But before the death of Ruric the Norman domination extended even to Kief. Two of his followers, Ascald and Dir, having apparently some reason for dissatisfaction, left Novogrod with the intention of doing what many other Scandinavians had done,—of offering their swords to the Greek emperor. On their way they perceived a little town, built on an eminence overlooking the Dnieper; and on inquiring to whom it belonged, they were told that it had been founded by three brothers long before dead, and that it was inhabited by a quiet inoffensive people, who paid tribute to the Khozars. The chieftains had a military eye: they saw at once the importance of such a position; that it might become the centre of a sovereignty, great perhaps as that of Novogrod; and with the armed force which they were leading they surprised the place. In a few years they were joined by great numbers of their countrymen, both from that city and from Scandinavia. This was the period, indeed, when Harald Harfagre was consolidating his empire by the reduction of the Norwegian chiefs, and securing tranquillity by the banishment of the more licentious pirates. Thousands and tens of thousands must, at this period, have left Norway in quest of new habitations. Hence Kief soon became very populous, and so confident of its strength that it sent its piratical sons to the very gates of Constantinople. Money induced them to retreat. The domination of the Khozars over Kief was at an end. The introduction of Christianity into that city did not much assuage the ferocity of the Normans: many adopted the mass without forsaking their warrior god. [Sidenote: 882.] The establishment of two empires in Russia was soon found to be impolitic. After the death of Ruric, and during the minority of his son Igor, Oleg, to whom he had confided the administration, resolved to incorporate Kief with the northern principality. In his way, the regent took Smolensko and Lubetch; but on reaching the banks of the Dnieper beneath that city, he saw that it was too strong to be taken by force, and he had recourse to stratagem. By a pretended embassy, he lured the two princes into his power, and put them to death. The other conquests of Oleg, and his successful efforts to consolidate no less than to extend the infant empire, must be sought in the histories of that empire. Sufficient for our purpose is the fact, that these enterprising men established in Russia a sovereignty which still subsists. The family of Ruric held the throne of that empire above seven centuries; down to the accession of the present Romanoff dynasty.[13]