for one who is surrounded by a host of enemies to escape, it is my determination to stand firmly, and at all risks to expose myself in the foremost rank for the sake of my country.” The soldiers replied: “Wheresoever thou leadest we will follow.” Having thus restored the confidence of his army, he rushed upon the enemy with a terrific onslaught, and bore away the victory. Subsequently, while laying waste the country of the Greeks, the other princes of the country besieged him with presents of gold and panodochmi (so the annals have it); but all their gifts he slighted and refused, accepting the garments and arms which the Greeks afterwards sent to him. This manifestation of virtue on his part so moved the people of Greece, that they addressed their own sovereigns on one occasion when assembled together, to the effect, that that was the sort of king that they desired to serve—namely, one who preferred arms to gold. As Svyatoslav’ was approaching Constantinople, the Greeks at last got rid of him from their country by the payment of a large tribute. Finally, in the year of the world 6480 (972), Cures, a prince of the Pieczenigi,[1] caught him in an ambush and slew him, and made a goblet of his skull surrounded with a golden rim, on which was engraved this sentence: “By seeking the possessions of others he lost his own.”
When Svyatoslav’ was dead, one of his nobles named Svyadolt, went to Yaropolk at Kiev, and besought him with the greatest earnestness and pertinacity to thrust out his
- ↑ The Pieczenigi or Badjnaks were a tribe of Turkish origin constantly engaged in wars either with the Russians, the Hungarians, the Greeks, or the Khazars. They occupied an extensive territory, bounded south by Bulgaria and Servia, east by Hungary and Poland, north by the Grand Duchy of Kiev, and west by the Khazars. They gradually became weakened by their incessant wars, and were at length completely subdued by John II, Comnenus, since which time they ceased to be spoken of as an independent nation. For some details of their habits, see Von Hammer, Sur les Origines Russes. St. Petersburg, 1825, 4to., fo. 33 and 46.
