The Deeds of Robert Guiscard: Book V, lines 210-284

[210] An unusually cold winter led the people quartered near the River Glykys to sicken. A great many of them suffered from cold and hunger, and disease spread so rapidly that almost ten thousand men died in less than three months. [215] Nor did the rest of the army escape this deadly peril. In a very short period disease killed five hundred knights; and a large number of the common people also died. Neither knight nor sailor nor anybody [220] else could avoid death striking them down.

However, no misfortune could depress the duke, who remained brave and resolute whatever the circumstances. His son Bohemond[1] fell sick and requested his father to allow him to return to Italy, [225] a country where doctors and medicines were to be found in abundance. The duke reluctantly allowed him to go, since he wanted his distinguished offspring to recover his health. He gave him everything he needed for the journey. After his departure the duke ordered Roger to go with his troops to Cephalonia, [230] to conquer and tame this island, which had been in rebellion for a long time. He knew that when this island had been captured all the other Greek cities would be terrified. Roger obeyed his father’s orders, hastened to the town[2] with the duke’s forces and laid siege to it.[3]

[235] The duke [meanwhile] returned to the ships stationed in the River Glykys. He wanted to refloat these, for he was anxious to tame the proud Greeks at sea as well as on land. He worked ferociously to prepare both his cavalry [240] and his fleet for battle, to terrify the islands by bringing out his ships and to force them to pay the tribute owed to the empire into his ducal fisc. With the return of summer the water level was very low, and the river was too shallow for the sailors to re-float their ships. [245] The duke’s ingenuity made a difficult task easy. When he saw that the river lacked its usual flow of water - in fact only a trickle ran through a narrow channel - he ordered a large number of stakes to be brought up and fixed to both banks of the river, joined together with osiers. Then he had a lot of branches cut [250] and [from them] built hurdles which were filled from above with sand, and the water which had been widely spread was concentrated together in one pool. The river became fuller and deeper, and thus a navigable channel was created through which the ships could return unharmed to the sea.

[255] It was at this time that Pope Gregory died in Salerno. He was a venerable man, never influenced in any way by either personal considerations or love of gold, but always acting with just severity. Good things never made him rejoice unduly, nor did unhappy events render him downcast. [260] He was the consolation of the afflicted, the way of light, the teacher of the honest; he restrained the proud with his laws and protected the humble. He was the terror of the impious, but the shield of the just, and scattering the seed of the Saviour’s Word, and never ceased to summon the faithful away from evil [265] and towards that moral behaviour which leads to Heaven. His life was led according to [Holy] doctrine, nor was he unstable and swaying like a reed. Hearing of this great man’s death the duke could not restrain his tears. [270] He could not have cried more for the death of his father, nor if he had seen his son or his wife about to breath their last. His grief at the pope’s death was great, because in life great love had bound them together. Once their mutual peace treaty [275] had been confirmed, neither of them had cast away their love for the other.

The pope was buried in the church of St. Matthew, and enriched the city with the great treasure of his body. Since the translation of the Apostle Matthew[4] had already given this town a great reputation, [280] and this was further enhanced by the pope’s burial there, the duke had chosen it [as his residence] in preference to all other cities, if life had been granted to him. But in fact after the death of Pope Gregory he was not to return to the Italian lands which he had left.

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[1] Orderic Vitalis said that Sichelgaita sought to have her doctors poison Bohemond. His statement, written some years later, should be treated with caution but concerns by Bohemond might well explain his return to Italy. Either way, he was not present when his father died in mid-1085.

[2] Hagios Georgios, medieval capital of the island is near to modern Argostoli.

[3] The capture of Cephalonia could have acted as the first stage of an attack on Constantinople.

[4] The body of St Matthew was transported to Salerno in 954 by prince Gisulf II and is found in the crypt of the cathedral.

The Deeds of Robert Guiscard: Book V, lines 80-209

[80] Meanwhile, after repairing their ships, the Venetians[1] returned to the city of Durazzo and gained entry there without resistance. Indeed hardly anybody remained in the city, for a terrible famine had led the citizens to migrate to all sorts of other places. The Venetians remained at [85] Durazzo for fifteen days and looted it of anything which might be of use to them, but the citadel[2], in which the duke had left a garrison, resisted them. Once they realised that it was impregnable and hearing news of the arrival of the duke’s son[3], [90] they withdrew. Boarding their ships, they all constructed roofs over them, and made a sort of small city. They built a wooden fortress, and as a precaution furnished it with all the war-engines of their fleet. So they remained at sea throughout the winter, [95] protected from the cold and damp by their little houses. Once winter was over and the gentle breezes of spring blew, they hastened with all their ships to Corfu (a destination agreed by everyone). Mavrikas[4], [100] the commander of Alexius’s fleet had [already] arrived there. Many of the sailors then wished to return to Venice, It was agreed that their fleet should withdraw and that everyone should go home. They decided this because Robert had been away for such a long time, and matters were dragging on to such an extent, [105] that all their property was being neglected in their absence.

Throughout this period Robert had been very busy, above all in waging war against Jordan.[5] He did not want to return from Italy leaving anything there undone. [110] Prince Jordan had been terrified by news of Henry’s arrival, and had not taken up arms to resist him in defence of his territory and of his own person. He had instead submitted to him, concluded a peace treaty and surrendered his [115] son as a hostage.[6] Along with his son he had given him a large sum of money as a present. He had done this because he was afraid that if the king should enter southern Italy he would be deprived of the lordship inherited from his father. Because Jordan had capitulated in this manner the duke ravaged his lands with fire and sword. [120] His nephew then sought peace [from him] and was granted it.

After peace had been re-established, and before he once again sought the shores of Greece, the duke begged Pope Gregory to dedicate the church which he had built in honour of St. Matthew. That gentle man granted his request. [125] When that had been done, he turned his attention once more to fulfilling the plan which he had long had in mind.[7] He therefore ordered picked sailors and the men whom he knew to be most fit for military service to go with him to Taranto. There he gathered his entire as well as his army. [130] Both fleet and army were prepared on a magnificent scale; the ships were filled with weapons and supplies. He and his forces then went to the port of Brindisi which seemed to be safer. They were reluctant to set off from Otranto, from which the crossing was shorter, [135] since autumn had already arrived and the good weather of summer had finished. Because of this he was afraid that if his ships stayed at Otranto they would be damaged by storms that could blow up quite suddenly. Thus he transferred his fleet to a more sheltered port, where it could stay in safety until the winds were more favourable. [140] Then, saying farewell to his wife and to those who remained on shore with her, he set off from the land of Italy, to which he would not return. He crossed the Adriatic with one hundred and twenty warships, accompanied by his son Roger[8] who made every effort to imitate his father’s courage in war as well as his affability and kindness towards all. [145] The duke also brought merchant ships, filled with horses, supplies, arms and all those things needed at sea. The fleet crossed the sea and joined the army commanded by the mighty duke’s other son. [150] They spent nearly two months on the coast, forced to refrain from warlike activities by furious storms.

Once good weather had reappeared, they left port and prepared for a naval battle against the ships of the Venetians and the galleys [kelandia] of the Greeks.[9] [155] The duke commanded five triremes, he placed five more under Roger’s command, and the same number each to the latter’s brother Robert[10] and to Bohemond.[11] These were accompanied by smaller ships in a supporting role. [160] The Greeks brought a very large number of galleys to this battle. The Venetians put their trust in nine tall triremes that they knew were ideally designed for combat. When they saw the lower freeboard of Robert’s ships, [165] they joined battle with them and put up a very gallant fight. Supported by the Greek galleys, they showered arrows from on high onto their enemies, and threatened them with heavy iron weights which were hurled down upon them to stop them getting too close. In the ship carrying Roger during this battle scarcely a man could be found unwounded. Roger himself, wounded in the arm but unwilling to surrender, remained fighting the enemy, his wound forgotten. [170] The desire for the honours given to those victorious in battle spurred him on. His father, who was so often himself decorated by the insignia of victory, summoned him and ordered him to separate the [Greek] galleys [175] from the rest of the fleet. He hurried energetically to execute his father’s instructions, and with the five triremes which had been entrusted to him attacked these galleys. The Greeks were quite unable to resist this attack and fled in confusion, [180] as do birds that dare not resist a hovering eagle, or hares which are forced to sprint away in terror, lest they be seized in its talons and become food for its voracious beak. After their flight the Venetian fleet remained alone. [185] Seeing that the Greek ships had fled and that the triremes were unsupported, Robert and his sons attacked them fiercely with their ships. So savage was the impact of their attack that the Venetian fleet could not hope to escape. [190] Seven ships were sunk, and the two that remained were unable to continue the battle on their own. All [on board] were forced to surrender to the enemy, and the duke was as usual triumphant. He and his victorious fleet brought back two thousand of the bravest warriors, [195] who had posed the fiercest resistance, to port, along with five hundred others who had [also] been made prisoners. During this battle seven Greek ships were taken as they fled.

Those who had faithfully guarded the citadel of Corfu [200] for him were freed from the siege which they had undergone while the duke whom the enemy feared was away. He then placed all the ships, both his own victorious one and those which had been captured, in sheltered moorings to protect them from the cold of winter, which was approaching. [205] It was for this reason that he prudently brought them into the River Glykys, stationing the boats and sailors there, and instructing them to remain until the fine weather of summer returned. He led his cavalry to winter at Vonitsa[12], and stayed there with them himself.

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[1] The Venetian fleet had left Durazzo when the city fell to Guiscard according to William of Apulia (IV: 501) or before it fell according to Anna Comnena. Though the chronology is hypothetical, it is likely that this refers to the winter of 1083-1084 while Bohemund was away in Valona.

[2] This remained in Norman hands until after Guiscard died in 1085.

[3] It is unclear who this refers to but Bohemond seems the likely explanation and refers to the beginnings of the second Norman expedition to the area in mid-1084.

[4] Michael Mavrikas.

[5] Guiscard besieged Capua in the summer of 1083 and took it in July. Henry IV’s expedition to Italy may well have been provocked by Alexius and certainly he had received letters from Herve, bishop of Capua.

[6] Jordan of Capua had been invested with his lands by Henry IV at Easter 1082.

[7] Guiscard assembled his fleet at Otranto in September 1084 and Geoffrey Malaterra (III: 40) said that he crossed from there. Anna Comnena and William of Apulia said that he crossed from Brindisi, a much shorter route than Otranto to Valona. This seems highly plausible.

[8] Roger Borsa and Guy, another of Guiscard’s sons crossed first and occupied Valona and Butrinto where Guiscard joined them after landing at Valona.

[9] The Norman naval victory off Corfu occurred in November 1084.

[10] Robert II Guiscard, son of Robert Guiscard.

[11] Anna Comnena stated that Bohemond was in Italy in 1083 but she makes no mention of his contributions to the second expedition.

[12] Guiscard had taken Vonitsa in May 1081.