Anna Komnena, Alexias

of the cargo ships along with their crews, miraculously. 3.12.6 The sea, having spat out many men, also strewed not a few purses and other things, from which Robert's navy had been supplied, about the sand. However, the survivors laid out and buried the dead, and from this they were filled with a great stench from them; for it was not possible for them to easily entomb so many. Therefore, with all the provisions having vanished, those who had been saved up to now would perhaps also have been destroyed by famine, had not all the crops and the fields and the gardens been laden with fruit. Now these things were intelligible to all who think rightly, but nothing of what had happened frightened Robert, being undaunted and, I think, praying that his life would last for himself just as long as he might be able to fight against whom he wished. 3.12.7 For this reason, none of what had happened deterred him from his proposed objective, but with the survivors (for there were some who by the invincible power of God had been rescued from the danger), after holding out for a seventh day in Glavenitza, in order to recover himself, and to give rest to those saved from the surge of the sea, and for those left behind in Brundisium to arrive, and also for those expected from elsewhere to reach him by fleet, and for the armed cavalry and infantry and the light troops of his force, who had arrived a little before, to cross over by the mainland, having gathered everyone together by land and sea, he seized the plain of Illyricum with all his forces. 3.12.8 With him was also the Latin who related these things to me, an envoy, as he said, from the bishop of Bari, sent to Robert, and, as he affirmed, he was spending time with Robert in that plain. And indeed, within the ruined walls of the city formerly called Epidamnus, they set up huts, quartering the forces by squadrons. In which Pyrrhus, once king of Epirus, having united with the Tarentines, waged a fierce war against the Romans in Apulia; and a great slaughter having occurred there, so that all were utterly consumed by the sword, it has been left completely uninhabited. In later times, as the Greeks say and the carved inscriptions in the city themselves testify, having been rebuilt by Amphion and Zethus into the form in which it is now seen, it immediately also changed its name and was called Dyrrachium. Let so much, therefore, be additionally recorded also about this city; and let the matters of the third book be concluded for us here, and may the one after this immediately narrate what follows.

4.t.1 ALEXIAD IV

4.1.1 The mainland, then, now held Robert encamped upon it on the seventeenth of the month of June of the fourth indiction, with cavalry and infantry forces exceeding in number, and terrible to behold both from their appearance and from their strategic deployment; for an army had already been gathered again from all quarters. And on the sea, his navy, with every kind of ship along with other soldiers having much experience of naval warfare, was sailing about. Therefore, the people of Dyrrachium, being surrounded within on both sides, I mean from sea and land, and seeing Robert's forces countless and surpassing all description, were seized with the greatest fear. But George Palaeologus, being a noble man and skilled in all strategy, and having fought countless wars in the east and been revealed a victor,

τῶν ὁλκάδων σὺν τοῖς πλωτῆρσι παραδόξως. 3.12.6 Πολλοὺς μὲν ἡ θάλαττα ἀποπτύσασα, οὐκ ὀλίγα δὲ βαλάντια καὶ ἄλλα τινά, ἐξ ὧν τὸ ναυτικὸν τοῦ Ῥομπέρτου συνεπε φέρετο, περὶ τὴν ψάμμον κατέστρωσε. Τοὺς μέντοι νεκροὺς οἱ σωθέντες περιστέλλοντες ἔθαπτον κἀντεῦθεν πολλῆς τῆς ἐκ τούτων δυσωδίας ἐπίμπλαντο· οὐ γὰρ ἐνῆν αὐτοῖς τοσούτους ῥᾳδίως ἐνσοριάσαι. Τῶν οὖν ἐδωδίμων πάντων ἀφανισθέντων τάχα ἂν καὶ ὑπὸ λιμοῦ διεφθάρησαν οἱ τέως σωθέντες, εἰ μὴ τὰ λήϊα πάντα καὶ οἱ ἀγροὶ καὶ οἱ κῆποι τοῖς καρποῖς ἔβριθον. Συνετὰ μὲν οὖν ταῦτα ἦσαν πᾶσι τοῖς φρονοῦσιν ὀρθῶς, τὸν δὲ Ῥομπέρτον οὐδὲν τῶν γεγο νότων ἐφόβει ἀκαταπτόητον ὄντα καὶ ἐς τοσοῦτον, οἶμαι, τὴν ζωὴν ἑαυτῷ διαρκέσαι ἐπευχόμενον, ἐφ' ὅσον πρὸς οὓς ἐθέλει μάχεσθαι δύναιτο ἄν. 3.12.7 Ἔνθεν τοι καὶ τοῦ προκει μένου σκοποῦ τῶν γεγονότων οὐδὲν ἀπεῖρξεν αὐτόν, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῶν σωθέντων (ἦσαν γάρ τινες οἱ Θεοῦ ἀμάχῳ δυνάμει τοῦ κινδύνου ῥυσθέντες) ἑβδόμην ἡμέραν εἰς τὴν Γλαβινίτζαν ἐγκαρτερήσας, ἐφ' ᾧ αὑτὸν ἀνακτήσασθαι, διαναπαῦσαι δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ κλύδωνος τῆς θαλάττης διασωθέντας, φθάσαι δὲ καὶ τοὺς εἰς τὸ Βρεντήσιον κατα λειφθέντας καὶ μὴν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλοθεν προσδοκωμένους διὰ στόλου καταλαβεῖν τούς τε πρὸ μικροῦ φθάσαντας διὰ τῆς ἠπείρου διαπεραιωθῆναι ἱππέας ἐνόπλους καὶ πεζοὺς καὶ τὸ ψιλὸν τῆς αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως, ἅπαντας συναγηοχὼς διά τε τῆς ξηρᾶς καὶ θαλάσσης τὸ Ἰλλυρικὸν πεδίον κατέλαβε μετὰ πασῶν τῶν αὐτοῦ δυνάμεων. 3.12.8 Συνῆν δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ ταῦτά μοι διηγούμενος Λατῖνος, ὡς ἔλεγε, πρέσβυς τοῦ ἐπισκόπου Βάρεως πρὸς τὸν Ῥομπέρτον ἀποσταλείς, καὶ ὡς διεβεβαιοῦτο, σὺν τῷ Ῥομπέρτῳ τὴν τοιαύτην διέτριβε πεδιάδα. Καὶ δὴ ἐντὸς τῶν ἐρειπωθέντων τειχῶν τῆς πάλαι καλουμένης πόλεως Ἐπιδάμνου καλύβας ἐπήγνυντο ἰλαδὸν τὰς δυνάμεις κατατιθέμενοι. Ἐν ᾖ βασιλεύς ποτε Ἠπειρώτης Πύρρος Ταραντίνοις ἑνωθεὶς Ῥωμαίοις ἐν Ἀπουληΐᾳ καρτερὸν τὸν πόλεμον συνεστήσατο· καὶ ἀνδροκτασίας ἐντεῦθεν πολλῆς γεγονυίας, ὡς ἅπαντας ἄρδην ξίφους παρανάλωμα γεγονέναι, ἄοικος πάντη καταλέλειπται. Ἐν ὑστέροις δὲ χρόνοις, ὡς Ἕλληνές φασι καὶ αὐτὰ δὴ τὰ ἐν τῇ πόλει γλυπτὰ γράμματα μαρτυροῦσιν, ὑπ' Ἀμφίονος καὶ Ζήθου ἀνοικοδομηθεῖσα εἰς ὃ νῦν ὁρᾶται σχῆμα αὐτίκα καὶ τὴν κλῆσιν μεταμείψασα ∆υρράχιον προσηγόρευται. Τοσαῦτα μὲν οὖν προσιστορείσθω καὶ περὶ ταύτης τῆς πόλεως· καὶ ἡμῖν τὰ τοῦ τρίτου λόγου ἐνταυθοῖ συμπε περάνθω, τὰ δ' ἐφεξῆς ὁ μετὰ τοῦτον εὐθὺς ἱστορήσειεν.

4.t.1 ΑΛΕΞΙΑΣ ∆ʹ

4.1.1 Ἡ μὲν οὖν ἤπειρος τὸν Ῥομπέρτον εἶχε ἤδη ἐν αὐτῇ αὐλιζόμενον ἑπτὰ καὶ δεκάτην ἄγοντος τοῦ Ἰουνίου μηνὸς τῆς τετάρτης ἐπινεμήσεως μεθ' ἱππέων καὶ πεζῶν δυνάμεων ἀριθμὸν ὑπερβαινουσῶν, καὶ φοβερὸν ἰδεῖν ἀπό τε τοῦ σχήματος ἀπό τε τῆς στρατηγικῆς καταστάσεως· ἤδη γὰρ ἁπανταχόθεν αὖθις συνήθροιστο στράτευμα. Ἐν δὲ τῇ θαλάττῃ παντοῖον εἶδος πλοίων μεθ' ἑτέρων στρατιω τῶν ἐμπειρίαν πολλὴν τοῦ διὰ θαλάσσης πολέμου ἐχόντων τὸ ναυτικὸν αὐτοῦ διεπλῴζετο. Περιστοιχισθέντες οὖν οἱ τοῦ ∆υρραχίου ἐντὸς ἐξ ἑκατέρου μέρους, θαλάττης φημὶ καὶ ἠπείρου, καὶ ἀπειροπληθεῖς τὰς τοῦ Ῥομπέρτου ὁρῶντες δυνάμεις καὶ πάντα λόγον ὑπερβαινούσας μεγίστῳ δέει συνείχοντο. Ὁ δέ γε Παλαιολόγος Γεώργιος γενναῖος ὢν ἀνὴρ καὶ στρατηγικὴν πᾶσαν ἐξησκημένος, μυρίους δὲ πολέμους ἀγωνισάμενος περὶ τὴν ἕω καὶ νικητὴς ἀναδει χθείς,