the Lombard state were terminated by a treaty of partition. It was divided into two independent States, the Principality of Beneventum, and the Principality of Salerno. The latter included, along with Lucania and the north of Calabria, Capua and the greater part of Lombard Campania. But the Counts of Capua refused to acknowledge the authority of the Prince of Salerno, and thus three independent States arose from the disruption of the old Principality of Beneventum. The Western Emperors, Lewis the Pious and Lothar, much occupied with other parts of their wide dominions, had hitherto kept aloof from South Italian affairs. But the danger which threatened Rome at the hands of the infidels moved Lothar to an intervention which appeals from Naples for help against the Lombards, or from one Lombard power for support against another, or from the Eastern Emperor for common action against the Saracens, had failed to bring about. Towards the end of A.D. 846 he decided to send an expedition against the Moslems. It was led by his son Lewis, who appeared with an army, chiefly recruited from Gaul, and was active within the Lombard borders during the following years (A.D. 847-849). At the same time he 'doubtless helped to arrange the agreement between the Lombard rivals. He was bent upon making his authority real, making South Italy a part of his Italian kingdom in the fullest sense, and he was bent upon driving the Saracens out. He expelled them from Beneventum, but this was only the beginning of his task. The Saracens of Bari, whose leader took the title of Sultan, dominated Apulia, in which he was master of twenty-four fortresses and from which he ravaged the adjacent regions. Bari was strongly fortified, and Lewis was beaten back from its walls (A.D. 852). For fourteen years he seems to have been able to make no further effort to cope with the invaders. North Italian affairs, and especially his struggle with Pope Nicolas I., claimed his attention, and it was as much as he could do to maintain authority over his Lombard vassals. During this time the Saracens were the terror of the South; but the confederate fleet of Naples and her maritime allies appears to have secured to those cities immunity from attack.' 316 EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE CHAP. IX As against the Saracens, the interests of the Eastern and the Western En pires were bound together, and, when Lewis once more set hin self carnestly to the task of recovering Apulia, he invoked the co-operation of Constantinople. How he succeeded, and how his success turned out to the profit of his Greek allies, is a story which lies beyond our present limits. the reign of Basi I. But in the parallel passage in Genesids (116) the number 150 may it cludo their cou quests in Sicily, and thus is possibly right. Genesios says that Gallerianon 2 not counted in thises umeration. The namo puzzled historians (ep. Hirsch, 169), but I have shown that it was a stronghold on the Liris, and explains the modern name of that river, Garigliano (The Treatise De adm. imp. 550). CHAPTER X RELATIONS WITH THE WESTERN EMPIRE. VENICE WHEN Nicephorus I. ascended the throne, he was confronted on the western borders of his dominion by the great Western State which was founded by the genius of Charles the Great. It included the whole extent of the mainland of western Europe, with the exception of Spain and the small territories in Italy which still belonged to the lord of Constantinople. It was far larger in area than the Eastern Empire, and to Charles it might well have seemed the business of a few short years to drive the Byzantine power from Venetia, from the southern extremities of Italy, and from Sicily itself. He had annexed Istria; he had threatened Croatia; and his power had advanced in the direction of the Middle Danube. But his Empire, though to himself and his friends it might appear as a resurrection of the mighty empire of Augustus or Constantine, was not built up by the slow and sure methods which the Roman republic had employed to extend its sway over the world. Though it was pillared by the spiritual influence and prestige of Rome, it was an ill-consolidated fabric which could not be strengthened and preserved save by a succession of rulers as highly gifted as Charles himself. A few years after his death the disintegration of his Empire began; it had been a menace, it never became a serious danger, to the monarchs of Constantinople. A treaty had been concluded between Charles and Irene in A.D. 798, by which the Empress recognised the lordship of the King in Istria and Beneventum, while he probably acknowledged her rights in Croatia.' Soon afterwards, induced ↑ Ann. v. F., 5.d. – See Harnack, Die Beziehungen, 39. 317 perhaps by overtures from a disloyal party in the island, Charles seems to have formed a design upon Sicily, and in A.D. 800 it was known at Constantinople that he intended to attack the island; but his unexpected coronation led him to abandon his design. 3 Unexpected; when the diadem was placed on his head in St. Peter's on Christmas Day, and he was acclaimed Imperator by the Romans, he was not only taken by surprise, but even vexed. The Pope, who performed the coronation, was merely in the secret; he consented to, but he did not initiate, a scheme, which was far from being obviously conducive to the interests of pontifical policy. It has been shown that the scheme was conceived and carried through by friends and counsellors of the king, who were enthusiastic admirers of their master as a conqueror and a statesman. In poems and letters, these men-Alcuin, Theodulf, Angilbert, Paulinus, Arno ---ventilated, as we may say, the Imperial idea, not formulating it in direct phrases, but allusively suggesting it. Angilbert wrote: Rex Karolus, caput orbis, amor populique decusque, Augustus, Thus It was not enough for the authors of the scheme to assure themselves of the co-operation of l'ope Leo, for they were sufficiently versed in the Imperial theory to know that the constitutional legitimacy of a Roman Emperor depended not on his coronation but on his election. It was essential to observe the constitutional form: the Emperor must be acclaimed by the Roman Senate, and army, and people. There was no Senate in the old sense, but the term senatus was applied to the Roman nobles, and this sufficed for the purpose. There were soldiers and there was a populace. It 5 The evidence (ep. Harnack, 40) is : Ann. r. F., s.a. 799, an envoy of Michael, the governor of Sicily, visited Charles and was dismissed with great honour; Theoph., s.a. 800, Charles was crowned καὶ βουληθεὶς κατὰ Σικελίαν παρατάξασθαι στόλῳ μετεβλήθη; dun. r. F., s.a. 811, Leo, a spathar, a Sicilian, fled to Charles at Rome in 801, and remained with him till 811, when peace was concluded between the Empires. Einhard, Vita Karoli, 28. By Kleinelausz, L'Empire caro: lingien, 169-192. On the general aspect of the event consult Bryce, . Holy Roman Empire. • Poetae Latini acvi Karolini, ed. Dümmler, i. 368, vv. 92-94. Cp. Alcuin, Ep. 174 (Epp. Kar, aev. pp. 288-289). See Kleinclausz, 196. was necessary to prepare the Romans for an exercise of sovran authority, which had long ceased to be familiar to them. When they assembled in the Church of St. Peter to celebrate mass on Christmas Day, there was perhaps no one in the great concourse except Charles himself, who was unaware of the imminent event. When the Pope placed the crown on the head of the King, who was kneeling in prayer, the congregation-the Senate, and the Roman people-acclaimed him three times, "Life and victory to Charles, Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the Romans." The Pope, who had simply fulfilled the same function as a Patriarch of Constantinople in a similar case, fell down and adored him as a subject. 1 If the first emotions of the new Emperor, who had thus been taken unawares, were mixed with anxiety and disquiet, one of the chief causes of his misgiving was probably the ambiguous attitude which he now occupied in regard to Constantinople. The legitimacy of the Emperors who ruled in the East as the successors of Constantine had never been questioned in Europe; it had been acknowledged by Charles himself; it was above all cavil or dispute. The election of Charles-it mattered not whether at Rome or elsewherewithout the consent of the sovran at Constantinople was forinally a usurpation. It was all very well to disguise or justify the usurpation by the theory that the Imperial throne had been vacant since the deposition of Constantine VI., because a woman was incapable of exercising the Imperial sovranty; but such an argument would not be accepted in Byzantium, and would perhaps carry little weight anywhere. Nor would Irene reign for ever; she would be succeeded by a man, whose Imperial title would be indisputable. Charles saw that, elected though he was by the Romans and crowned by the Pope, his own title as Roman Imperator and Augustus could only become perfectly valid if he were recognised as a colleague by the autocrat of Constantinople. There are many empires" in the world to-day; but in those days men could only conceive of one, the Roman imperium, which was single 1 Ann. r. F., s.a. 801, p. 112. 2 Ann. Laureshamenses (M.G.H., Ser. i.), 38: "quia iam tune cessabat de parte Graceorum nomen imperatoris et femineum imperium apud se abebant." |