsum, aut majoribus commoditatibus tractum, Mempheos populum, citra flumen domicilia transtulisse, nomenque vel tunc, vel postea, mutasse pristinum. Caeterum fixum tenemus, quod Johar, ut supra diximus, qui exercitibus magni principis Mehezedinalla, ad expugnandam Aegyptum ab Africa missus fuerat, juxta hanc eamdem civitatem, subacta universa regione et populis tributariis constitutis, Cahere construxit, quasi dominio suo praecipuum futurum et familiare domicilium, anno a regno Mehemet trecentesimo quinquagesimo octavo; quem Mehezedinalla tertio postea anno, relicta Caraea, ubi regni sui sedes per aliquot annos fuerat, secutus, juxta principis sui dispositionem, praedictum locum regni solium constituit, et domestica inhabitatione reddidit gloriosum, anno a regno Mehemet trecentesimo sexagesimo primo, regni vero sui vicesimo; sicut alibi in historia, quam de principibus Orientalibus contexuimus, diligentius est digestum.

It is therefore probable that, either compelled by necessity or drawn by greater conveniences, the people of Memphis transferred their domiciles to this side of the river, and that the name then, or later, changed its pristine form. Moreover, we hold fixed that Johar, as we said above—who had been sent from Africa with the armies of the great prince Mehezedinalla to subdue Egypt—near this same city, the whole region having been subjugated and the peoples made tributary, constructed Cahere, as a domicile destined to be principal and familiar to his dominion, in the 358th year from the reign of Mehemet; whom Mehezedinalla, in the third year thereafter, leaving Caraea, where the seat of his kingdom had been for several years, followed, and, according to the disposition of his principate, constituted the aforesaid place the throne of the kingdom and made it glorious by domestic inhabitation, in the 361st year from the reign of Mehemet, and indeed in the 20th of his own reign; as elsewhere in the history which we have woven concerning the Eastern princes, it has been more diligently set forth.

CAPUT XV. Accedenti Siracono, rex occurrit obviam; ille regem praeveniendo, transit flumen.

CHAPTER 15. As Siracon was approaching, the king goes to meet him; he, forestalling the king, crosses the river.

Locatis igitur nostris super ripam fluminis, vix a praedicta urbe stadiis duobus, communicato consilio libratisque multa deliberatione partibus, potissimum ducunt Siracono suisque antequam fluvium transeant, occurrere; eumque regni finibus arcere, quam flumine transmisso cum eis conserere, quos postea ipsa remeandi difficultas redderet acerbiores. Solutis igitur castris, ad locum ubi hostes esse dicebantur, festinant. Is autem ab eo, ubi nostri prius castrametati fuerant, quasi milliaribus decem dicebatur distare.

With our men therefore stationed upon the bank of the river, scarcely two stades from the aforesaid city, counsel having been communicated and, with much deliberation the sides weighed, they deem it preferable to go meet Siracon and his men before they cross the river, and to ward him off from the borders of the kingdom, rather than, the river having been crossed, to engage with those whom afterward the very difficulty of returning would render more bitter. The camp therefore being broken, they hasten to the place where the enemies were said to be. That, however, from the spot where our men had previously encamped, was said to be distant by about 10 miles.

Postquam vero ad praedictum conveniunt locum ipse jam tanquam dux vigilantissimus, cum universo pene exercitu flumen transierat, paucis relictis, quos nostri capientes, vinculis alligarunt. Interrogati tamen de transitu ejus, de militum numero, de multis necessariis nostros instruxerunt: quiddam sane quod nostris erat incognitum, eorum patuit relatione; videlicet, quod in solitudine, postquam Syriam Sobal transierant, oborto subito ventorum turbine immanissimo, tantus ex arena pulvis in modum nubium et densae caliginis per aera dispersus est, ut oculos, vel ora, ut sibi colloquerentur, qui in exercitu erant, aperire omnino non auderent, de equis descendentes, ad terram prostrati, manibus quanto altius arenae imprimere poterant adhaerentes solo, ne vi turbinis raperentur in sublime, iterum ad terram recasuri. Solent enim in illa solitudine instar maris, arenarum quasi quidam fluctus attolli deponique, in modum procellarum; ita ut non minus quam per aquas navigantibus, periculosum sit, per illa et importuna loca transire.

After they indeed come together at the aforesaid place, he himself, now as a most vigilant leader, had with almost the entire army crossed the river, leaving a few behind, whom our men, taking them, bound with chains. Interrogated, however, about his transit, about the number of the soldiers, and about many necessaries, they instructed our men: and a certain thing, in truth, which was unknown to our people, became clear by their report; namely, that in the solitude, after they had passed through Syria Sobal, with a very immense turbine of winds suddenly arising, so great a dust from the sand, in the manner of clouds and of dense murk, was scattered through the air, that those who were in the army did not at all dare to open their eyes or their mouths so as to speak to one another; dismounting from their horses, prostrate on the ground, clinging to the soil, pressing with their hands as deep into the sands as they could, lest by the force of the whirlwind they be snatched aloft, only to fall again to the earth. For in that solitude, after the likeness of the sea, there are wont, as it were, certain waves of sands to be lifted up and laid down, in the mode of tempests; so that it is no less perilous than for those navigating upon the waters, to pass through those and untoward places.

Amissis ergo camelis et alimentorum parte maxima, vix de vita sperantes, exstinctis pluribus, multis etiam per vastitatem late patentium arenarum dispersis, reddita demum aeris clementia, incertis itineribus, magis deviantes quam de via certi, post dies aliquot, ut praedictum est, pervenerunt in Aegyptum. Porro videns exercitus noster, quod ille cum suis flumen transierat, recursa per quam venerant via, juxta eamdem urbem, quam prius dimiserant, super fluminis ripam castra iterum locaverunt.

Therefore, with the camels lost and the greatest part of the food-supplies, scarcely hoping for life, many having perished, and many also scattered across the vastness of the wide-spreading sands, once at last the clemency of the air was restored, by uncertain routes, wandering rather than sure of the way, after several days, as was aforesaid, they reached Egypt. Furthermore, seeing that he with his men had crossed the river, our army, retracing the road by which they had come, near that same city which they had previously left, set their camp again upon the river’s bank.

CAPUT XVI. Savar soldanus, ut regem detineat, pactis innovatis, elaborat.

CHAPTER 16. Savar the Soldan, in order to detain the king, exerts himself, the pacts renewed.

Videns igitur soldanus, quod hostem infra regni praecordia susceperat, quem nullatenus aut sustinere, aut a regni finibus nisi per dominum regem poterat expellere sollicitus erat, quo pacto dominum regem posset in Aegypto detinere; verebatur enim, ne laboris immensitate fatigatus, redire ad propria disponeret; nec alia ratione, quod dominus rex in terra moram faceret, posse fieri penitus illi videbatur, nisi major ei tributorum summa statueretur, et sufficientes sibi et suis principibus designarentur impensae. Placuit ergo sibi, et id ipsum nostris visum est expedire, vetera innovare pacta, pacisque perpetuae foedera inviolabili stabilitate inter dominum regem et calipham firmare; annua quoque, tributi ampliata possessione, domino regi certa stipendia de aerario caliphae constituere. Videbatur enim res non facile finem habitura, sed laboris exigere diuturnitatem, et temporis plurimum postulare.

Therefore, seeing that the sultan had admitted the enemy within the very precordia of the realm, whom he could by no means either sustain or expel from the borders of the kingdom except through the lord king, he was anxious by what contrivance he might be able to detain the lord king in Egypt; for he feared lest, wearied by the immensity of the toil, he should decide to return to his own. Nor did it seem to him that by any other method could it thoroughly be brought about that the lord king would make a stay in the land, unless a greater sum of tributes were fixed for him, and sufficient expenses were designated for himself and his princes. It therefore pleased him—and this very thing seemed expedient to our side as well—to renew the old pacts, and to establish with inviolable stability the treaties of perpetual peace between the lord king and the caliph; and also, with the possession of the tribute enlarged, to establish for the lord king fixed yearly stipends from the treasury of the caliph. For the matter seemed not likely to have an easy end, but to require a long continuance of toil, and to demand very much time.

Conventionum autem et facti hujus mediatores, praetentatis hinc inde partium desideriis et voluntate praecognita, decernunt domino regi quadringenta aureorum millia; ducenta millia statim solventes, reliqua ducenta millia, placitis temporibus sine difficultate soluturos se spondentes, ea conditione, eoque tenore: Quod dominus rex bona fide, sine fraude et malo ingenio, propria manu firmaret, quod regno Aegypti non egrederetur, nisi prius Siracono, omni ejus exercitu penitus exstincto, aut de omnibus Aegypti finibus expulso. Placuit autem partibus conditio. Dominus rex his qui a calipha missi fuerant, super placitis conventionibus dexteram dedit. Missus est autem dominus Hugo Caesariensis, mirae prudentiae juvenis, et supra id quod solet aetas illa ministrare, circumspectus, et cum eo quidam alii, in cujus manu calipha, juxta consonantiam placitam pacta firmaret; non enim sufficiens videbatur, si in eo soldanus se solus obligaret.

But the mediators of the conventions and of this deed, the desires of the parties on this side and that having been sounded out and the will foreknown, decree for the lord king four hundred thousand gold pieces; paying two hundred thousand at once, pledging that they would pay the remaining two hundred thousand, at the agreed times, without difficulty, on this condition and in this tenor: That the lord king, in good faith, without fraud and evil ingenuity, should with his own hand confirm that he would not go forth from the kingdom of Egypt, unless first Siraconus, with his whole army utterly destroyed, or driven out from all the borders of Egypt. The condition, moreover, pleased the parties. The lord king gave his right hand to those who had been sent by the caliph upon the agreed conventions. But the lord Hugh of Caesarea was sent, a youth of wondrous prudence, and, beyond what that age is wont to furnish, circumspect; and with him certain others, in whose hand the caliph, according to the agreed accord, might ratify the pacts; for it did not seem sufficient, if in this the sultan alone should bind himself.

CAPUT XVII. Mittuntur ad calipham qui foedus innovent; et describitur regiae domus magnificentia.

CHAPTER 17. Envoys are sent to the caliph to renew the treaty; and the magnificence of the royal palace is described.

Et quoniam singularem, et saeculis nostris incognitam habet illa principis domus consuetudinem, libet diligenter adnotare, quae fida relatione eorum qui ad illum tantum principem sunt ingressi, de statu et magnificentia, et immensitate divitiarum, et gloriae multiplicitate, comperimus; non enim erit minimum profecisse, haec intellexisse diligentius. Praedictus ergo Hugo Caesariensis, et cum eo Gaufridus Fulcherii frater militiae Templi, in principio obeundae legationis, ducente soldano, Cahere ingressi, ad palatium, quod lingua eorum Cascere dicitur, ascendentes cum apparitorum numerositate maxima, qui cum gladiis et strepitu praecedebant, per angiportus, et loca luminibus egent a ducti, ad singulos introitus armatorum Aethiopum cohortes crebrae salutationis officium certatim soldano exhibentes, repererunt. Transeuntes autem primam et secundam custodiam ad quaedam diffusa et magis spatiosa loca, soli pervia et divo exposita, intromissi, deambulatoria inveniunt, columnis subnixa marmoreis, auratis laquearibus et prominentibus celata operibus, pavimento strata vario, ita ut omni suo ambitu, regiam praetenderent dignitatem; quibus tanta inerat materiae et operis elegantia, ut transeuntium etiam invitos detinerent oculos, et quadam videndi aviditate, invitante operum eximi novitate, intuentium aspectus non sinerent satiari.

And since that prince’s house holds a singular custom unknown to our ages, it is pleasing to note carefully what, by the faithful relation of those who have entered to that so-great prince, we have found out concerning the status and magnificence, and the immensity of riches, and the multiplicity of glory; for it will not be the least profit to have understood these things more diligently. Therefore the aforesaid Hugh of Caesarea, and with him Geoffrey, brother of Fulk, of the militia of the Temple, at the beginning of the embassy to be undertaken, the sultan leading, having entered Cahere, ascending to the palace, which in their tongue is called Cascere, with a very great multitude of apparitors, who, with swords and din, went before, being led through alleyways and places lacking lights, found at each entrance cohorts of armed Ethiopians, vying to render to the sultan the office of frequent salutation. But passing the first and the second guard, having been admitted to certain broad and more spacious places, accessible to the sun and exposed to the open air, they find deambulatories, propped by marble columns, veiled with gilded coffered ceilings and projecting works, paved with a variegated pavement, so that in their whole circuit they pretended a royal dignity; in which there was so great an elegance of material and workmanship, that they detained even the unwilling eyes of passers-by, and, by a certain avidity of seeing, the outstanding novelty of the works inviting, they did not allow the gaze of the beholders to be sated.

Erant ibi piscinae marmoreae, aquis redundantes limpidioribus; erant avium multimodarum, quas noster non novit orbis, varii garritus, formae incognitae et coloris peregrini, figurarum quantum ad nos prodigiosarum, cuique gustus juxta speciem suam, et edulium cuique varietati eorum consentaneum. Inde ad ulteriora, praeviis eunuchorum principibus, admissi, iterum aedificia tanto prioribus elegantiora inveniunt, quanto quae prius viderant vulgaribus et usitatis praestantiora videbantur. Hic quadrupedum stupenda varietas, qualem pictorum solet manus lasciva depingere; qualem solet poetica licentia mentiri, aut somniantis animus visionibus imaginari nocturnis: qualem orientis, et austri solent dioeceses ministrare; occidens autem videre nunquam, audire vero rarius consuevit.

There were marble pools there, overflowing with most limpid waters; there were the various twitterings of birds of many kinds, which our world does not know, of forms unknown and of peregrine color, of shapes, so far as regards us, prodigious; to each a taste according to its own species, and a comestible suitable to each of their varieties. Thence, admitted to the inner parts, the princes of the eunuchs going before, they again find edifices so much more elegant than the former, as those which they had seen before had seemed superior to the vulgar and the usual. Here a stupendous variety of quadrupeds, such as the lascivious hand of painters is wont to depict; such as poetic license is wont to feign, or the mind of a dreamer to imagine in nocturnal visions: such as the dioceses of the East and of the South are accustomed to supply; but the West is wont never to see, and more rarely indeed to hear of.

Videbatur procul dubio, quod ex iis locis, Solinus noster Polystoris sui deduxerit historiam.

It seemed, beyond doubt, that from those places our Solinus had drawn the history of his Polyhistor.

CAPUT XVIII. Complentur pacta; et in eorum confirmationem calipha dexteram dat Hugoni Caesariensi.

CHAPTER 18. The pacts are completed; and for their confirmation the caliph gives his right hand to Hugh of Caesarea.

Et jam per multos anfractus et varia diverticula, quae etiam negotiosos poterant sui contemplatione detinere, ventum est ad ipsam regiam, ubi majores armatorum cunei, satellitum quoque stipatus numerosior, habitu et frequentia domini gloriam incomparabilem fatebantur; ipsa quoque locorum facies domini opulentiam, et supereminentes divitias praetendebant. Ingressis porro eis et in interiorem partem palatii admissis, soldanus de more consuetam domino exhibens reverentiam, semel et secundo humi prostratus, quasi nemini debitum cultum, et quoddam adorationis genus coepit supplex impendere; tertio iterum prostratus ad terram, gladium quem de collo gerebat suspensum, deposuit. Et ecce subito contractis mira velocitate velariis, margaritarum varietate auroque contextis, quae media dependebant, et obumbrant solium, revelata facie, throno sedens aureo, habitu plus quam regio, paucis circa eum de domesticis et familiaribus eunuchis, apparuit calipha.

And now, through many meanderings and various by-ways, which could detain even busy men by the contemplation of them, they came to the royal residence itself, where larger wedges of armed men, and a more numerous press of attendants hemming him in, by their attire and their multitude confessed the incomparable glory of their lord; the very face of the places likewise displayed the lord’s opulence and supereminent riches. When they had entered, and been admitted into the inner part of the palace, the sultan, in customary wise offering the wonted reverence to his lord, once and a second time prostrated on the ground, began as a suppliant to pay a homage due to none, a kind of adoration; and, a third time cast down to the earth again, he laid aside the sword which he wore suspended from his neck. And behold, suddenly, the curtains, which hung down in the midst and overshadow the throne, woven with a variety of pearls and with gold, being drawn back with marvelous speed, his face revealed, the caliph appeared, sitting on a golden throne, in attire more than royal, with a few eunuchs of the household and familiars around him.

Tunc accedens cum omni reverentia soldanus, sedentis pedibus osculum humiliter imprimens, adventus legatorum causam et tenorem pactorum, regni etiam urgentissimam necessitatem, hostes immanissimos in mediis astare visceribus; quid etiam ab eo exigatur, quidve ei a domino rege impendatur, sub verborum compendio aperit. Ad haec ille benigne multum et placida tranquilli vultus hilaritate respondit: se juxta initas et utrinque admissas conventiones, dilecto suo domino regi, larga interpretatione cuncta adimplere paratum esse. Petentibus nostris, ut haec propria manu firmaret, sicut dominus rex fecerat; prima facie visi sunt, qui ei familiarius astabant, auriculares et cubicularii, penes quos consiliorum regiorum erat auctoritas, rem nimis tanquam in saeculis inauditam, abhorrere; tandem vero, post multam deliberationem, et soldani diligentem instantiam, manum porrigit, invitus nimium, sed velatam; cui praedictus Hugo de Caesarea, multum admirantibus et stupentibus Aegyptiis, quod tam libere summo principi loqueretur, dixit: Domine, fides angulos non habet; sed in fide media, per quam se solent obligare principes, omnia debent esse nuda; et aperta cum sinceritate et colligari, et solvi convenit universa, quae fidei interpositione, pactis quibuslibet inseruntur.

Then the sultan, approaching with all reverence and humbly imprinting a kiss upon the feet of the one seated, set forth in a compendium of words the cause of the legates’ arrival and the tenor of the pacts, and also the most urgent necessity of the kingdom—the most monstrous enemies standing in the very bowels; what moreover was required of him, and what would be bestowed upon him by the lord king, he discloses briefly. To these things he replied very kindly and with the placid cheerfulness of a tranquil countenance: that, according to the conventions entered into and admitted on both sides, he was prepared, with a liberal interpretation, to fulfill all things to his dear lord king. When our men asked that he confirm these with his own hand, just as the lord king had done, those who stood nearer to him in familiarity—the auriculars and the cubicularii, in whose control lay the authority of royal counsels—seemed at first sight to abhor the matter excessively as though unheard of through the ages; but at length, after much deliberation and the diligent instance of the sultan, he extends his hand, very unwilling, yet veiled; to whom the aforesaid Hugh of Caesarea, the Egyptians greatly marveling and stupefied that he spoke so freely to the highest prince, said: Lord, faith has no corners; but in mutual faith, through which princes are accustomed to obligate themselves, all things ought to be naked; and it is fitting that all things which, by the interposition of faith, are inserted into any pacts, be both bound together and loosed openly with sincerity.

Propterea aut nudam dabis, aut fictum aliquid, et minus puritatis habens, ex parte tua cogemur opinari. Tunc demum invitus plurimum, et quasi majestati detrahens, subridens tamen, quod multum aegre tulerunt Aegyptii, dexteram suam in manum domini Hugonis nudam praebuit, eumdem Hugonem, pactorum formam determinantem, eisdem pene syllabis sequens tenorem conventorum bona fide, sine fraude et malo ingenio se observaturum contestans. Erat autem, sicut dominus Hugo nobis retulit, juvenis prima pubescens lanugine, fuscus, procerus corpore, facie venusta, liberalis plurimum, innumeras habens uxores; nomen ejus Elhadech, filius Elfeis. Quibus dimissis, regiae liberalitatis insigne, munera legatis dirigit, quae tantum principem sua quantitate et specie commendarent; ut a facie tanti principis jucundum haberent egressum et ad suos remitteret laetiores.

Therefore, either you will give it bare, or we shall be compelled to suppose on your part something feigned and having less purity. Then at last, very unwilling, and as it were detracting from majesty, yet smiling—which the Egyptians took very ill—he offered his right hand bare into the hand of lord Hugh, the same Hugh determining the form of the pacts, he, following almost the same syllables, attesting that he would observe the tenor of the agreements in good faith, without fraud and evil contrivance. Moreover, as lord Hugh told us, he was a young man just coming to his first down, dark, tall in body, with a comely face, very liberal, having innumerable wives; his name was Elhadech, son of Elfeis. These things dismissed, as an insignia of royal liberality, he sends gifts to the envoys, which by their quantity and appearance might commend so great a prince; so that they might have a pleasant departure from the presence of so great a prince and he might send them back to their own people more joyful.

CAPUT XIX. Dicitur quare princeps Aegyptius dicatur Mulene.

CHAPTER 19. It is said why the Egyptian prince is called Mulene.

Et quoniam de magnificentia ejus, secundum quod audivimus ab his qui viderunt et oculata fide inspexerunt, dictum est, de nomine quoque dignitatis, et ortu et processu ejus, quantum nobis nosse datum est, tum ex lectione veterum historiarum, tum ex multorum veridica relatione, in medium proferamus; non enim erit absque historiae compendio, in hac parte lectorem reddidisse doctiorem. Princeps igitur Aegyptius, apud suos duobus appellatur nominibus; dicitur enim calipha, quod interpretatur successor vel haeres; eo quod summi eorum prophetae vicem et successionem, jure teneat haereditario. Dicitur et Mulene, quod interpretatur Dominus noster. Posterioris nominis ratio inde videtur traxisse initium, ex quo Joseph noster, tempore Pharaonis omnem Aegypti regionem, vendentibus Aegyptiis prae angustia famis possessiones suas, emit; subjecitque eas Pharaoni, et cunctos populos eos a novissimis terminis Aegypti, ad extremos fines ejus, dicens agrorum cultoribus: Quintam partem regi dabitis, quatuor reliquas permitto vobis in sementem, et in cibos familiis vestris et liberis. Emit ergo prius possessiones, deinde personas; unde est quod arctiore vinculo tenentur Aegyptii domino suo, et amplius sunt ei obligati, quam aliarum habitatores regionum magistratibus suis.

And since, concerning his magnificence, as we have heard from those who saw and inspected with eyewitness faith, it has been spoken, let us also bring into the open, as far as it has been given us to know—both from the reading of ancient histories and from the truthful relation of many—about the name too of his dignity, and his origin and progress; for it will not be without a compendium of history to have rendered the reader more learned in this part. Therefore the Egyptian prince, among his own people, is called by two names; for he is called caliph, which is interpreted successor or heir; because he holds, by hereditary right, the stead and succession of their highest prophet. He is also called Mulene, which is interpreted Our Lord. The rationale of the latter name seems to have drawn its beginning from the time when our Joseph, in the time of Pharaoh, bought all the region of Egypt, as the Egyptians, under the straitness of famine, were selling their possessions; and he subjected them to Pharaoh, and all the peoples from the newest borders of Egypt to its farthest ends, saying to the cultivators of the fields: You shall give a fifth part to the king; the remaining four I permit to you for sowing, and for food for your families and children. He therefore first bought the properties, then the persons; whence it is that the Egyptians are held by a tighter bond to their lord, and are more obliged to him than the inhabitants of other regions to their magistrates.

Quippe qui et eos et eorum possessiones pretio interveniente comparavit: unde et servili nexu, et extrema conditione ei tenentur annexi. Ita ergo per optimi procuratoris sui egregiam sollicitudinem temporibus Pharaonum, deinde Ptolemaeorum, et postea temporibus Romanorum, qui eam more aliorum regnorum redegerunt in provinciam, consuetudo haec obtinuit, ut servi sint Aegyptii et ea reverentia consueverint appellare. Nihilominus autem et veteris consuetudinis portio est, quod idem princeps otio vacans perpetuo, et deliciis deditus, tumultuum ignarus, et sollicitudinis expers, procuratorem habet, qui universa administrat regni negotia, tanquam alter Joseph; et potestatem gladii, et omne vice domini jus implet.

For indeed he acquired both them and their possessions, with a price intervening; whence they are held fast to him by a servile nexus and by the lowest condition. Thus therefore, through the excellent procurator’s distinguished solicitude in the times of the Pharaohs, then of the Ptolemies, and afterwards in the times of the Romans, who reduced it, after the manner of other kingdoms, into a province, this custom prevailed: that the Egyptians be servants and be accustomed to address him with that reverence. Nevertheless, it is also a portion of the ancient custom that the same prince, perpetually vacant to leisure and given to delights, ignorant of tumults and devoid of solicitude, has a procurator who administers all the business of the kingdom, as another Joseph; and he fulfills the power of the sword, and every right in the stead of the lord.

Hic soldanus dicitur, et in hac administratione erat Savar, unde nobis verbum est tam frequens.

Here he is called the sultan, and in this administration was Savar, whence the word is so frequent with us.

CAPUT XX. Subjungitur quare idem ipse dicatur calipha; et quo modo sit adversarius Baldacensi caliphae.

CHAPTER 20. It is subjoined why that same man is called caliph; and in what manner he is an adversary to the Baghdadi caliph.

Prioris autem nominis haec est ratio: Mehemeth propheta eorum, imo subversor, qui primus Orientales populos ad hujusmodi traxit superstitionem, successorem habuit statim post se quemdam de cooperatoribus suis, Bebecre nomine. Post quem successit in regno Homar, filius Chata; post hunc Vhemen; post quem Hali, filius Bithaleb. Hi omnes dicti sunt caliphae, sicut et deinceps omnes qui eis successerunt; eo quod eorum magistro praecipuo successerunt, et ejus erant haeredes.

As to the earlier name, this is the rationale: Mehemeth, their prophet—nay, their subverter—who first drew the Eastern peoples to a superstition of this sort, had immediately after himself as successor a certain one of his co-workers, by the name Bebecre. After whom there succeeded in the realm Homar, son of Chata; after him Vhemen; after whom Hali, son of Bithaleb. All these were called caliphs, just as thereafter all who succeeded them; for the reason that they succeeded their chief master and were his heirs.

Iste tamen ab eo quintus, Hali videlicet, cum esset caeteris qui eum praecesserant, magis in armis strenuus et in re militari supra homines illius temporis exercitatus, et ipsius Mehemet patruelis, indignari coepit plurimum, quod illius diceretur successor; et non magis propheta eximius, et multo major illo haberetur. Nec satis visum est ei ita de se, vel se, vel alios opinari, nisi et id ipsum publice praedicaret; adjecit etiam illud blasphemiae plenum dicere et per vulgus disseminare, quod angelus legis lator Gabriel, ad se missus fuerat divinitus; sed errore deceptus eam Mehemet contulisset: unde fuit graviter a Domino correptus. Haec, etsi absona quibusdam eorum et ab eorum traditionibus multum dissentire videbantur, invenit tamen populum qui sibi crederet; sicque in gente illa, exortum est schisma, quod postea non defecit usque in praesentem diem, aliis dicentibus Mehemet majorem esse, et omnium eximium prophetarum; et hi lingua eorum dicuntur Sumni; aliis dicentibus, Hali solum esse prophetam Domini, et isti dicuntur Ssia.

Nevertheless this one, the fifth from him, namely Hali, since he was more strenuous in arms than the others who had preceded him, and in the military art trained above the men of that time, and a first cousin of Mehemet himself, began to be very indignant that he was called his successor, and that he was not rather held to be an eminent prophet, and much greater than he. Nor did it seem enough to him that thus either he himself or others should opine about him, unless he also publicly proclaimed that very thing; he added also this, full of blasphemy, to say and to disseminate among the common crowd, that the angel, the law-giver, Gabriel, had been sent to him divinely; but, deceived by error, had conferred it upon Mehemet: wherefore he was grievously corrected by the Lord. These things, although they seemed off-key to some of them and to dissent much from their traditions, nevertheless he found a people who would believe him; and thus in that nation a schism arose, which afterwards did not fail down to the present day, some saying that Mehemet is greater, and the most eminent of all prophets; and these in their language are called Sumni; others saying that Hali alone is the prophet of the Lord, and these are called Ssia.

Occisus est autem praedictus Hali, et obtinuit pars adversa principatum, et fuit penes sequaces Mehemet monarchia in Oriente; et alios contrariae opinionis viros opprimebant, tanquam potestatem habentes. Anno igitur 286 a regno saepedicti seductoris, surrexit vir quidam nobilis, nomine Abdalla, filius Mehemet filii Japhar, filii Mehemet, filii Hali, filii Hussen, filii Hali majoris, de quo praemisimus. Hic egressus de Selemia civitate, quae est in Oriente, transivit in Africam, et occupatis universarum illarum partium regnis, vocavit se Mehedt, quod interpretatur complanans; quasi qui universa ad quietem dirigit, et sine offendiculo vias populo effecit planiores.

However, the aforesaid Hali was slain, and the opposing party obtained the principate, and the monarchy in the East was with the followers of Mehemet; and they were oppressing the men of the contrary opinion, as though having authority. Therefore in the year 286 from the reign of the oft-mentioned seducer, there arose a certain noble man, named Abdalla, son of Mehemet son of Japhar, son of Mehemet, son of Hali, son of Hussen, son of the elder Hali, of whom we have premised. He, having gone out from the city Selemia, which is in the East, passed into Africa, and, the kingdoms of all those regions having been occupied, called himself Mehedt, which is interpreted leveler; as one who directs all things to quiet, and made the ways for the people smoother without a stumbling-block.

Aedificavitque civitatem de nomine suo maximam, Mehediam, quam regnorum suorum voluit esse caput et supereminentem metropolim. Hic, classe ordinata, cepit Siciliam, et quasdam Italiae partes depopulatus est. Hic primus omnium post Hali atavum suum, ausus est dicere et se nominare calipham; non quod Mehemeth se diceret successorem, quem exsecrabatur; sed maximi et eximii prophetae Hali, de cujus stirpe descenderat, ut praemisimus.

And he built, from his own name, a very great city, Mehedia, which he willed to be the head and supereminent metropolis of his kingdoms. He, his fleet being marshaled, seized Sicily, and laid waste certain parts of Italy. He, first of all after Hali his forefather, dared to declare and to name himself caliph; not that he said himself the successor of Mehemet, whom he execrated, but of the greatest and most eminent prophet Hali, from whose stock he had descended, as we have premised.

Ausus est etiam nihilo minus in Mehemeth et sequaces ejus, maledicta publice jaculari, et alium ritum, aliumque modum orandi tradidisse. Hujus abnepos Ebuthemin, cognomento Elmehedinalla, subjugata sibi Aegypto, per Johar principem militiae suae, constructoque Cahere, quod interpretatur vincens, eo quod domini eorum praecipui et summi principis omnia vincentis, futurum erat domicilium; egressus de Caroea, quae est in dioecesi Africana, in qua praedecessores ejus quatuor habitaverant, descendit in Aegyptum et praedictum locum constituit regni solium. Ab illa igitur die usque in praesens, non defuit caliphae Orientali, qui tot annis fuerat monarcha, aemulus in Aegypto regnans, cum eo de paritate contendens, imo etiam se praeferens.

He dared nonetheless no less to hurl curses publicly against Mehemeth and his followers, and to have handed down another rite and another manner of praying. His great-grandson Ebuthemin, surnamed Elmehedinalla, Egypt having been subjugated to him through Johar, the chief of his militia, and with Cahere constructed, which is interpreted conquering, because it was to be the domicile of their preeminent lord and highest prince, conquering all; going out from Caroea, which is in the African diocese, in which his four predecessors had dwelt, he went down into Egypt and established the aforesaid place as the throne of the kingdom. From that day therefore up to the present, for the Eastern caliph, who for so many years had been monarch, there has not been lacking a rival reigning in Egypt, contending with him for parity, nay even preferring himself.

Haec si quis plenius scire voluerit, illam legat historiam, quam de Orientalibus principibus et eorum actibus, a temporibus praedicti seductoris Mehemet, videlicet per annos quingentos septuaginta septem, usque in praesentem diem, qui est annus ab Incarnatione Domini 1182, cum multa scripsimus diligentia, instante et rogante domino Amalrico inclytae memoriae et exemplari Arabica ministrante.

If anyone should wish to know these things more fully, let him read that history which we have written concerning the Oriental princes and their acts, from the times of the aforesaid seducer Mehemet, namely for 577 years, up to the present day, which is the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1182, with much diligence, at the instance and request of Lord Amalric of illustrious memory, and with an Arabic exemplar supplying.

CAPUT XXI. Rex super Nilum pontem aedificat. Siraconus in Insulam descendit; rex eum insequitur.

CHAPTER 21. The king builds a bridge over the Nile. Siraconus descends into the Island; the king pursues him.

Pactis igitur, ut praediximus, renovatis, et utrinque ad consonantiam redactis, ad opus conceptum unanimiter se accingunt, parati hostem insequi, et de regno expellere universo. Nox interim irruens, causam porrexerat quietis; mane facto rerum inveniunt aliquam mutationem. Nam Siraconus illa nocte veniens, supra ripam fluminis ejusdem oppositam, e regione nostri exercitus castra posuerat.

Thus, the pacts, as we have said before, being renewed and on both sides reduced to consonance, they gird themselves unanimously to the conceived work, ready to pursue the enemy and to expel him from the entire kingdom. Meanwhile night, rushing in, had extended a cause for rest; with morning come they find some change of affairs. For Siraconus, coming that night, on the opposite bank of the same river, over against our army, had pitched camp.

Comportatis igitur navibus et trabibus palmaceis, quales illa regio consuevit habere, dominus rex pontem praecipit ordinari; jungebantur naves binae, defixisque anchoris, reddebantur stabiles; desuperque trabibus ordinatis terra supponebatur; demum turribus ligneis, machinis supererectis, armabantur. Sicque per dies aliquot, usque amnis medium, productum est opus; nam reliquum exsequi, et ad ulteriorem ripam procedere, hostium formido vetabat Hic jam per mensem et eo amplius omnis belli eventus, suspensus tenebatur, nostris non valentibus amnem transire; hostibus non audentibus, ne nostri a tergo irruerent, ulterius evagari. Dum haec circa Cahere aguntur, misit Siraconus partem de suis qui insulam, quae vicina erat, omnibus referta copiis, si possent occuparent, et nostros aliquando illuc descensuros praevenirent; quod et factum est.

Accordingly, with ships and palm-wood beams having been brought together, the lord king commands that a bridge be arranged; the ships were yoked in pairs, and, the anchors having been fixed, they were rendered stable; and from above, with the beams laid in order, earth was laid down; at last they were armed with wooden towers, engines erected above. And thus for several days, as far as the midstream of the river, the work was brought forward; for fear of the enemies forbade completing the rest and proceeding to the farther bank. Here now for a month and more the whole outcome of the war was held in suspense, our men not being able to cross the river; the enemies not daring to range further, lest our men should rush upon them from the rear. While these things are being transacted around Cahere, Siraconus sent a portion of his men to seize, if they could, the island which was nearby, replete with all supplies, and to forestall our men, who would at some time descend there; which also was done.

Sed postquam domino regi innotuit, hostes in insulam descendisse, misit illuc dominum Milonem de Planci, et Chemel soldani filium, cum parte militiae; qui ad insulam tandem pervenientes Turcos in ea reperiunt, in loci illius habitatores immanissime saevientes; quibus tandem facti obviam, conmisso inter eos praelio, viriliter hinc inde pugnatum est. Sed tandem nostri, juvante Domino, superiores facti, compulerunt eos in flumen proximum se dare praecipites; ubi qui gladios evaserant, submersi sunt in aquis vehementibus. Perierunt ergo ex eis illa die variis casibus equites quingenti.

But after it became known to the lord king that the enemies had descended onto the island, he sent thither Lord Milo of Plancy and Chemel, the Soldan’s son, with a part of the soldiery; who, at length reaching the island, find Turks in it, most monstrously raging against the inhabitants of that place; and at length, having met them, with battle joined between them, it was fought manfully on both sides. But at length our men, the Lord aiding, having become superior, compelled them to give themselves headlong into the nearest river; where those who had escaped the swords were submerged in the vehement waters. Therefore there perished of them on that day, by various chances, 500 knights.

Quod postquam Siracono nuntiatum est, coepit de proposito amplius diffidere, animo plurimum consternatus. His ita se habentibus, quidam de nostri regni principibus, Henfredus videlicet de Torono, regius constabularius, item Philippus de Neapoli, qui cum domino rege ex causis familiaribus, moram domi facientes, egressi non fuerant, cum multa velocitate exercitum secuti, castris nostris se applicant; quorum adventum cum multa hilaritate et plausu nostrae susceperunt cohortes. Erant enim viri fortes et in armis strenui, in re quoque militari a primis annis plurimum exercitati.

When this was reported to Siracon, he began to distrust his purpose further, being very much consternated in spirit. Matters so standing, certain princes of our kingdom—namely Henfredus of Toron, the royal constable, and likewise Philip of Naples—who, for familial causes, making delay at home, had not gone out with the lord king, with great velocity followed the army and joined themselves to our camp; whose arrival our cohorts received with much hilarity and applause. For they were brave men and strenuous in arms, and in the military art also, from their earliest years, very much exercised.

Inito ergo consilio, deliberant quid facto sit opus; tandemque communi voto decernunt, classem universam intempestae noctis silentio, clam hostibus in insulam, quae inferius erat, vix octo milliaribus ab eo loco, in quo castra erant, remota, deducere; exercitumque omnem, circa primam noctis vigiliam, illuc transfretare; eo videlicet intuitu, ut hostibus ignorantibus, flumine transito, de nocte super incautos irruerent, damna quanta possent irrogaturi. Mandatur ergo exsecutioni consilium, et classis, nescientibus adversariis, ad praedestinatum locum descendit. Exercitus vero cum summo silentio sequens, et navibus subito transvectus, insulam occupat; et dum alteram fluminis partem, eodem modo, juxta condictum exsuperare nituntur, exorto repente ventorum turbine, opus implere prohibiti sunt; unde et in ea parte, quae ulteriorem ripam respicit, castrametari coacti sunt.

Therefore, counsel having been entered upon, they deliberate what need be done; and at length by common vote they decree to lead down the entire fleet, in the silence of the dead of night, unbeknownst to the enemies, to the island which lay lower down, scarcely eight miles removed from the place where the camp was; and to ferry across the whole army thither about the first watch of the night; with this intention, namely, that, the enemies being ignorant, the river having been crossed, they might by night rush upon the unwary, about to inflict as great damages as they could. The plan is therefore committed to execution, and the fleet, the adversaries not knowing, descends to the predestined place. But the army, following with the utmost silence and suddenly transported by ships, occupies the island; and while they strive to surmount the other part of the river in the same manner, according to the agreement, a whirlwind of winds having suddenly arisen, they were prevented from accomplishing the work; whence they were compelled to encamp on that side which looks toward the farther bank.

Reliquerunt tamen de nostris, qui pontem coeptum perficiant, et perfectum tueantur; eisque praeficiunt dominum Hugonem de Ibelim, virum magnificum et potentem qui, ut praediximus, relictam domini regis uxorem duxerat.

Nevertheless, they left some of our men to complete the bridge that had been begun, and to guard it when completed; and over them they set Lord Hugh of Ibelin, a magnificent and potent man who, as we have said before, had taken to wife the lord king’s widow.

CAPUT XXII. Describitur insula, et quot et quibus ostiis mare ingrediatur Nilus. Nostri ejectis hostibus insulam occupant; fugit Siraconus in solitudinem.

CHAPTER 22. The island is described, and by how many and which mouths the Nile enters the sea. Our men, the enemies cast out, occupy the island; Siraconus flees into the wilderness.

Insula haec, unde nobis sermo est, apud eos Maheleth dicitur, bonis omnibus copiosior, et gleba uberi laetissima, ex divisione fluentorum Nili fit; ibi enim dividitur fluvius, partes, quas ab invicem separat, usque ad mare iterum non recepturus; sed tamen iterum non conveniens, quatuor ostiis mari se immiscet. Prima pars quae nostram Syriam respicit, inter duas antiquissimas urbes maritimas mare ingreditur, inter Tafnim et Pharamiam; se alterius aedificiis vicinior, locum praeterfluendo alluit; ab altera aliquantulum, quasi milliaribus tribus aut quatuor, distat; secunda apud Damiatam, urbem antiquam et nobilem, fretis adjungitur; tertia apud Sturionem; quarta apud Ressith (qui locus Alexandriae conterminus est, vix ab ea distans milliaribus quatuor aut circa id) marinis fluctibus excipiuntur. Quaerentibus sane nobis et investigantibus diligenter, nulla alia amnis hujus occurrunt ostia; unde miramur plurimum, antiquos Nilum septemfluum dixisse, quasi septem ostiis mare ingrediatur.

This island, about which we are discoursing, is among them called Maheleth, more copious in all goods, and with soil most luxuriant and fertile, formed from the division of the streams of the Nile; for there the river is divided, not to receive again the parts which it separates from one another before the sea; but yet, not meeting again, it mingles itself with the sea by four mouths. The first part, which faces our Syria, enters the sea between two very ancient maritime cities, between Tafnis and Pharamia; being nearer to the buildings of the one, it bathes the place as it flows by; from the other it is somewhat distant, as it were by three or four miles; the second is joined to the straits near Damietta, an ancient and noble city; the third near Sturion; the fourth near Ressith (which place is contiguous to Alexandria, scarcely distant from it by four miles or about that)—by the sea-waves they are received. As we for our part sought and investigated diligently, no other mouths of this river presented themselves; whence we marvel greatly that the ancients called the Nile seven-flowing, as though it entered the sea by seven mouths.

Nec aliud nobis pro solutione occurrit, nisi aut serie saeculorum antiquissima locorum faciem alteratam, fluviumque, sicut aliis etiam amnibus solet crebrius accidere, alveum mutasse; aut pristinae aetatis viros, rei veritatem non esse assecutos; aut fortasse exuberante flumine, et solitis incrementis facto redundantiore, vias praeter istas quatuor, tumoris sui tempore, aquarum decursus reperit, per quas postmodum infra alveum receptus, pelagus desinit introire; quas si quae sunt, quia juges non habent aquas, sed more torrentium, certis tantum temporibus defluunt, inter ostia non computavimus. Occupata igitur insula, minor pars fluminis restabat; jamjamque inclarescente die, hostes sommo soluti, nostros videntes abiisse, classe abducta, ad arma convolant, subitum nostrorum timentes incursum. Inde cum celeritate secuti, secus fluvium agmina trahentes, nostros conscpiciunt insulam occupasse, eamque quae transeunda restabat fluminis portionem, classe immissa quasi propriam vindicare.

Nor does anything else occur to us as a solution, except either that in the series of the most ancient ages the face of the places has been altered, and the river, as it is wont more frequently to happen also to other rivers, has changed its channel; or that the men of a former age did not attain to the truth of the matter; or perhaps, with the river exuberant and, by its usual increments made more redundant, besides these four ways, in the time of its swelling it found courses for the waters, through which, afterwards received back within its channel, it ceases to enter the sea; which, if there are any, since they do not have constant waters, but after the manner of torrents flow down only at fixed times, we have not counted among the mouths. The island therefore having been occupied, the lesser part of the river remained; and now, as the day was growing bright, the enemies, released from sleep, seeing that our men had departed, the fleet having been withdrawn, rush to arms, fearing a sudden incursion of our men. Thence, following with speed, drawing up their columns along the river, they behold that our men have occupied the island, and that portion of the river which remained to be crossed they claim as though their own, with the fleet sent in.

Castra igitur locant ex adverso, longe tamen a crepidine alvei aliquantulum, unde non habebant prorsus liberum ad aquas accessum; unde etiam equos adaquatum trahentes, inferius descendebant. Sequenti igitur die, propositum fuerat modis omnibus fortunam tentare et aperire ferro viam; cum ecce nocte illa, nobis ignorantibus, hostes descendunt; mane autem facto, videntes eos abiisse, flumine celerius transmisso, hostes insequi nostri festinant. Hic sane, accelerandi gratia, quo expeditius equites proficiscerentur, relictis pedestribus auxiliis, dominus rex cum solis equitibus ad iter accingitur.

Therefore they pitch camp opposite, yet somewhat far from the brink of the channel, whence they had absolutely no free access to the waters; and so, leading their horses to be watered, they would go down lower. On the following day, then, it had been the plan by all means to try fortune and to open a way with iron; when behold, that night, unbeknownst to us, the enemies go down; but with morning come, seeing that they had gone away, the river having been crossed more swiftly, our men hasten to pursue the enemies. Then indeed, for the sake of speeding up, in order that the horsemen might set out more expeditiously, the foot-soldier auxiliaries having been left behind, the lord king girds himself for the journey with horsemen only.

Dimisit tamen dominum Hugonem de Ibelim, et Chemel soldani filium cum multa tum nostrorum tum Aegyptiorum militia, qui Cahere, pontemque quem nostri perfecerant, a subitis hostium incursibus tuerentur. Hic traditae sunt nostris turres et universae nobilis illius urbis munitiones, domusque caliphae nostris hactenus incognita, eis pervia facta est, ita ut et ipse dominus et omnis ejus familia, salutis spem omnem in nostris tantum haberent. Tunc revelata sunt nostris illa Sancta sanctorum a saeculis abscondita; et stupenda prius, et paucis familiaria patuerunt arcana.

Nevertheless he sent forth Lord Hugh of Ibelin, and Chemel, the sultan’s son, with a great military force, both of ours and of the Egyptians, to protect Cairo and the bridge which our men had completed from sudden incursions of the enemy. Here the towers and all the fortifications of that noble city were handed over to our men, and the house of the caliph, hitherto unknown to us, was made accessible to them, so that both the lord himself and all his household placed all hope of safety solely in our men. Then those Holy of holies, hidden for ages, were revealed to our men; and the secrets, previously astounding and familiar to few, lay open.

Misit etiam dominus rex Gerardum de Pugi, et alterum soldani filium, Mahadam nomine, in ulteriorem fluminis ripam, iterum, cum utriusque gentis expeditione; qui si forte hostes amnem transire tentarent, ipsi eorum conatibus reniterentur. Depositis igitur, ut praediximus, ex maxima parte impedimentis, dominus rex hostem insequitur, contra decursus aquarum; ipsa enim regionis forma, certum dabat insequentibus de hostium itinere argumentum.

The lord king also sent Gerard of Puy, and another son of the sultan, by name Mahad, to the farther bank of the river, again, with an expedition of both peoples; who, if by chance the enemies should attempt to cross the river, would themselves resist their endeavors. Accordingly, the impedimenta having for the most part been set down, as we have said, the lord king pursues the enemy, against the course of the waters; for the very shape of the region was giving to the pursuers a sure indication about the route of the enemies.

CAPUT XXIII. Describitur Aegypti regio, et qualis sit aperitur.

CHAPTER 23. The region of Egypt is described, and of what sort it is is disclosed.

Omnis enim Aegyptiacus tractus, a prioribus auspiciis suis, quibus Aethiopum regioni continuari dicitur, inter duas solitudines jacet arenosas, perpetua sterilitate damnatas; nec aliquando sentit aut praestat fructuarios proventus, cujuscunque generis, nisi quantum de beneficio exuberantis Nili, certis temporibus fecundatur. Fluvius autem non nisi quantum locorum adjacentium opportunitas permittit, sua reddit irrigatione frugibus aptam regionem; nam ubi circa se planiorem reperit superficiem, liberius effusus, latius etiam terram cultui praebet habiliorem, et factus diffusior diffusiorem glebae porrigit ubertatem. A Cahere ergo inferius, versus mare, planiora penitus inveniens loca, excursus habet liberos; unde et fecunditatem liberius latiusque procurat, et regno maximum dans incrementum, fines ejus dilatat.

For the whole Egyptian tract, from its earlier auspices, by which it is said to be contiguous with the region of the Ethiopians, lies between two sandy solitudes, condemned to perpetual sterility; nor does it ever feel or afford fruitful yields of whatever kind, except in so far as, by the benefit of the overflowing Nile, at set times it is made fecund. The river, however, renders the region apt for crops by its own irrigation only to the extent that the opportuneness of the adjacent places permits; for where it finds around itself a flatter surface, being poured out more freely, it also offers the land more broadly as more suitable for cultivation, and, having become more diffused, it extends a more diffused fertility to the soil. From Cairo, therefore, lower down, toward the sea, finding places thoroughly flatter, it has free courses; whence also it procures fecundity more freely and more widely, and, giving the kingdom the greatest increment, it dilates its borders.

Nam ab eo oppido quod dicitur Facus, quod Syriam respicit, usque Alexandriam, quae novissima illius regni civitas, arentem contingit Lybiam, centum et amplius milliaribus culti fecundique commoditas diffunditur. A Cahere vero supra, usque quo perveniatur Chus, Aegyptiae dioecesis ultimam civitatem, quae regno Aethiopiae dicitur esse contermina, tantas patitur collium arenosorum objectu angustias, ut raro septem aut octo milliaribus, frequentius quatuor aut quinque, aut altrinsecus, aut ex una tantum parte diffusus, ad suae exundationis modum, regni fines laterales vel contrahat, vel producat; nam quae loca non irrigat fluvius, solis ardoribus et perpetuae, ut diximus, sterilitati deputantur. Superior igitur regio lingua eorum Seith appellatur.

From that town which is called Facus, which faces Syria, as far as Alexandria, which is the farthest city of that kingdom, where it touches arid Libya, for one hundred and more miles the benefit of cultivated and fruitful land is spread. But from Caher upward, as far as one reaches Chus, the farthest city of the Egyptian diocese, which is said to be contiguous with the kingdom of Ethiopia, it suffers such straits from the obstacle of sandy hills that, rarely for seven or eight miles, more often for four or five, either on both sides, or diffused from only one side, according to the measure of its overflowing, it either contracts or extends the lateral borders of the kingdom; for the places which the river does not irrigate are assigned to the burnings of the sun and to perpetual, as we have said, sterility. Therefore the Upper region in their language is called Seith.

Cujus nominis nullam aliam adhuc potuimus invenire rationem, nisi quod priscis temporibus in superioribus Aegypti partibus legitur fuisse civitas una antiquissima Sais nomine, cujus mentionem Plato noster in Timaeo, sub persona Critiae discipuli sui, Solonem praecipuae auctoritatis virum introducentis facit; cujus verba ad majorem evidentiam ponenda judicavimus, ne quid deesse auctoritati videatur. Est, inquit, regio Aegypti, Delta nomine, cujus e vertice Nili scinduntur fluenta, juxta quam Sais nomine, civitas magna fuit, quam regit mos vetus, qui lex Satyra nuncupatur. Ex hac urbe Amasis fuit imperator, etc.

Of which name we have as yet been able to find no other rationale, except that in ancient times in the upper parts of Egypt there is read to have been one most ancient city by the name Sais, mention of which our Plato, in the Timaeus, under the persona of Critias his disciple, introducing Solon, a man of chief authority, makes; whose words we have judged should be set down for greater evidentiation, lest anything seem to be lacking to the authority. There is, he says, a region of Egypt, by the name Delta, from whose vertex the streams of the Nile are split, near which there was a great city by the name Sais, which an old custom governs, which law is called Satyra. From this city Amasis was emperor, etc.

Est tamen quaedam alia regio ad eamdem pertinens Aegyptum, a Cahere distans itinere diei unius, per terram inhabitabilem, quae ejusdem fluminis benefici per quosdam meatus visitata, opimum et fertile nimis habet solum, agrorum et vinearum multa gaudens opulentia. Hanc Aegyptii lingua sua Phium vocant; hanc, ut veterum tenet traditio, prudentissimus procurator Aegypti, et optimus utilium provisor Joseph, cum prius solum inutile, aratri prorsus ignarum, et culturae et curae expers omnino a mundi jacuisset initio, sicut ejusdem solitudinis partes aliae, considerato loci situ: quia circumadjacentibus locis finitimis humilior videbatur, et quod solutis quibusdam aggeribus, qui medii erant inter habitabilem tractum et eamdem solitudinis partem, facile posset fluminis recipere beneficium; positis aggeribus et media quae interjacebat superficie complanata, Nilum restagnantem, paratis aquae ductibus introduxit, et a saeculis solo incognitam familiarem fecit fecunditatem. Nos autem antiquum ejus vocabulum non tenentes, opinamur, priscis temporibus Thebaidam dictam, unde sanctorum Thebaeorum legio (quae sub Diocletiano et Maximiano Augustis apud Agauno martyrio coronata est) fuisse dicitur, cujus primicerius magnus martyr Mauritius legitur fuisse.

Nevertheless there is a certain other region pertaining to that same Egypt, at the distance of a single day’s journey from Cahere, through uninhabitable land, which, visited by the beneficence of that same river through certain channels, has soil very rich and exceedingly fertile, rejoicing in great opulence of fields and vineyards. This the Egyptians in their own tongue call Phium; this, as the tradition of the ancients holds, the most prudent procurator of Egypt, and the best provider of useful things, Joseph, when previously the soil, useless, utterly ignorant of the plow, and entirely devoid of cultivation and care, had lain from the world’s beginning, just as other parts of the same solitude, considering the site of the place—because it seemed lower than the neighboring adjoining places, and that, with certain embankments loosened which were between the inhabited tract and that same part of the wilderness, it could easily receive the beneficence of the river—having set embankments and leveled the surface which lay between, he introduced the Nile, back-ponding, by water-ducts prepared, and made fertility, unknown to the soil for ages, familiar. We, however, not retaining its ancient name, suppose that in former times it was called the Thebaid, whence the legion of the Thebans (which under Diocletian and Maximian, the Augusti, at Agaunum was crowned with martyrdom) is said to have been, whose primicerius the great martyr Mauritius is read to have been.

Et aliud argumentum accedit, quod optimum opium quod usquam invenitur, quod medici Thebaicum vocant, ibi nascitur. Nam terra Gessen, quae fratribus Joseph data fuisse legitur, in ea parte Aegypti est, quae Syriam respicit, sicut ex lectione libri Geneseos esse deprehenditur, quod diligens facile lector inveniet: haec autem, oppositam Aegypti partem et ulteriorem fluminis ripam habet viciniorem quae Lybiam respicit. Est autem regio non modica; imo trecentas sexaginta sex tam urbes quam suburbana, finibus suis dicitur coercere.

And another argument accrues, that the best opium that is found anywhere, which the physicians call Thebaic, is produced there. For the land of Gessen, which is read to have been given to Joseph’s brothers, is in that part of Egypt which looks toward Syria, as is discovered from the reading of the Book of Genesis, which a diligent reader will easily find; but this, rather, has nearer to it the opposite part of Egypt and the farther bank of the river, which looks toward Libya. Moreover, it is not a small region; indeed it is said to confine within its borders 366 both cities and suburban districts.

Hac igitur, ut diximus, lege loci, qui regnum erat ita angustum, nec ad dexteram, nec ad laevam poterant declinare; et etiam crebris exploratorum internuntiis edoctus dominus rex et soldanus de itinere hostium, per triduum continuum secuti, quarta demum die, Sabbato videlicet, quae illam Dominicam praecedit, qua in Ecclesia Dei cantatur Laetare, Hierusalem, nuntiatur hostes esse in proximo.

Therefore, by this, as we have said, law of the place, which was so narrow a pass, they could turn neither to the right nor to the left; and, also, the lord king and the sultan, instructed by frequent go-betweens of the scouts about the enemies’ route, having followed for three continuous days, at length on the fourth day, namely on Saturday, which precedes that Sunday on which in the Church of God is sung Rejoice, Jerusalem, it is announced that the enemies are at hand.

CAPUT XXIV. Inter regem et Siraconum pugna committitur in solitudine, maximo utriusque partis periculo.

CHAPTER 24. A battle is joined between the king and Siracon in the wilderness, with the greatest peril to both sides.

Communicato itaque ad debitum compendium consilio (nam ferias liberiores, instans non patiebatur necessitas) prudenti consilio et animositate provida opus esse dicunt; omniumque desideriis bellum decernitur, gladiis conserendum acclamatur. Verum impar nimis erat accinctorum ad praelium distributio. Siraconus enim habebat Turcorum duodecim millia, ex quibus novem millia loricis galeisque tegebantur, reliqua tria millia arcubus tantum et sagittis utebantur; praeterea Arabum aut decem aut undecim millia lanceis pro more utentium.

Therefore, the counsel having been communicated with due brevity (for the pressing necessity did not permit freer leisure), they say there is need of prudent counsel and provident courage; and by the desires of all war is decreed, it is acclaimed that it must be joined with swords. But the distribution of those girded for battle was far too unequal. For Siraconus had 12,000 Turks, of whom 9,000 were covered with cuirasses and helmets; the remaining 3,000 used only bows and arrows; besides, there were either 10,000 or 11,000 Arabs using lances according to custom.

Nostri vero equites vix erant CCCLXXIV absque Aegyptiis vilibus et effeminatis, qui potius impedimento et oneri essent quam utilitati. Erant praeterea nobis equites levis armaturae, quos Turcopulos vocant, sed nescimus ad quem numerum; multorum quoque relatione audivimus, quod illa die in tanto conflictu ex majore parte, prorsus fuerunt inutiles. Compertum ergo habentes tam nostri de hostium vicinitate, quam ipsi de nostrorum adventu, prout res exigere videbatur, acies ordinant, cuneos disponunt, arma exerunt; qui rei militaris exercitatione pristina erant prudentiores, alios hortantur, rudes instruunt, sermonibus exhortatoriis inflammant animos, promittunt victoriam, victoriae fructum, laudem immortalem.

Our horsemen, in truth, were scarcely 374, apart from the Egyptians, base and effeminate, who were rather a hindrance and a burden than a utility. There were, moreover, with us light-armed horsemen, whom they call Turcopoles, but we do not know to what number; and by the report of many we heard that on that day, in so great a conflict, they were for the greater part altogether useless. Therefore, our side having ascertained the enemy’s vicinity, and they likewise our arrival, they order the battle line as the situation seemed to demand, dispose the wedges, draw their arms; those who were more prudent by former exercise of the military art encourage others, instruct the raw, inflame spirits with exhortatory speeches, promise victory, the fruit of victory, immortal laud.

Erat autem locus in quo committendum erat, in confinio cultae terrae et solitudinis, locus inaequalis, arenarum collibus vallibusque mediis interpolatus, ita ut neque advenientes de remoto videre, nec abeuntes longius liceret intueri. Nomen loco Beben, quod interpretatur portae; eo quod inter colles oppositos transitus arcetur. Nam Lamonia, unde quidam hujus diei praelium solent denominare, ab eo loco decem milliaribus erat remota.

Now the place where the engagement was to be joined lay on the confines of cultivated land and wilderness, an unequal place, interspersed with hills of sand and intervening valleys, such that neither could those coming from afar be seen, nor could those going away be viewed at any distance. The place’s name is Beben, which is interpreted gates; because between the opposed hills the passage is constrained. For Lamonia, whence some are accustomed to denominate the battle of this day, was removed from that place by ten miles.

At vero hostes sollicitudine non pigri, nihilominus instructis aciebus a dextris et a sinistris colles occupaverant, ad quas tum propter clivum, tum propter arenarum mollitiem nostris durum erat cum impetu accedere; eamque cui Siraconus praeerat, mediam posuerant cohortem, caeteris utrinque collocatis. Et jam ventum erat ad hoc, ut cominus rem agi oporteret; egressique nostri qui in acie regis erant, unanimiter cohortem cui Siraconus praeerat, viriliter prosternunt; prostratos, gladiis obtruncant; ipsum etiam in fugam versum insequuntur. Porro Hugo Caesariensis in eam aciem cui praeerat Salahadinus, Siraconi nepos, impetum faciens, a suis destitutus deficit, deficiens capitur; multi etiam cum eo capti, plures interfecti.

But in truth the enemies, not slothful in their solicitude, nonetheless, with their battle-lines drawn up on the right and on the left, had occupied the hills, to which, both on account of the slope and on account of the softness of the sands, it was hard for our men to approach with a charge; and the cohort which Siraconus commanded they had placed in the middle, the rest set on either side. And now it had come to this, that the matter had to be done at close quarters; and our men who were in the king’s battle-line, having gone out, with one mind manfully lay low the cohort which Siraconus commanded; those cast down they hew down with swords; him also, turned to flight, they pursue. Moreover Hugh of Caesarea, making an attack upon that battle-line which Salahadinus, the nephew of Siraconus, commanded, abandoned by his own gives way; giving way, he is captured; many also were captured with him, more were slain.

Ibi cecidit vir nobilis, et in armis strenuus, Eustachius Caolet de regione Ponti. Hoc successu elatae cohortes aliae, convenientes ad invicem, et undique vallantes, aciem illam quae impedimentis et sarcinis conservandis deputata erat, aggrediuntur, statimque dissolutam prosternunt; ibi occubuisse dicitur vir nobilis, Siculus natione, probus et honestus juvenis Hugo de Creona. Dissipata igitur acie, mortuis pluribus, qui gladios evadere potuerunt, fuga saluti consulunt.

There fell there a noble man, and strenuous in arms, Eustace Caolet from the region of the Pontus. Elated by this success, the other cohorts, coming together mutually and hemming in from every side, attack that battle-line which had been deputed to the safeguarding of the impediments and packs, and at once, once dissolved, they overthrow it; there is said to have fallen a noble man, a Sicilian by nation, a worthy and honest youth, Hugh of Creona. The line therefore being scattered, with many slain, those who were able to evade the swords consult for safety by flight.

Hostes vero impedimenta et sarcinas libere occupant, et secum trahunt occupata. Interim dissolutis hinc inde agminibus, et per dictas valliculas dispersis, variis eventibus pugna committitur, testibus his solis qui conserebant; nam aliis non dabatur id videre; erat autem anceps praelium, et nunc ii, nunc illi fiebant superiores, ignari quid alibi ageretur. Utrique alibi reputant se victores, alibi victos.

The enemy, however, freely seize the impedimenta and baggage, and drag along with them what they have taken. Meanwhile, with the columns broken up here and there and scattered through the aforesaid little valleys, the fight is joined with various outcomes, with only those who were engaging hand-to-hand as witnesses; for to the others it was not granted to see it. Moreover, the battle was in suspense, and now these, now those were becoming superior, unaware of what was being done elsewhere. Each side in one place reckons itself victor, elsewhere vanquished.

Venerabilis quoque frater noster, dominus Radulphus Bethlehemita episcopus, domini regis cancellarius, cui postmodum nos in eodem officio successimus, graviter vulneratus, universa impedimenta sua in eodem tumultu amisit. Anceps diu praelium, certum de victoribus judicium differebat; donec inclinata jam dies, dispersos ad signa hortabatur redire; tunc demum noctis irruentis metu, jam incipiunt, qui liberi erant, ad suos festinare; regemque studiose quaerendo, ex variis partibus prodeuntes, iterum se colligunt. Dominus autem rex, in eo loco in quo pugnaverat, victor, feliciter rem gesserat; alii autem sorte varia in diversis partibus Martem experti sunt, hic prospera, ibi adversa usi fortuna; unde neutram partem certa coronavit victoria.

Our venerable brother also, lord Ralph, the Bethlehemitan bishop, chancellor of the lord king, to which office afterwards we succeeded, grievously wounded, lost all his impedimenta in the same tumult. The doubtful battle for a long time deferred a certain judgment about the victors; until the day now declining was exhorting the scattered to return to the standards; then at last, through fear of the onrushing night, those who were free begin to hasten to their own; and, by diligently seeking the king, coming forth from various parts, they gather themselves again. But the lord king, in that place in which he had fought, as victor, had managed the matter felicitously; others, however, with varying lot in different quarters experienced Mars, here using favorable, there adverse, fortune; whence a sure victory crowned neither side.

Rediens vero cum paucis admodum, collem quemdam occupans, aliquantulum sublimem, erecto vexillo, ut ad eum recolligerentur qui dispersi erant, socios operiebatur. Quibus pro parte revocatis, hostes ante se in collibus geminis, qui impedimentorum dissolverant aciem, et partim occiderant, partim occupaverant, conspiciunt dissolutos. Nec aliunde nostris patebat ad redeundum via, nisi inter medium collium praedictorum pertransirent.

Returning indeed with very few, occupying a certain hill, somewhat sublime, with the vexillum raised, so that those who had been scattered might be gathered back to him, he was waiting for his comrades. When these had been in part recalled, they behold before them the enemies, on twin hills—the ones who had dissolved the array of the baggage-train, and had partly slain, partly seized—disordered. Nor was there any way open for our men to return from anywhere else, unless they should pass through the middle between the aforesaid hills.

Habentes igitur redeundi propositum, in aciem ordinati per hostes medios, quos a dextr laevaque contuebantur, iter agunt, gradu lento; contra quos cum tanta constantia proficiscentes, nil ausi sunt adversitatis hostes moliri; sed juncto agmine, viris fortioribus et armatis optime per gyrum locatis, ad quamdam fluminis portionem pervenerunt, et eam vado pertransierunt incolumes nostri. Ea igitur nocte tota abeuntes nostri, per viam unde prius venerant, redeunt. Pervenientibus autem Lamoniam, occurrit eis Gerardus de Pugi, qui cum quinquaginta equitibus et Tarcopolis centum, et Mahadan filio soldani, oppositam fluminis partem tenuerat, ut hostes si forte fluvium transire vellent, impediret.

Having therefore a purpose of returning, drawn up into a battle-line they make their way at a slow pace through the midst of the enemies, whom they beheld on right and left; and as they advanced against them with such constancy, the enemies dared to attempt nothing adverse; but, the column closed up, with the stronger men and the best-armed most fittingly stationed all around, they came to a certain portion of the river, and they crossed it by a ford, our men unhurt. Therefore that whole night our men, going away, return by the road whence they had come before. But when they arrived at Lamonia, there met them Gerard de Pugi, who, with fifty knights and one hundred Turcopoles, and Mahadan, the sultan’s son, had held the opposite part of the river, in order to hinder the enemies if perchance they should wish to cross the river.

Venit autem optato; nam plurimum eis dominus rex timebat, ne seorsum inventos, sive ultra sive citra fluvium hostes aggrederentur. Se et pro pedestribus turbis, quas post se dimiserat, ut praediximus, nihilominus erat sollicitus, timens ne hostibus subito et incaute occurrerent. Unde apud praedictum oppidum per triduum, eos sustinens operiebatur, quibus praeerat nobilis homo et prudens Joscelinus de Samosato.

Moreover he came as had been hoped; for the lord king feared very much for them, lest, found separately, whether beyond or on this side of the river, the enemies should attack. And he was nonetheless solicitous on behalf of the foot-soldier troops, which, as we have said, he had left behind him, fearing lest they might encounter the enemies suddenly and incautiously. Wherefore at the aforesaid town for three days, sustaining them, he was waiting for them, over whom there presided a noble and prudent man, Joscelin of Samosata.

Quarta vix die receptis paulatim nostris, et peditum manu iterum sibi sociata, continuatis itineribus, Cahere pervenientes, ante Babylonem secus pontem castra metantur. Recensito igitur militum numero, centum ex eis deesse reperiunt, de hostibus vero mille quingentos asserunt cecidisse.

Only on the fourth day, our men having been gradually received back, and the band of foot-soldiers again joined to them, with the marches continued, arriving at Cahere, they mark out the camp before Babylon beside the bridge. The number of the soldiers having been reviewed, therefore, they find one hundred of them to be lacking; but of the enemies they assert that one thousand five hundred fell.

CAPUT XXV. Siraconus infra Alexandriam se recipit. Rex illuc properans, urbem obsidet.

CHAPTER 25. Siraconus withdraws below Alexandria. The king, hastening thither, besieges the city.

At vero Siraconus, suis nihilominus qui supererant, in corpus unum revocatis, per solitudinem, nostris ignorantibus, Alexandriam tendit, cui protinus Alexandrini civitatem tradunt. Rex autem ut primum rumorem comperit, vocatis ad se principibus, soldano quoque et filiis ejus, et nobilibus Aegyptiorum, quid facto opus sit, studiosius quaerit. Ubi post multas disceptationes, sicut in rebus dubiis solet contingere, quoniam Alexandria ex se alimentorum non habet copiam, nec frugum quidpiam, nisi quantum sibi de superioribus Aegypti partibus navigio ministratur, placuit classem in flumine ad custodiam locari, ut inde Alexandrinis commerciorum omnino nihil possit inferri.

But indeed Siraconus, having nevertheless recalled his surviving men into one body, makes for Alexandria through the wilderness, our men being unaware, and the Alexandrines straightway surrender the city to him. But the king, as soon as he learned the rumor, having called to himself the princes, the Soldan also and his sons, and the nobles of the Egyptians, more earnestly inquires what ought to be done. Where, after many disputations, as is wont to happen in doubtful matters, since Alexandria does not have from itself a supply of provisions, nor anything of grain, except so much as is supplied to it by ship from the upper parts of Egypt, it was resolved that a fleet be stationed on the river for guard, so that from there nothing at all of commerce could be imported to the Alexandrines.

Quo facto, ipse cum universo exercitu ad partes illas descendens, inter locum qui dicitur Toroge et Demenehut, castra componit; qui locus ab Alexandria octo distat milliaribus; inde loca finitima et etiam remota per solitudinem, missis excursoribus, penetrans et discutiens, ne forte aliquis aut opem ferat obsessis, aut inde veniens aliquos exteriores ad eorum adminiculum sollicitet. Nihilominus et classis, quoslibet transire volentes, aut transitum prorsus inhibet; aut cognitum non nisi diligenter quaesitum, descendere permittit. Evoluto igitur unius mensis spatio, cum civitas illa nihil omnino alimentorum medio tempore aliunde suscepisset, coepit conqueri populus quod defecerat panis in cistartiis, et quod victum non haberent; quod intelligens Siraconus, timens ne cum aliis ipse cum suis inedia tabefieri compelleretur, relicto nepote Salahadino, quasi cum mille equitibus in civitate, ipse nocturnis itineribus per solitudinem, prope tamen nostram expeditionem, evadit in superiores Aegypti partes, unde paulo ante descenderat; quod, postquam regi innotuit, impigre subsequitur, quousque Babylonem pervenit.

This done, he himself, descending with the entire army into those parts, pitches camp between the place which is called Toroge and Demenehut, which place is distant eight miles from Alexandria; thence, penetrating and examining the neighboring places and even the remote ones through the wilderness, sending out raiders, lest by chance anyone either bring aid to the besieged, or, coming from there, entice some outsiders to their assistance. Nonetheless the fleet likewise, whoever wish to cross, either utterly forbids the crossing, or, once the person is known and only after a diligent inquiry, permits him to disembark. Therefore, with the space of one month elapsed, since that city in the meantime had received absolutely no provisions from elsewhere, the people began to complain that bread had failed in the bread-chests, and that they had no victual; which Siraconus, understanding, fearing lest he with his men should be compelled, together with the others, to waste away with famine, leaving his nephew Saladin, with, as it were, a thousand horse in the city, he himself by night-marches through the wilderness, yet close to our expedition, makes his way out into the upper parts of Egypt, whence a little before he had descended; which, after it became known to the king, he follows briskly, until he reaches Babylon.

Hic jam cum in procinctu universus esset exercitus, compositisque sarcinis sequi decrevisset, repente nobilis et potens Aegyptius Benecarselle, regem adiit; Alexandriam summa inopia laborare docet; consanguineos in eadem se urbe asserit habere potentissimos et civitatis moderatores, qui facile possint populum fame afflictum, in quam partem velint trahere, et civitatem cum omnibus Turcis qui in ea relicti erant, in manu domini regis dare. Motus itaque rex ad hoc verbum, quaerit a principibus, quid eis videatur; tandemque consonantibus omnium desideriis, approbante etiam soldano, Alexandriam redeunt, eamque gemino circumdant exercitu.

Now when the whole army was already in battle-array, and with the baggage packed had decided to follow, suddenly a noble and powerful Egyptian, Benecarselle, approached the king; he declares that Alexandria is laboring under extreme want; he asserts that he has consanguines in that same city, most powerful and moderators of the city, who can easily draw the people, afflicted by famine, into whatever side they wish, and to give the city, with all the Turks who had been left in it, into the hand of the lord king. Therefore the king, moved at this word, asks the princes what seems good to them; and at length, with the desires of all consonant, the sultan too approving, they return to Alexandria, and surround it with a twofold army.

CAPUT XXVI. Describitur Alexandriae situs.

CHAPTER 26. The site of Alexandria is described.

Alexandria totius Aegyptiae dioecesis, in ea parte quae Lybiam respicit et in occidentem protenditur, omnium civitatum est novissima, in confinio culti soli et arentis solitudinis sita, ita ut extra civitatis moenia versus solis occasum, vasta protinus eremus adjaceat, culturae et curae omnino non sentiens beneficium. Hanc, ut antiquae tradunt historiae, Alexander Macedo, Philippi filius, cujus etiam nomen appellatione sua praetendit, condidisse dicitur. Condita est autem, ut ait Julius Solinus, duodecima centesima Olympiade, Lucio Papyrio L. filio et Caio Petilio, Gai F. Coss.

Alexandria, in the whole Egyptian diocese, in that part which looks toward Libya and stretches into the west, is the farthest of all the cities, set on the confine of cultivated soil and parched solitude, such that outside the city’s walls toward the setting of the sun a vast desert immediately lies adjacent, in no way feeling the benefit of cultivation and care. This, as the ancient histories hand down, Alexander the Macedonian, son of Philip, is said to have founded, whose name too it bears in its own appellation. Moreover, it was founded, as Julius Solinus says, in the 112th Olympiad, when Lucius Papirius, son of Lucius, and Gaius Petilius, son of Gaius, were consuls.

quam metatus Dinocrates architectus, secundum post conditorem inter memorabilia locum obtinet. Sita est autem non longe ab ostio Nili, quod Heracleoticon quidam, alii Canopicon appellant. Hodie vero locus a quo denominatur ostium illi conterminum civitati, deletis antiquis nominibus, Ressith appellatur; distat autem a fluminis alveo quinque aut sex milliaribus; sed tamen quibusdam meatibus, tempore soliti incrementi, fluvii pars urbem influit; quam aquarum influxionem cisternis amplissimis, ad hoc specialiter deputatis, ad usus proprios toto anno diligenter servant; sed et ad pomeria, quae sunt extra urbem procuranda, occultis traconibus portionem ex ea dirigunt necessariam.

which Dinocrates the architect laid out, holds, second after the founder, a place among memorable things. It is situated not far from the mouth of the Nile, which some call the Heracleotic, others the Canopic. But today the place from which the mouth contiguous to that city is denominated, the ancient names having been erased, is called Ressith; the city, however, is distant from the river’s channel by five or six miles; yet by certain passages, at the time of the customary increase, a part of the river flows into the city; which inflow of waters they diligently preserve through the whole year for their own uses in very ample cisterns specially deputed to this; and for the orchards, which are to be tended outside the city, they also direct by hidden conduits the portion necessary from it.

Sita est autem, quantum ad celebranda commercia, commodissime. Portus habet duos, lingua quadam interjacente, valde angusta, disjunctos. In capite autem illius interstitii, turris est mirae altitudinis, quae Pharos appellatur, quam Julius Caesar ad usus necessarios dicitur erexisse et illuc deduxisse coloniam.

It is situated, moreover, most conveniently for the conducting of commerce. It has two harbors, disjoined, with a certain tongue lying between, very narrow. At the head of that interstice, moreover, there is a tower of wondrous height, which is called the Pharos, which Julius Caesar is said to have erected for necessary uses and to have led a colony thither.

De superioribus autem Aegypti partibus per fluenta Nili, omnimodorum alimentorum copiam, et rerum pene omnium suscipit ubertatem. Verum et de regionibus transmarinis, si qua sunt quae Aegyptus non habet, navigio omnis opulenti ministratur; unde amplius qualibet urbe maritima omnibus commoditatibus dicitur abundare. Ad haec ex utraque India, Saba, Arabia, ex utraque etiam nihilominus Aethiopia, sed et de Perside et aliis circumadjacentibus provinciis, quidquid aromatum, margaritarum, Orientalium gazarum et peregrinarum mercium, quibus noster indiget orbis, per mare Rubrum, unde gentibus illis ad nos iter est, in superiores partes Aegypti, ad eam urbem quae Aideb dicitur, super ripam ejusdem maris sitam infertur, id totum ad flumen, et inde Alexandriam descendit.

From the upper parts of Egypt, moreover, through the streams of the Nile, it receives a plenty of all sorts of aliment and an abundance of almost all things. Indeed, too, from transmarine regions, if there are things which Egypt does not have, by ship every opulence is ministered; whence it is said to abound, more than any maritime city, in all commodities. To this add that from both Indies, Saba, Arabia, likewise from both Ethiopias, and also from Persia and the other circumadjacent provinces, whatever of aromatics, pearls, Oriental treasures, and foreign merchandises our world has need of, through the Red Sea—by which those peoples have a route to us—into the upper parts of Egypt, to that city which is called Aideb, situated upon the bank of the same sea, is brought in; the whole of it goes to the river, and thence descends to Alexandria.

Sic ergo Orientalium et Occidentalium illuc fit concursus populorum; estque eadem civitas forum publicum utrique orbi. Clara sane, et antiquis titulis et modernis; sed et beati Marci, Principis apostolorum spiritualis filii, divinitus ad eamdem ecclesiam missi, illustrata praedicatione et verbo; et sanctorum Patrum Athanasii et Cyrilli praelatione, et tumulis decorata, secundum inter patriarchas locum obtinens; Aegypti, Lybiae, Pentapolis et multarum provinciarum reverenda metropolis. Deducitur illuc classis universa, portasque et omnem aditum obsidentes, nemini accedendi licentiam permittunt.

Thus then there is a concourse of peoples of the Orientals and of the Occidentals thither; and the same city is a public forum for each world. Famous indeed, both with ancient titles and with modern; and made illustrious by the preaching and the word of blessed Mark, the spiritual son of the Prince of the apostles, divinely sent to that same church; and adorned by the prelation of the holy Fathers Athanasius and Cyril, and by tombs, obtaining the second place among patriarchs; the venerable metropolis of Egypt, Libya, the Pentapolis, and many provinces. Thither the entire fleet is conducted, and, occupying the gates and every approach, they permit to no one the license of access.

CAPUT XXVII. Rex obsidionem continuans, cives Alexandrinos molestat gravissime.

CHAPTER 27. The king, continuing the siege, most grievously molests the Alexandrian citizens.

Interea qui in Syria remanserant, audientes quia dominus rex Alexandriam obsederat, et quod navigatione continua infra paucos dies illuc possent pervenire, certatim iter arripiunt, et correptis armis, navibus victui imponunt necessaria, et se ipsos invitantes laeti nimium proficiscuntur. Inter quos et dominus Fredericus Tyrensis archiepiscopus, praedecessor noster, zelo motus aliorum et speciali erga dominum regem tractus affectu, cum honesto satis comitatu, navigio descendit in Aegyptum; sed aquis Niliacis causam praestantibus, dysenteria coepit periculosissime laborare; unde antequam domino regi traderetur [Alexandria], coactus est, invalescente aegritudine, domum redire. Hic demum sumptis navium malis immensae quantitatis, vocati artifices, lignorum caesores, castellum erigunt mirae altitudinis, unde totam erat despicere civitatem; machinae quoque, quas vulgo petrarias vocant, unde immissi molares graves et magni, muros caedebant, congruis stationibus locatae, intolerabilem civibus, horis pene omnibus inferebant terrorem.

Meanwhile those who had remained in Syria, hearing that the lord king had besieged Alexandria, and that by continuous navigation they could reach there within a few days, eagerly seize the journey, and, snatching up arms, they load onto the ships the necessities for victual, and, encouraging themselves, set out exceedingly glad. Among them also the lord Frederick, archbishop of Tyre, our predecessor, moved by the zeal of others and drawn by a special affection toward the lord king, with a sufficiently honorable retinue, went down by ship into Egypt; but the Nile waters furnishing the cause, he began to suffer most perilously from dysentery; whence, before [Alexandria] was handed over to the lord king, he was compelled, as the sickness grew stronger, to return home. Here at last, taking ship-masts in immense quantity, and summoning artificers, cutters of wood, they erect a tower of wondrous height, whence one could look down upon the whole city; and engines too, which they commonly call “petrariae,” from which great and heavy millstones, when launched, were hewing at the walls, placed in fitting stations, were inflicting intolerable terror upon the citizens almost at every hour.

Erant circa eamdem civitatem, ad instar silvarum et frondosi nemoris, grata amoenitate et plena fertilitate arboribus consita fructiferis, et herbis referta salutaribus pomeria, quae et sui contemplatione transeuntes, merito invitarent ad ingressum, et ingressos hortarentur ad requiem. In haec ingressus noster ex magna parte exercitus, prius occasione colligendae erigendis machinis materiae, deinde solo nocendi affectu, et damni inferendi consideratione, aromaticas et multis usibus aptas, tanto studio ad terram prosternunt arbores, quanto vix labore ab initio fuerant procuratae. Fitque subito ut solo complanato, prioris status prorsus nulla remanerent vestigia; idque fuit, in quo se maxime laesa civitas, et ejus damnificatos habitatores, post adepta pacis foedera conquerebantur.

Around that same city there were orchards, after the manner of forests and leafy woodland, planted with fruit‑bearing trees in pleasing agreeableness and full fertility, and stuffed with salutary herbs, which by their own contemplation would rightly invite passers‑by to ingress, and, once they had entered, would exhort them to repose. Into these our army for the most part entered, first on the occasion of collecting material for erecting machines, then from the mere intent to do harm and with a consideration of inflicting damage; they cast down to the earth trees aromatic and apt to many uses, with as much zeal as with scarcely so much labor they had at the beginning been procured. And it comes about suddenly that, the soil being leveled, there remained no traces at all of the former state; and this was that about which the city, most injured, and its damaged inhabitants, after the pacts of peace had been obtained, were chiefly complaining.

Instabant ergo nostri, et artes quibus obsessis possent officere, satagentes invenire, omnem attentabant nocendi aditum; et argumentis quibus poterant, in eorum laesionem se instruebant. Assultus quoque assidui requiem negabant fatigatis. Erant sane cives negotiationibus assueti, rerum militarium expertes, quique usum praeliandi non haberent; unde molestius insuetum laborem poterant portare.

Our men therefore pressed on, striving to find arts by which they could obstruct the besieged, attempting every avenue of harming; and with devices as they were able, they equipped themselves for their injury. Constant assaults too denied rest to the wearied. The citizens, to be sure, were accustomed to commerce, inexperienced in military affairs, and had no practice of fighting; whence they could bear the unwonted labor the more grievously.

Turci autem qui illic remanserant, tum quia pauci erant, tum quia civibus varii et inconstantis animi non cum multa fiduci se committebant, rari ad conflictus, et in congressionibus remissiores, non multum alios animabant. Quid plura? Quotidiani conflictus, caedes suorum continuae, vigiliae perennes, nocturni timores, alimentorum super omnia defectus, populum attriverant, dejecerant animos, ut jam urbem deserere et libertatis immemores, quibuslibet populis mancipare magis eligerent, quam in domesticis larinus cum parvulis et uxoribus famis acerbitate consumi.

The Turks, however, who had remained there, both because they were few, and because, being of a various and inconstant mind, they did not with much confidence commit themselves to the citizens, were seldom for conflicts, and in engagements were more remiss, nor did they much animate the others. What more? Daily conflicts, continual slaughter of their own, ceaseless watches, nocturnal terrors, and, above all, a lack of provisions had worn the people down and had cast their spirits low, so that now they would choose rather to desert the city and, forgetful of liberty, to enslave themselves to whatever peoples, than to be consumed at their domestic hearths with their little ones and wives by the bitterness of famine.

Serpebat ergo murmur in populis, jamjam ad plures sermo manifestus diffundebatur: urbe pellendos esse hospites pestilentes, qui tantam civibus intulerant afflictionem; quaerendum quocunque pacto esse, quomodo civitas, depulsis ingruentibus molestiis, obsidione soluta, pristinis commoditatibus, et solitae restitueretur libertati. Sensit hoc Salahadinus, et occultis citatisque nuntiis, statum urbis miserum, populi a se deficientis propositum, alimentorum supremam inopiam, patruo suo ex ordine pandit; utque rebus desperatis praesens remedium satagat invenire, et pereuntibus consulere, modis omnibus, implorat. Interim populum simul cum Patribus alloquitur; monet pro uxoribus et liberis usque ad mortem decertandum; hortatur ut legis et paternarum traditionum sint aemulatores, pro foribus salutem adesse; Siraconum quoque patruum suum, pro eorum liberatione et pro amovendis hostibus Aegyptum circuire, in proximo cum infinitis copiis adfuturum. At dominus rex cognito quod inter cives esset dissensio, civitatem urgeri monet incessanter; quantoque eos amplius novit afflictos, tanto acrius instare praecipit. Soldanus quoque succinctus, ad omnia impiger, sedulus, plena sollicitudine circuit principes universos; manu profusa, impensas porrigit ad construendas machinas, et sumptus ad omnem belli usum liberales; artificibus competentia salaria largitur; pauperibus et egenis, praesertim sauciis, ut sui curam haberent, munera donat; bellicosis quoque, et quos in praelio novit strenuos, aliquid distribuit.

Therefore a murmur was creeping among the peoples, now already a manifest discourse was spreading to more: that the pestilential guests were to be driven out of the city, who had brought such affliction upon the citizens; that by whatever pact it must be sought how the city, the incoming molestations being repulsed, the siege released, might be restored to its former conveniences and to its wonted liberty. Saladin sensed this, and by hidden and hastened messengers he sets forth in order to his paternal uncle the wretched state of the city, the plan of the people deserting him, the extreme want of provisions; and he implores by all means that, as things were desperate, he strive to find a present remedy and to take thought for the perishing. Meanwhile he addresses the people together with the Fathers; he warns that there must be contended even unto death for wives and children; he exhorts that they be emulators of the Law and of their fathers’ traditions, that salvation is at the doors; that Siraconus also, his uncle, for their liberation and for the removal of the enemies is traversing Egypt, and will be present shortly with infinite forces. But the lord king, having learned that there was dissension among the citizens, advises that the city be pressed incessantly; and the more he knew them afflicted, by so much the more sharply he bids to press on. The sultan also, girded, energetic for all things, zealous, with full solicitude goes the round of all the princes; with a lavish hand he furnishes expenditures for building engines, and liberal outlays for every use of war; he bestows suitable salaries upon the craftsmen; to the poor and needy, especially the wounded, he gives gifts, that they might have care of themselves; to the warlike also, and to those whom he knew to be strenuous in battle, he distributes something.

CAPUT XXVIII. Siraconus haec audiens, cum Hugone Caesariensi de pace loquitur.

CHAPTER 28. Hearing these things, Siraconus speaks with Hugh of Caesarea about peace.

Dum haec apud Alexandriam aguntur, superiores Aegypti Siraconus peragrat regiones; perveniensque usque Chus, tentat expugnare civitatem; vidensque quod non proficeret, et prolixiora hujusmodi exposcerent tempora, ipsum autem ad alia nepotis necessitas urgeret negotia, sumpta ab urbibus illis pecunia, maturat reditum et ad inferiora revocat exercitum quem trahebat. Cumque regrediens Babylonem pervenisset, videns quod rex Cahere et ponti Hugonem de Ibelim dimisisset tutorem, et longe secus quam arbitratus esset, omnia se haberent, Hugonem Caesariensem, quem captivum tenebat, familiari compellat alloquio; utque vir eloquens et urbane facundus, sermone composito coepit eum convenire: Magnus princeps es, nobilis, apud tuos clarissimus, nec est de vestris principibus quispiam, si libera mihi daretur optio, cui magis hoc meum communicare secretum cupiam, et verbi hujus participem constituere. Obtulit sponte fortuna, et eventus donavit bellicus, quod alias multis conatibus esset quaerendum, ut tuae experientiae mihi ad opus praesens fieret copia.

While these things are being transacted at Alexandria, Siraconus traverses the upper regions of Egypt; and, arriving as far as Chus, he attempts to take the city by storm; and seeing that he was not advancing, and that undertakings of this kind demanded more prolonged times, but that the necessity of his nephew was pressing him to other businesses, taking money from those cities, he hastens his return and calls back to the lower parts the army which he was dragging along. And when, returning, he had reached Babylon, seeing that the king of Cairo and the pontiff had dismissed Hugh of Ibelin as guardian, and that all things were far otherwise than he had supposed, he addresses Hugh of Caesarea, whom he held captive, with a familiar discourse; and, as a man eloquent and urbane in fluency, with a composed speech he began to approach him: You are a great prince, noble, most illustrious among your own, nor is there anyone of your princes, if a free choice were given to me, with whom I would more desire to share this my secret and to make a participant of this word. Fortune has of its own accord offered, and the warlike outcome has granted, what otherwise would have to be sought by many endeavors: that there might be to me the opportunity of your experience for the present work.

Fateor sane, quod gloriae cupidus, sicut mortalibus solet contingere, et regni tractus opulentia, de indigenarum quoque imbecillitate confisus, spem aliquando concepi, ut in manus meas regnum hoc aliquando traderetur. Ideo cum sumptibus et laboribus infinitis, infructuosis tamen, ut video, cum equitatu copioso nobilium, qui omnes eadem trahebantur, per tot pericula descendi in Aegyptum, aliter ratus de rerum eventu quam occurrit. Adversa enim, ut video, fortuna ingressus sum; utinam prospera vel redire liceat!

I confess indeed that, eager for glory—as is wont to befall mortals—and drawn by the opulence of the kingdom, trusting also in the weakness of the natives, I once conceived the hope that this kingdom would someday be handed over into my hands. Therefore, with infinite expenses and labors—yet fruitless, as I see—together with a copious cavalry of nobles, who were all drawn by the same impulse, through so many perils I went down into Egypt, having reckoned otherwise about the outcome of affairs than has occurred. For I have entered, as I see, under adverse fortune; would that it might even be permitted for prosperity to return!

Homo nobilis es, ut dixi, regi charus, sermone potens et opere; esto inter nos pacis mediator; prosperum fiat in manu tua verbum; dic domino regi: Otium terimus, et effluunt tempora sine fructu, domi multa restant; ipsius etiam regno suo plurimum esset necessaria regis praesentia; nunc aliis consumit operam; nam postquam nos repulerit, miseris civibus, et vix vita dignis, hujus regni relinquit opulentiam. Recipiat suos, quos in vinculis habeo; ipse quoque obsidione soluta et quos in vinculis habet, et quos in civitate cohibet Alexandrina, restituat; et ego suscepta prius ab eo securitate, quod in itinere per suos nihil nobis difficultatis occurrat, paratus sum exire.

You are a noble man, as I said, dear to the king, powerful in speech and in deed; be between us a mediator of peace; let the word be prosperous in your hand; say to the lord king: We fritter away leisure, and the times flow out without fruit; many things remain at home; the presence of the king would be most necessary even to his own realm; now he consumes his effort on others; for after he has driven us back, to wretched citizens, and scarcely worthy of life, he leaves the opulence of this kingdom. Let him take back his own, whom I have in bonds; he too, the siege being lifted, both those whom he holds in bonds and those whom he confines in the Alexandrian city, let him restore; and I, security having first been received from him, that on the journey through his men nothing of difficulty occur to us, am prepared to go out.

CAPUT XXIX. Hugo cum rege et principibus foederis complet tenorem.

CHAPTER 29. Hugh, with the king and the princes of the confederation, fulfills the tenor.

Audito hoc verbo, dominus Hugo sicut erat vir providus et discretus, multo apud se libramine verba oblata compensans, licet utilem nostris pacis formam et tenorem foederis non dubitaret, tamen ne videretur plus libertatis propriae rapi desiderio quam utilitati publicae hoc verborum tractatu providere, honestius judicat per alium primos tentari aditus. Hanc suam intentionem ipse nobis postmodum familiariter exposuit. Missus est verbi bajulus, qui similiter captivus tenebatur, quidam regis familiaris, Arnulfus de Turuassel, qui cum domino Hugone, de quo praediximus, in eodem praelio captus fuerat; qui, suscepto verbo, ad regem properat; legationis causam diligenter aperit; convocato coetu, in principum consistorio, praesente soldano et filiis ejus, conceptum verbum et compositionis formam proponit.

Hearing this word, lord Hugh, as he was a provident and discreet man, balancing within himself with much weighing the proffered words, although he did not doubt that the form of peace and the tenor of the treaty were utile for our side, nevertheless, lest he seem to be snatching more of his own liberty by desire than to be providing for the public utility by this negotiation of words, judges it more honest that the first approaches be attempted through another. This his intention he himself afterward familiarly expounded to us. A bearer of the word was sent, who likewise was held captive—a certain familiar of the king, Arnulf of Turuassel—who had been captured with lord Hugh, of whom we have spoken above, in the same battle; who, having taken up the message, hastens to the king; he diligently opens the cause of the legation; the assembly having been convoked, in the consistory of the princes, the sultan and his sons being present, he proposes the conceived word and the form of the composition.

Placet omnibus pacis tenor, et sufficere videtur ad gloriam, et ad plenam pactorum inter regem et calipham initorum fidem, ut civitas per deditionem in domini regis transeat potestatem; et tam hi de hostibus, qui obsidione claudebantur, quam qui Siraconum secuti, per Aegypti fines erant dispersi, solutis quoque captivis, quos de nostris trahebant in vinculis, suis etiam nihilominus receptis, de universis Aegypti finibus compellantur exire. Savar soldanus cum universis Aegyptiorum satrapis pactum approbat, foederis consonantiam libens amplectitur; dummodo hostis suspectissimus et regni aemulus excludatur, sibi plenius dicit esse satisfactum. Tandem dominus Hugo, suam exhibens praesentiam, verbis hinc inde tractatis, novissimam manum et placitum finem apposuit.

To all the tenor of peace is pleasing, and it seems sufficient for glory and for the full faith of the pacts entered into between the king and the caliph, that the city should pass into the lord king’s power by surrender (dedition); and that both those of the enemy who were shut in by the siege, and those who, having followed Siracon, were scattered through the borders of Egypt, with the captives also released whom they were dragging of ours in chains, and theirs likewise received back, be compelled to go out from all the borders of Egypt. Savar the sultan, with all the Egyptian satraps, approves the pact, gladly embraces the consonance of the treaty; provided that the most suspect enemy and rival of the realm be excluded, he says he is more fully satisfied. At length Lord Hugh, presenting his presence, the words being handled on this side and that, set the finishing hand and the agreed end to it.

CAPUT XXX. Resignatur regi civitas, et pax indicitur Alexandrinis.

CHAPTER 30. The city is resigned to the king, and peace is proclaimed to the Alexandrians.

Indicitur ergo voce praeconia cohortibus singulis et omnibus generaliter praeliandi finis, et per legem edictalem ne Alexandrinis inferatur molestia interdicitur. Egrediuntur igitur concessa pace, laetantes, qui diuturna fuerant obsidione macerati; angustias quas pertulerant fastidientes, deambulationes taedii relevandi gratia, amant et appetunt liberiores. Inventa etiam alimentorum copia, et commerciorum libertate permissa, inedia tabefactorum corporum ruinam restaurare satagunt, et refocillare animas jam labentes.

Therefore, by a herald’s voice, to the individual cohorts and to all generally an end of battling is proclaimed, and by an edictal law it is interdicted that molestation be inflicted upon the Alexandrians. They go out, then, peace having been granted, rejoicing, those who had been worn away by a long siege; loathing the straits they had endured, they love and seek freer deambulations for the sake of relieving tedium. A supply of provisions also having been found, and liberty of commerce permitted, they strive to restore the collapse of bodies wasted by starvation, and to refresh souls now failing.

Juvat agmina videre pacata, quae paulo ante horruerant et oderant; et eorum colloquiis perfrui, quos ante modicum timuerant, periculorum suorum ministros et mortis procuratores. Nostri quoque, non segnius urbem ingrediuntur optatam; et liberis discursibus, vias, portus, moenia lustrantes, diligenter videndo colligunt, unde ad propria reversi, suis aliquando texere possint historias, et audientium animos gratis confabulationibus recreare. Huic splendidae civitati turris imminet mirae altitudinis, Pharos dicta; ad quam facibus accensis, et igne copioso, more sideris micantem, ignari locorum, nocturnas navigationes dirigunt.

It pleases to see the columns pacified, which a little before they had shuddered at and hated; and to enjoy conversations with those whom a short while ago they had feared, ministers of their dangers and procurers of death. Our men too, no less briskly, enter the longed-for city; and with free coursings, surveying the roads, harbors, and walls, by diligent seeing they gather material, whence, returned to their own homes, they may sometime weave histories for their people, and refresh the minds of their hearers with agreeable confabulations. Over this splendid city there looms a tower of wondrous altitude, called Pharos; to which, with torches kindled and abundant fire, glittering after the manner of a star, those ignorant of the places direct their nocturnal navigations.

Nam Alexandria caeco mari, et periculoso nimis accessu, et vadis fallacibus aditur; quo antequam ingrediantur navigantes, ignibus, qui continuo fomite et sumptibus publicis super eum nutriuntur, edocti, imminentia vitant naufragia, et ad cursus se erigunt salutares. Super hanc victoriae signum, domini regis vexillum erigitur; et quod prius paucis innotuerat, fit omnibus signo contuito manifestum. Quo viso, qui cautius se habentes ad prima tracti foederis verba, nostris se committere pertimuerant, jam de pace facti certiores, non timent se nostris adjungere et de fidei nostrae praesumere sinceritate; unum prae omnibus admirantes, quod tantam civium multitudinem, tantamque advenarum numerositatem, qui omnes ad tutelam civitatis fideliter operam ministrabant, tam modicus exercitus intra urbis moenia facile coercuerat et ad ignominiosam juxta libitum compulerant deditionem; vix enim de nostris equites erant quingenti, peditum quatuor aut quinque millia; obsessorum autem, qui arma poterant educere, supra quinquaginta millia.

For Alexandria is approached through a blind sea, with an access too perilous, and treacherous shallows; where, before sailors enter, taught by the fires which, with continuous fuel and at public expense, are nourished upon it, they avoid impending shipwrecks and set themselves to salutary courses. Upon this the sign of victory, the lord king’s banner, is raised; and what before had been made known to a few becomes manifest to all at the sight of the sign. Which seen, those who, conducting themselves more cautiously, had been drawn by the first words of the pact yet had feared to commit themselves to our men, now made more certain about peace, do not fear to join themselves to us and to presume upon the sincerity of our faith; marveling at one thing above all: that so great a multitude of citizens, and so great a numerousness of foreigners—who all were rendering faithful service for the defense of the city—so small an army had easily restrained within the city walls and had compelled to an ignominious surrender at will; for scarcely of our men were there 500 horse, and 4 or 5 thousand foot; but of the besieged, who were able to draw out arms, above 50,000.

CAPUT XXXI. Rex victoria potitus, receptis suis universis, ad propria revertitur.

CHAPTER 31. The king, having obtained victory, with all his own recovered, returns to his own.

Egressus igitur Salahadinus ad dominum regem, quousque iter ad redeundum arripuit, in castris mansit, dato sibi custode, qui eum tractaret honeste et temerariorum ab eo propulsaret injurias. At vero soldanus cum tubarum clangore, et tympanis, et choris, et omni genere musicorum instrumentorum, stipatus agminibus, praecurrente innumera apparitorum manu, vociferantibus armatorum turmis, per portas civitatis, cum triumpho tanquam victor ingressus, terrore cives concutit; hos damnat, illos absolvit; et delicta discutiens potenter, omnibus distribuit praemia meritorum. Tandem in certa pecuniae quantitate civibus condemnatis, procuratores tributorum ordinat, vectigalium et civilium functionum instituit exactores.

Having gone out, therefore, Saladin remained with the lord king until he took up the journey for returning, a guard having been assigned to him to treat him honorably and to repel from him the injuries of the rash. But the sultan, with the clangor of trumpets, and drums, and choruses, and every kind of musical instruments, escorted by ranks, with an innumerable band of apparitors running before, the companies of armed men shouting, through the gates of the city, entering with a triumph as a victor, shakes the citizens with terror; these he condemns, those he absolves; and, powerfully sifting offenses, he distributes to all the prizes of their merits. At length, the citizens having been condemned to a fixed quantity of money, he appoints procurators of tributes; he institutes exactors of taxes and of civil duties.

Exacta itaque infinita pecunia, fidelibus suis curam injungens civitatis, in castra gloriosus se recepit. At vero nostri ad reditum aspirantes, qui navigio venerant, sumptis ad iter necessariis, naves conscendunt, et se flatibus committentes, ad propria cum gaudio revertuntur. Rex quoque incensis machinis, et compositis sarcinis, versus Babylonem iter dirigit.

Therefore, the boundless money having been exacted, enjoining upon his faithful the care of the city, he withdrew in glory to the camp. But our men, aspiring to return, those who had come by ship, having taken the necessaries for the journey, board the ships, and, committing themselves to the winds, return to their own with joy. The king also, the engines having been burned and the baggage composed, directs his march toward Babylon.

Adjunctis ergo sibi quos ibi dimiserat, soldano in sua administratione confirmato, exclusis hostibus, suis qui capti fuerant receptis, XII Kal. Septembris Ascalonam ingressus est, anno regni ejus quarto; ab Incarnatione Domini vero 1167.

Therefore, with to himself added those whom he had left there, the sultan having been confirmed in his own administration, the enemies excluded, and his own men who had been captured received back, he entered Ascalon on the 12th day before the Kalends of September (August 21), in the 4th year of his reign; but from the Incarnation of the Lord, 1167.