of action. In the first
conflict, their valor prevailed; but in the second engagement they
were overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks,
and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. [1811] The
unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of Germany: his
Norman followers, excluded from their native and their promised land,
wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy, and earned their daily
subsistence by the sword. To that formidable sword the princes of Capua,
Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic
quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory
to the side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed
the balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state should
render their aid less important, and their service less profitable.
Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of the marshes of
Campania: but they were soon endowed by the liberality of the duke of
Naples with a more plentiful and permanent seat. Eight miles from his
residence, as a bulwark against Capua, the town of Aversa was built
and fortified for their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and
fruits, the meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of
their success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and soldiers:
the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope; and
the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease and
ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa afforded shelter
and encouragement to the outlaws of the province, to every fugitive who
had escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; and these
foreign associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language to
the Gallic colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf;
and, in the origin of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and the
proof of superior merit. [19] [1911]

[Footnote 15: The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are
collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may
distinguish the poems of William Appulus (p. 245-278) and the history
of Galfridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537-607.) Both were natives of
France, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of the first conquerors
(before A.D. 1100,) and with the spirit of freemen. It is needless to
recapitulate the compilers and critics of Italian history, Sigonius,
Baronius, Pagi, Giannon