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CHAP. feaft, the Greeks and Italians vied with each other in the martial exercifes of tilts and tournaments.

LXIII.

Reign of John Palæologus, A. D.

The empress Anne of Savoy furvived her hufband: their fon, John Palæologus, was left an orphan and an emperor, in the ninth year of his June 15- age; and his weakness was protected by the first

1341,

A. D.

1391.

Fortune of John Cantacuzenus.

and most deserving of the Greeks. The long and cordial friendship of his father for John Cantacuzene is alike honourable to the prince and the fubject. It had been formed amidst the pleasures of their youth their families were almost equally noble"; and the recent luftre of the purple was amply compenfated by the energy of a private education. We have seen that the young emperor was faved by Cantacuzene from the power of his grandfather; and, after fix years of civil war, the fame favourite brought him back in triumph to the palace of Conftantinople. Under the reign of Andronicus the younger, the great domeftic ruled the emperor and the empire; and it was by his valour and conduct that the ifle of Lesbos and the principality of Ætolia were reftored to their ancient allegiance. His enemies confefs, that, among the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate and abftemious; and the free and voluntary account which he produces of his own wealth 2 may fuftain the prefumption that it was devolved by inheritance, and not accumulated by

22

21 The noble race of the Cantacuzeni (illustrious from the xith century in the Byzantine annals) was drawn from the Paladins of France, the heroes of those romances which in the xiiith century were tranflated and read by the Greeks (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 258.).

22 See Cantacuzene (1. iii. c. 24. 30. 36.).

rapine.

LXIII.

rapine. He does not indeed specify the value of CHAP. his money, plate, and jewels; yet, after à voluntary gift of two hundred vases of filver, after much had been fecreted by his friends and plundered by his foes, his forfeit treasures were fufficient for the equipment of a fleet of feventy gallies. He does not measure the fize and number of his estates; but his granaries were heaped with an incredible store of wheat and barley; and the labour of a thousand yoke of oxen might cultivate, according to the practice of antiquity, about fixty-two thousand five hundred acres of arable land 23. His paftures were ftocked with two thousand five hundred brood mares, two hundred camels, three hundred mules, five hundred affes, five thousand horned cattle, fifty thou fand hogs, and seventy thousand sheep 24: a precious record of rural opulence, in the laft period of the empire, and in a land, most probably in Thrace, fo repeatedly wafted by foreign and domestic hoftility. The favour of Cantacuzene was above his fortune. In the moments of familiarity, in the hour of fickness, the emperor was defirous

23 Saferna, in Gaul, and Columella, in Italy or Spain, allow two yoke of oxen, two drivers, and fix labourers, for two hundred jugera (125 English acres) of arable land, and three more men must be added if there be much underwood (Columella de Re Rufticâ, 1. ii. c. 13. p. 441. edit. Gefner),

2.

24 In this enumeration (1. iii. c. 30.), the French translation of the prefident Coufin is blotted with three palpable and effential errors. 1. He omits the 1000 yoke of working oxen. He interprets the πεντακοσίας προς δισχιλίας, by the number of fifteen hundred. 3. He confounds myriads with chiliads, and gives Cantacuzene no more than 5000 hogs. Put not your truft in tranflations!

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LXIII.

regent of the em

CHAP. to level the distance between them, and preffed his friend to accept the diadem and purple. The He is left virtue of the great domestic, which is attested by his own pen, refifted the dangerous propofal; but the laft teftament of Andronicus the younger named him the guardian of his son, and the regent of the empire.

pire.

His regenis at-

cy tacked, A. D.

341

by Apocaucus;

Had the regent found a fuitable return of obedience and gratitude, perhaps he would have acted with pure and zealous fidelity in the fervice of his pupil 5. A guard of five hundred foldiers watched over his perfon and the palace; the funeral of the late emperor was decently performed; the capital was filent and fubmiffive; and five hundred letters, which Cantacuzene dispatched in the first month, informed the provinces of their lofs and their duty. The profpect of a tranquil minority was blasted by the great duke or admiral Apocaucus; and to exaggerate his perfidy, the Imperial historian is pleased to magnify his own imprudence, in raifing him to that office against the advice of his more fagacious fovereign. Bold and fubtle, rapacious and profufe, the avarice and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns fubfervient to each other; and his talents were applied to the ruin of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the command of a naval force and an impregnable caftle, and under the mask of oaths and flattery he fecretly confpired against his

25 See the regency and reign of John Cantacuzenus, and the whole progrefs of the civil war, in his own hiftory (1. iii. c. 1100. p. 348-700.), and in that of Nicephorus Gregoras (1. xii, c. 1-1. xv. c. 9. P. 353—492.).

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LXIII.

emprefs

patriarch.

benefactor. The female court of the emprefs was CHAP. bribed and directed: he encouraged Anne of Savoy to affert, by the law of nature, the tute- by the lage of her fon; the love of power was difguifed prof by the anxiety of maternal tenderness; and the Savoy; founder of the Palæologi had inftructed his pofterity to dread the example of a perfidious guardian. The patriarch John of Apri, was a by the proud and feeble old man, encompassed by a numerous and hungry kindred. He produced an obfolete epistle of Andronicus, which bequeathed the prince and people to his pious care: the fate of his predeceffor Arfenius prompted him to prevent, rather than punish, the crimes of an ufurper; and Apocaucus fmiled at the fuccefs of his own flattery, when he beheld the Byzantine priest affuming the state and temporal claims of the Roman pontiff. Between three perfons fo different in their fituation and character, a private league was concluded: a fhadow of authority was reftored to the fenate; and the people was tempted by the name of freedom. By this powerful confederacy, the great domeftic was affaulted at firft with clandeftine, at length with open, arms. His prerogatives were disputed; his opinions flighted; his friends perfecuted; and his fafety was threatened both in the camp and city. In his abfence on the public fervice, he was ac

26 He affumed the royal privilege of red fhoes or bufkins; placed on his head a mitre of filk and gold; subscribed his epiftles with hyacinth or green ink, and claimed for the new, whatever Conftantine had given to the ancient, Rome (Cantacuzen. 1. iii, . 36. Nic. Gregoras, 1. xiv. c. 3.).

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LXIII.

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CHA P. cufed of treafon; profcribed as an enemy of the church and flate; and delivered, with all his adherents, to the fword of justice, the vengeance of the people, and the power of the devil: his fortunes were confifcated; his aged mother was caft into prifon; all his paft fervices were buried in oblivion; and he was driven by injuftice to perpetrate the crime of which he was accused "7. From the review of his preceding conduct, Cantacuzene appears to have been guiltlefs of any treasonable designs; and the only fufpicion of his innocence muft arife from the vehemence of his proteftations, and the fublime purity which he afcribes to his own virtue. While the empress and the patriarch ftill affected the appearances of harmony, he repeatedly folicited the permiffion of retiring to a private, and even a monaftic, life. After he had been declared a public enemy, it was his fervent wifh to throw himself at the feet of the young emperor, and to receive without a murmur the ftroke of the executioner: it was not without reluctance that he liftened to the voice of reafon, which inculcated the facred duty of faving his family and friends, and proved that he could only fave them by drawing the fword and affuming the Imperial title.

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In the strong city of Demotica, his peculiar fumes the domain, the emperor John Cantacuzenus was purple,

27 Nic. Gregoras (1. xii. c. 5.) confeffes the innocence and virtues of Cantacuzenus, the guilt and flagitious vices of Apocaucus; nor does he diffemble the motive of his personal and religious enmity to the former; ταν δε δια καμίαν άλλων, αιτιος ὁ πραοτατος της των όλων έδοξεν είναι φθορας.

invested

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