XLVIII. CHAP. heaven: an exchange, however, which the priest, on his own account, would probably have declined. By the hands of the fame patriarch, Isaac Comnenus was folemnly crowned: the fword which he infcribed on his coins, might be an offenfive fymbol, if it implied his title by conqueft; but this fword would have been drawn against the foreign and domestic enemies of the ftate. The decline of his health and vigour fufpended the operation of active virtue; and the profpect of approaching death determined him to interpofe fome moments between life and eternity. But instead of leaving the empire as the marriage portion of his daughter, his reafon and inclination concurred in the preference of his brother John, a foldier, a patriot, .and the father of five fons, the future pillars of an hereditary fucceffion. His first modeft reluctance might be the natural dictates of difcretion and tenderness, but his obftinate and fuccefsful perfeverance, however it may dazzle with the fhew of virtue, muft be cenfured as a criminal defertion of his duty, and a rare offence against his family and country. The purple which he had refused was accepted by Conftantine Ducas, a friend of the Comnenian house, and whofe noble birth was adorned with the experience and reputation of civil policy. In the monaftic habit, Ifaac recovered his health, and furvived two years his voluntary abdication. At the command of his abbot, he obferved the rule of St. Bafil, and executed the moft fervile offices of the convent; but his latent vanity was gratified by the frequent and refpectful vifits of the reigning monarch, who revered in his perfon the character of a benefactor and a faint. If If Conftantine the eleventh were indeed the fub- CHA P. XLVIII. tine XI. Ducas, A. D. Dec. 25 Eudocia. A. D. ject moft worthy of empire, we must pity the de- Conftanbasement of the age and nation in which he was chofen. In the labour of puerile declamations he fought, without obtaining, the crown of elo- 1059, quence, more precious, in his opinion, than that of Rome; and, in the fubordinate functions of a judge, he forgot the duties of a fovereign and a warrior. Far from imitating the patriotic indifference of the authors of his greatness, Ducas was anxious only to fecure, at the expence of the republic, the power and profperity of his children. His three fons, Michael the seventh, Andronicus the firft, and Conftantine the twelfth, were invefted, in a tender age, with the equal title of Auguftus; and the fucceffion was speedily opened by their father's death. His widow, Eudocia, was entrusted with the administration; but experience had taught the jealoufy of the dying monarch to protect his fons from the danger of her fecond nuptials; and her folemn engagement, attefted by the principal fenators, was depofited in the hands of the patriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants of Eudocia, or thofe of the ftate, called aloud for the male virtues of a foldier and her heart had already chofen Romanus Diogenes, whom the raised from the fcaffold to the throne. The discovery of a treasonable attempt had expofed him to the severity of the laws: his beauty and valour abfolved him in the eyes of the emprefs; and Romanus, from a mild exile, was recalled on the fecond day to the command of the Oriental armies. Her royal choice was yet 1067, May, XLVIII. Romanus 1067, CHAP. unknown to the public, and the promise which would have betrayed her falfehood and levity, waś ftolen by a dextrous emiffary from the ambition of the patriarch. Xiphilin at first alleged the fanctity of oaths and the facred nature of a truft: but a whisper that his brother was the future emperor, relaxed his fcruples, and forced him to confefs that the public fafety was the fupreme law. He refigned the important paper; and when his hopes were confounded by the nomination of Romanus, he could no longer regain his fecurity, retract his declarations, nor oppose the second nuptials of the emprefs. Yet a murmur was heard in the palace; and the Barbarian guards had raised their battle-axes in the cause of the houfe of Ducas, till the young princes were foothed by the tears of their mother and the folemn affurances of the fidelity of their guardian, who filled the Imperial station with dignity and honour. Hereafter I fhall relate his valiant but unfuccefsful efforts to refift the progrefs of the Turks. His defeat and captivity inflicted a deadly wound on the Byzantine monarchy of the Eaft and after he was released from the chains of the fultan, he vainly fought his wife and his fubjects. His wife had been thrust into a monaftery, and the fubjects of Romanus had embraced the rigid maxim of the civil law, that a prisoner in the hands of the enemy is deprived, as by the stroke of death, of all the public and pri vate rights of a citizen. In the general confterna. tion, the Cæfar John afferted the indefeasible right of his three nephews: Conftantinople liftened to his voice; and the Turkish captive was proclaim Michael VII. Parapinaces, Andronicus I. Conftantine XIL ed XLVIII. A. D. 1071, ed in the capital, and received on the frontier, CHAP. as an enemy of the republic. Romanus was not more fortunate in domestic than in foreign war: the lofs of two battles compelled him to yield, on Auguft. the affurance of fair and honourable treatment; but his enemies were devoid of faith or humanity; and, after the cruel extinction of his fight, his wounds were left to bleed and corrupt, till in a few days he was relieved from a state of mifery. Under the triple reign of the houfe of Ducas, the two younger brothers were reduced to the vain honours of the purple; but the eldeft, the pufillanimous Michael, was incapable of fuftaining the Roman fceptre; and his furname of Parapinaces denotes the reproach which he fhared with an avaricious favourite, who enhanced the price, and diminished the measure, of wheat. In the fchool of Pfellus, and after the example of his mother, the fon of Eudocia made. fome proficiency in philofophy and rhetoric; but his character was degraded, rather than ennobled, by the virtues of a monk and the learning of a fophift. Strong in the contempt of their fovereign and their own efteem, two generals at the head of the European and Afiatic legions affumed the purple at Adrianople and Nice. Their revolt was in the fame month; they bore the fame name of Nicephorus; but the two candidates were dif tinguished by the furnames of Bryennius and Botaniates; the former in the maturity of wisdom, and courage, the latter confpicuous only by the memory of his past exploits. While Botaniates advanced with cautious and dilatory steps, his active competitor stood in arms before the gates of Constantinople. 5 XLVIII. CHAP. ftantinople. The name of Bryennius was illuftri ous; his caufe was popular; but his licentious troops could not be reftrained from burning and pillaging a fuburb; and the people, who would have hailed the rebel, rejected and repulfed the incendiary of his country. This change of the public opinion was favourable to Botaniates, who at length, with an army of Turks, approached the fhores of Chalcedon. A formal invitation, in the name of the patriarch, the fynod, and the fenate was circulated through the streets of Conftantinople; and the general affembly, in the dome of St. Sophia, debated, with order and calmness, on the choice of their fovereign. The guards of Michael would have dispersed this unarmed multitude; but the feeble emperor, applauding his own moderation and clemency, re figned the enfigns of royalty, and was rewarded with the monaftic habit, and the title of archbishop of Ephefus. He left a fon, a Conftantine, born and educated in the purple; and a daughter of the house of Ducas illuftrated the blood, and confirmed the fucceffion of the Comnenian dynasty. John Comnenus, the brother of the emperor Ifaac, furvived in peace and dignity his generous refufal of the fceptre. By his wife Anne, a woman of mafculine spirit and policy, he left eight children: the three daughters multiplied the Comnenian alliances with the nobleft of the Greeks: of the five fons, Manuel was stopped by a premature death; Ifaac and Alexius reftored the Imperial greatness of their house, which was enjoyed with out toil or danger by the two younger brethren, |