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Itinerary
29
Chapter XX. Ñ Bela, king of the Hungarians, receives the king hospitably.
The king of the Hungarians, Bela by name, came out with joy to meet
the emperor. He was a man endowed by nature with many good qualities;
tall in stature, of a noble countenance, possessing a combination of virtues,
and worthy of the highest panegyric; who, if he had no other merit, would
be thought worthy of sovereignty by his dignified appearance. He received
ChristÕs army with hospitality, met them in a triumphant procession, and
followed them with good will, testifying by his deeds the fervour of his
friendship. The people in large numbers, burning with their sovereignÕs
example, contemplate the sacred army and are eager to enlist; they look
forwards to the prizes of the combat, and fear no dangers: at once they
form the wish, they take the vow, and follow with the army, so that it is
evident the workings of Holy Inspiration knew no impediment or delay.
Crossing the Danube they reached the furthest passes of Bulgaria, where
Huns, Alans, Bulgarians, and Pincenates rushed suddenly from their
ambush upon the LordÕs host, encouraged to the attack by the rugged and
inaccessible nature of the ground.
Chapter XXI. Ñ How Frederic, having crossed the Danube, found the Huns and
Alans hostile to him.
The outlet from Bulgaria into Macedonia is fortified on both sides by
high rocks, covered with thorns and bushes, through which wind narrow
and rugged paths. To these the inhabitants have added lofty artificial
defences. These passes were seized by the nations before mentioned, who
had been sent for this purpose by the wicked emperor Conrad, that they
might destroy the army, or at least stop its further approach. Our soldiers,
however, courageously overcame both the enemy and the road, and
passing through Macedonia, arrived at Philippopolis, a city which had
before been called Pulpudeba, but took the name of Philippopolis in
honour of the Roman emperor Philip, who first of all the emperors became
a Christian, and by the profession of the Christian faith conferred

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Itinerary
30
additional lustre upon the imperial dignity. The Greeks, hearing of the
approach of the Latin army, deserted the city, fearing where there was no
need of fear; for which their only reason was that they feared all whom
they did not love: for the pilgrims had not come to plunder others, as they
had sufficient of their own; nor had they taken arms against the faithful,
but only to crush the errors of an infidel race. But the ancient and
inexorable hatred which the Greeks entertained of old against the Latins,
had been handed down by the tenacity of ages to their posterity. If a
motive or reason of this enmity be sought Ñ
ÒIt were no wrong, if it a plea had found.Ó
Yet this may, perhaps, be urged as an excuse, that whereas the Latins were
flourishing in arts and arms, they themselves were altogether ignorant and
unwarlike: this gives a motive to their enmity, and they pine with jealousy
at the prosperity of others. They are a perfidious race, a wicked generation,
and utterly degenerate: the more illustrious they once were, the more
signal is their degradation; their gold is converted into dross, their wheat
into chaff their purity to filth, their glory to corruption. The old Greeks
attempted and achieved much, both in arts and arms; but all their zeal for
virtue has chilled in their posterity and has passed over to the Latins, so
that where once were fountains there now are rivulets, or rather, dry and
exhausted channels. Their virtues have found no heirs, but their crimes
many; they still retain the deceit of Sinon, the falseness of Ulysses, and the
atrocity of Atreus. If I be asked concerning their military science, this turns
on stratagems rather than on battles; if concerning their good faith, the man
should beware who has them for his friends, though their hostility can do
him no harm. That nation, unable to impede the march of our army at the
aforesaid passes, did what lay in their power to do it: all the natives fled to
the mountaintops and carried with them every comfort which we could
have bought of them for money, leaving their empty houses without an
article of furniture in them to our army that was approaching. The emperor
indeed, on the plea of peace, had already sent forwards the bishop of
Munster, with some other princes, to Constantinople; but the wicked and

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