NOVOGOROD. 
33 
saying, which prevailed in the days of its great- 
ness * 2 ? Nomade Slavonians were its founders, 
about the time that the Saxons, invited by Vorti- 
gern, first came into Britain. Four centuries 
afterwards, a motley tribe, collected from the 
original inhabitants of all the watery and sandy 
plains around the Finland Gulph, made it their 
metropolis. Nearly a thousand years have 
passed, since Ruric, the Norman, gathering 
them together at the mouth of the Volchova, 
laid the foundation of an empire, destined to 
extend over the vast territories of all the 
Russias : afterwards, ascending the river, to the 
spot where its rapid current rushes from the 
Ilmen to the Ladoga Lake, he fixed his residence 
in Novogorod. 
In the midst of those intestine divisions which 
resulted from the partition of the empire at the 
death of Vladimir, who, divided his estates 
between his twelve sons, there arose three 
independent princes, and a number of petty 
confederacies. The seat of government was 
successively removed from Novogorod, to Suze- 
dal, Vladimir, and Moscow. Novogorod adopted 
a mixed government, partly monarchical, and 
partly republican. In the middle of the thir- 
\ 
(2) “ Quis contra Deos, et Magnam Novogordiam ?” 
VOL. I. D 
CHAP. 
III. 
' 
Antient 
History of 
Novogorod. 
A.D. 450. 
A.D. 1015. 
