The conquest of Constantinople by the Venetians and the
Crusaders, in 1204, broke the Byzantine Empire into many
fragments, some of which were secured by the conquerors and
loosely bound together in the feudal empire of Romania, while
others were snatched from the ruin and preserved by the
Greeks, themselves. For the sovereignty of these latter
numerous claimants made haste to contend. Three fugitive
emperors were wandering in the outer territories of the
shattered realm. One was that Alexius III., whose deposition
of Isaac Angelos had afforded a pretext for the crusading
conquest, and who had fled when Isaac was restored. A second
was Alexius V. (Murtzuphlos), who pushed Isaac Angelos and his
son Alexius IV. from the shaking throne when Constantinople
resolved to defend itself against the Christians of the West,
but who abandoned the city in the last hours of the siege. The
third was Theodore Lascaris, son-in-law of Alexius III., who
was elected to the imperial office as soon as the flight of
Alexius V. became known—even after the besiegers had entered
the city—and who, then, could do nothing but follow his
fugitive predecessors. This last was the only one of the three
who found a piece of defensible territory on which to set up
his throne. He established himself in Bithynia, associating
his claims with those of his worthless father-in-law, and
contenting himself with the title of Despot, at first. But the
convenient though objectionable father-in-law was not
permitted to enjoy any share of the sovereignty which he
acquired. Theodore, in fact, managed his affairs with great
vigor and skill. The district in which his authority was
recognized widened rapidly and the city of Nicæa became his
capital. There, in 1206, he received the imperial crown, more
formally and solemnly, anew, and rallied the Greek resistance
which was destined to triumph, a little more than half a
century later, over the insolent aggression of the Latin West.
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The small empire of Nicæa had to contend, not merely with the
Latins in Constantinople and Greece, and with the Turkish
Sultan of Iconium, but also with another ambitious fragment of
Greek empire at Trebizond, which showed itself persistently
hostile. His successors, moreover, were in conflict with a
third such fragment in Europe, at Thessalonica. But, ten years
after the flight of Theodore from Constantinople, his empire
of Nicæa "extended from Heracleia on the Black Sea to the head
of the Gulf of Nicomedia; from thence it embraced the coast of
the Opsikian theme as far as Cyzicus; and then descending to
the south, included Pergamus, and joined the coast of the
Ægean. Theodore had already extended his power over the
valleys of the Hermus, the Caister, and the Mæander." Theodore
Lascaris died in 1222, leaving no son, and John Dukas
Vatatzes, or Vataces as his name is written by some
historians, a man of eminent abilities and high qualities, who
had married Theodore's daughter, was elected to the vacant
throne. He was saluted as John III.—assuming a continuity
from the Byzantine to the Nicæan series of emperors. In a
reign of thirty-three years, this prudent and capable emperor,
as Gibbon expresses the fact, "rescued the provinces from
national and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides
the imperial city [Constantinople], a leafless and sapless
trunk, which must fall at the first stroke of the axe." He did
not live to apply that blow nor to witness the fall of the
coveted capital of the East. But the event occurred only six
years after his death, and owed nothing to the energy or the
capability of his successors. His son, Theodore II., reigned
but four years, and left at his death, in 1258, a son, John
IV., only eight years old. The appointed regent and tutor of
this youth was soon assassinated, and Michael Paleologos, an
able officer, who had some of the blood of the imperial
Angelos family in his veins, was made in the first instance
tutor to the young emperor, and soon afterwards raised to the
throne with him as a colleague. In 1260 the new emperor made
an attack on Constantinople and was repulsed. But on the 25th
of July in the next year the city was taken by a sudden
surprise, while 6,000 soldiers of its garrison were absent on
an expedition against Daphnusia in the Black Sea. It was
acquired almost without resistance, the Latin emperor, Baldwin
II., taking promptly to flight. The destruction of life was
slight; but the surprising party fired a considerable part of
the city, to cover the smallness of its numbers, and
Constantinople suffered once more from a disastrous
conflagration. On the recovery of its ancient capital, the
Greek empire ceased to bear the name of Nicæa, and its history
is continued under the more imposing appellation of the Greek
empire of Constantinople.
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
from 716 to 1453,
book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 62._