ever distinguished that nation, and which centuries of slavery and
oppression could not subdue, were ever ready instruments in the hands
of the Russians, to embarrass and annoy their enemies. The identity of
their religion, the Russians having early become members of the Greek
church, gave them a powerful influence, and in 1790 a deputation of
Greeks waited upon the Empress Catherine, to request her interference.
One of her sons was baptized Constantine, the favourite name of the
Greek emperors, brought up by a Greek nurse, and intended for the
throne of Constantinople. Several attempts at revolt were unsuccessful.
Their allies always sacrificed the unfortunate Greeks to their own
plans of ambition: every insurrection was followed by confiscation
and massacre, and at length it was proposed, in the divan, to cut off
the whole race, and extirpate the name of Greek. From this they were
preserved by the avarice of the Turks, for, were this measure executed,
there would be no one to pay the capitation tax; and this appeal to
their cupidity alone saved a whole nation.
The Greeks, however, were now become an opulent and intelligent people;
availing themselves of all the lights and advantages which the Turks
neglected, they had accompanied the rest of Europe in the march of
improvement, and determined to rely no longer on Russian faith−-but
to attempt their own emancipation. A mysterious society, called
_Hetairia_, was ramified wherever a Greek community was established,
who prepared for another insurrection. In the year 1815 a secret
meeting was held at Constantinople, and it was resolved on. Six
years after, the standard of revolution was raised by Ypselantes, in
Moldavia. It was responded to by a general rising in other places, and,
after a sanguinary conflict against the whole power of the vast Turkish
empire, their independence was finally established, a new nation was
recognized in Europe, and modern Greece for ever severed from their
barbarian masters.
The utter impotence of the Turkish power was so clearly established
by this event, that it was obvious nothing but a change of its
institutions could save it from total dissolution. Mahmoud therefore
was determined to effect this change, or perish in the attempt. His
preliminary step was the extirpation of the Janissaries. This desperate
militia now turned up their kettles in the Atmeidan and 40,000 men
rushed round them. The sultan caused the standard of the Prophet to be
displayed in the Mosque of Achmet, and all the well-affected flocked
to it. He required a _fetva_ from the Sheik Islam, to authorise
him to kill the Janissaries if they resisted: it was granted by the
chief of the Faith, and he sent his adherent, _Kara Gehenna_, or “the
black infernal,” to execute it. The Janissaries were surrounded with
artillery, and he at once opened a discharge with grape-shot on the
dense crowd. He battered down their _kislas_, or barracks, over their
heads, and never ceased till this fierce and formidable body of men
were left a monument in the midst of Constantinople, a mound of mangled
flesh and smoking ashes slaked in blood. To perpetuate the utter
destruction of this corps, and ensure its extinction, a firman was
issued, obliterating its very name, and declaring it penal for any man
ever to pronounce it.
Just before the destruction of the Janissaries at Constantinople, that
of the Mamelukes had been effected in Egypt. These descendants of
Christian slaves, equally formidable to the Porte, had been doomed to
like destruction by the predecessor of Mahmoud. They were invited to
a feast on board the Capitan Pasha’s ship, when the most formidable
of their chiefs were seized and strangled. The remnant were induced,
by solemn promises of protection to enter the fortress of Cairo,
when every man of them was sacrificed in cold blood, without pity or
remorse. Thus these two corps, originally formed and recruited from
a Christian population, became, in the hands of the Osmanli, for
many centuries, the most powerful and unrelenting opponents of the
people professing the faith of their ancestors, and at length became
so formidable to their employers as to render their own destruction
necessary. Not a remnant of these extraordinary renegades, now exists
in the world, and the very names of Mameluke and Janissary are
condemned to everlasting oblivion.
The energetic and terrible sultan, having thus silenced opposition,
and created unanimity to his plans, by putting to death every man
that presumed to differ from him in opinion, proceeded rapidly with
his reforms. A new order of things was every where established. The
soldiers, who were a mere uncontrollable rabble, every one dressed
according to his own fancy, and doing whatever seemed good in his
eyes, were now clad in regular uniform, subject to discipline, and
exercised in European tactics. Civil usages which stamped the Turks
with barbarism, were abolished. Ambassadors, who represented infidel
kings, were no longer dragged by the neck into the presence of the
sovereign of the faithful like criminals, or sent to his prison like
malefactors; but, above all, knowledge was no longer proscribed as an
impious acquisition, and ignorance cherished as a venerable quality.
Lancasterian schools were opened; literary works on various subjects
were written by Turks, and published at the press at Constantinople,
now revived for that purpose; and, finally, an innovation was
introduced, supposed to be altogether hopeless and extraordinary, among
a people so stubborn and prejudiced: to spread the lights of European
knowledge with more rapidity, and present them daily to the eyes of
every man, four newspapers were established in the capital, in Turkish,
Greek, Armenian, and French, for the different people that compose
the population; and thus 700,000 persons, the calculated number of
inhabitants on both peninsulas, instead of being kept in utter darkness
of every thing around them, are now constantly apprised of all that
passes, not only in their own, but in every other country. The arts,
the sciences, the improvements in social life, the incidents and events
which happen in the world, are subjects to which the attention of
the Turk is now turned, and the fictions of his “story-tellers” are
superseded by the realities of life. Every day the distinctions which
marked this great capital, as an Asiatic city on an European soil,
are beginning to disappear, and it is probable that, in a few years,
such an amalgamation of its inhabitants with those of other European
cities will take place, that the strong characteristics which lately
distinguished it will only be found in our pictorial representations.
EMPERORS AND SULTANS OF CONSTANTINOPLE,
FROM THE DEDICATION OF THE CITY TO THE PRESENT DAY.
_Those individuals only of each dynasty are noticed who reigned
at Constantinople._
GREEK DYNASTY.
_Family of Constantine._
FLAVIUS VALERIUS AURELIUS CONSTANTINUS I. was born in Britain,
A.D. 272; crowned at Rome, 306; transferred the seat of empire
to Constantinople, and dedicated the city to Christ, 330; died
337, after a reign of thirty years and nine months. The place
of his birth is doubtful; by some said to be Dacia; by others,
Britain, of which his father was governor, where he married
Helena, a British lady. Among other evidence is the panegyric
of Eumenes, “Oh, Britain! blessed of all lands, who first
beheld Cæsar Constantinus,” &c. Constantine was esteemed an
eloquent preacher, and one of his sermons has come down to us.
He left behind him three sons, who succeeded him.
FLAVIUS JULIUS CONSTANTINUS II. Junior, succeeded his father:
he was born at Arles, 312; crowned, 337; and was killed in 340
in battle, and his body cast into the river Alsa.
FLAVIUS JULIUS CONSTANTINUS was born in Pannonia, 318;
crowned, 326; and died of apoplexy, 361.
FLAVIUS JULIUS CONSTANS I. was born 330; crowned, 333; and
died, 350. The manner of his death is disputed: he either was
killed in battle, or put an end to his own life, to escape his
enemies.
FLAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS, nephew of Constantine the Great,
was born at Constantinople in 332; crowned, 361; and died,
363. He was killed in battle in Persia, by an arrow from a
Persian horseman. He endeavoured to extinguish Christianity,
and obtained the name of the _Apostate_. In him the family of
Constantine terminated.
_Family of Jovian._
FLAVIUS JOVIANUS was born in Pannonia in 324; crowned, 363;
and died, 364. He was suffocated by the fumes of charcoal.
He revived Christianity, but lived only seven months and
twenty-one days after he came to the throne.
_Family of Valentinianus._
FLAVIUS VALERIUS VALENTINIANUS I. was born in Pannonia in 321;
crowned, 364; and died, 375, of apoplexy.
FLAVIUS GRATIANUS was born in Belgium in 359; crowned, 367;
and killed in battle, 385. The empire was now divided into
Eastern and Western; Valentinianus II. was nominated to the
latter, and Valens to the former.
FLAVIUS VALENS was born in Pannonia in 328; crowned, 376; and
burnt to death in a cottage in Thrace by the Goths, 378.
_Family of Theodosius._
Flavius Theodosius I. was born at Seville in Spain in 335;
crowned, 379; and died, 395, of a dropsy. He obtained the
name of the _Great_ for his achievements. Among others, he
restored peace in Britain, when disturbed by the Picts.
To encourage the arts, he erected a splendid column at
Constantinople, to rival that of Trajan at Rome. It was cast
down by an earthquake, and no longer exists.
FLAVIUS ARCADIUS was born in 379; crowned, 395; and died,
408. He followed his father’s example in erecting a splendid
column: both have been prostrated by earthquakes. His brother
Honorius succeeded to the Western empire.
FLAVIUS THEODOSIUS II. junior, was born in 401; and died, 450.
He was nominated to the empire the year after his birth. He
reestablished public schools at Constantinople, with a view to
revive literature, and published the Theodosian code of laws.
In his reign the Romans abandoned Britain, never to return.
MARCIANUS was born in Thrace, of obscure parents, in
387; crowned, 450; and died, 456. He erected a pillar at
Constantinople, which still stands. In early life, he found
the body of a man, and buried it; but he was accused of
the murder, and would have been executed, had not the real
murderer appeared, and saved him.
_Family of Leo._
FLAVIUS LEO I., (Macela,) was a native of Thrace, called to
the empire in 457, and died in 474, after a reign of seventeen
years and six months. He was the first Christian potentate of
the East crowned by an ecclesiastic. After him, the ceremony
was generally performed by the patriarch. He obtained the name
of _the Great_.
FLAVIUS LEO II. minor, was born 457; and died 474, aged 17,
having reigned but ten months. He was the grandson of Leo I.
FLAVIUS ZENO, (Tarasicodista,) was born in Isauria, in 426,
succeeded Leo II. as sole emperor, and died in 491, having
reigned seventeen years. Some affirm he was buried alive
by his wife. The term Tarasicodista was an Isaurian name,
which he changed for Zeno. Under him, the Western Empire was
entirely destroyed, and Odoacer, king of the Heruli, was
proclaimed king of Italy. For fifty years after, till the
time of Justinian, the reigns of the emperors are obscure and
indistinct.
_Family of Anastatius._
FLAVIUS ANASTATIUS, I. (Dicorus,) was born at Dyrrachium,
in 430, and was killed by lightning in his palace in 518,
having reigned twenty-seven years and eleven months. He was
distinguished for running a wall from the Euxine to the
Propontis, and including a triangular space, called the “Delta
of Thrace.”
Family of Justinus Thrax.
FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINUS I. was born in 450, in Illyria,
called to the throne on the death of Anastatius, and died in
527, after a reign of eight years and seven months.
FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINIANUS I. was born in Dacia, in 482, and
died in 565, after a long reign of thirty-seven years and
seven months, which was devoted to useful objects. Besides
the erection of the church of St. Sophia, he introduced the
culture of silk into Europe, and caused to be drawn up the
codes, pandects, institutes, and, a few years after, the
digest of laws, forming a system of civil jurisprudence, which
is an everlasting monument of his reign. Under him, Proclus, a
second Archimedes, set fire to the Gothic fleet by means of a
concave mirror of brass.
FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINUS II. junior, (Curopalata,) was born
in Thrace, crowned on the death of his uncle Justinian, and
died in 578, after a reign of twelve years and ten months. He
had been superintendent of the palace, and hence the title
Curopalata.
FAMILY OF TIBERIUS.
FLAVIUS ANICIUS TIBERIUS, I. called the New Constantine, was
born in Thrace, and died in 582, after a reign of three years
and ten months.
FLAVIUS MAURICIUS TIBERIUS II. was born in Cappadocia, in
539, and was killed in 602, having reigned twenty years and
three months. In his reign Augustine and his monks proceeded
to preach Christianity in Britain, and the Saxon heptarchy
commenced.
_Family of Phocas._
FLAVIUS PHOCAS was crowned in 602; he died in 610, after a
reign of eight years. He murdered his predecessor Mauricius,
and decapitated him and his five children: he was himself
assassinated by his successor Heraclius. He is represented
as a monster among the emperors: his person small and
deformed; his hair and eyebrows red and shaggy; and his cheeks
disfigured with scars; his temper was savage; his pleasures
brutal; and he was grossly ignorant, not only of letters,
but his own profession−-war. From the time of Justinian, the
pleadings of the courts had been in Latin, but from the reign
of Phocas, they were held in Greek, and the writings formed a
barbarous mixture of Greek and Latin characters.
_Family of Heraclius._
FLAVIUS HERACLIUS, son of the præfect of Africa, sailed to
Constantinople, and having put Phocas to death, was crowned in
610. He died in 641, of dropsy, after a reign of thirty years
and five months. He was distinguished for his conquests over
the Persians, and for his pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore
the true cross; the ceremony resulting from it is still called
“the Elevation of the Cross.” In his reign Mohammed fled from
Mecca to Medina, and the era of the Hegira commenced.
FLAVIUS HERACLIUS II. OR CONSTANTINUS III. was born in 612;
and died by poison in 641; having reigned but one hundred and
three days. He was associated in the empire with his brother
Heracleonas.
FLAVIUS HERACLIUS CONSTANS II. was born in 630; and was
smothered in a bath in 668; after a reign of twenty-seven
years.
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS IV., (Pogonatus,) died in 685; after a
reign of seventeen years. He was called Pogonatus, or “the
Bearded,” because when he went against the tyrant of Sicily to
avenge his brother’s death, he would not suffer his beard to
be cut till he had effected his purpose. In his reign the city
was besieged by the Saracens, and their fleet destroyed by the
Greek fire.
FLAVIUS JUSTINIANUS II., (Rhinometus,) was born about the year
670, and was killed in 711; he reigned first ten years. He was
called Rhinometus because he was seized by his enemy Leontius,
who cut off his nose. After a reign of seven years he was
deposed, and then restored, and reigned six more. With him and
his young son was extinguished the race of Heraclius, after
enjoying the sovereignty for one hundred years.
FILEPICUS BARDANES, was blinded, and deposed one year and six
months after his coronation.
ANASTATIUS II., (Artemius,) was crowned in 713; resigned; and
was put to death by Leo Isaurus, when he attempted again to
recover the crown.
THEODOSIUS III. was crowned in 715; resigned. His sanctity in
retirement was such, that he was reputed to work miracles.
_Family of Leo Isaurus._
FLAVIUS LEO III., called Conon, died of a dropsy in 741;
after a reign of twenty-four years and eleven months. He was
called the Isaurian, from the country whence his family came
to Constantinople. He began the first reformation in the Greek
church, by causing all images to be pulled down, and excluded
from places of worship as idolatrous.
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS V., (Copronimus,) was born, 719; and
died, 775; after a reign of thirty-five years and eleven
months. He was in derision called Copronimus, because he
defiled the font at his baptism. During his long reign he
followed up the reformation of his father, and was seconded by
the people, who formed themselves into associations, called
Iconoclasts or “image breakers,” and destroyed every such
idolatrous representation. He also suppressed monasteries. The
writers of the Latin church represented Copronimus as “chained
with demons in the infernal abyss;” while the Greeks venerated
his tomb, and prayed before it as that of a heaven-directed
saint. In his reign, historians first dated from, the birth of
Christ.
FLAVIUS LEO IV., (Chazarus,) was born at Constantinople in
750; and died of a fever in 780, after a reign of five years.
He followed up the reformation, and the Latin writers affirm
that he sacrilegiously took a crown with precious stones, from
the church of Santa Sophia, and when he placed it on his
head, his face burst out into carbuncles, similar to those in
the crown, as a punishment for his impiety, and this caused
the fever of which he died.
FLAVIUS LEO CONSTANTINUS VI. was born at Constantinople in
771; and died in 797; after his eyes had been put out, he
reigned seven years. In concert with his mother, Irené, he
restored the worship of images, for which he is highly praised
by Latin writers.
FLAVIUS NICEPHORUS I. was born in Seleucia; he was drawn into
an ambush by the Bulgarians, and killed in battle in 811;
having reigned nine years and nine months.
FLAVIUS STAURICIUS was presented with the diadem by his father
Nicephorus in 803. He was grievously wounded in battle, and,
after lingering in hopeless pain, he became a monk, and
retired to a monastery, where he died in 812.
MICHAEL I., (Rhangabe Curopalata,) married the daughter of
Nicephorus; was proclaimed emperor in 811, on the death of his
father-in-law; but was deposed, and died in a monastery, after
a reign of one year and ten months.
_Family of Leo the Armenian._
FLAVIUS LEO V., (Armenus,) was born in Armenia, and crowned
in 813; and was assassinated while celebrating divine service
in his palace in 820; after a reign of seven years and five
months.
_Family of Michael Balbus._
FLAVIUS MICHAEL II. (the Stammerer,) was born in Phrygia,
crowned in 820; and died in 829, of a dysentery, having
reigned eight years and nine months. He was named Balbus from
a hesitation in his voice. He revived the reformation by
expelling images from churches.
FLAVIUS THEOPHILUS, called Augustus by his father, was born
in 820, crowned in 829, and died in 842; having reigned
twelve years and three months. He vigorously continued
the reformation of the church, and is thus described, _Is
impietatis paternæ æmulus cultores imaginum persecutus est._
FLAVIUS MICHAEL III., (Ebriosus,) was born in 836; crowned
in 842; and was assassinated in 867. He acquired the name of
Ebriosus, or the Drunken, from his constant intemperance.
He suffered his mother, Theodora, to introduce images into
churches. The sister of the king of Bulgaria having embraced
Christianity, he and all his subjects, by her persuasion,
became converts in this reign. Clocks were then first brought
from Venice to Constantinople.
_Family of Basilius Macedo._
FLAVIUS BASILIUS I., (Cephalos,) was born in Macedonia,
crowned in 866, and died in 886. He was called Cephalos from
the size of his head. He was a zealous promoter of image
worship. In his reign, Alfred king of England died.
FLAVIUS LEO VI., the Philosopher, was crowned by his father at
the age of five years in 870; and died in 911. He devoted a
long reign of twenty-five years, after his father’s death, to
literary pursuits, and composed works which have come down to
us: amongst others, a “Treatise on Tactics.”
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS VII., (Porphyrogenitus,) the son of Leo
VI. by his fourth wife, was born in 905; crowned in 913; and
died in the year 959, of poison, administered by his own son.
He was called Porphyrogenitus, or born in the purple, because
an apartment in the palace was lined with that colour, in
which his birth took place. It was a title generally given to
those whose fathers were on the throne when they were born, a
rare distinction in the Lower Empire. He was the first to whom
the distinction was applied. His birth was accompanied by the
appearance of a comet. He was distinguished for his devotion
to literature, and left behind him “the Geography of the
Empire,” and other works. In his reign Arabic numerals were
first used for the clumsy prolixity of alphabetic letters.
ROMANUS I., (Lecapenus,) was born in Armenia, crowned in 919;
and died in 946. His reign was remarkable by the siege of
Constantinople by the Bulgarians.
ROMANUS II. junior, was born in 937; and crowned in 959. He
died of poison in 963; after a reign of four years.
BASILIUS II., (Bulgarotoctonos,) was born in 955;
crowned in 960; and died in 1025. He obtained the name
“Bulgarian-killer,” from the cruelty he exercised over them.
He took 15,000 prisoners, and ordered the eyes to be scooped
out from the heads of every ninety-nine out of one hundred.
NICEPHORUS II. (Phocas,) was born at Constantinople, and
crowned, 963, on the death of Romanus. He was assassinated by
Zemisces, and other conspirators, in 969.
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS VIII. son of Lecapenus, was associated
with his brother, and in 1026, became sole emperor at the
age of sixty-nine, and died in 1028. It was in his reign the
practice of duelling was introduced: one, fought in 1026, is
the first on record in the annals of the empire.
JOHANNES ZEMISCES was a domestic in the palace while
Nicephorus Phocas enjoyed the crown. After his assassination,
he assumed himself the purple, but was poisoned in 975, after
a reign of six years.
CONSTANTINUS IX., brother of Basilius II., was born in 961,
and reigned singly, after the death of Basilius, three
years. He died in 1028, having enjoyed the title of Augustus
sixty-six years. The reign of the two brothers, with the
intervening usurpations, is the longest and most obscure in
Byzantine history.
ROMANUS III., (Argyrus,) succeeded to the empire in 1028, and
was put to death by his wife Zoe in 1034. She had administered
slow poison, but, impatient of its operation, caused him to
be suffocated in a bath by an eunuch, who held his head under
water.
MICHAEL IV., (Paphlagonicus,) was born in Paphlagonia, crowned
in 1034, and afterwards retired to a monastery in 1041. He
married Zoe after the assassination of her former husband, and
his death was hastened by never-ceasing remorse. The first
schism commenced in this reign between the Greek and Latin
churches.
MICHAEL V., (Calaphates,) was crowned in 1041, and was put
to death the same year, after a reign of four months. He was
called Calaphates because his trade had been careening boats.
ZOE & THEODORA, (the Matrons,) were crowned in 1042. They
were taken at an advanced age, one from a prison, and the
other from a monastery. Zoe, at the age of sixty, took a third
husband, and died in 1050.
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS X., (Monomachus,) was crowned in 1042.
He was called Monomachus from his bravery in single combat.
He died in 1055, having survived his atrocious wife Zoe two
years. In his reign the Turks first entered the territories of
the Greek empire in Asia.
THEODORA was crowned sole empress in 1055, at the age of
seventy-six, and reigned one year and ten months. She took an
associate, and thus for twenty years two feeble sisters, and
one an abandoned profligate, nominated whom they pleased to
the empire.
MICHAEL VI., (Stratioticus,) was crowned in 1056, and resigned
the year after. He obtained the name of Stratioticus from his
supposed skill in war. His aged and feeble associate died just
before, the last of the Basilian dynasty.
_Family of the Comneni._
ISAAK I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1057, and resigned in
1059. The name of Comnenus is one of the most distinguished of
the Lower Empire.
_Family of Ducas._
FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS XI., (by some IX.) (Ducas,) was crowned
in 1060, and died a natural death in 1066. During his reign
Jerusalem was taken by the Turks and Saracens, William the
Conqueror entered England, and the Norman dynasty began.