LXI. CHAP. hope they were deprived by the fuperior arms and policy of Vataces emperor of Nice. From the Propontis to the rocky coaft of Pamphylia, Afia was peaceful and profperous under his reign: and the events of every campaign extended his influence in Europe. The ftrong cities of the hills, of Macedonia and Thrace, were refcued from the Bulgarians; and their kingdom was circumfcribed by its present and proper limits, along the fouthern banks of the Danube. The fole emperor of the Romans could no longer brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince of the Weft, fhould prefume to dispute or share the honours of the purple; and the humble Demetrius changed the colour of his bufkins, and accepted with gratitude the appellation of defpot. His own fubjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity : they implored the protection of their fupreme lord. After some resistance, the kingdom of Theffalonica was united to the empire of Nice; and Vataces reigned without a competitor from the Turkish borders to the Adriatic gulf. The princes of Europe revered his merit and power; and had he subscribed an orthodox creed, it fhould feem that the pope would have abandoned without reluctance the Latin throne of Conftantinople. But the death of Vataces, the fhort and bufy reign of Theodore his fon, and the helpless infancy of his grandson John, suspended the restoration of the Greeks. In the next chapter I fhall explain their domeftic revolutions; in this place, it will be fufficient to obferve, that the young prince was oppreffed by the ambition of his guar LXI. Palæolo Greek emperor, A. D. 1259, dian and colleague Michael Palæologus, who dif- CHAP. played the virtues and vices that belong to the founder of a new dynasty. The emperor Bald- Michael win had flattered himself, that he might recover gus, the fome provinces or cities by an impotent negocia tion. His ambaffadors were difmiffed from Nice with mockery and contempt. At every place Dec. 1. which they named, Palæologus alleged fome fpecial reason, which rendered it dear and valuable in his eyes in the one he was born; in another he had been first promoted to military command; and in a third he had enjoyed, and hoped long to enjoy, the pleasures of the chace. "And " what then do you propofe to give us?" faid the astonished deputies. "Nothing," replied the Greek," not a foot of land. If your mafter be "defirous of peace, let him pay me as an annual "tribute, the fum which he receives from the "trade and cuftoms of Conftantinople. "these terms, I may allow him to reign. If he "refuses, it is war. I am not ignorant of the "art of war, and I trust the event to God and 66 my fword 56", An expedition against the defpot of Epirus was the first prelude of his arms. If a victory was followed by a defeat; if the race of the Comneni or Angeli furvived in those mountains his efforts and his reign; the captivity of Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, deprived the Latins of the most active and powerful vaffal of their expiring monarchy. The republics of Venice and Genoa difputed, in the first of their naval 56 George Acropolita, c. 78. p. 89, 90. edit. Paris. On wars, LXI. CHAP. wars, the command of the fea and the commerce of the Eaft. Pride and intereft attached the Venetians to the defence of Conftantinople: their rivals were tempted to promote the designs of her enemies, and the alliance of the Genoefe with the fchifmatic conqueror provoked the indignation of the Latin church ". Conftantinople recovered by the Greeks, A. D. 1261, July 25. emperor Intent on this great object, the Michael visited in perfon and strengthened the troops and fortifications of Thrace. The remains of the Latins were driven from their last poffeffions: he af faulted without fuccefs the fuburb of Galata ; and correfponded with a perfidious baron, whọ proved unwilling, or unable, to open the gates of the metropolis. The next spring, his favourite general, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had decorated with the title of Cæfar, paffed the Hellespont with eight hundred horfe and fome infantry 5, on a fecret expedition. His inftructions enjoined him to approach, to liften, to watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous enterprise against the city. The adjacent territory between the Propontis and the Black Sea, was cul 58 57 The Greeks, afhamed of any foreign aid, disguise the alliance and fuccour of the Genoefe; but the fact is proved by the teftimony of J. Villani (Chron. 1. vi. c. 71. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii. p. 202, 203.) and William de Nangis (Annales de St. Louis, p. 248. in the Louvre Joinville), two impartial foreigners; and Urban IV. threatened to deprivę Genoa of her archbishop. 58 Some precautions must be used in reconciling the discordant numbers; the 800 foldiers of Nicetas, the 25,000 of Spandugino (apud Ducange, l. v. c. 24.); the Greeks, and Scythians of Acropolita, and the numerous army of Michael, in the Epistles of Pope Urban IV. (i. 129.). tivated LXI. tivated by an hardy race of peafants and outlaws, CHAP. exercised in arms, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by language, religion, and present advantage, to the party of the Greeks. They were ftyled the volunteers ", and by their free fervice, the army of Alexius, with the regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries", was augmented to the number of five-and-twenty thoufand men. By the ardour of the volunteers, and by his own ambition, the Cæfar was ftimulated to difobey the precife orders of his mafter, in the just confidence that fuccefs would plead his pardon and reward. The weakness of Conftantinople, and the diftrefs and terror of the Latins, were familiar to the obfervation of the volunteers: and they reprefented the prefent moment as the most propitious to surprise and conqueft. A rash youth, the new governor of the Venetian colony, had failed away with thirty gallies and the best of the French knights, on a wild expedition to Daphnufia, a town on the Black Sea, at the distance of forty leagues; and the remaining Latins were without ftrength or fufpicion. They were informed that Alexius had paffed the Hellefpont; but their apprehenfions were lulled by the fmallnefs of his original numbers; and their imprudence had not watched the subsequent encrease of his army. If he left his main body to fecond 59 εnjaTapios. They are defcribed and named by Pachymer (1. ii. c. 14.). 60 It is needless to seek these Comans in the deserts of Tartary, or even of Moldavia. A part of the hord had submitted to John Vataces, and was probably settled as a nursery of soldiers on some wafte lands of Thrace (Cantacuzen, l. i. c. 2.). and LXI. CHA P. and support his operations, he might advance unperceived in the night with a chofen detachment. While fome applied fcaling ladders to the lowest part of the walls, they were fecure of an old Greek, who could introduce their companions through a fubterraneous paffage into his houfe; they could foon on the inside break an entrance through the golden gate, which had been long obftructed; and the conqueror would be in the heart of the city, before the Latins were conscious of their danger. After fome debate, the Cæfar refigned himself to the faith of the volunteers; they were trufty, bold, and fuccessful; and in describing the plan, I have already related the execution and fuccefs ". But no fooner had Alexius paffed the threshold of the golden gate, than he trembled at his own rafhnefs ; he paused, he deliberated; till the defperate volunteers urged him forwards, by the affurance that in retreat lay the greatest and most ́ ́inevitable danger. Whilst the Cæfar kept his regulars in firm array, the Comans difperfed themfelves on all fides; an alarm was founded, and the threats of fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a decifive refolution. The Greeks of Conftantinople remembered their native fovereigns; the Genoefe merchants their recent alliance and Venetian foes; every quarter was in 61 The lofs of Conftantinople is briefly told by the Latins: the conqueft is defcribed with more fatisfaction by the Greeks; by Acropolita (c. 85.), Pachymer (1. ii. c. 26, 27.), Nicephorus Gregoras (1. iv. c. 1, 2.). See Ducange, Hift. de C. P. 1, v. c. 19-27. arms; |