LXIII. was borrowed from the Latin jurisprudence; and CHAP. their podesta, or chief, before he entered on his office, faluted the emperor with loyal acclamations and vows of fidelity. Genoa fealed a firm alliance with the Greeks; and, in cafe of a defenfive war, a supply of fifty empty gallies, and a fuccour of fifty gallies completely armed and manned, was promised by the republic to the empire. In the revival of a naval force, it was the aim of Michael Palæologus to deliver himself from a foreign aid; and his vigorous government contained the Genoefe of Galata within thofe limits which the infolence of wealth and freedom provoked them to exceed. A failor threatened that they should foon be mafters of Conftantinople, and flew the Greek who refented this national affront; and an armed veffel, after refufing to falute the palace, was guilty of fome acts of piracy in the Black Sea. Their countrymen threatened to support their cause; but the long and open village of Galata was inftantly furrounded by the Imperial troops; till, in the moment of the affault, the proftrate Genoefe implored the clemency of their fovereign. The defencelefs fituation which fecured their obedience, expofed them to the attack of their Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the elder Andronicus, prefumed to violate the majesty of the throne. On the approach of their fleets, the Genoefe, with their families and effects, retired into the city: their empty habitations were reduced to afhes; and the feeble prince, who had viewed the deftruction of his fuburb, expreffed his refentment, not by arms, 1 Cc 4 CHAP. arms, but by ambaffadores. This misfortune, obtained, and imperceptibly abused, the danger ous licence of furrounding Galata with a strong wall; of introducing into the ditch the waters of the fea; of erecting lofty turrets; and of mounting a train of military engines on the rampart. The narrow bounds in which they had been circumfcribed, were infufficient for the growing colony; each day they acquired fome addition of landed property; and the adjacent hills were covered with their villas and castles, which they joined and protected by new fortifications". The navigation and trade of the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek emperors, who commanded the narrow entrance, the gates, as it were, of that inland fea. In the reign of Michael Palaologus, their prerogative was acknowledged by the fultan of Egypt, who folicited and obtained the liberty of fending an annual fhip for the purchase of flaves in Circaffia and the Leffer Tartary; a liberty pregnant with mifchief to the Chriftian caufe; fince these youths were transformed by education and difcipline into the formidable Mamalukes". From the colony of Pera, the Ge noefe 1. V. 44 The establishment and progrefs of the Genoefe at Pera, or Galata, is defcribed by Ducange (C. P. Chriftiana, 1. i. p. 68, 69.) from the Byzantine hiftorians, Pachymer (1. ii. c. 35. 10. 30. l. ix. 15. 1. xii, 6. 9.), Nicephorus Gregoras (1. v. c. 4. 1. vi. c. 11. 1. ix. c. 5. l. xi. c. I. l. xv. c. I. 6.), and Cantacuzene (1. i. c. 12. 1. ii. c. 29, &c.). 45 Both Pachymer (1. iii. c. 3, 4, 5.) and Nic. Gregoras (1. iv. c. 7.) understand and deplore the effects of this dangerous indulgence. Bibars, fultan of Egypt, himself a Tartar, but a devout Muful LXIII. Their noefe engaged with fuperior advantage in the CHAP. Mufalman, obtained from the children of Zingis the permiffion to 46 Chardin (Voyages en Perfe, tom. i. p. 48.) was affured at Caffa, that these fishes were fometimes twenty-four or twenty-fix feet long, weighed eight or nine hundred pounds, and yielded three or four quintals of caviar. The corn of the Bofphorus. had fupplied the Athenians in the time of Demofthenes. 47 De Guignes, Hift. des Huns, tom, iii. P: 343, 344. Viaggi di Ramufio, tom. i. fol. 400. But this land or water carriage could only be practicable when Tartary was united under a wife and powerful monarch.... Caffa CHAP. Caffa 48 Their war with the en peror zene, A. D. 1348. was befieged without effect by the Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks were oppreffed by these haughty merchants, who fed, or famished Conftantinople, according to their interest. They proceeded to ufurp the customs, the fishery, and even the toll, of the Bosphorus ; and while they derived from thefe objects a revenue of two hundred thousand pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thoufand was reluctantly allowed to the emperor 49. The colony of Pera or Galata acted, in peace and war, as an independent ftate; and, as it will happen in diftant fettlements, the Genoefe podefta too often forgot that he was the fervant of his own masters. Thefe ufurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the elder Andronicus, and by the Cantacu- civil wars that afflicted his age and the minority of his grandfon. The talents of Cantacuzene were employed to the ruin, rather than the reftoration of the empire; and after his domestic victory, he was condemned to an ignominious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoefe fhould reign in Constantinople. The merchants of Pera were offended by his refufal of fome contiguous lands, fome commanding heights, which they proposed to cover with new fortifications; and in the absence of the emperor, who was detained at Demotica by fickness, they ventured to brave the 48 Nic. Gregoras (1. xiii. c. 12.) is judicious and well informed on the trade and colonies of the Black Sea. Chardin defcribes the prefent ruins of Caffa, where, in forty days, he faw above 400 fal employed in the corn and fish trade (Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 46-48.). 49 See Nic. Gregoras, 1. xvii. c. I. LXIII. debility of a female reign. A Byzantine veffel, CHAP. which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the harbour, was funk by thefe audacious ftrangers; the fishermen were murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoefe demanded fatisfaction; required, in an haughty ftrain, that the Greeks should renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered with regular arms the first fallies of the popular indignation. They instantly occupied the debateable land; and by the labour of a whole people, of either fex and of every age, the wall was raised, and the ditch was funk, with incredible speed. At the fame time, they attacked and burnt two Byzantine gallies; while the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped from their hands: the habitations without the gates, or along the fhore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of the regent, of the emprefs Irene, was confined to the preservation of the city. The return of Cantacuzene difpelled the public confternation: the emperor inclined to peaceful counfels; but he yielded to the obftinacy of his enemies, who rejected all reasonable terms, and to the ardour of his fubjects, who threatened, in the style of fcripture, to break them in pieces like a potter's veffel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes, that he imposed for the construction of fhips, and the expences of the war; and as the two nations were masters, the one of the land, the other of the fea, Conftantinople and Pera were preffed by the evils of a mutual fiege. The merchants of the colony, who had believed that a few days would terminate the |