2.

These

BOOK III. he obtained the liberation of Kalomodios. CH... threats opened the mind of the Patriarch to the claims of justice, and Kalomodios was released.1

The foreigners in Constantinople conducted themselves in the same lawless manner as the natives. The Venetians and Pisans engaged in bloody battles in the streets, which the Greeks viewed with pleasure, and the imperial authorities with indifference.2 Rebellions in the provinces were also as common as seditions in the capital.3

Fortunately for the Byzantine empire, the Seljouk empire of Roum or Iconium had been divided among the numerous sons of Kilidy-Arslan II., or the Turks, by forming an alliance with the rebel Vallachian, Bulgarian, and Sclavonian population in Europe, might have succeeded in taking Constantinople before the arrival of the Crusaders and Venetians. But Moeddin,

the sultan of Angora, availed himself of the disorders in the Byzantine provinces to invade Paphlagonia and take the city of Dabyra. Alexius, after carrying on the war feebly for a year and a-half, purchased peace (A.D. 1197) by paying Moeddin five hundred pounds' weight of coined silver, by presenting him with forty pieces of the rich brocaded silk which was manufactured at Thebes for the emperor's especial use, and by engaging to remit to Angora an annual tribute of three hundred pounds' weight of silver. In the following year Alexius involved himself in war with Gaïaseddin Kaikhosrou I., who then reigned at Iconium, in consequence of the detention of two Arabian horses by the Turk. In one

1 Nicetas, 337.

2 Nicetas, 347.

Nicetas, 296, 298, 314, 339.

4 Nicetas, 336, gives an account of the division of the empire of Roum among the sons of Kilidy-Arslan. Gaïaseddin Kaikhosrou I., who succeeded his father Kilidy-Arslan in 1193, was dethroned by his brother Rokneddin, who originally received Tocat as his share of the empire, but conquered all his brothers. He died in 1202, when Gaïaseddin Kaikhosrou again mounted the throne of Iconium.

5 Nicetas, 297, 304.

of his thoughtless fits of passion, the emperor ordered all the Turkish merchants at Constantinople to be imprisoned and their property to be sequestrated. The sultan's revenge was prompt and terrible. He broke into the vale of the Mæander, and ravaged the country to the walls of Antioch of Phrygia. Numbers of the inhabitants were carried away into slavery, but an agricultural colony of five thousand families was settled at Philomelium. They were furnished with good farmhouses, and everything necessary for cultivating the land; they were exempt from all taxation for five years, and after that period they were assured that a fixed contribution would be required without the arbitrary additions levied in the Byzantine empire to cover the expense of collecting the public revenues. This humane policy inflicted a more serious wound on the empire than the devastations of the Turkish armies; for many Christian families, worn out by the financial exactions of the imperial officers, emigrated into the Turkish dominions; and Nicetas informs us that whole towns were abandoned by the Greek inhabitants.1 Rokneddin subsequently expelled his brother Kaikhosrou from Iconium, and compelled Alexius to purchase peace by the payment of a tribute. Kaikhosrou, after wandering from the court of Aleppo to that of Leo, king of Armenian Cilicia, reached Constantinople as a suppliant, where he was well treated, and remained. until the death of Rokneddin, in 1202, enabled him again to mount the throne of Iconium. He had afterwards an opportunity of repaying the obligation he had received as an exile when Alexius III. appeared as a fugitive at Iconium.

The whole Vallachian, Bulgarian, and Sclavonian population between Mount Hamus and the Danube

A. D. 1195-1203.

VOL. II.

1

Nicetas, 321.

U

CH. III. § 2.

BOOK III was now in arms to secure their independence; and as society was in very much the same condition in these provinces as in the other parts of the Byzantine empire, many of the native nobles aspired to the throne, or endeavoured to render themselves independent princes. The three Vallachian brothers, Peter, Asan, and John, however, maintained their position as the leaders of the rebellion, and Asan was considered the real founder of the Vallachian or second Bulgarian kingdom, though he was assassinated in the year 1196. His murderer was Ivan, a Bulgarian noble of great military talent, who expected to mount the throne; but both the Bulgarians and Vallachians recognised Peter as king and successor to his brother. Ivan was compelled to seek safety in the Byzantine empire. Shortly after Peter was assassinated, but his youngest brother John, commonly called Joannice, who had escaped from Constantinople, where he was detained. as a hostage, was acknowledged King of Bulgaria. Alexius intrusted the command of the passes of Mount Hamus to Ivan, who for three years (1197-1200) effectually protected Thrace and Macedonia from the incursions of the Vallachians.

During this time, a Vallachian officer in the Byzantine army, named Chryses, who had refused to join his rebellious countrymen, was intrusted with the command of the fortress of Strumitza. The anarchy he saw prevailing round him induced Chryses to declare himself independent; and the Emperor Alexius III., hoping to obtain an easy victory over so weak an enemy, took the field against him in person. In the second campaign, A.D. 1199, the emperor besieged Chryses in the fort of Prosakon, which was situated on high rocks overhanging the Axios (Vardar). The Byzantine troops stormed the outer enclosure of Prosakon, and attacked the citadel with such vigour that

1195-1203.

their showers of missiles drove the enemy behind the A. D. ramparts. But the emperor had no scaling-ladders, tools, or machines for an assault ready; the plate, provisions, wine, and baggage of the imperial household had been brought forward with the main body of the army, and the artillery and warlike stores had been left behind until fresh means of transport should be collected. After a vain attack, in which many of the bravest soldiers and officers perished, the troops were repulsed. Alexius, finding that it would require more time and labour to take Prosakon than he had expected, concluded a treaty with Chryses, leaving him in possession of Prosakon and Strumitza, on condition that he acknowledged himself a subject, and held his command as an officer named by the emperor.

The weak conduct of Alexius induced Ivan to aspire at forming an independent principality in Thrace and Macedonia. In 1200 he threw off his allegiance to the Byzantine empire, defeated an army commanded by the protostrator Manuel Kamytzes, whom he took prisoner, and, descending the valley of the Nestos, roused all the Bulgarian and Sclavonian population to revolt, from Mosynopolis to Xantheia, Mount Pangæum, and Abdera.

Alexius took the field against Ivan in person, but the campaign was almost immediately terminated by a treaty. The emperor, after taking possession of the fort of Stenimachos, agreed to allow Ivan to remain as governor of the country he occupied, promised him. his grand-daughter in marriage, and allowed him to assume the ensigns of a member of the imperial family. Ivan, deceived by these proofs of amity, visited Constantinople, where he was thrown into prison, Alexius perverting a passage of the psalmist as an excuse for his treachery.

As soon as Ivan began to treat with Alexius, the

CH. III. § 2.

BOOK III. Bulgarian guards of Manuel Kamytzes carried their prisoner into the dominions of Joannice, king of Bulgaria. Chryses, however, paid his ransom, and Kamytzes was brought to Strumitza. Alexius, with his usual rapacity and injustice, had sequestrated the immense private fortune of Kamytzes as soon as he heard of his defeat; and he now refused to repay Chryses 200 lb. of gold from the treasures he had so unjustly seized. Kamytzes, enraged at this act of injustice, formed an alliance with Chryses, and determined to raise the ransom by plundering the empire. The two generals invaded Pelagonia, and took Prilapos. Kamytzes then marched into Thessaly, and extended his ravages over all Greece, exciting considerable commotion in the Peloponnesus by his intrigues. In the mean time, a Cypriot of low rank, who was governor of Smolena, also raised the standard of revolt; and the Patzinaks and Komans plundered the empire. Joannice, king of Bulgaria, availed himself of the general confusion to take possession of the important commercial cities of Constantina and Varna.

The empire seemed on the eve of dissolution; but the danger roused the ministers to activity, and the central government still exercised great power through the existing remains of the old Roman administrative system. A powerful army was brought into the field. Peace was concluded with the King of Bulgaria, by sacrificing Constantina and Varna. Order was in some degree restored in the Peloponnesus and continental Greece. Kamytzes was driven from all his conquests. The Cypriot was compelled to abandon Smolena, and escape into Bulgaria; and Chryses himself surrendered Strumitza to purchase pardon.1

1 The history of the Vallachian war, and of the operations against the rebels, is given in detail by Nicetas in his three books concerning the reign of Alexius III.