25. The Hippodrome was the imperial capital’s main stadium. It was originally designed for chariot races, but came to be used for nearly every important public ceremony. Defeated enemies, failed rebels, or overthrown emperors were often paraded there in humiliating fashion before being executed.
26. Sybaris was famous for its hedonism. We get the modern word ‘sybaritic’ meaning self-indulgent or overly luxurious from it.
27. Lands surrounding Rome and Ravenna ruled directly by the pope. See note on The Papal States
28. See chapter 5
29. Although the western half of the Roman Empire had collapsed in the fifth century, the eastern half (more commonly known as Byzantine) had re-conquered Italy in the sixth century. Guiscard’s conquest of Bari ended nearly a thousand years of continued rule in Italy by the successors of Augustus Caesar.
30. On the coast of preset day Albania
31. Greek Fire, a flammable oil-based substance that could burn even while submerged, was considered a state secret. The presence of it onboard Venetian ships is an indication of how seriously the Byzantines considered the Norman threat.
32. More commonly known as the Castel Sant’Angelo, it had been fortified in the 5th century and served as the main papal stronghold.
33. Modern Albania
34. In present day Republic of Macedonia (also known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
35. Borsa means purse - young Roger gained this nickname because he had the irritating habit of repeatedly counting his money.
36. The Hauteville family was well represented on the First Crusade. No less than six grandsons and two great-grandsons of old Tancred joined.
37. Depending on their importance (or lack of it), guests could be made to wait up to several weeks for an audience with the emperor
38. The modern meaning of the term ‘byzantine’ - excessively complex and duplicitous – largely dates from this period. Most westerners believed the Byzantines had betrayed them, and blamed the ‘treacherous Greeks’ for the disasters of subsequent crusades.
39. The meeting took place on an old Roman bridge which is still called Ponte Guiscardo in Robert’s honor
40. The last military campaign he attempted was the 1091 invasion of Malta. When he captured its capital he tore off a portion of his checkered red-and-white banner and presented it to the Maltese. More than nine hundred years later it’s still the base of the present-day Maltese flag.
41. She was a noblewoman from Piedmont whose main qualification as a perspective wife was that she was said to be fertile.
42. Feudal knights were only required to serve for a limited period of time each year. A strong lord could attempt to hold them longer, but even kings couldn’t detain them indefinitely.
43. During his remarkable career, Bernard of Clairvaux was at the center of nearly every major event of the early twelfth century. He almost single-handedly launched the second Crusade, is remembered as an honorary founder of the Cistercian order, and was responsible for the founding of more than 150 monasteries throughout Europe.
44. Encouraged of course by Sicilian gold.
45. This is the depiction of Christ as an all-powerful judge, frequently portrayed in the domes of 10th -century Byzantine churches.
46. According to Edward Gibbon he appeared ‘in war ignorant of peace, and in peace incapable of war’.
47. In present day Serbia which was then part of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary
48. A Venetian-led Crusader army sacked Constantinople in 1204, destroying Christendom’s greatest city.
49. Roger’s conspicuous failure to go on crusade - as well as the harem of Muslim women he kept - earned him this nickname.
50. This was over a hundred years after the Great Schism which ‘permanently’ split the church into estranged Catholic and Orthodox halves.
51. The instillation of a Norman pope, however, would have serious future consequences as it offended the German emperor, Barbarossa. See chapter 15
52. One of the most impressive Crusader castles ever built, Krak des Chevaliers, is located on the coast of present day Syria. It was the most important stronghold of the crusader county of Tripoli
53. There were a number of relics that purported to contain items from the Crucifixion. In Constantinople, for example, one could see the spear used to pierce Christ’s side, the Crown of Thorns, the True Cross, Christ’s burial clothes, and even vials of his blood.
54. The legendary sword of King Arthur
55. Papal policy was consistently the opposite - to keep Empire and Island as far apart as possible.
56. The other was Salerno.
57. According to legend, he ordered two nursemaids to raise their charges in silence to discover what humanity’s natural language was. Regrettably both children are said to have died before the experiment could be completed.
58. His subjects called him ‘the living law on earth’.
59. The name of Frederick’s dynasty which ruled the German empire from 1138-1254
60. The Reconquista was completed by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492
The Normans: From Raiders to Kings Page 22