ess were to be proved on many a desperate battle-field of Syria. Commanding what was perhaps the strongest contingent in the crusading army and profiting by the experience of his campaigns in the Balkans in his father's reign, Bohemond proved the most vigorous and resourceful leader of the First Crusade. His object, however, had little connection with the relief of the Eastern Empire or the liberation of the Holy City, but was directed toward the formation of a great Syrian principality for himself, such as the other members of his family had created in Italy and Sicily. As the centre for such a dominion Antioch was far better suited than Jerusalem both commercially and strategically, and Bohemond took good care to secure the control of this city for himself before obtaining the entrance of the crusading forces. He showed the Norman talent of conciliating the native elements—Greek, Syrian, and Armenian—in his new state, and for a time seemed in a fair way to build up a real Norman kingdom in the East. In the end, however, the Eastern Empire and the Turks proved too strong for him; he lost precious months in captivity among the Mussulmans, and when he had raised another great army in France and Italy some years later, he committed the folly of a land expedition against Constantinople which ended in disaster. Bohemond did not return to the East, and his bones are still shown to visitors beneath an Oriental mausoleum at Canosa, where Latin verses lament his
