Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 6 | Page 7

his army
beyond the Bosphorus, than he refused the offer of a second conference,
unless his brother would meet him on equal terms, either on the sea or
land. With Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was still nicer and
more difficult: like the successors of Constantine, they styled
themselves emperors of the Romans; ^19 and firmly maintained the
purity of their title and dignity. The first of these representatives of
Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on horseback in the
open field; the second, by passing the Hellespont rather than the
Bosphorus, declined the view of Constantinople and its sovereign. An
emperor, who had been crowned at Rome, was reduced in the Greek
epistles to the humble appellation of Rex, or prince, of the Alemanni;
and the vain and feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of
one of the greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed
with hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims the Greek emperors
maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks and Saracens.
Isaac Angelus complained, that by his friendship for the great Saladin
he had incurred the enmity of the Franks; and a mosque was founded at
Constantinople for the public exercise of the religion of Mahomet. ^20
[Footnote 16: Nicetas was a child at the second crusade, but in the third
he commanded against the Franks the important post of Philippopolis.
Cinnamus is infected with national prejudice and pride.] [Footnote 17:
The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by Nicetas, while the
anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his countrymen, (culpa
nostra.) History would be pleasant, if we were embarrassed only by
such contradictions. It is likewise from Nicetas, that we learn the pious
and humane sorrow of Frederic.] [Footnote 18: Cinnamus translates
into Latin. Ducange works very hard to save his king and country from
such ignominy, (sur Joinville, dissertat. xxvii. p. 317 - 320.) Louis

afterwards insisted on a meeting in mari ex aequo, not ex equo,
according to the laughable readings of some MSS.] [Footnote 19: Ego
Romanorum imperator sum, ille Romaniorum, (Anonym Canis. p.
512.)] [Footnote 20: In the Epistles of Innocent III., (xiii. p. 184,) and
the History of Bohadin, (p. 129, 130,) see the views of a pope and a
cadhi on this singular toleration.] III. The swarms that followed the first
crusade were destroyed in Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the
Turkish arrows; and the princes only escaped with some squadrons of
horse to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just opinion may be
formed of their knowledge and humanity; of their knowledge, from the
design of subduing Persia and Chorasan in their way to Jerusalem; ^*
of their humanity, from the massacre of the Christian people, a friendly
city, who came out to meet them with palms and crosses in their hands.
The arms of Conrad and Louis were less cruel and imprudent; but the
event of the second crusade was still more ruinous to Christendom; and
the Greek Manuel is accused by his own subjects of giving seasonable
intelligence to the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin princes.
Instead of crushing the common foe, by a double attack at the same
time but on different sides, the Germans were urged by emulation, and
the French were retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely passed the
Bosphorus when he was met by the returning emperor, who had lost the
greater part of his army in glorious, but unsuccessful, actions on the
banks of the Maender. The contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened
the retreat of Conrad: ^! the desertion of his independent vassals
reduced him to his hereditary troops; and he borrowed some Greek
vessels to execute by sea the pilgrimage of Palestine. Without studying
the lessons of experience, or the nature of the war, the king of France
advanced through the same country to a similar fate. The vanguard,
which bore the royal banner and the oriflamme of St. Denys, ^21 had
doubled their march with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the rear,
which the king commanded in person, no longer found their
companions in the evening camp. In darkness and disorder, they were
encompassed, assaulted, and overwhelmed, by the innumerable host of
Turks, who, in the art of war, were superior to the Christians of the
twelfth century. ^* Louis, who climbed a tree in the general
discomfiture, was saved by his own valor and the ignorance of his
adversaries; and with the dawn of day he escaped alive, but almost

alone, to the camp of the vanguard. But instead of pursuing his
expedition by land, he was rejoiced to shelter the relics of his army in
the friendly seaport of Satalia. From thence he embarked for Antioch;
but so penurious was the supply of Greek vessels, that they