of father, begged him to suggest the means of killing his brother. When Blud understood the request of Vladimir, he promised that he himself would kill his master, but advised Vladimir to lay siege to the fortress; at the same time, however, he recommended Yaropolk not to remain within the fortress, alleging as a reason that many of his men had deserted to Vladimir. Yaropolk, confiding in his counsellor, fled to Roden, at the mouth of the Yursa,[1] imagining that he would there be safe against the violence of his brother. When Vladimir had subdued Kiev, he led his army against Roden, and pressed Yaropolk with a long and severe siege. Afterwards, when they were exhausted with long famine and could no longer endure the siege, Blud advised Yaropolk to make peace with his brother, he being by far the more powerful of the two. In the meantime, however, he sent a messenger to Vladimir, to say that he would soon bring his brother to him and deliver him up to him. Yaropolk followed the counsel of Blud, and submitted himself to the will and power of his brother, voluntarily avowing that he should be grateful for any concessions that he would be pleased to make in his favour.
These terms were by no means displeasing to Vladimir.
- ↑ Nestor calls this place Rodna on the Resa. Karamzin describes it as Rodnia, situated at the point where the river Ross falls into the Dnieper. In the Geographichesky Slovar Rossyeskago Gosoodarstva, Rodnia is given as the place to which Yarapolk fled, but is said to be on the Sula, a river which likewise falls into the Dnieper, and at a point not far distant from the embouchure of the Ross. After a fruitless examination of the best maps, both early and modern, the editor has concluded that it is a mistake to place the town in question on the Sula, since the Yursa of Herberstein, the Resa of Nestor, and the Ross of Karamzin, may easily be supposed to mean the same river, while they bear no resemblance to the name of Sula. Upon this subject, Scherbatov, after describing the town as Roden on the mouth of the Ursa, remarks that others call it Goroden, and place it on the Sula. It is remarkable that none of the various historians of Russia appear to have discussed this discrepancy as to the site of this town; and only one, as far as the editor has been able to discover, has even alluded to it.
