LXII.

CHAP. cond founders of the empire". The flaves of the Latins, without law or peace, applauded the hap-piness of their brethren who had refumed their national freedom; and Vataces employed the laudable policy of convincing the Greeks of every dominion that it was their intereft to be enrolled in the number of his fubjects.

Theodore Lafcaris

II.

A. D. 1255, October 3༠-— A. D. 1259, Auguft.

A strong shade of degeneracy is visible between John Vataces and his fon Theodore; between the founder who fuftained the weight, and the heir who enjoyed the fplendour, of the Imperial crown. Yet the character of Theodore was not devoid of energy; he had been educated in the school of his father, in the exercife of war and hunting Conftantinople was yet spared; but in the three years of a fhort reign, he thrice led his armies into the heart of Bulgaria. His virtues were fullied by a choleric and fufpicious temper: the first of these may be afcribed to the ignorance of controul; and the second might naturally arise from a dark and imperfect view of the corruption of mankind. On a march in Bulgaria, he confulted on a question of policy his principal minifters; and the Greek logothete, George Acropolita, prefumed to offend him by the declaration of a free and honeft opinion. The emperor half

5 Compare Acropolita (c. 18. 52.), and the two firft books of Nicephorus Gregoras.

6 A Perfian faying, that Cyrus was the father, and Darius the mafter, of his fubjects, was applied to Vataces and his fon. But Pachymer (1. i. c. 23.) has mistaken the mild Darius for the cruel Cambyfes, defpot or tyrant of his people. By the institution of taxes, Darius had incurred the lefs odious, but more contemptible, name of Kannλes, merchant or broker (Herodotus, iii. 89.).

unfheathed

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unfheathed his fcymetar; but his more deliberate CHA P. rage reserved Acropolita for a bafer punishment. One of the first officers of the empire was ordered to difmount, stripped of his robes, and extended on the ground in the prefence of the prince and army. In this pofture he was chaftifed with fo many and fuch heavy blows from the clubs of two guards or executioners, that when Theodore commanded them to ceafe, the great logothete was scarcely able to arife and crawl away to his tent. After a feclufion of fome days, he was recalled by a peremptory mandate to his feat in council; and fo dead were the Greeks to the fenfe of honour and fhame, that it is from the narrative of the fufferer himself that we acquire the knowledge of his difgrace'. The cruelty of the emperor was exasperated by the pangs of fickness, the approach of a premature end, and the fufpicion of poifon and magic. The lives and fortunes, eyes and limbs, of his kinfmen and nobles, were facrificed to each fally of paffion; and before he died, the fon of Vataces might deferve from the people, or at leaft from the court, the appellation of tyrant. A matron of the family of the Palæologi had provoked his anger by. refufing to bestow her beauteous daughter on the vile plebeian who was recommended by his caprice. Without regard to her birth or age, her

the

1

7 Acropolita (c. 63.) feems to admire his own firmness in fuftaining a beating, and not returning to council till he was called. He relates the exploits of Theodore, and his own services, from C. 53. to c. 74. of his hiftory. See the third book of Nicephorus Gregoras.

body,

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of John Lafcaris,

A. D.

1259,

Auguft.

CHAP. body, as high as the neck, was inclofed in a fack, with feveral cats, who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury against their unfortunate fellowcaptive. In his last hours, the emperor teftified a wish to forgive and be forgiven, a juft anxiety for the fate of John his fon and fucceffor, who, at the age of eight years, was condemned to the Minority dangers of a long minority. His laft choice entrufted the office of guardian to the fanctity of the patriarch Arfenius, and to the courage of George Muzalon, the great domeftic, who was equally diftinguifhed by the royal favour and the public hatred. Since their connection with the Latins, the names and privileges of hereditary rank had infinuated themselves into the Greek monarchy; and the noble families were provoked by the elevation of a worthless favourite, to whose influence they imputed the errors and calamities of the late reign. In the first council, after the emperor's death, Muzalon, from a lofty throne, pronounced a laboured apology of his conduct and intentions: his modefty was fubdued by an unanimous affurance of efteem and fidelity; and his moft inveterate enemies were the loudest to falute him as the guardian and faviour of the Romans. Eight days were suffi. cient to prepare the execution of the confpiracy. On the ninth, the obfequies of the deceased monarch were folemnized in the cathedral of Mag

8

8 Pachymer (1. i. c. 21.) names and difcriminates fifteen or twenty Greek families, και όσοι άλλοι, δις ή μεγαλογίνης σειρα και χρυση συγκεκροτητο Does he mean, by this decoration, a figurative, or a real golden chain? Perhaps, both.

LXII.

nefia', an Afiatic city, where he expired, on the CHAP. banks of the Hermus and at the foot of mount Sipylus. The holy rites were interrupted by a fedition of the guards: Muzalon, his brothers, and his adherents, were maffacred at the foot of the altar; and the abfent patriarch was affociated with a new colleague, with Michael Palæologus, the most illuftrious, in birth and merit, of the Greek nobles 10.

Family racter of

and cha

Palæolo

Of those who are proud of their ancestors, the far greater part must be content with local or domestic renown; and few there are who dare Michael truft the memorials of their family to the public gus. annals of their country. As early as the middle of the eleventh century, the noble race of the Palæologi" ftands high and confpicuous in the Byzantine history: it was the valiant George Palæologus who placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and his kinsmen or defcendants continue, in each generation, to lead the armies and councils of the ftate. The purple was not dishonoured by their alliance; and had the

The old geographers, with Cellarius and d'Anville, and our travellers, particularly Pocock and Chandler, will teach us to diftinguish the two Magnefias of Afia Minor, of the Meander and of Sipylus. The latter, our present object, is till flourishing for a Turkish city, and lies eight hours, or leagues, to the north-east of Smyrna (Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, tom, iji‹ lettre xxii. p. 365-370, Chandler's Travels into Afia Minor, p. 267.).

10 See Acropolita (c. 75, 76, &c.), who lived too near the times; Pachymer (1.i. c. 13-25.), Gregoras (1. iii. c. 3, 4, 5.).

11 The pedigree of Palæologus is explained by Ducange (Famil. Byzant. p. 230, &c.): the events of his private life are related by Pachymer (1.i. c. 7-12.) and Gregoras (1. ii. 8. 1. iii. 2. 4. l. iv. 1.), with visible favour to the father of the reigning dynasty.

law

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CHA P. law of fucceffion, and female fucceffion, been strictly observed, the wife of Theodore Lafcaris must have yielded to her elder fifter, the mother of Michael Palæologus, who afterwards raised his family to the throne. In his perfon, the fplendour of birth was dignified by the merits of the foldier and statesman in his early youth he was promoted to the office of conftable or commander of the French mercenaries; the private expence of a day never exceeded three pieces of gold; but his ambition was rapacious and profufe; and his gifts were doubled by the graces of his converfation and manners. The love of the foldiers and people excited the jealousy of the court; and Michael thrice escaped from the dangers in which he was involved by his own imprudence or that of his friends. I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a dispute arose between two officers, one of whom accufed the other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palæologi. The caufe was decided, according to the new jurisprudence of the Latins, by single combat the defendant was overthrown; but he perfifted in declaring that himself alone was guilty and that he had uttered these rash or treasonable speeches without the approbation or knowledge of his patron. Yet a cloud of fufpicion hung over the innocence of the conftable he was ftill purfued by the whispers of malevolence; and a fubtle courtier, the arch

12 Acropolita (c. 50.) relates the circumstances of this curious adventure, which seem to have escaped the more recent writers.

12

bishop