LXII.

labours of the Italian looms. "The demands of nature C H A P. " and neceffity," was he accustomed to fay," are indif"pensable; but the influence of fashion may rise and "fink at the breath of a monarch;" and both his precept and example recommended fimplicity of manners and the use of domestic induftry. The education of youth and the revival of learning were the most serious objects of his care; and, without deciding the precedency, he pronounced with truth, that a prince and a philofopher (4) are the two most eminent characters of human fociety. His first wife was Irene, the daughter of Theodore Lafcaris, a woman more illustrious by her perfonal merit, the milder virtues of her sex, than by the blood of the Angeli Comneni, that flowed in her veins, and tranfmitted the inheritance of the empire. After her death he was contracted to Anne or Conftance, a natural daughter of the emperor Frederic the fecond; but as the bride had not attained the years of puberty, Vataces placed in his folitary bed an Italian damfel of her train; and his amorous weaknefs bestowed on the concubine the honours, though not the title, of lawful emprefs. His frailty was cenfured as a flagitious and damnable fin by the monks; and their rude invectives exercised and displayed the patience of the royal lover. A philofophic age may excuse a single vice, which was redeemed by a crowd of virtues; and in the review of his faults, and the more intemperate paffions of Lafcaris, the judgment of their contemporaries was foftened by gratitude to the fecond founders of the empire (5). The flaves of the Latins, without law or peace, applauded the happiness 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.

A strong fhade of degeneracy is vifible between John Theodore Vataces and his fon Theodore; between the founder who Lafcaris II. sustained the weight and the heir who enjoyed the fplen- A.D. 1255. dour, of the Imperial crown (6). Yet the character of A.D. 1259.

O&.30

Theodore Auguft.

(4) Μονοι γαρ άπαντων ανθρωπων ονομαζοτατοι βασιλευς και φιλοσοφος (Greg. Acropol. c. 32.). The emperor, in a familiar conversation, examined and encouraged the ftudies of his future logothete.

(5) Compare Acropolita (c. 18. 52.), and the two first 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

LXII.

:

CHA P. Theodore was not devoid of energy; he had been educated in the fchool of his father, in the exercise of war and hunting Conftantinople was yet fpared; but in the three years of a short 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 ascribed to the ignorance of controul; and the fecond might naturally arife 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-unfheathed his fcymetar; but his more deliberate rage referved Acropolita for a bafer punishment. One of the first officers of the empire was ordered to dismount, ftripped of his robes, and extended on the ground in the prefence of the prince and army. In this posture he was chastised with so many and such heavy blows from the clubs of two guards or executioners, that when Theodore commanded them to ceafe, the great logothete was fcarcely able to arise 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 sense of honour and fhame, that it is from the narrative of the fufferer himself that we acquire the knowledge of his difgrace (7). The cruelty of the emperor was exafperated by the pangs of fickness, the approach of a premature end, and the fufpicion of poifon and magic. The lives and fortunes, the eyes and limbs, of his kinsmen and nobles, were facrificed to each fally of paffion; and before he died, the fon of Vataces might deferve from the people, or at least from the court, the appellation of tyrant. A matron of the family of the Palæologi had provoked his anger by refusing to bestow her beauteous daughter on the vile plebeian who was recommended by his caprice. Without regard to her birth or age, her body, as

high

23.) has mistaken the mild Darius for the cruel Cambyfes, defpot or tyrant of his people. By the inftitution of taxes, Darius had incurred the lefs odious, but more contemptible, name of Kanλos, merchant or broker (Herodotus, iii. 89.).

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

СНАР.

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caris,

high as the neck, was inclosed in a fack with several cats, who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury against their unfortunate fellow-captive. In his laft hours, the emperor teftified a wish to forgive and be forgiven, a just anxiety for the fate of John his fon and fucceffor, who, at the age of eight years, was condemned to the dangers of a long minority. His laft choice 'entrufted the office of guardian to the fanctity of the patriarch Arfenius, and to Minority of the courage of George Muzalon, the great domeftic, who John Laf was equally diftinguished by the royal favour and the public A. D. 1259. hatred. Since their connection with the Latins, the names August. and privileges of hereditary rank had infinuated themselves into the Greek monarchy; and the noble families (8) were provoked by the elevation of a worthlefs favourite, to whose influence they imputed the errors and calamities of the late reign. In the firft 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 most inveterate enemies were the loudest to falute him as the guardian and faviour of the Romans. Eight days were fufficient to prepare the execution of the confpiracy. On the ninth, the obfequies of the deceased monarch were folemnized in the cathedral of Magnesia (9), an Afiatic city, where he expired, on the 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 Palæolagus, the moft illuftrious, in birth and merit, of the Greek nobles (10).

VOL. VI.

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

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

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

С НА Р. Of those who are proud of their ancestors, the far LXII. greater part must be content with local or domeftic reFamily and nown; and few there are who dare truft the memorials of character of their family to the public annals of their country. As Michael early as the middle of the eleventh century, the noble race Palæologus. of the Palæologi (11) ftands high and confpicuous in the Byzantine hiftory: it was the valiant George Palæologus who placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and his kinfmen or defcendants continue, in each generation, to lead the armies and councils of the state. The purple was not difhonoured by their alliance; and had the law of fucceffion, and female fucceffion, been strictly obferved, 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 person, the fplendour of birth was dignified by the merit of the foldier and ftate finan: in his early youth he was promoted to the office of conflable 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 jealoufy 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 Juftice and Vataces, a difpute arofe (12) between two officers, one of whom accufed the other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palæologi. The cause was decided, according to the new jurifprudence of the Latins, by fingle combat: the defendant was overthrown; but he perfifted in declaring that himself alone was guilty; and that he had uttered these rash or treafonable 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 subtle courtier, the archbishop of Philadelphia, urged him to accept the judgment of God in the

fiery

(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. I. iii. 2. 4.1. iv. 1.), with visible favour to the father of the reigning dynasty.

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

LXII.

fiery proof of the ordeal (13). Three days before the CHA P. trial, the patient's arm was enclosed in a bag, and fecured by the royal fignet; and it was incumbent on him to bear a red-hot ball of iron three times from the altar to the rails of the fanctuary, without artifice and without injury. Palæologus eluded the dangerous experiment with fenfe and pleafantry. "I am a foldier," faid he, "and will "boldly enter the lifts with my accufers: but a layman,

a finner like myself, is not endowed with the gift of "miracles. Your piety, moft holy prelate, may deferve "the interpofition of heaven, and from your hands I will "receive the fiery globe, the pledge of my innocence." The archbishop ftarted; the emperor fmiled; and the abfolution or pardon of Michael was approved by new rewards and new fervices. II. In the fucceeding reign, as he held the government of Nice, he was fecretly informed, that the mind of the abfent prince was poifoned with jealoufy; and that death, or blindness would be his final reward. Inftead of awaiting the return and fentence of Theodore, the conftable, with fome followers, escaped from the city and the empire; and though he was plundered by the Turkmans of the defert, he found an hofpitable refuge in the court of the fultan. In the ambiguous ftate of an exile, Michael reconciled the duties of gratitude and loyalty: drawing his fword against the Tartars; admonishing the garrifons of the Roman limit; and promoting by his influence, the restoration of peace, in which his pardon and recall were honourably included. III. While he guarded the Weft against the defpot of Epirus, Michael was again fufpected and condemned in the palace; and fuch was his loyalty or weakness, that he submitted to be led in chains above fix hundred miles from Durazzo to Nice. The civility of the meffenger alleviated his difgrace; the emperor's ficknefs difpelled his danger; and the last breath of Theodore, which recommended his infant fon, at once acknowledged the innocence and the power of Palæologus.

P 2

But

(13) Pachymer (1. i. c. 12.), who fpeaks with proper contempt of this barbarous trial, affirms, that he had feen in his youth many perfons who had fuftained, without injury, the fiery ordeal. As a Greek, he is credulous: but the ingenuity of the Greeks might furnish some remedies of art or fraud against their own fuperftition, or that of their tyrant.