Note 44 — THE VOYAGE OF BERNARD THE WISE.

The Saracens had established themselves at Bari in the early part of the century, and it was now the head seat of their power on the coast of Italy. Their predatory excursions into the territory of Beneventum caused the emperor Louis II. to prepare an expedition against them, and he took Bari after a siege of four years, and returned to Beneventum in 871, while his troops laid siege to Tarentum, which, however, was not taken from the Saracens till a somewhat later period. The Christian captives mentioned by Bernard, as carried in such numbers into slavery in Africa and Egypt, had been carried off in the incursions into the territory of Beneventum. To judge from the numbers embarked in one ship, they must have been packed up almost as close as negroes in a slave-ship. [44]