4. Leviticus 26:7
Nilus the Deacon’s Epitome Historiarum- The Conquest of Sicily
Wise men say that forcefulness is appropriate in rhetoric, fanciful imagination in poetry and truth in history. Therefore, I have decided to omit the events of the conquest of Bulgaria by Basil, as this has been adequately covered by others. I will now set down in writing those events which I saw with my own eyes (for eyes are more trustworthy than ears, says Herodotus) and those which I discerned from others. In September of the year 6525, Otto the autokrator strategos of Langobardia, distinguished among the magistroi and husband of the Kaisarissa Zoe, an active and energetic man, good at warfare and irresistibly strong, resolved to put an end to the boundless insolence of the Sicilian Arabs- for they had murderous intent towards the Romans and plundered the shores of her empire on a large scale
On the whole, he was a good man, filled with all noble virtues, of pleasing countenance and distinguished in appearance- he rarely spoke, but for with his homo-ethnoi, and though his utterances in the Roman tongue were few, his actions showed how he surpassed and excelled his barbarian birth. He was exceedingly pious and filled the great offices of state in Langobardia with men of the church, for they were held to be more loyal and devoted to the cause of harmony than the Langobards. He was a great disciple of Holy Nilus, who died in Romania ten years prior to these events and was responsible for mollifying the magistros’ harsh heart, inspiring a spirit of clemency towards his enemies. Nevertheless, the spirit of the father shines forth from the son, and the magistros fought within himself to tame his ancestral arrogance through his submission to his Emperor and to his life giving God.
Accordingly, Otto, on the order of the emperor, mustered the armies of Langobardia and Alamania (for he also held the rule of this nation) and gathered them on ships of the Venetoi and Pisanoi to succour and aid his Romans. Then indeed he revealed the experience he had in military affairs- he had brought ramps with him, using which he transferred the whole army from the sea onto dry land, fully armed and mounted. The barbarians were astonished at this strange and novel sight, but maintained close formation, to await the Roman assault.
Trumpets were sounded and the standard of the cross raised and a terrible battle broke out, where arrows poured down like hail. The Sicilians could not long endure the Roman spear thrusts, but turned their backs, broke ranks and ran back as fast as they could to the fortress of Panormos. The Romans pursued them and wrought unspeakable slaughter- thus the initial attacks proved favourable for the Romans.
When, as I have said, the Sicilians had shut themselves up, the general summoned his troops and pitched camp. The idea occurred to him of making a circuit of the town, so he might attack it wherever vulnerable- however he found that it was by nature very difficult to assault. When he had ascertained the impregnability of the walls, he entrusted a cohort of picked men to the general Chono, who at this time was the strategos of the Carantanian theme and had taken part in many wars. He was sent out to raid and reconnoitre the island. Otto gave the general one instruction- to remain vigilant and sober, lest the enemy do them irreparable damage.
Men's good fortune, however, does not remain forever unmixed, but is mingled with adversity. Misfortunes follow upon good fortunes, and sorrows upon pleasures, and do not allow one to enjoy in a pure manner the prosperity bestowed upon him.
This is indeed what then befell the Mixo-Romans under Chono. For when they advanced into the countryside, and found every sort of delicacy (for the land is fertile, and generally bears heavy crops of all varieties of seasonable produce and juicy fruits, and is abundant in cattle and sheep) they should have observed the warnings of their general, as was fitting, but, disregarding them and dismissing them from their mind, they indulged in indolence and luxury. The barbarians, lurking in very advantageous positions in dense mountain thickets, saw the Romans' lack of discipline and precautions. So they emerged from the thickets and clefts, drew up their ranks into a disciplined unit and compact formation, and attacked them. Although the Romans, in their intoxicated condition, were somewhat tipsy and unsteady on their feet, still they moved to meet the barbarians and resisted strongly. But just as the general Chono was fighting stoutly and cutting down the barbarian ranks, the horse that he was riding was struck in the chest by arrows and small spears, collapsed to the ground, and died. Chono, however, quickly leapt from the horse, and was able to ward off his attackers with his sword for some time, killing many of the barbarians. But after he lost a lot of blood and was stricken by many arrows, he fainted and collapsed on the battlefield. When he fell, the Romans turned to flight, and were slaughtered by the barbarians like cattle, so that only a very few men from the aforementioned cohort returned safe to camp. Meanwhile, the barbarians proved their innate cruelty and ferocity by heading straight to the ships of the Romans and setting fire to a great many, making it impossible for the Romans to retreat.
When Otto learned of these disasters, he greatly criticised the fallen men for their folly and negligence. Moreover, since he still feared the reversals and mutability of fortune, he was unwilling to remain camped outside Panormos, where the descendants of the maidservant Hagar might slowly scratch at the Roman force and thereby diminish their strength, and further he lamented greatly the lack of siege engines in his army, as the Langobards are not as experienced in these matters as the Romans. Therefore, abandoning Panormos to the Hagarenes, he marched his army eastwards to Catana and Syracuse, where the Roman people were awaiting deliverance. Here camp was pitched once again and while the city resisted, Roman government was established through the countryside, so that the army could remain focused entirely and completely on the capitulation of the city walls. As the siege of Syracuse drew on through the summer, the city was increasingly delivered to famine and the condition of the Hagarenes worsened. The general was a shrewd man, possessed of Christian charity and mercy, and knew that if the Sicilians were not given hope of escape, they would resist all the more fiercely. Therefore, he announced to the Sicilians one week of amnesty, where their ships would be allowed to depart from the harbour in peace. As soon as this offer was made, a great flood of ships emerged from the city as the Sicilians fled westwards to Panormos- here too their barbaric greed became manifest, as many of the ships were filled with the gold and coin which they had plundered from the Christians of Italy, and to make space in the ships they cut down not just the poor and the orphans, but even their grandmothers. The remainder of the city opened their gates to the Romans and the churches of the city were restored and reconsecrated.
Meanwhile, Basil had completed his conquest of Bulgaria and had been entreated by the magistros Otto to join his army in Sicily, so that the expertise of Roman engines and commanders experienced in fighting the Hagarenes might swiftly bring an end to their depredations. Making Syracuse his base of operations, Basil soon took control of the other cities and reached Panormos in the summer after he arrived in Sicily. Here strife arose, as the magistros and general Otto, having opened the greater part of the island to the Roman army, and through his marriage to the Kaisarissa Zoe, clamoured daily for acclamation as Kaisar and the right to hold a triumph in Constantinople. When camp was pitched once more outside the walls of Panormos, it became a second Troy, and the slighted, swift footed Otto retreated with his barbarians to the beach, refusing to fight until he was honoured with the axis of the Roman power.
The defenders of Panormos, having confidence in the fortifications of the place, which was a strong one, were quite unwilling to yield to Basil and ordered him to lead his army away from there with all speed. he spent the winter there, keeping his army in military training, and had siege machines constructed. When every- thing had proceeded according to his plans, just as spring was softly emerging from the winter season, he equipped his army with weapons and organized it into a deep formation. Now the battle broke out fiercely, and the Sicilians resisted for some time, fighting bravely from the walls, and wound- ing many of the Romans. When the general realized this, he had the artillery engines quickly moved up, and gave the order to hurl stones at the barbarians. He also had the siege engine brought near the walls. When the stone-throwing machines began to hurl heavy rocks incessantly, the barbarians were easily checked. And after the ram was dashed against the walls and was battering them mightily, two towers together with the intervening section of wall suddenly broke off, sank down, slipped slightly, and collapsed to the ground.
Here, Otto proved unable to control the murderous impulses of his army and they rushed to join the Romans, for fear that they would be deprived of the spoils of the city. Seeing his forces aid the Roman efforts, Otto returned to the proper spirit of humility befitting a magistros of the Roman empire and submitted once more to his lord.
The Sicilians were astonished at the novel spectacle, and stopped fighting for a while, stupefied by this extraordinary event. But then, after reflecting on the danger of captivity and enslavement, they assembled in an unbroken formation, and stood ready to intercept bravely the Roman army, which was entering through the breach in the walls, and, since their lives were at risk, they fought like demons. After many of them were killed, and they could no longer withstand such an irresistible onslaught (for the troops pressed heavily upon them from behind, and the shoving was overwhelming), they turned to flight, withdrawing through the narrow streets, as the Romans pursued and slaughtered them mercilessly.
After the city was taken by force, the Emperor separated off the first spoils, placed in bondage the pick of the prisoners, and set them aside, saving them especially for the triumph he was going to lead; then he handed over everything else to the soldiers as plunder. So they went through the houses and were rewarded with abundant and valuable booty. For it is said that the city of the Sicilians contained great and inexhaustible wealth, since it had been very prosperous for a long time, had enjoyed good and kindly fortune, and had not suffered any of the abominations, such as disasters, that the vicissitudes of time usually bring about. By making use especially of the expeditions of pirates and corsairs, it had plundered the shores of all lands, and had stored away untold wealth as a result of such pursuits. Their purses had been further swollen by those that had fled from Syracuse and the other cities- in vain had they postponed their death, which comes to all mortal men.
Then the emperor pacified the entire island and settled it with bands of Bulgarians, Langobards, Sards, Romans and other rabble. On his way back to Constantinople, he sailed to Barion, where he met with the Kaisarissa Zoe and her three sons- Constantinos who is called Otto, who was the eldest and at this time beginning to show his first traces of manhood at the age of sixteen; Stephanos who is called Enrikios who was in the flower of his boyhood at thirteen; and Basilios who is called Bruno, who had only recently emerged from his mothers skirts. He also met Zoe’s daughter Helena, who is the delight of Italy and most skilled in the Roman tongue. Constantinos the eldest was most beloved of his father and in his eyes was a pride that flashed purple- he had been most eager to plunge into the mists of war and win undying fame through participating in the deliverance of Sicily to the Roman domination. His father Otto, having lost his own father to disaster in Sicily, though eager to avenge this defeat by winning Sicily himself, was in no ways willing to risk the future of Langobardia, and instead sent Constantinos north to Alamania and the city of Magontia, where he was entrusted the regency of the Germans. There he won the respect of the great nobles through his persistence in pursuing justice, and in every quarrel brought before him his great hunger for truth and fair settlement.
Stephanos, the younger, was also of pleasing countenance and the favourite of his mother- she had not allowed him to be parted from her throughout his childhood, and he had grown up in the halls of the Lateran palace, where is located the holy helm of the universal church and the synod of all the west. From his youth his education had been supervised by the hierarch Leo, bishop of Rome, and he had learnt to excel in the skill of rhetoric in Greek and Latin. As a boy, he had sung with the choir in the school of singers, which is called the Schola Cantorum in Latin. From his father, he inherited his great piety and devotion to the saints, and from his mother he inherited his eloquence and bearing.
Impressed by the innate courage and energy of the boys, and in recognition of their birth, the Emperor resolved to present them to their grandfather Constantine and the senate in Constantinople, to discern whether either of the boys would surpass their barbarian father and attain the axis of the Romans.
