456 R U S 
its ambitious guests. This new success emboldened Ruric 
to extend his territories, and to ohange the seat of government 
from the insignificant town of Ladoga, to the spacious and 
opulent city of Novgorod. Soon after, by the death of his 
partners in the government, Ruric became sole monarch of 
the conquered territory, where he reigned without farther 
molestation for 17 years, and became the primogenitor of a 
long line of descendants, who held the sovereignty without 
interruption for several centuries. Ruric appears to have been 
zealous for the strict administration of justice in his dominions, 
and issued his command to all the boyars who held territo¬ 
ries under him, to see it exercised in an exact and uniform 
manner. We are not informed of the nature of his institu¬ 
tions ; nor is it known whether the laws then existing in his 
territories were merely oral, or were committed to writing. 
Ruric assumed the title of grand prince. 
As Ruric left only one son, Igor, who was still a minor 
at his father’s death, Oleg, a kinsman of the deceased mo¬ 
narch, took on him the administration of affairs. Either 
from the natural restlessness of the Varages, or from the spirit 
of rebellion manifested by the Novgorodians, which indi¬ 
cated the necessity of employing his people in some active 
enterprise, the new monarch did not long remain idle. He 
appears very early to have projected the extension of his 
territories, by annexing to them the settlement which the 
Sclavi had formed about Kief, against which he soon under¬ 
took a formidable expedition. He collected a numerous 
army, composed of Slavic Varages, and Tschudes, carried 
with him the young prince Igor, and opened the campaign 
with the capture of Lubitch, and of Smolensk, the capital of 
the Krivitsches. 
Having reduced several other towns of less consequence, 
he advanced towards Kief, the possession of which formed 
the chief object of his ambition, as through the Kievian ter¬ 
ritory he would have an easy passage to the Grecian empire, 
by inroads into which he could gratify the predatory disposi¬ 
tion of his followers. But having advanced near the walls of 
Kief, he did not think it advisable to hazard an open attack, 
and thus leave to the precarious decision of a battle the ulti¬ 
mate success of his favourite project. He therefore had re¬ 
course to artifice, and leaving behind him the greater part of 
of bis troops, he concealed the remainder in the barks that 
had brought them down the Dnieper from Smolensk. Oleg 
himself, disguising his name and quality, passed for a mer¬ 
chant sent by Oleg and his ward Igor on business of import¬ 
ance to Constantinople ; and he dispatched officers to Osk- 
hold and Dir, the two chieftains of the Kievians, requesting 
permission to pass through their territory into Greece, and in¬ 
viting them to visit him as friends and fellow-citizens, pretend¬ 
ing that indisposition prevented him from paying his respects 
to them in person. The princes, free from mistrust, and 
relying on these appearances of friendship, accepted Oleg’s 
invitation, and scarcely thought it necessary to take with 
them their ordinary attendants. They were soon undeceived ; 
for when they arrived at the regent’s encampment, they were 
quickly surrounded by the Varagian soldiers, who sprung 
from their place of concealment in the barks. Oleg taking 
Igor in his arms, and casting on the sovereigns of Kief a fierce 
and threatening look, exclaimed, “ You are neither princes, 
nor of the race of princes; behold the son of Ruric.” These 
words, which formed the signal that had been agreed on be¬ 
tween Oleg and his soldiers, were no sooner uttered, than the 
latter rushed on the two princes, and laid them prostrate at 
the feet of their commander. 
The inhabitants of Kief, thrown into consternation by 
this bold and treacherous act, made no resistance, but opened 
the gates of their city to the invader; and thus the two Scla- 
vonian states were united under one head. 
Having thus made himself master of the key to the eastern 
empire, Oleg prepared to carry into effect his ambitious 
designs against Constantinople. Leaving Igor at Kief, he 
himself embarked on the Dnieper with 80,000 warriors, on 
board of no fewer than 2000 vessels. Their passage down 
the river met with no obstruction, till they came to that part 
S I A. 
where its course is embarrassed for nearly 15 leagues by seven 
rocks, and here began a series of perils, labours and fa¬ 
tigues, which none but barbarians could have overcome. 
They were obliged to unload their barks, and convey them 
over the rocks; and in particular at the fourth rock, they 
carried their baggage for above 6000 paces, exposed to the 
perpetual risk of attack from the neighbouring nations, with 
whom they were at war, while thus encumbered. Having 
at length passed all the rocks, and reached the mouth of 
the Dnieper, Oleg drew together his scattered vessels at a 
small island that lies between the points of Otchakof and 
Kinburn, where he caused them to be refitted, and waited 
for a favourable wind to carry him across the Black Sea, to 
the mouth of the Dniester. Here the vessels were again re¬ 
fitted, and hence the expedition coasting along the shores of 
the Euxine, soon arrived at the straits of Constantinople. 
The inhabitants of the imperial city, on discovering the 
approach of the barbarians, had drawn a massy chain across 
the harbour, thus hoping to prevent their landing. In this 
hope, however, they were deceived. Historians tell us the 
marvellous tale that the invaders drew ashore their barks, 
fitted wheels to their flat bottoms, and converted them into 
carriages, which, by the help of sails, they forced along the 
roads that led to the city, and thus arrived under the walls of 
Constantinople. In their route they ravaged the whole 
country, and pillaged and demolished the houses, loaded the 
inhabitants with irons, and committed other enormities which 
generally attend the incursions of a barbarous enemy. The 
earth that had been fertilized by the sweat of the husband¬ 
man, was now drenched with his blood, and the sea received, 
as in one vast grave, both the carcases of the dead, and the 
bodies of the living. The weak Leo, who then swayed the 
sceptre of the Grecian empire, instead of making a manly 
resistance, is said to have attempted carrying off his enemy 
by poison ; but this not succeeding, he was obliged to pur¬ 
chase from the conqueror an ignominious peace. Thus, 
even at that early period, the sovereign of Russia triumphed 
over the emperor of Constantinople, and Oleg acquired the 
full completion of his wishes, by the rich booty which he 
carried off. He made his entrance into Kief on his return, 
laden with the wealth acquired by his victory ; and the 
people, dazzled with such splendid objects, imagined their 
prince to be endowed with supernatural powers, and looked 
up to him with a reverence approaching to adoration. 
Soon after his return to his own dominions, the Russian 
monarch dispatched deputies to Constantinople, with the 
articles of a treaty which he required the Greek emperor to 
sign. This treaty, which is preserved in the Chronicles of 
Nestor, is extremely curious; and we learn from it many im¬ 
portant particulars respecting the internal policy of the Rus¬ 
sians at the beginning of the tenth century. Several articles 
of this treaty shew, that the Russian laws laid great stress 
on oaths; that they pronounced the sentence of death against 
the murderer, instead of inflicting on him only a pecuniary 
fine, and thus allowing the rich to commit assassination with 
impunity ; that wives were allowed a part of the estates of 
their husbands; that the punishment of offences did not 
extend to the entire confiscation of goods, and hence the 
widow and orphan did not suffer for a crime of which they 
were innocent; that robbery, which attacks only property, 
was punished by the privation of property, so that the Rus¬ 
sian laws maintained a just proportion between the crime 
and the penalty ; that the citizens, secure in their possessions, 
were under no apprehension that the sovereign would seize 
on their heritage, and might even dispose of their effects in 
favour of friends. 
Oleg maintained the sovereign power thirty-three years, 
nor does it appear that Igor, even after he attained the age 
of maturity, had any share in the government, till the death 
of his guardian, in ffl3, left him in full possession of the 
throne. 
Igor had reached his 40th year before he entered on the 
government. He soon discovered marksof the same warlike 
spirit which had actuated his predecessor. Among the 
nations 
