borhood of the Baltic paid tribute to them.
They must have been exacting tax collectors, because we read also
that, in 859, the Slavs rose and expelled their visitors. Three years
later they returned at the invitation of the people of Novgorod.

Nestor, the historian of the Slav race, who lived in the twelfth
century, and whose account is remarkably clear and trustworthy, wrote
that the inhabitants of Novgorod "said to the princes of Varingia,
'Our land is great and fertile, but it lacks order and justice; come,
take possession, and govern us.'"

The invitation was accepted. Three brothers, Rurik or the Peaceful,
Sineous or the Victorious, and Truvor or the Faithful, proceeded to
Russia with their families and fighting men. Rurik settled on the
south shore of Lake Ladoga, Sineous on the White Lake, and Truvor at
Izborsk. The two younger brothers died, and Rurik moved to (p. 030)
Novgorod where he built a castle. At about the same time two other
Norsemen, Askold and Dir, landed in Russia, and went to Kief, then
also a flourishing city, where they were equally well received. They
persuaded its people to prepare an expedition against Czargrad, the
City of the Czar or Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, now known as
Constantinople, but at that time named Byzantium. The expedition of
Kief under Askold and Dir sailed down the Dnieper in a fleet of 200
large boats, entered the Golden Horn--or Bosphorus,--and began the
siege of Constantinople. The capital was saved by the Patriarch or
head of the Greek Church, who plunged a wonder-working robe into the
waves, whereupon a violent storm destroyed the Russian fleet.

The two chiefs, Askold and Dir, must have escaped, because they were
back at Kief when that city received a disagreeable visit. Upon
Rurik's death, he was succeeded, not by his son Igor, but by his
brother Oleg as the eldest of the family. The new prince or _kniaz_
did not approve of rival Norsemen in his neighborhood. With his own
men and a large number of Slavs and Finns, he marched upon Kief, and
on his way compelled Smolensk and Loubetch to submit to his authority.

When he arrived before Kief, he succeeded in capturing Askold and Dir
who were put to death "because," Oleg explained, "they were neither
princes themselves, nor of the blood of princes." Kief was taken, and
Oleg took up his residence in that city.

[Illustration: Norsemen]

It is at this time that the name Russia first appears. Its