[360] Sismondi, Republ. Ital. du Moyen Age, i. p. 203.
[361] Cassiodor. Var. l. 12. Epist. 24.
[362] The power of Venice at this early period (A.D. 774) is well shown by the aid it gave to Charlemagne, at his request, during his siege of Pavia, of twenty-four galleons said to have carried six thousand horse and foot. This fact has been recently illustrated by Mr. W. De Gray Birch, of the MS. Room of the British Museum, who has published a contemporary leaden tablet, in which it is recorded. (Archæol. xliv. pp. 123-136. 1872.)
[363] Speaking of Timúr, Gibbon observes, “the lord of so many myriads of horse was not master of a single galley,” c. lxv.
[364] Gibbon, c. lix.
[365] Gibbon, c. lix.
[366] Gibbon, c. lx.
[367] It seems worth while to append here a note concerning the results of the principal Crusades.
First Crusade.—Preached by Peter the Hermit, and led by Robert Guiscard and Godfrey de Bouillon, chiefly against the Seljuk Turks, A.D. 1096. Jerusalem taken, A.D. 1099.
Second Crusade.—Preached by St. Bernard, and led by Louis VII. and Conrad III., A.D. 1146. Stopped by the Seljuk Turks, by their victory at Iconium (Konieh), A.D. 1147.