that, even in this world, the natural order of events will sometimes
afford the strong appearances of moral retribution. The first PalÊologus
had saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
and blood; and from these scenes of discord uprose a generation of iron
men, who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son. In modern times
our debts and taxes are the secret poison which still corrodes the bosom
of peace: but in the weak and disorderly government of the middle ages,
it was agitated by the present evil of the disbanded armies. Too idle
to work, too proud to beg, the mercenaries were accustomed to a life of
rapine: they could rob with more dignity and effect under a banner and
a chief; and the sovereign, to whom their service was useless, and
their presence importunate, endeavored to discharge the torrent on some
neighboring countries. After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of
Genoese, _Catalans_, [47] &c., who had fought, by sea and land, under
the standard of Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by the
resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard that the Greek
provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks: they resolved to share the
harvest of pay and plunder: and Frederic king of Sicily most liberally
contributed the means of their departure. In a warfare of twenty years,
a ship, or a camp, was become their country; arms were their sole
profession and property; valor was the only virtue which they knew;
their women had imbibed the fearless temper of their lovers and
husbands: it was reported, that, with a stroke of their broadsword, the
Catalans could cleave a horseman and a horse; and the report itself
was a powerful weapon. Roger de Flor [477] was the most popular of their
chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his prouder
rivals of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a German
gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second and a damsel of Brindisi,
Roger was successively a templar, an apostate, a pirate, and at length
the richest and most powerful admiral of the Mediterranean. He sailed
from Messina to Constantinople, with eighteen galleys, four great
ships, and eight thousand adventurers; [478] and his previous treaty was
faithfully accomplished by Andronicus the elder, who accepted with
joy and terror this formidable succor. A palace was allotted for his
reception, and a niece of the emperor was given in marriage to the
valiant stranger, who was immediately created great duke or admiral
of Romania. After a decent repose, he transported his troops over the
Propontis, and boldly led them against the Turks: in two bloody battles
thirty thousand of the Moslems were slain: he raised the siege of
Philadelphia, and deserved the name of the deliverer of Asia. But after
a short season of prosperity, the cloud of slavery and ruin again
burst on that unhappy province. The inhabitants escaped (says a Greek
historian) from the smoke into the flames; and the hostility of the
Turks was less pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans. [479] The
lives and fortunes which they had rescued they considered as their own:
the willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of circumcision
for the embraces of a Christian soldier: the exaction of fines and
supplies was enforced by licentious rapine and arbitrary executions;
and, on the resistance of Magnesia, the great duke besieged a city
of the Roman empire. [48] These disorders he excused by the wrongs and
passions of a victorious army; nor would his own authority or person
have been safe, had he dared to punish his faithful followers, who
were defrauded of the just and covenanted price of their services. The
threats and complaints of Andronicus disclosed the nakedness of the
empire. His golden bull had invited no more than five hundred horse and
a thousand foot soldiers; yet the crowds of volunteers, who migrated to
the East, had been enlisted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While his
bravest allies were content with three byzants or pieces of gold, for
their monthly pay, an ounce, or even two ounces, of gold were assigned
to the Catalans, whose annual pension would thus amount to near a
hundred pounds sterling: one of their chiefs had modestly rated at three
hundred thousand crowns the value of his _future_ merits; and above a
million had been issued from the treasury for the maintenance of these
costly mercenaries. A cruel tax had been imposed on the corn of the
husbandman: one third was retrenched from the salaries of the public
officers; and the standard of the coin was so shamefully debased, that
of the four-and-twenty parts only five were of pure gold. [49] At the
summons of the emperor, Roger evacuated a province which no longer
supplied the materials of rapine; [496] but he refused to disperse his
troops; and while his style was respectful, his conduct was independent
and hostile. He protested, that if the emperor should march against
him, he would advance forty paces to kiss the ground before him; but in
rising from this prostrate attitude Roger had a life and sword at the
service of his friends. The great duke of Romania condescended to accept
the title and ornaments of CÊsar; but he rejected the new proposal of
the government of Asia with a subsidy of corn and money, [497] on condition
that he should reduce his troops to the harmless number of three
thousand men. Assassination is the last resource of cowards. The
CÊsar was tempted to visit the royal residence of Adrianople; in the
apartment, and before the eyes, of the empress he was stabbed by the
Alani guards; and though the deed was imputed to their private revenge,
[498] his countrymen, who dwelt at Constantinople in the security of peace,
were involved in the same proscription by the prince or people. The loss
of their leader intimidated the crowd of adventurers, who hoisted
the sails of flight, and were soon scattered round the coasts of the
Mediterranean. But a veteran band of fifteen hundred Catalans,
or French, stood firm in the strong fortress of Gallipoli on the
Hellespont, displayed the banners of Arragon, and offered to revenge and
justify their chief, by an equal combat of ten or a hundred warriors.
Instead of accepting this bold defiance, the emperor Michael, the son
and colleague of Andronicus, resolved to oppress them with the weight
of multitudes: every nerve was strained to form an army of thirteen
thousand horse and thirty thousand foot; and the Propontis was covered
with the ships of the Greeks and Genoese. In two battles by sea and
land, these mighty forces were encountered and overthrown by the despair
and discipline of the Catalans: the young emperor fled to the palace;
and an insufficient guard of light-horse was left for the protection
of the open country. Victory renewed the hopes and numbers of the
adventures: every nation was blended under the name and standard of the
_great company_; and three thousand Turkish proselytes deserted from the
Imperial service to join this military association. In the possession of
Gallipoli, [499] the Catalans intercepted the trade of Constantinople and
the Black Sea, while they spread their devastation on either side of
the Hellespont over the confines of Europe and Asia. To prevent their
approach, the greatest part of the Byzantine territory was laid waste
by the Greeks themselves: the peasants and their cattle retired into the
city; and myriads of sheep and oxen, for which neither place nor food
could be procured, were unprofitably slaughtered on the same day. Four
times the emperor Andronicus sued for peace, and four times he was
inflexibly repulsed, till the want of provisions, and the discord of the
chiefs, compelled the Catalans to evacuate the banks of the Hellespont
and the neighborhood of the capital. After their separation from the
Turks, the remains of the great company pursued their march through
Macedonia and Thessaly, to seek a new establishment in the heart of
Greece. [50]
[Footnote 47: In this motley multitude, the Catalans and Spaniards,
the bravest of the soldiery, were styled by themselves and the Greeks
_Amogavares_. Moncada derives their origin from the Goths, and Pachymer
(l. xi. c. 22) from the Arabs; and in spite of national and religious
pride, I am afraid the latter is in the right.]
[Footnote 477: On Roger de Flor and his companions, see an historical
fragment, detailed and interesting, entitled "The Spaniards of the
Fourteenth Century," and inserted in "L'Espagne en 1808," a work
translated from the German, vol. ii. p. 167. This narrative enables us
to detect some slight errors which have crept into that of Gibbon.--G.]
[Footnote 478: The troops of Roger de Flor, according to his companions
Ramon de Montaner, were 1500 men at arms, 4000 Almogavares, and 1040
other foot, besides the sailors and mariners, vol. ii. p. 137.--M.]
[Footnote 479: Ramon de Montaner suppresses the cruelties and oppressions
of the Catalans, in which, perhaps, he shared.--M.]
[Footnote 48: Some idea may be formed of the population of these cities,
from the 36,000 inhabitants of Tralles, which, in the preceding reign,
was rebuilt by the emperor, and ruined by the Turks. (Pachymer, l. vi.
c. 20, 21.)]
[Footnote 49: I have collected these pecuniary circumstances from
Pachymer, (l. xi. c. 21, l. xii. c. 4, 5, 8, 14, 19,) who describes the
progressive degradation of the gold coin. Even in the prosperous times
of John Ducas Vataces, the byzants were composed in equal proportions
of the pure and the baser metal. The poverty of Michael PalÊologus
compelled him to strike a new coin, with nine parts, or carats, of gold,
and fifteen of copper alloy. After his death, the standard rose to ten
carats, till in the public distress it was reduced to the moiety. The
prince was relieved for a moment, while credit and commerce were forever
blasted. In France, the gold coin is of twenty-two carats, (one twelfth
alloy,) and the standard of England and Holland is still higher.]
[Footnote 496]: Roger de Flor, according to Ramon de Montaner, was recalled
from Natolia, on account of the war which had arisen on the death of
Asan, king of Bulgaria. Andronicus claimed the kingdom for his nephew,
the sons of Asan by his sister. Roger de Flor turned the tide of success
in favor of the emperor of Constantinople and made peace.--M.]
[Footnote 497: Andronicus paid the Catalans in the debased money, much to
their indignation.--M.]
[Footnote 498: According to Ramon de Montaner, he was murdered by order of
Kyr (kurioV) Michael, son of the emperor. p. 170.--M.]
[Footnote 499: Ramon de Montaner describes his sojourn at Gallipoli: Nous
etions si riches, que nous ne semions, ni ne labourions, ni ne faisions
enver des vins ni ne cultivions les vignes: et cependant tous les ans
nous recucillions tour ce qu'il nous fallait, en vin, froment et avoine.
p. 193. This lasted for five merry years. Ramon de Montaner is high
authority, for he was "chancelier et maitre rational de l'armÈe,"
(commissary of _rations_.) He was left governor; all the scribes of the
army remained with him, and with their aid he kept the books in
which were registered the number of horse and foot employed on each
expedition. According to this book the plunder was shared, of which he
had a fifth for his trouble. p. 197.--M.]
[Footnote 50: The Catalan war is most copiously related by Pachymer, in
the xith, xiith, and xiiith books, till he breaks off in the year
1308. Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 3--6) is more concise and complete.
Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as French, has hunted their
footsteps with his usual diligence, (Hist. de C. P. l. vi. c. 22--46.)
He quotes an Arragonese history, which I have read with pleasure,
and which the Spaniards extol as a model of style and composition,
(Expedicion de los Catalanes y Arragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos:
Barcelona, 1623 in quarto: Madrid, 1777, in octavo.) Don Francisco de
Moncada Conde de Ossona, may imitate CÊsar or Sallust; he may
transcribe the Greek or Italian contemporaries: but he never quotes his
authorities, and I cannot discern any national records of the exploits
of his countrymen. * Note: Ramon de Montaner, one of the Catalans, who
accompanied Roger de Flor, and who was governor of Gallipoli, has
written, in Spanish, the history of this band of adventurers, to which
he belonged, and from which he separated when it left the Thracian
Chersonese to penetrate into Macedonia and Greece.--G.----The
autobiography of Ramon de Montaner has been published in French by M.
Buchon, in the great collection of MÈmoires relatifs ‡ l'Histoire de
France. I quote this edition.--M.]
After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new misfortunes by
the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred and fifty years between the
first and the last conquest of Constantinople, that venerable land
was disputed by a multitude of petty tyrants; without the comforts of
freedom and genius, her ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and
intestine war; and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might
repose with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not pursue the obscure
and various dynasties, that rose and fell on the continent or in the
isles; but our silence on the fate of Athens [51] would argue a strange
ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal science and
amusement. In the partition of the empire, the principality of Athens
and Thebes was assigned to Otho de la Roche, a noble warrior of
Burgundy, [52] with the title of great duke, [53] which the Latins
understood in their own sense, and the Greeks more foolishly derived
from the age of Constantine. [54] Otho followed the standard of the
marquis of Montferrat: the ample state which he acquired by a miracle
of conduct or fortune, [55] was peaceably inherited by his son and two
grandsons, till the family, though not the nation, was changed, by the
marriage of an heiress into the elder branch of the house of Brienne.
The son of that marriage, Walter de Brienne, succeeded to the duchy of
Athens; and, with the aid of some Catalan mercenaries, whom he invested
with fiefs, reduced above thirty castles of the vassal or neighboring
lords. But when he was informed of the approach and ambition of the
great company, he collected a force of seven hundred knights, six
thousand four hundred horse, and eight thousand foot, and boldly met
them on the banks of the River Cephisus in Botia. The Catalans amounted
to no more than three thousand five hundred horse, and four thousand
foot; but the deficiency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and
order. They formed round their camp an artificial inundation; the duke
and his knights advanced without fear or precaution on the verdant
meadow; their horses plunged into the bog; and he was cut in pieces,
with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His family and nation were
expelled; and his son Walter de Brienne, the titular duke of Athens, the
tyrant of Florence, and the constable of France, lost his life in the
field of Poitiers Attica and Botia were the rewards of the victorious
Catalans; they married the widows and daughters of the slain; and during
fourteen years, the great company was the terror of the Grecian states.
Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignty of the house of
Arragon; and during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens, as
a government or an appanage, was successively bestowed by the kings of
Sicily. After the French and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of
the Accaioli, a family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, and
sovereign in Greece. Athens, which they embellished with new buildings,
became the capital of a state, that extended over Thebes, Argos,
Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly; and their reign was finally
determined by Mahomet the Second, who strangled the last duke, and
educated his sons in the discipline and religion of the seraglio.
[Footnote 51: See the laborious history of Ducange, whose accurate table
of the French dynasties recapitulates the thirty-five passages, in which
he mentions the dukes of Athens.]
[Footnote 52: He is twice mentioned by Villehardouin with honor, (No.
151, 235;) and under the first passage, Ducange observes all that can be
known of his person and family.]
[Footnote 53: From these Latin princes of the xivth century, Boccace,
Chaucer. and Shakspeare, have borrowed their Theseus _duke_ of Athens.
An ignorant age transfers its own language and manners to the most
distant times.]
[Footnote 54: The same Constantine gave to Sicily a king, to Russia the
_magnus dapifer_ of the empire, to Thebes the _primicerius_; and these
absurd fables are properly lashed by Ducange, (ad Nicephor. Greg. l.
vii. c. 5.) By the Latins, the lord of Thebes was styled, by corruption,
the Megas Kurios, or Grand Sire!]
[Footnote 55: _Quodam miraculo_, says Alberic. He was probably received
by Michael Choniates, the archbishop who had defended Athens against the
tyrant Leo Sgurus, (Nicetas urbs capta, p. 805, ed. Bek.) Michael was
the brother of the historian Nicetas; and his encomium of Athens is
still extant in MS. in the Bodleian library, (Fabric. Bibliot. GrÊc tom.
vi. p. 405.) * Note: Nicetas says expressly that Michael surrendered the Acropolis to
the marquis.--M.]
Athens, [56] though no more than the shadow of her former self, still
contains about eight or ten thousand inhabitants; of these, three
fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the Turks, who compose
the remainder, have relaxed, in their intercourse with the citizens,
somewhat of the pride and gravity of their national character. The
olive-tree, the gift of Minerva, flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey
of Mount Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavor: [57] but the
languid trade is monopolized by strangers, and the agriculture of a
barren land is abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The Athenians
are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their
understandings; but these qualities, unless ennobled by freedom, and
enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning:
and it is a proverbial saying of the country, "From the Jews of
Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens, good
Lord deliver us!" This artful people has eluded the tyranny of the
Turkish bashaws, by an expedient which alleviates their servitude
and aggravates their shame. About the middle of the last century, the
Athenians chose for their protector the Kislar Aga, or chief black
eunuch of the seraglio. This ∆thiopian slave, who possesses the sultan's
ear, condescends to accept the tribute of thirty thousand crowns: his
lieutenant, the Waywode, whom he annually confirms, may reserve for
his own about five or six thousand more; and such is the policy of
the citizens, that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive
governor. Their private differences are decided by the archbishop,
one of the richest prelates of the Greek church, since he possesses a
revenue of one thousand pounds sterling; and by a tribunal of the eight
_geronti_ or elders, chosen in the eight quarters of the city: the noble
families cannot trace their pedigree above three hundred years; but
their principal members are distinguished by a grave demeanor, a fur
cap, and the lofty appellation of _archon_. By some, who delight in
the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented as the most
corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek: [58]
this picture is too darkly colored: but it would not be easy, in the
country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader or a copy of their
works. The Athenians walk with supine indifference among the glorious
ruins of antiquity; and such is the debasement of their character, that
they are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors. [59]
[Footnote 56: The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is
extracted from Spon, (Voyage en Grece, tom. ii. p. 79--199,) and
Wheeler, (Travels into Greece, p. 337--414,) Stuart, (Antiquities of
Athens, passim,) and Chandler, (Travels into Greece, p. 23--172.) The
first of these travellers visited Greece in the year 1676; the last,
1765; and ninety years had not produced much difference in the tranquil
scene.]
[Footnote 57: The ancients, or at least the Athenians, believed that
all the bees in the world had been propagated from Mount Hymettus.
They taught, that health might be preserved, and life prolonged, by the
external use of oil, and the internal use of honey, (Geoponica, l. xv. c
7, p. 1089--1094, edit. Niclas.)]
[Footnote 58: Ducange, Glossar. GrÊc. PrÊfat. p. 8, who quotes for his
author Theodosius Zygomalas, a modern grammarian. Yet Spon (tom. ii.
p. 194) and Wheeler, (p. 355,) no incompetent judges, entertain a more
favorable opinion of the Attic dialect.]
[Footnote 59: Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name of
Athens, which they still call Athini. From the eiV thn 'Aqhnhn, we have
formed our own barbarism of _Setines_. * Note: Gibbon did not foresee a
Bavarian prince on the throne of
Greece, with Athens as his capital.--M.]
Chapter LXIII: Civil Wars And The Ruin Of The Greek Empire.--Part I.
Civil Wars, And Ruin Of The Greek Empire.--Reigns Of
Andronicus, The Elder And Younger, And John PalÊologus.--
Regency, Revolt, Reign, And Abdication Of John Cantacuzene.--
Establishment Of A Genoese Colony At Pera Or Galata.--Their
Wars With The Empire And City Of Constantinople.
The long reign of Andronicus [1] the elder is chiefly memorable by the
disputes of the Greek church, the invasion of the Catalans, and the rise
of the Ottoman power. He is celebrated as the most learned and virtuous
prince of the age; but such virtue, and such learning, contributed
neither to the perfection of the individual, nor to the happiness of
society A slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on
all sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the flames of hell
less dreadful to his fancy, than those of a Catalan or Turkish war.
Under the reign of the PalÊologi, the choice of the patriarch was the
most important business of the state; the heads of the Greek church were
ambitious and fanatic monks; and their vices or virtues, their
learning or ignorance, were equally mischievous or contemptible. By his
intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius [2] excited the hatred
of the clergy and people: he was heard to declare, that the sinner
should swallow the last dregs of the cup of penance; and the foolish
tale was propagated of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted
the lettuce of a convent garden. Driven from the throne by the universal
clamor, Athanasius composed before his retreat two papers of a very
opposite cast. His public testament was in the tone of charity and
resignation; the private codicil breathed the direst anathemas against
the authors of his disgrace, whom he excluded forever from the communion
of the holy trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he
enclosed in an earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top
of one of the pillars, in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of
discovery and revenge. At the end of four years, some youths, climbing
by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the fatal secret; and,
as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he
trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug
under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly convened to debate
this important question: the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was
generally condemned; but as the knot could be untied only by the same
hand, as that hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that
this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power. Some faint
testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of
the mischief; but the conscience of the emperor was still wounded, and
he desired, with no less ardor than Athanasius himself, the restoration
of a patriarch, by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of night,
a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bed-chamber, announcing
a revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes.
Andronicus started from his bed, and spent the night in prayer, till he
felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the earth. The emperor
on foot led the bishops and monks to the cell of Athanasius; and, after
a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had been
sent, consented to absolve the prince, and govern the church of
Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace, and hardened by solitude, the
shepherd was again odious to the flock, and his enemies contrived a
singular, and as it proved, a successful, mode of revenge. In the night,
they stole away the footstool or foot-cloth of his throne, which they
secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The
emperor was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading
the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the libel were
detected and punished; but as their lives had been spared, the Christian
priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell; and the eyes of
Andronicus, which had been opened for a moment, were again closed by his
successor.
[Footnote 1: Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the
invective, (Nicephorus Gregoras, l. i. c. i.,) which he pronounced
against historic falsehood. It is true, that his censure is more
pointedly urged against calumny than against adulation.]
[Footnote 2: For the anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer, (l.
ix. c. 24,) who relates the general history of Athanasius, (l. viii. c.
13--16, 20, 24, l. x. c. 27--29, 31--36, l. xi. c. 1--3, 5, 6, l. xiii.
c. 8, 10, 23, 35,) and is followed by Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. vi. c.
5, 7, l. vii. c. 1, 9,) who includes the second retreat of this second
Chrysostom.]
If this transaction be one of the most curious and important of a reign
of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of my materials,
since I reduce into some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer, [3]
Cantacuzene, [4] and Nicephorus Gregoras, [5] who have composed the prolix
and languid story of the times. The name and situation of the emperor
John Cantacuzene might inspire the most lively curiosity. His memorials
of forty years extend from the revolt of the younger Andronicus to his
own abdication of the empire; and it is observed, that, like Moses and
CÊsar, he was the principal actor in the scenes which he describes. But
in this eloquent work we should vainly seek the sincerity of a hero or
a penitent. Retired in a cloister from the vices and passions of the
world, he presents not a confession, but an apology, of the life of
an ambitious statesman. Instead of unfolding the true counsels and
characters of men, he displays the smooth and specious surface of
events, highly varnished with his own praises and those of his friends.
Their motives are always pure; their ends always legitimate: they
conspire and rebel without any views of interest; and the violence which
they inflict or suffer is celebrated as the spontaneous effect of reason
and virtue.
[Footnote 3: Pachymer, in seven books, 377 folio pages, describes the
first twenty-six years of Andronicus the Elder; and marks the date of
his composition by the current news or lie of the day, (A.D. 1308.)
Either death or disgust prevented him from resuming the pen.]
[Footnote 4: After an interval of twelve years, from the conclusion of
Pachymer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen; and his first book (c. 1--59,
p. 9--150) relates the civil war, and the eight last years of the elder
Andronicus. The ingenious comparison with Moses and CÊsar is fancied by
his French translator, the president Cousin.]
[Footnote 5: Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly includes the entire life
and reign of Andronicus the elder, (l. vi. c. 1, p. 96--291.) This
is the part of which Cantacuzene complains as a false and malicious
representation of his conduct.]