It is to be remembered that besides the few leading princes, who gave away or received immense regions, there was now a horde of small princes, all related to one another and to the great ones. These it was necessary to satisfy, some with a single town, others with more, as the case might be. There was not land enough to satisfy all, however, for sons of the ruling princes were increasing in number. There were also princes who, dying before they had received places, left orphans. These orphans needed sustenance; they were of princely blood and, what was of more importance, made trouble when discontented, if they had power to do so. This great band of land-seekers turned to the Kief prince, who was for them in the place of a father. Yaropolk, while trying to settle princes of this kind, was forced to set aside towns to support them till he could find permanent places. Thus Kief was soon reduced to narrow limits. At first the lands of the mother city covered all Southern Russia. On the southwest and the south they touched the Carpathians and the Danube; on the west they reached the headwaters of every river flowing toward the Euxine and included some rivers flowing into the Baltic. They extended toward the Volga and the Caspian till they reached the territory occupied by the wild tribes of the Polovtsi. But now, by gifts to the dissatisfied and the demanding, Yaropolk left little to the city. In later reigns there was nothing left, and in that final day a Kief prince was no longer the highest power in Russia; he was scarcely more than a guardian of the capital. It was not the might of Kief which, in his day, gave Yaropolk influence, but his native worth, and his character, which recalled that of Monomach, his father. Lofty qualities gave him strength against Vsevolod, the keen, cunning, shifty son of Oleg. Vsevolod had not seized Chernigoff from his uncle to sit there in quietness; he aimed at Kief, through which alone power was at that time obtainable, and power was the lodestar of his existence. During Mystislav’s reign Vsevolod had made no move whatever, and, while Yaropolk was settling with his brothers and nephews, he took no part with the dissatisfied, but when Yaropolk had decided every question, the crafty Vsevolod joined hands with Igor and Sviatoslav, his cousins, sons of David, and attacked Yaropolk on both sides of the Dnieper. Fire and sword swept through those lands on the Ros and the Sula, and west of the Dnieper a great war began in which all men of weapons took part with eagerness. After several preliminary battles troops hurried in from many places,—brothers and nephews came to help Yaropolk. From Volynia, Polotsk, Smolensk, Rostoff, Turoff and Suzdal did they come. Yaropolk himself led the regiments of Kief and the Black Caps, called also “Cherkassi” (Circassians).