254 A. D. 848. 



though they were driven out of the reft of the ifland, were fo well efta- 

 blifhed m Dublin, that they fortified it, and held it out againft the Irifli ; 

 and new colonies of them afterwards took, poffeffion of almoft all the 

 maritime parts of the ifland. They improved the fortifications of Dub- 

 lin ; they built or fortified Waterford, Limerik, and other cities : and 

 Olaf, the moft powerful chief among them, afiliming the title of king 

 of Ireland and -the Ifles, compelled the Irifh to pay him tribute. Hence- 

 forth the native Irifli were almoft flnit up in the central part of the 

 country, while the Norwegians and Danes, under the names of Oftmen 

 (i. e. Eaftern men), Gaols, Gentiles, Pagans, &c. v/ere the chief, or ra- 

 tlier the only, commercial people in Ireland, and continued for feveral 

 centuries to carry on trade with their mother countries and other places 

 on the weft coafts of Europe from their Irifli fettlements. [^fin. Ult. ad 

 an. 844, 852 — Girald. Cambr. T'op. Hib. L. iii, cc. 40 et feqq. — and fee 

 Ufferii Brit, eccles. antiq. pp. 860, 717, for other authorities.] 



849 — Amalfi, Naples, and Gaeta, maritime cities of Italy, were now 

 in fad independent, though profefllng a flight acknowlegement of al- 

 legiance to the Greek empire. Their pofl^lTion of ftiipping prefumes 

 that they had fome commerce ; for in thefe times the Italians do not 

 appear to have had any vefl^ls calculated folely for the purpofes of war. 

 Their ftiips were now employed in defending Rome from the attack of 

 a formidable army of Saracens, whofe numerous fleet, by the feafonable 

 intervention of a fudden fquall of wind, was completely deftroyed : and 

 the pontifical, and once imperial, city of Rome, was laved from the do- 

 minion and the religion of the Saracens by the merchants of thole ci~ 

 ties. 



But the beneficial effedls of the induftry and profperity of thofe cities, 

 and of Venice, extended as yet but a very little way beyond their own 

 boundaries. The greateft part of Italy had lain wafte during feveral 

 centuries ; the cities were ruined and depopulated, and the wild beafts 

 had refumed the pofleflion of the uncultivated country, which was co- 

 vered with woods, and deluged with ftagnant waters. Such was now 

 the condition of Italy, once the moft highly cultivated country in Eu- 

 rope ; and fuch it continued throughout the ninth century. [Murafori 

 Script. V. ii, part ii, col. 691 — and fee other authorities colledted in his 

 jhitiq. V. ii, coll. 149, 153, 163.] The defolation of the other parts of 

 Europe, though not fo amply attefted, appears from the few writers of 

 thofe dark ages to have been ftill more extenfive. 



While fuch was the general ftate of Europe, the commerce of thofe 

 which w'crc efteemed commercial communities could only be confider- 



Annals many years before any foil of Harold Har- from that of Alexander^ the fon of Amyntas king 



fagtir was born. of Macedonia, who cut off the I'erlian ambiifTadorc 



Later Irifli writers have embelh'flied the dcatji by means of young men in women's drefs. 

 of Turgcs with a ilralagcm, perhaps borrowed 



