OF THE EOMAX EMPIRE 179 and merit were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated to their use ; and each count erected a fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citiidel of the republic ; an house and separate quarter was allotted to each of the twelve counts ; and the national concerns were re- gulated by this military senate. The first of his peers, their president and general, was entitled count of Apulia ; and this dignity was conferred on William of the Iron Arm, who, in the [a d. 1042] language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel in council."'^ The manners of his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary and national historian. '^^ "The Normans," says Malateri'a, "are a cunning and revengeful character of people ; eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their heredi- tary qualities : they can stoop to flatter ; but, unless they are curbed by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of nature and passion. Their princes affect the praise of popular munificence ; the people observe the medium, or rather blend the extremes, of avarice and prodigality ; and, in their eager thii'st of wealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and hope whatever they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress, the exercises of hunting and hawking, ■ are the delight of the Normans ; but on pressing occasions they can endure with Leo Ostiensis (1. ii. c. 67) enumerates the divisions of the Apulian cities, which it is needless to repeat. ^Gulielm. Appulus, 1. ii. c. 12, according to the reference of Giannone (Istoria Civile di Xapoli, torn. ii. p. 31), which I cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires, probitas aniini, and vivida virlus ; and declares that, had he lived, no poet could have equalled his merits (1. i. p. 258, 1. ii. p. 259). He was bewailed by the Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum (says Malaterra, 1. i. c. 12, p. 552) tam armisstrenuum, tarn sibi munificuni, affabileni, morigeraiuin, ulterius se habere diffidebant. [Having elected William, the Normans placed themselves under the suzerainty of Waimar of .Salerno, who assumed the title of Prince of Apulia and Calabria. William, Rainulf. and Waimar then proceeded to Melfi and divided the conquests. Rainulf received, as an honorary present, Siponto and Mount Garganus ; William got Ascoli ; his brother, Drogo. Venosa, &c. &c., Aim6, Ystorie de Ii Normant, ii. 29, 30. The extent of the Norman conquest in this first stage corresponds (Heinemann observes, p. 94) to the towns in the regions of the rivers Ofanto and Bradano. " The valleys of these rivers were the natural roads to penetrate from .Vlelfi eastward and southward into Greek teiTitory."]
- The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultri.K . . . adulari sciens . . . eloquentiis
inser'iens, of Malaterra (1. i. c. 3, p. 550) are expressive of the popular and pro- verbial character of the Normans.
- ^The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the descendants of the
Norwegian sailors ; though they might import from Norway and Iceland the finest I casts of falcons.
