С Н А Р. Revolt 1204, &c. Two fugitives, who had reigned at Conftantinople, ftill afferted the title of emperor; and the fubjects of their fallen throne might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of the elder Alexius, or excited to revenge by the fpirit of Mourzoufle. A domeftic alliance, a common interest, a fimilar guilt, and the merit of extinguishing his enemies, a brother and a nephew, induced the more recent ufurper to unite with the former the relics of his power. Mourzoufle was received with fmiles and honours in the camp of his father Alexius ; but the wicked can never love, and fhould rarely truft, their fellow criminals: he was feized in the bath, deprived of his eyes, ftripped of his troops and treasures, and turned out to wander an object of horror and contempt to those who with more propriety could hate, and with more juftice could punish, the affaffin of the emperor Ifaac, and his fon. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or remorse, was stealing over to Afia, he was feized by the Latins of Conftantinople, and condemned, after an open trial, to an ignominious death. His judges debated the mode of his execution, the axe, the wheel, or the stake; and it was refolved that Mourzoufle " fhould afcend the Theodofian column, a pillar of white marble of one hundred the fpirit of freedom. The merit and reputation of the marshal are acknowledged by the Greek hiftorian (p. 387.), μɛys Tape τοις Λατίνων δυναμένω τρατεύμασι : unlike fome modern heroes, whofe exploits are only visible in their own memoirs. 17 See the fate of Mourzoufle, in Nicetas (p. 393.), Villehardouin (N° 141-145. 163.), and Guntherus (c. 20, 21.). Neither the marshal nor the monk afford a grain of pity for a tyrant or rebel, whose punishment, however, was more unexampled than his crime. and LXI. and forty-feven feet in height ". From the fum- CHAP. mit he was caft down headlong, and dafhed in pieces on the pavement, in the presence of innumerable fpectators, who filled the forum of Taurus, and admired the accomplishment of an old prediction, which was explained by this fingular event". The fate of Alexius is lefs tragical: he was fent by the marquis a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king of the Romans; but he had not much to applaud his fortune, if the fentence of imprisonment and exile were changed from a fortrefs in the Alps to a monaftery in Asia. But his daughter, before the national calamity, had been given in marriage to a young hero who continued the fucceffion, and restored the throne, of the Greek princes 20. The valour of Theodore Theodore Lafcaris was fignalised in the two fieges of Conftantinople. After the flight of Mourzoufle, of Nice, when the Latins were already in the city, he offered himself as their emperor to the foldiers and people and his ambition, which might be 18 The column of Arcadius, which represents in baffo-relievo his victories, or those of his father Theodofius, is ftill extant at Conftantinople. It is defcribed and measured, Gyllius (Topograph. iv. 7.), Banduri (ad l. i. Antiquit. C. P. p. 507, &c.), and Tournefort (Voyage du Levant, tom. ii. lettre xii. p.231.). 19 The nonfenfe of Gunther and the modern Greeks concerning this columna fatidica, is unworthy of notice: but it is fingular enough, that fifty years before the Latin conqueft, the poet Tzetzes (Chiliad, ix. 277.) relates the dream of a matron, who faw an army in the forum, and a man fitting on the column, clapping his hands, and uttering a loud exclamation. 20 The dynasties of Nice, Trebizond, and Epirus (of which Nicetas faw the origin without much pleasure or hope), are learnedly explored, and clearly represented, in the Familiæ Byzantina of Ducange. virtuous, emperor A. D. 1204-1222 LXI. CHAP. virtuous, was undoubtedly brave. Could he have infufed a foul into the multitude, they might have crushed the ftrangers under their feet: their abject despair refufed his aid, and Theodore retired to breathe the air of freedom in Anatolia, beyond the immediate view and purfuit of the conquerors. Under the title, at first of despot, and afterwards of emperor, he drew to his ftandard the bolder fpirits, who were fortified against flavery by the contempt of life; and as every means was lawful for the public fafety, implored without fcruple the alliance of the Turkish fultan. Nice, where Theodore established his refidence, Prufa and Philadelphia, Smyrna and Ephefus, opened their gates to their deliverer: he derived ftrength and reputation from his victories, and even from his defeats; and the fucceffor of Conftantine preferved a fragment of the empire from the banks of the Mæander to the suburbs of Ni rors of Trebizond. The dukes comedia, and at length of Conftantinople. Anand empe- other portion, diftant and obfcure, was poffeffed by the lineal heir of the Comneni, a son of the virtuous Manuel, a grandfon of the tyrant Andronicus. His name was Alexius; and the epithet of great was applied perhaps to his ftature, rather than to his exploits. By the indulgence of the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke of Trebizond": his birth gave him ambition, the 21 Except fome facts in Pachymer and Nicephorus Gregoras, which will hereafter be ufed, the Byzantine writers difdain to fpeak of the empire of Trebizond, or principality of the Lazi; and among the Latins, it is confpicuous only in the romances of the airth or xvth centuries. Yet the indefatigable Ducange has CHA P. LXI. the revolution independence; and without changing his title, he reigned in peace from Sinope to the Phafis, along the coaft of the Black Sea. His nameless fon and fucceffor is defcribed as the vaffal of the fultan, whom he ferved with two hundred lances; that Comnenian prince was no more than duke of Trebizond, and the title of Emperor was first affumed by the pride and envy of the grandfon of Alexius. In the Weft, a third The def fragment was faved from the common fhipwreck pots of Epirus. by Michael, a baftard of the houfe of Angeli, who, before the revolution, had been known as an hoftage, a foldier, and a rebel. His flight from the camp of the marquis Boniface fecured his freedom; by his marriage with the governor's daughter, he commanded the important place of Durazzo, affumed the title of defpot, and founded a strong and confpicuous principality in Epirus, Ætolia, and Theffaly, which have ever been peopled by a warlike race. The Greeks, who had offered their fervice to their new fovereigns, were excluded by the haughty Latins 2 from all civil and military honours, as a nation born to tremble and obey. Their refentment prompted them to fhew that they might have been useful friends, fince they could be dangerous enemies: 22 dug out (Fam. Byz. p. 192.) two authentic paffages in Vincent of Beauvais (1. xxxi. c. 144.), and the protonotary Ogerius (apud Wading, A. D. 1279, N° 4.). 22 The portrait of the French Latins is drawn in Nicetas by the hand of prejudice and refentment: εδεν των άλλων εθνών εις Αρεος έργα παρασυμβεβλήσθαι ήνείχοντο, αλλ' είδε τις των χαρίτων ή των μέσων παρα τους βαρβάροις τετοις επεξενίζετο, και παρα τετο οίμαι την φυσιν ησαν ανημεροτή και τον χόλον ειχαν το λόγο προτρέχονται LXI. CHAP. their nerves were braced by adverfity: whatever was learned or holy, whatever was noble or valiant, rolled away into the independent ftates of Trebizond, Epirus, and Nice; and a fingle patrician is marked by the ambiguous praise of attachment and loyalty to the Franks. The vulgar herd of the cities and the country, would have gladly fubmitted to a mild and regular fervitude; and the tranfient disorders of war would have been obliterated by fome years of industry and peace. But peace was banished, and industry was crushed, in the disorders of the feudal system. The Roman emperors of Conftantinople, if they were endowed with abilities, were armed with power for the protection of their fubjects: their laws were wife, and their administration was fimple. The Latin throne was filled by a titular prince, the chief, and often the fervant, of his licentious confederates: the fiefs of the empire, from a kingdom to a castle, were held and ruled, by the fword of the barons: and their difcord, poverty, and ignorance, extended the ramifications of tyranny to the most fequeftered villages. The Greeks were oppreffed by the double weight of the priest, who was invefted with temporal power, and of the foldier, who was inflamed by fanatic hatred; and the infuperable bar of religion and language for ever separated the stranger and the native. As long as the crufaders were united at Conftantinople, the memory of their conqueft, and the terror of their arms, impofed filence on the captive land: their difperfion betrayed the |