OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 209 envy, could she indulge for a moment the visionary, though vir- tuous, wish of dominion. Had Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, an happy and grateful people might have blessed their benefactor ; and, if a wise administration could have restored the prosperous times of the Greek colonies,^^'^ the opulence and power of Sicily alone might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword of war. But the ambition of the great count was ignorant of these noble pursuits ; it was gratified by the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain the undivided possession of Palermo, of v/hich one moiety had been ceded to the elder branch ; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limits beyond the measure of former treaties ; and impatiently watched the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia, the grand- son of Robert. On the first intelligence of his premature death, Buke of Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor in 1127 ' the bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation, an oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the submission of the barons, and extorted a legal investiture from the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of Benevento was respect- fully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter ; but the reduction of Capua and Naples completed the design of his uncle Guiscard ; and the sole inheritance of the Norman conquests was possessed by the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke and of count ; and the isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom ^^^ which would only yield to the monarchies of France and England. The chiefs of the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo might doubt- less pronounce under what name he should reign over them ; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir were insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings 11 According to the testimony of Philistus and Diodorus, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse could maintain a standing force of 10,000 horse, 100,000 foot, and 400 galleys. Compare Hume (Essays, vol. i. p. 268, 435) and his adversary Wallace (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307). The ruins of Agrigentum are the theme of every traveller, d'Orville, Reidesel, Swinburne, &c. ii** A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger, from the year 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the consent of the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and Palermo, without introducing pope Anacletus (Alexand. Cce- nobii Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gestis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in Muratori, .Script. Rerum Ital. torn. v. p. 607-645 [printed, with Italian translation, in Del Re's Cronisti e scrittori sincroni Napolitani, vol. i. p. 8$ sqt/. (1845)]). VOL. VI, 14
