NOTES   UPON   RUSSIA.                               13
for one who is surrounded by a host of enemies to escape, it
is my determination to stand firmly, and at all risks to expose
myself in the foremost rank for the sake of my country."
The soldiers replied: " Wheresoever thou leadest we will
follow." Haying thus restored the confidence of his army,
he rushed upon the enemy with a terrific onslaught, and
bore away the victory. Subsequently, while laying waste
the country of the Greeks, the other princes of the country
besieged him with presents of gold and panodochmi (so the
annals have it); but all their gifts he slighted and refused,
accepting the garments and arms which the Greeks after-
wards sent to him. This manifestation of virtue on his part
so moved the people of Greece, that they addressed their own
sovereigns on one occasion when assembled together, to the
effect, that that was the sort of king that they desired to
serve—namely, one who preferred arms to gold. As Svyatos-
lav' was approaching Constantinople, the Greeks at last got
rid of him from their country by the payment of a large
tribute. Finally, in the year of the world 6480 (972), Cures, a
prince of the Pieczenigi,1 caught him in an ambush and slew
him, and made a goblet of his skull surrounded with a golden
rim, on which was engraved this sentence: " By seeking the
possessions of others he lost his own."
When Svyatoslav' was dead, one of his nobles named
Svyadolt, went to Yaropolk at Kiev, and besought him with
the greatest earnestness and pertinacity to thrust out his
1 The Pieczenigi or Badjnaks were a tribe of Turkish origin constantly
engaged in wars either with the Russians, the Hungarians, the Greeks,
or the Khazars. They occupied an extensive territory, bounded south
by Bulgaria and Serria, east by Hungary and Poland, north by the
.Grand Duchy of Kier, and west by the Khazars. They gradually
became weakened by their incessant wars, and were at length completely
subdued by John II, Comnenus, since which time they ceased to be
spoken of as an independent nation. For some details of their habits,
see Ton Hammer, JSur les Origines Busses. St. Petersburg, 1825, 4to.,
fo» 83 and 46.