Bela of Hungary, who still called himself “King of Galicia,” hurried straightway with his troops to take possession of Galitch, but Roman moved his forces still more quickly. He had planned to arm Poland against Hungary, its permanent rival, and hastening to Cracow turned again to Leshko, for whom he had shed his blood some years earlier. Taking him and his forces, he anticipated Bela and was in the capital before him. The Hungarians, hearing of Roman’s success, fell back beyond the Carpathians. The men of Galitch, who had opened the city to Roman, seated him on the throne of Volodar, Vladimirko and Eight Minds. The new ruler surpassed without exception all who had preceded him; with his strong mind and heroic manner, it could not be otherwise.
Galitch and Volynia, through the character of the people and the nature of the country, formed one possession. From the time that they were separated through violence by Vsevolod, son of Monomach, who died in 1093 (he separated them for the benefit of the landless “orphan” princes), disputes touching boundaries had been continual between princes of Galitch and Volynia. The first prince who held both lands was Roman. It should be remembered that Galitch in those days extended to the Danube, and included the present Roumania. Roman took Galitch without a struggle, because the people there helped him. They had learned to fear foreign rule, hence received him as the prince of their [[154]]wishes; they would have no prince but Roman. The Poles boasted, however, that thanks to them Roman was seated in Galitch, and in later years, when Roman had been slain, and while his two sons were still children, they robbed Volynia and plundered Galitch. Polish boasting and the really close relationship between Mazovian and Volynian princes gave rise to the fable and claim in Poland that those lands were an ancient appanage of Poland. After Roman’s death, they were claimed by the Poles as their own lands, which their princes through kindness had given, as they averred, for temporary use to Russian princes, their relatives.
But come what might, Leshko was glad that they had stopped the Hungarians, who in their turn were glad that Galitch had gone from the Poles to their opponents. Both sides feared Roman and made a proverb declaring him to be “as brave as a bull, as pugnacious as a rat, and as deadly as a crocodile.”
Andrei, the former “King of Galicia,” raised no claim during Roman’s time. Polish princes sought Roman’s friendship, and not only made no attack on his territory, but feared lest he might demand of them lands which were formerly Russian, but had been seized by Polish princes.
Roman was feared still more by his enemies in Galitch. Almost all the boyars were traitors to the people through their love of power and delight in loose living, in which they resembled their western neighbors. To raise themselves high above the people and bind them in absolute slavery, so as to hold Galitch as the Poles and Hungarians held their lands, was the ideal of those boyars, and that is why they yielded so gladly to Hungary. These tendencies they exalted, of course, as love of country, and sacrifice for the fatherland. But the keen Roman saw through such pretenses. His opponents said that he acted inhumanly with the boyars of Galitch. During his short reign he destroyed many of them. His enemies declared that he quartered boyars, shot them, or buried them alive; that when they fled he lured them back by promises of kindness, and when, trusting in his words, they returned, he delivered them to torrents. The truth is that at the time of his first occupation of Galitch, he saw its disorders most clearly. That which his own eyes beheld fully convinced him that the boyars who pretended to care for and toil in the interest of the country were the ones who gave it up to a Latin prince and a foreigner, [[155]]and he would not spare traitors. When he settled finally in Galitch, he was forced to take mighty measures against men who were at once his opponents and the enemies of the people. There is no doubt that the greater part of them fled from Roman’s anger, withdrawing in season to Hungary. Those who remained, he either put to death, or reduced to obedience. For this he received from the chroniclers not blame but thanks, and the title “Single Ruler of Galitch.” He reigned with glory, possessing all Carpathian Russia, that is, ruling alone on the banks of the Dniester, the Pruth, the Seret in the Danube regions, in places which are now Roumania, and in the Volynian lands in addition.
Rome sought now more intimate relations with Roman, but all attempts failed and further approach was deferred till a more favorable period, which did not come during Roman’s days. In the short interval from 1197 to 1201, Galitch and Volynia held the first place in Southern Russia. In other principalities, nothing happened of interest. Big Nest’s whole activity was confined to Vladimir, except that he renewed Gorodok and strengthened its Kremlin, and sent Yaroslav, his son, to Pereyaslavl, thus making it clear that he had part in Southern Russia. With Rurik of Kief he stopped all relations. The Polovtsi did not trouble Kief during this period, but their new day was coming.
Of all the descendants of Monomach and even of Oleg, “those ancient allies of the wild Polovtsi,” there was no prince in history so intimate with those steppe men as Rurik. He wished to be friends with every horde without exception, and in cases of need they were ready to serve him. It was not stated in chronicles without good reason that “the pagans delighted in Rurik, for he received all with love, whether Christians or pagans, and sent away no man unsatisfied.”
In 1202 came the end of peace. In that year began wars without number, and expeditions which plunged the whole country into gloom. As soon as Rurik had made a firm treaty with the princes of Chernigoff, he hastened to use it. He resolved to humiliate Roman. The Chernigoff princes joined this league against Roman, and persuaded all descendants of Oleg to be with them. Chermny, the Chernigoff prince, went to Kief with his brethren, to help Rurik against the “Single Ruler of Galitch” and his kinsmen who managed under him in Volynia. These allied princes could not [[156]]forgive Roman for taking Galitch without their consent, and without sharing it with another; they also envied him his swift exaltation. It was learned besides that Roman had come to an agreement with Big Nest, whom alone he considered as his senior. And, to finish the matter, it had been decided between those two princes to give the Kief throne to Ingvar, son of Yaroslav of Volynia.
But, while sitting in Galitch, the golden-domed capital of Eight Minds, Roman knew well what was happening in Kief, the old capital. Marching swiftly, he anticipated his enemies and forestalled their campaign. The Cherkasi and the Black Caps rose to a man and went forth gladly to join the on-marching regiments of Volynia and Galitch. Kief and the towns around it were excited in favor of Roman. While the allies were talking over the future division of Bailgorod, Vyshgorod and other towns, and also the partition of Galitch; while they were planning the positions of the regiments and the hordes of Polovtsi, Roman, supported by the population, approached Kief on a sudden. The inhabitants opened the gates, and he marched in without opposition. He occupied Podol, the lower part of the city, and sent to Rurik, who was in the hill part, demanding surrender. In view of the fact that the people had opened the gates and were ready for a general uprising, the allies made no resistance whatever. Roman brought them all to kiss the cross to him; he kissed it also in this,—that he did not take Kief for himself. He then permitted them to withdraw from the city and go to their homes. Rurik went to his Ovrutch, and the Chernigoff princes to their lands east of the Dnieper. Then, deferring to Big Nest, Roman seated Ingvar, son of Yaroslav, on the Kief throne. After this, Roman won the double love of the people by a campaign against the Polovtsi, “the wild ones.” Instead of the plunder of Galitch promised the Polovtsi by Rurik, they had now to pay dearly for assisting him. Roman seized their towns and made a vast number of prisoners. He freed Christian captives, and the delight at his victory was unbounded.
Thus began a new reign in Kief. But while Ingvar sat there no one dreamed of calling him Grand Prince, for he was simply a lieutenant; moreover his rule had but one feature of brightness,—its brevity.