but the ruined palaces of its merchants, and the remains of an arsenal and cathedral, still attest its former splendour and importance.[1]
Not satisfied with the possessions they had already secured in Italy and with their conquest of Sicily, the Normans next resolved on the conquest of Constantinople itself.
Futile attempts of the Normans to take Constantinople, A.D. 1081-1084. Their first attempt was made from the port of Otranto, where, after a preparation of two years, they had collected a fleet of one hundred and fifty vessels, and thirty thousand men, including one thousand five hundred Norman knights. But this expedition proved a calamitous failure. The Normans were no longer the experienced or adventurous mariners, who had explored unknown oceans, from Greenland to Africa; hence, in a great storm they encountered at the mouth of the Adriatic, many of their ships were shattered, while others were dashed on shore and became hopeless wrecks. Besides, a new, and a naval, enemy had arisen in the Venetians, who, at the solicitations and promises of the Byzantine court, were ready enough to aid in the overthrow of the hated Normans, and, with a view of tempting commercial advantages for themselves, to assist in defending the capital of the East. And so it befell, that what the storm had spared of the Norman fleet, the Venetians and Greek fire destroyed; add to which, the Greek populations,
- ↑ Hallam remarks that "it was the singular fate of this city to have filled up the interval between two periods of civilization, in neither of which she was destined to be distinguished. Scarcely known before the end of the sixth century, Amalfi ran a brilliant career as a free and trading republic, which was checked by the arms of a conqueror in the middle of the twelfth."—Mid. Ages, iii. 300.
