The Serbs and Albanians joined his
standard
against the
Greeks of Nicaea, whose conquests in Europe had made them neighbours
of those peoples ; Acropolita was besieged in the castle of Prilep.
Greeks of Nicaea, whose conquests in Europe had made them neighbours
of those peoples ; Acropolita was besieged in the castle of Prilep.
Cambridge Medieval History - v4 - Eastern Roman Empire
There, in the little church of St John-of-the-Hospital a wooden
coffin still bears the simple epitaph: “Here lies the lady Constance,
august Empress of Greece. "" Even in the strange romance of medieval
Greek history there are few stranger pages than the varied career of this
unhappy exile, a sacrifice to politics and the sport of chance.
The connexion between Vatatzes and the great enemy of the Papacy
in Western Europe did not prevent the astute Emperor from endeavour-
1 MPG. , cxlii. 605-9.
2 Les Registres d'Alexandre IV, 1. 88.
3 N. de Jamsilla apud Muratori, RR. II. SS. vii. 506.
+ Carini, Gli Archivi e le biblioteche di Spagna, 11. 9, 18, 19, 189; Revue des deux
Mondes, 15 March 1902; Diehl, Figures byzantines, 11. 207–25.
## p. 497 (#539) ############################################
Futile attempts at Union with Rome
497
ing to secure the support of Rome, when it suited his policy, by holding
out hopes of a reunion of the Churches. In 1232 the presence of five
Minorites at Nicaea suggested to the Patriarch the despatch of letters to
Pope Gregory IX and the Sacred College, advocating an enquiry into
the differences between the East and the West. The Pope replied,
urging the Greeks to return to the bosom of the Church, and sent four
learned theologians to discuss the doctrinal points at issue. The nice
points raised by the Latins in support of the filioque clause proved too
much for the distinguished philosopher whom the Greeks had put
forward as their champion. Blemmýdes had to be called in to their
aid, and, in the presence of the Emperor, refuted their arguments to his
own complete satisfaction. Vatatzes acted throughout like a statesman,
seeking to make one of those compromises which are the essence of
politics but which are rare in theology. His wise policy failed to
appease the celestial minds of the controversialists, and for some time at
Nymphaeum it rained treatises on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, till
at last the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope. Still, whenever he
thought that he could hasten the fall of the Latin Empire, Vatatzes
renewed his diplomatic overtures to the Holy See, thus calling down
upon his head the reproaches of his father-in-law, who plainly told him
that the papal emissaries really aimed, not at uniting the Churches, but
at sowing tares between the two affectionate sovereigns of the East and
the West. To the very last the Greek Emperor maintained this policy of
compromise. Constantinople, he thought, was worth the promise of a
mass.
Vatatzes was no more successful in healing the schism which had
arisen with the foundation of the despotat of Epirus between the Greek
Churches in Europe and Asia. The despots did not go so far as to
elect a rival Patriarch ; but the bishops in their dominions were con-
secrated by the local metropolitans instead of going to Nicaea. At
first the Metropolitan of Lepanto acted as the head of the Epirote
Church ; when the political centre of gravity was transferred to Salonica,
Demetrius Chomatianós, the learned theologian who held the ancient
see of Ochrida, became its primate, and crowned the Emperor Theodore,
an act which caused the greatest indignation at Nicaea, as a usurpation
of the Patriarch's prerogative. The dispute between the rival ecclesias-
tical authorities reached its height when the Emperor of Salonica refused
to allow the see of Durazzo to be filled by a nominee of the Nicene
Patriarch. The schism continued until 1232, when the Emperor
Theodore had fallen and his brother Manuel, anxious to secure the
favour of Vatatzes, made his submission to the Patriarch, who sent an
ecclesiastic from Asia to represent him in Europe? . But, even after the
annexation of the Empire of Salonica and throughout the rest of this
1 Miklosich and Müller, Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Aevi, III. 59–65; B2.
C. MED. H. VOL. IV. CH. XVI.
32
XVI. 120-42.
## p. 498 (#540) ############################################
498
Ecclesiastical policy. Material prosperity
period, the Greek Church in the independent despotat of Epirus
remained autocephalous. The only European bishops who took part in
the synods of Nicaea were those from the European provinces of the
Empire. As both the Serbian and Bulgarian Churches had obtained
the recognition of their independence, owing to the political exigencies
of the Nicene Emperors, the Ecumenical Patriarch had a very restricted
jurisdiction. Even in Asia Minor, Trebizond continued to dispute his
authority, while the Manichaean heresy, which has played so important
a part in the history of Bosnia and Bulgaria, now crept into the Nicene
Empire. It was some compensation, however, that after 1231 no Roman
Catholic bishopric survived there.
Like a wise statesman, Vatatzes took pains to cultivate the favour of
so powerful a national and political force as the Greek Church, while he
was careful to see that the Patriarch should not be too independent.
One of his biographers? tells us that he was especially good to monks,
and that" he spoke to an archbishop almost as if he were in the presence
of God. ” He issued strict orders that the civil authorities should not
seize Church property either in the lifetime or on the demise of a bishop,
but that an ecclesiastical administrator should take charge of the estate
until the vacancy had been filled? He founded or restored the famous
monastery of Sósandra near Magnesia--that “wonder of the world"
which inspired Blemmýdes to write verses, and which was the mausoleum
of the Emperor and his son; he rebuilt and endowed the monastery on
Mt Lembos near Smyrna, and erected the church of St Anthony the
Great at Nicaea, while his first wife founded that of St John Baptist
at Prusa and a convent of Our Lady. But, with a view to the extension
of his political influence, he did not confine his munificence to his
own dominions. He redeemed many churches in Constantinople from
destruction by the Franks, and even in the French seigneurie of Athens
the Greek monasteries received benefits from his hand 3.
In the intervals of his campaigns Vatatzes devoted himself with con-
spicuous success to the economic development of his Empire. Under his
patriarchal government the land enjoyed great material prosperity. He
was so excellent a manager that the produce of the crown lands not only
sufficed for the maintenance of his table, but left him a surplus for the
foundation of hospitals, workhouses, and asylums for the aged, so that
after his time Nicaea was said to have better philanthropic institutions
than any other city. He devoted much attention to stock-breeding,
after the fashion of modern monarchs, and endeavoured to induce the
aristocracy to subsist on their landed estates by practical farming. The
Seljūq Empire afforded a ready market for their cattle and corn, owing
1 Sathas, Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, νια. 506.
2 Revue des études grecques, vii. 71-80.
3 Blemmýdes, 112, 115; Ephraemius, 318; Sáthas, op. cit. , 509; Nicephorus
Gregorâs, I. 44, 50; BZ. xiv. 217, 232.
## p. 499 (#541) ############################################
Literature
499
to the devastations committed there by the Mongols, and so great was the
demand that the Greek farmers could command fancy prices for their
produce. Out of the money obtained from the sale of eggs from the
imperial hen-roosts the Emperor was able in a short time to buy his
consort a magnificent coronet of pearls. The natural result of this
general prosperity was the increase of luxury, and the nobles spent their
money in silken garments from Italy and the East. The Emperor resolved to
restrain the extravagance of his subjects and at the same time to encourage
national industries at the expense of the foreigner, who had profited by
the free-trade policy of his predecessor. He therefore forbade them to
wear foreign stuffs or to consume foreign products, under pain of losing
their position in society. A Greek nobleman should wear, he thought,
a Greek costume, a doctrine no longer esteemed by his countrymen.
He shewed his sincerity by making his own family conform to the law,
and sternly rebuked his son for going out hunting in a rich garment of
silk, reminding him that such luxuries were wrung from the life-blood of
the Greeks, and should only be displayed when it was necessary to
impress foreign ambassadors with the wealth of the nation. Instead of
wasting its resources upon court pageants, he devoted what was thus
saved to the strengthening of the national defences against the Mongols,
forming a central depôt at Magnesia, and accumulating large quantities
of corn, which was stored in sealed granaries for use in case of invasion.
In short, all his financial arrangements were of the most business-like
character; every effort was made to prevent the Oriental vice of pecula-
tion on the part of the “dukes " who governed the provinces, and the
dilatoriness of an official of the treasury was punished by so severe a
fogging that he died.
Although he was a practical man of affairs, Vatatzes shewed the
usual Greek desire for the encouragement of learning. The historian
Acropolita acted as his secretary and envoy; the austere Blemmýdes
and the historian were successively tutors of his son; another historian,
George Pachyméres, was born at Nicaea during his reign ; one of his
Patriarchs, Germanus II, has left behind him some literary remains.
Rhetoric and philosophy were cultivated under his auspices; he founded
libraries of technical and scientific books in various cities, sent Blem-
mýdes to collect valuable manuscripts in Thessaly and Macedonia, and
expressed the opinion that the king and the philosopher are alone really
famous.
His first wife, a woman of masculine abilities, shared his
literary tastes, and once tried to pose the young Acropolita by asking
hin the cause of an eclipse, while the Margrave of Hohenburg's mission
was made the occasion for a learned competition between the Latins and
their Greek hosts, in which the latter were victorious.
Vatatzes did not long survive his campaign against the Epirote
Greeks. On his return to Nicaea he was suddenly seized with an attack
of apoplexy, which rendered him speechless for thirty-six hours. As
יי
CH. XVI.
3242
## p. 500 (#542) ############################################
500
Death and Canonisation of Vatatzes
soon as he had recovered sufficiently to travel, he ordered his attendants
to convey him to his beloved Nymphaeum. The change of climate
availed nothing, however, against the return of his malady. He was
affected with frequent fainting-fits; his flesh wasted away; and he in
vain made a pilgrimage to the miraculous image of Our Lord at Smyrna
in the hope of obtaining relief. At length, after his malady had lasted
for more than a year, he died at Nymphaeum on 30 October 1254, aged
62 years, nearly 33 of which he had passed on the throne. The faithful
Acropolita delivered his funeral oration ; a eulogy of his exploits was
composed by his son, and future generations looked back upon him as
“the father of the Greeks. ” In the fourteenth century he even attained
to the honours of a saint. When the Turks threatened the Sósandra
monastery about 1304, his remains were removed for safety to Magnesia.
The watchman of the castle, while going his rounds, was struck by the
appearance of a strange lamp, which moved about the ramparts as if
on a tour of inspection. When the phenomenon was thrice repeated, he
reported it to his superiors, and a search was made. For some time the
phantom light eluded the investigators, until at last the watchman's
deaf brother declared that he had seen a man dressed in imperial robes
and had heard him say that he had charge of the watch. The ghostly
guardian of Magnesia was at once recognised as none other than that of
the dead Emperor John “the Merciful,” who had risen from his grave to
defend the city. The capture of Magnesia confirmed, instead of dimin-
ishing, the fame of his supernatural power ; for when the Turks threw
his bones over the cliffs, they worked miracles on the faithful, who
collected them with pious care and built a shrine above them. Thence-
forth St John Vatatzes the Merciful was worshipped as a saint at
Magnesia, at Nymphaeum, and in Tenedos; 4 November was celebrated
as his festival ; and an encomium and a choral service were composed in
his honourl.
Vatatzes had not followed the usual Byzantine custom of proclaiming
his successor during his own lifetime, for he was afraid of spoiling the
character of the heir-apparent and of offending the susceptibilities of the
people. But there was no doubt that his only son Theodore, who bore
the name of Lascaris to shew his direct descent from the founder of the
dynasty, would be chosen. As soon as his father's funeral was over, he
was lifted on a shield and proclaimed Emperor at Nymphaeum. The
ceremony was not, however, complete until he had been consecrated by
the Patriarch, whose office had just fallen vacant. Theodore accordingly
hastened on the election of that official ; and, for the sake of form,
offered the post to his old tutor Blemmýdes, in the hope that the
wilful ecclesiastic would refuse. Blemmýdes knew his former pupil, and
did not disappoint him. He declined the honour so insincerely tendered ;
i Pachyméres, 11. 400–2; B2. xiv. 193-233 ; Agathángelos, ’Aquatekŋ ’Akolovdia
του Αγίου Βασιλέως Ιωάννου του Βατάτση του Ελεήμονος.
## p. 501 (#543) ############################################
Theodore II Lascaris : his education and writings 501
Theodore at once ordered the election of a monk of little culture who in
the brief space of a single week was consecrated successively deacon,
priest, and Patriarch. Without further delay, on Christmas Day,
Theodore II Lascaris was crowned Emperor at Nicaea.
The new Emperor had not completed his thirty-third year when he
ascended the throne. Few sovereigns have been more carefully pre-
pared for their duties than the heir of Vatatzes. All that education, in
the Byzantine sense of the word, could do, had been done for the future
monarch. He had enjoyed the best instruction that his father's Empire
could provide; he had studied literature, mathematics, and, above all,
philosophy, and he professed the eminently Greek opinion that know-
ledge was synonymous with virtue. Save for an occasional hunting-
party, he had devoted his ample leisure before his accession exclusively
to his books, and he early aspired to a place in the gallery of royal
authors. He has accordingly left us a voluminous literary legacy, mostly
the work of these earlier years. Theology and satire, a prayer to the
Virgin and a eulogy of Nicaea, a funeral oration on Frederick II, and
no less than 218 letters, are among the varied products of his instructed
mind. But as a writer he was too academically educated to be original;
his ideas are overwhelmed in a jungle of rhetoric; and his style, on
which he prided himself and eagerly sought the judgment of the critics,
strikes us, even in his private letters, as frigid and jejune. His corre-
spondence, to which we naturally look for interesting sidelights on his
temperament and times, abounds in commonplaces, but, with the excep-
tion of the letters written after his accession, is singularly barren of
historical facts. Upon his character his studies had made no real imprint;
like Frederick the Great, he affected philosophy as a Crown Prince, only
to discard it as mere theory when he was brought face to face with the
realities of government. Feeble in health and fond of solitude, he had
abnormally developed one side of his nature. He was, in a word, a
mass of nerves, an“ interesting case” for a modern mental specialist.
His short reign not only falsified the maxim of Plato that all would be
well if kings were philosophers or philosophers kings, but afforded one
more instance of the truism that the intellectual type of monarch is not
the most successful, even for a nation which, in its darkest hours, by the
waters of Nicaea or in the Turkish captivity, has never ceased to cherish
the love of learning.
The new Emperor had good reasons for hastening on his coronation.
No sooner had the news of Vatatzes' death reached the Bulgarian capital
than the Tsar Michael Asên seized this opportunity of recovering his
lost provinces, which the Greek Government had not had time to con-
solidate with the rest of the Empire. The Bulgarian inhabitants
welcomed, and the Greek garrisons were not strong enough to resist, the
invaders. Rhodope at once rose in rebellion; it was feared that the
whole Greek Empire in Europe might become Bulgarian. So pressing
. . .
CH. XVI.
## p. 502 (#544) ############################################
502
Theodore Lascaris' Bulgarian campaigns
was the danger that Theodore crossed the Dardanelles in January 1255,
and began, though in the depth of winter, his first Bulgarian campaign.
Success crowned his arms; Stara Zagora fell; but the impregnable
fortress of Chepina in the hollow between the ranges of Rila and Rhodope,
the key of both Sofia and Philippopolis, baffled all his efforts. When
ordered to attack it, his generals, one of them Alexius Strategopulus
the future conqueror of Constantinople, first fled at the sound of the
enemy's approach, and then refused to renew the attempt. Theodore's
energy might have shamed these cowardly or treacherous soldiers.
Hearing that Melnik was being besieged by the governor to whom
it had been entrusted, he marched with extraordinary rapidity from
Hadrianople to Seres, forced the narrow defile through which the
Struma flows, and saved the threatened citadel, whose garrison hailed
him as "the swift eagle. ” Thence he hastened as far west as Prilep,
recovering one place after another from his Bulgarian brother-in-law,
till at last Chepina alone remained unconquered. But the season was
now far advanced for a Balkan campaign, and Theodore's plucky march
against that mountain-girt fortress had to be abandoned. Leaving his
forces at Demotika in the charge of two incompetent generals (for, like
most speculative statesmen, he was a bad judge of character) the
Emperor re-crossed into Asia.
In the following spring he began a second Bulgarian campaign.
During his absence, the position had changed for the worse; the
Bulgarian Tsar had attracted a force of Cumans to his standards, and
the Greek generals, in direct disobedience of their master's orders, had
risked an engagement with those formidable auxiliaries, in which one was
taken prisoner and the other only escaped thanks to the swiftness of his
horse. Theodore's energy and large army speedily restored the prestige
of the Greek name. Michael Asên accordingly begged his father-in-law,
the Russian prince Rostislav of Chernigov, to mediate between him and his
enemy. The Russian prince accepted the office of peace-maker, met the
Greek Emperor, and had no difficulty in making a treaty with him on
terms which both parties considered favourable. Bulgarians and Greeks
received back their ancient frontiers, but the virgin fortress of Chepina
was ceded to Theodore. Such was his joy that he loaded the Russian
prince with presents, and despatched a dithyrambic proclamation to
his Asiatic subjects announcing the signature of peace, and extolling the
importance of the cession of Chepina'. His nervous system was so much
affected by this excitement that the mere suggestion of fraud on the
part of the Russian negotiator made him fall upon the luckless
Acropolita, who had drafted the treaty, call that rather solemn personage
an “ass" and a “fool," and order a sound beating to be given him for
his pains. The assassination of Michael Asên and the marriage of the
וי
1 Epistulae, pp. 279-82; Archiv f. slav. Philol. xxi. 622-6; B2. ix. 569; xvII. 181.
## p. 503 (#545) ############################################
Early career of Michael Palaeologus
503
new Tsar with one of Theodore's daughters confirmed the validity of
the peace.
The close of the Bulgarian war made the Despot Michael II of
Epirus anxious to conciliate a rival who might now turn his undivided
attention to the invasion of that independent Greek state, always an
eye-sore of the Nicene Emperors. The long engagement of their children
had not yet ripened into marriage; so the saintly consort of the despot
was sent with her son Nicephorus to meet the victorious monarch.
Theodore on this occasion shewed a lack of chivalry which proved how
much his character had materialised since his accession. He took advan-
tage of his visitor's sex and defenceless position to extort from her the
two cities of Servia and Durazzo, respectively the keys of the east and
the west, as the price of this alliance. Thereupon the marriage ceremony
was solemnly performed at Salonica, but the contract which he had been
forced to sign rankled in the mind of Michael, and a breach of the
peace between Epirus and Nicaea was only a question of time.
Theodore had scarcely celebrated the wedding of his daughter when
the arrival of an alarming despatch from his deputies in Bithynia
hastened his return to Asia. The news was that Michael Palaeologus,
the most ambitious of his officials, had fled to the Seljūq Turks! We
have already seen this crafty intriguer, who was destined to play so
great a part in Byzantine history, receiving the post of governor of
Seres and Melnik from Vatatzes. The family of Palaeologus, according
to a legend still preserved on the walls of the Palazzo Municipale at
Viterbo, traced its origin to a certain Remigius Lellius of Vetulonia.
Historically, however, it is first mentioned towards the end of the
eleventh century, and a hundred years later had risen to such eminence
that one of its members married the eldest daughter of Alexius III, and
was intended by that emperor to be his successor. The daughter of
this marriage married another Palaeologus, who held high office at the
Nicene court, and the offspring of the latter union was the future
Emperor, who was thus “ doubly a Palaeologus," alike on his father's
and on his mother's side. His direct descent from the Emperor
Alexius, combined with his ambitious disposition, made him an object of
suspicion and envy. While governor of Melnik he had been accused
of high treason, and had only saved himself by the witty offer to submit
his innocence to the ordeal of red-hot iron if the holy Metropolitan of
Philadelphia would hand him the glowing metal. The embarrassment
of the divine, suddenly invited to test in his own person his theory that
pure hands would be unscathed by the fiery ordeal, greatly delighted the
court; the accused was acquitted, but the suspicions of Vatatzes were
only allayed when he had bound his intriguing subject by a fresh oath
of loyalty and by a matrimonial alliance with his great-niece still closer
to his throne. The rank of Great Constable and the command in
1 Miklosich and Müller, op. cit. , vi. 197-8.
CH. XVI.
## p. 504 (#546) ############################################
504
War in Epirus
Bithynia might seem sufficient to satisfy even the vaulting ambition of
this dangerous noble. But Theodore II, whose policy it was to diminish
the influence of the aristocracy and to surround the throne with men of
humble origin who owed everything to himself, still nourished suspicions
of Palaeologus, and publicly threatened to put out his eyes. This
tactless conduct was the immediate cause of the Great Constable's flight
to the court of Iconium. The Emperors of Nicaea were always nervous
of Seljūq invasions, and Theodore therefore returned to his eastern
dominions, leaving Acropolita, once more restored to favour, as his
governor-general in the west.
Fortunately the Sultan Kai-Kā'ús II was at this moment himself
threatened with a Mongol attack. Instead of returning at the head of
a Seljūq force to usurp the Greek throne, the fugitive, with profuse
expressions of loyalty to the Christian Emperor and of devotion to the
Christian religion, assisted the Turks to defeat the Mongol hordes.
But the advance of the Mongols soon forced the Sultan to implore the
aid of Theodore himself against the common enemy, ceding him as the
price of his support the cities of Laodicea and Chonae, the latter of
which had been abandoned by the first Emperor of Nicaea. The
Mongols, however, succeeded in making the Sultan their tributary, and
Palaeologus, finding his protector thus reduced, was glad to return to
the service of his former master. Theodore again exacted from him the
most solemn oaths of fidelity to himself and his son, and restored him
to his former office, nor was it long before the state of the European
provinces gave him a fresh opportunity of displaying his energies.
The appointment of his brother John as governor of Rhodes? was
doubtless a further part of the imperial policy of giving this dangerous
family honourable employment at a distance from the court.
The Despot of Epirus had not forgiven the treachery of Theodore
in extorting Durazzo, his chief city on the Adriatic and at that time
the port of transit between Macedonia and Italy, from a defenceless
The absence of the Emperor in the east and the treachery of
one of the imperial governors gave him the opportunity which he
sought.
The Serbs and Albanians joined his standard against the
Greeks of Nicaea, whose conquests in Europe had made them neighbours
of those peoples ; Acropolita was besieged in the castle of Prilep.
Alarmed at this dangerous coalition, the Emperor despatched Palaeologus
as commander-in-chief to the west ; but his suspicions caused him to
cripple the efficiency of his general by giving him an army small in
number and poor in quality. Thus handicapped, Palaeologus failed to
prevent the capitulation of Prilep, and the unfortunate historian,
dragged about in chains from place to place, had at last ample leisure
in the prison at Arta for meditating on the practical defects in his old
pupil's education. The fall of Prilep was followed by the loss of all
i Miklosich and Müller, op. cit. , vi. 198.
woman.
## p. 505 (#547) ############################################
The Union of the Churches. Domestic policy
505
Macedonia except Salonica ; one imperial commander after another
deserted to Michael II ; and the Emperor, having failed to subdue his
rival by force, resorted to theological weapons. At his instigation, the
Patriarch excommunicated his fellow-Greeks of Epirus. But the
intervention of Blemmýdes, who was a personal friend and correspondent
of the despot, prevented the publication of the anathema, and
Theodore, who had patiently endured to be lectured by his old tutor on
the duties of kingship’, meekly tore up the document and returned it
to the Patriarch. But the loss of his cities and the defection of his
generals made the Emperor more than ever suspicious of Palaeologus.
He ordered the arrest of the Great Constable, on the pretext that the
terrible malady, from which he had now begun to suffer acutely, was due
to the incantations of the man in whom he already saw the future
usurper of his son's throne.
His theological studies on the Procession of the Holy Ghost did not
prevent him from renewing the futile attempts of his father for the
Union of the Churches. Two letters? are extant, in which Theodore
writes to Pope Alexander IV that he desires peace and begs the Most
Holy Father with many adjectives to send inspired men to compose the
differences between Nicaea and Rome. His wish was heard, and in 1256
envoys from the Pope arrived in Macedonia on their way to his capital.
But meanwhile the Emperor had changed his mind. His victorious
campaigns had made the support of the Papacy less valuable to him ;
like his father, he desired union with Rone merely as a step to
Constantinople. After a barren interview with the Papal plenipoten-
tiaries, he told Acropolita to get rid of them as best he coulds.
It was not only in theology that his brief taste of power had made
Theodore an opportunist. He noticed, like all his friends, the deteriora-
tion of his own character. Before his accession he had prized knowledge
before riches; now he wrote that he only cared for gold and jewels.
His excuse was that he needed money for the defence of the Empire
against its many enemies, and for the expenses of representation, so
necessary for impressing the Eastern peoples whom he had to fear. It
was with this object that he received the Mongol ambassadors in
theatrical style, seated on a lofty throne sword in hand; while he held
the sound principle, not always remembered by his successors, that the
Greek Empire should look for its safety neither to foreign alliances
nor to foreign mercenaries, but to a strong Greek army. Accordingly,
he left to his successor a well-filled treasury, for he realised that sound
finance is the first requirement of a state. But, though his military and
financial occupations gave him no time for his old studies after his
accession, he did not neglect the patronage of learning in others. He
1 In his Λόγος, όποιον δει είναι βασιλέα, or Βασιλικός ανδριάς (MPG. CXLII.
611-74).
2 Epistulae, cxLII. -III.
3 Sathas, Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, VII. 529.
CH. XVI.
## p. 506 (#548) ############################################
506
Illness and death of Theodore
founded libraries of the arts and sciences in various cities of his
dominions, where the intellectual gymnastics of Byzantium continued to
be practised. He established and endowed schools of grammar and
rhetoric in the precincts of the church of St Tryphon, the martyr and
patron of Nicaea, which he erected there, provided six scholarships for
the students of the institution out of his privy purse, and conducted
the examinations in person. It appears, however, that the results did not
come up to the founder's expectation, for the pupils were sent back by
the imperial examiner to complete their education? A year or two
later, George of Cyprus found that Nicaea was not exactly the Christian
Athens that the glowing rhetoric of Theodore had depicted it. No one
could instruct him in Aristotle's logic; grammar and poetry were alone
taught and those only superficially, and the academic curriculum had
not got beyond the legend of Oedipus and the Trojan war? Still there
was no lack of literary society at Theodore's court. Acropolita and his
anonymous epitomisers were both companions of the monarch on his
journeys; the Patriarch Arsenius strove to imitate the measures of
Anacreon in a Paschal hymn; Theodore Metochítes vied with his
imperial namesake in a panegyric of their native city of Nicaea.
The hereditary malady from which he suffered, aggravated by over-
work, now began to tell upon the Emperor's brain. His suspicion of
everyone of eminence led him to commit acts of tyranny against the
aristocracy, in which he was obsequiously supported by the time-serving
Patriarch and by his bosom-friend and old playmate, George Muzalon,
a man of humble origin, whom he had raised to the highest offices of
state and married to a princess of the imperial house, and who was his
most trusted adviser. Soon Theodore's body as well as his brain was
affected, he felt that his end was at hand, and he craved from his old
tutor Blemmýdes the remission of his sins. The stern monk, who had
courageously opposed the Emperor's despotic policy, refused to forgive
the dying and repentant sovereign. Theodore then turned to the
Metropolitan of Mitylene, fell at his feet in a flood of tears, and implored
his pardon and that of the Patriarch. He then exchanged his imperial
robes for those of a monk, and soon afterwards, in August 1258,
breathed his last, aged 36. His brief reign of less than four years did
not enable him to make a great mark upon the history of his time;
while his voluminous writings are mainly interesting as a proof of that
morbid self-consciousness which was the key of his character and was
doubtless the result of disease.
Theodore's only son, John, was not quite eight years old at the death
of his father, who in his will had accordingly appointed George
Muzalon regent during the minority. Such an appointment was certain
? Epistulae, XLIV. , CCXVII.
2 MPG. CXLII. 21-5.
3 Identified by Heisenberg with Theodore Scutariota, Analecta, 3–18.
## p. 507 (#549) ############################################
Regency and murder of Muzalon
507
to arouse the indignation of the nobles, who had been proscribed by the
low-born favourite and were resolved never to accept his dictatorship.
Conscious of the opposition to himself, the regent in vain endeavoured to
secure the succession by extracting the most solemn oaths of allegiance
to his young charge from the prelates, the senate, the army, and the
people, and by removing the child-Emperor to a strong fortress, while he
offered to resign his own post to anyone whom the nobles might select.
For the moment the conspirators dissimulated, and Michael Palaeologus,
the most prominent of them, begged the regent in their name to retain
his office. When they had thus succeeded in allaying his suspicions,
they made their preparations for his overthrow. The commemoration of
the late Emperor in the mausoleum at Sósandra was chosen for the
attack; the Frankish mercenaries, who were commanded by Palaeologus,
and had been deprived of their pay and privileges during the late reign
at the instigation of the all-powerful minister, were ready to assassinate
their enemy at a hint from their leader. When the fatal day arrived,
the conspirators and the mercenaries took up their places at the church
of the monastery. As soon as Muzalon and his two brothers arrived,
the soldiers demanded that the young Emperor should be produced.
His
appearance only increased the uproar; a movement of his hand, in
token that the tumult should cease, was taken as a signal for attack; the
mercenaries rushed into the church, where the service had already begun,
and hacked Muzalon and his brothers to pieces as they crouched at the
altar. Even the still fresh tomb of the Emperor was not safe from
insult.
It was necessary to appoint a new regent without delay, for the
Mongols in the east, the Despot of Epirus in the west, and the lingering
Latin Empire in the north were all enemies whom a child could not
combat. Of the numerous nobles who had been the victims of
Theodore's tyranny, Michael Palaeologus was the ablest and the most
prominent.
He had been the brains of the late conspiracy; he was
affable, generous, and jovial ; he was a distinguished officer; he was
direct descendant of the Angeli and connected by marriage with the
reigning dynasty; his future greatness had been foretold—and the
Nicene Court was very superstitious. All classes of the population, all
three races in the army-Greeks, Franks, and Cumans-welcomed his
selection; he was appointed guardian, the dignity of Grand-Duke was
conferred upon him, and the clergy, obsequious as ever, soothed any
qualms of conscience that he might feign and told him that what he had
done would be a crown of righteousness at the Day of Judgment. Ere
long a mortal crown, that of Despot, was placed by the Patriarch on
his head. But nothing short of the imperial title would satisfy his
ambition. Possible rivals were driven into exile; promises and a liberal
use of the public money, now at his disposal, secured him the support of
the Church for his further designs; and the Patriarch, who still felt
CH. XVI.
## p. 508 (#550) ############################################
508
Michael VIII Palaeologus crowned Emperor
some scruples at the abandonment of the boy-Emperor's cause, was
compelled to perform the coronation ceremony. Oaths were cheap at
Nicaea, and the hypocritical Palaeologus found no difficulty in praying
that he might be handed over to the devil if he should plan any harm
against the lawful heir and successor of the Empire. With equal
readiness all ranks of the nation swore, under pain of excommunication,
that, if one of the two Emperors were found scheming against the other,
they would slay the schemer, and that if the plot were successful, they
would kill the usurper and raise some senator to the throne. This
done, Michael Palaeologus was, on 1 January 1259, proclaimed. Emperor,
and a little later crowned at Nicaea. It had been intended by the
partisans of the lawful dynasty that the coronation of the two Emperors
should take place on the same day, and that John IV should first receive
the crown. But, at the last moment, the friends of Palaeologus secured
the postponement of the boy's coronation, while the usurper blandly
promised to hold the imperial dignity merely as a trust during the
minority of the lawful Emperor. His innocent rival, caring for none of
these things and heedless of his approaching fate, was sent back to his
childish games at Magnesia, and Michael VIII, having secured his
position at home, devoted himself to the foreign policy of the Empire,
then in need of a firm hand.
His first thought was for the safety of his European provinces. His
namesake, Michael II of Epirus, had advanced his eastern frontier to the
Vardar, and threatened to become a formidable competitor for the
reversion of Constantinople. Even before his coronation, Palaeologus
had sent his brother John to attack the despot, while he gave him
the option of peace on favourable terms. Strengthened meanwhile by
two matrimonial alliances with Manfred of Sicily and William de
Villehardouin, Prince of Achaia, the despot replied with insolence to the
proposals of the Emperor, who, after futile negotiations at the Sicilian
and Achaian courts, ordered his brother to resume his attack. The
decisive battle of Pelagonia placed the Prince of Achaia at the mercy of
the Emperor, who was thus ultimately able to obtain a permanent footing
in the Peloponnese, and the imperial troops entered the Epirote capital
of Arta, where the luckless Acropolita was still languishing in prison.
The Nicene forces penetrated as far south as Thebes; but these latter
successes had little real value, for even the Greek population regarded
their compatriots from Nicaea as interlopers. Fresh reinforcements
arrived from Italy to aid the native dynasty, and a year after the battle
of Pelagonia the despot's son Nicephorus defeated and captured Alexius
Strategopulus, the imperial commander and the future captor of
Constantinople.
1 The year is absolutely settled not only by Pachyméres (1. 81, 96) but also
by documents signed by Michael VIII as Emperor in 1259. (Miklosich and Müller,
op. cit. , v. 10-3 ; vi. 199–202. )
## p. 509 (#551) ############################################
First attack on Constantinople
509
It was against that city that the efforts of Michael VIII were now
directed. The Emperor Baldwin II, with naïve ignorance of the
relative strength of their respective Empires, had demanded from him
the cession of all his European dominions from Salonica eastward, and,
when he sarcastically refused this ridiculous demand, professed willingness
to be content with an extension of territory to the mouth of the
Maritza. Michael VIII at this told the Latin envoys, who had already
had some experience of his quality as a soldier during his governorship of
Bithynia, that he would remain at peace with their master on condition
that he received half the customs dues and the same proportion of the
profits from the mint. His forces were not yet sufficient for the siege of
so great a city; but in the spring of 1260 they captured Selymbria, and
occupied all the country up to the walls of Constantinople, except the
strong fort of Aphameia outside the Golden Gate, a district inhabited
by Greek farmers, known as “the Independents” because neither party
could depend upon them. The Emperor had been prevented from
taking part in these operations by the resignation of his enemy, the
Patriarch Arsenius, who regarded himself as the representative of the
legitimate Emperor, and whose gran rifiuto, as rare in the Eastern as in
the Western Church, produced a schism dangerous to the usurper. The
election of a new Patriarch favourable to himself demanded his presence
at Lampsacus, and it was only after this question had been settled that
he felt it safe to join his troops before Constantinople. His hopes of
taking the city were based upon the treacherous overtures of one of the
garrison. Among the prisoners captured at the battle of Pelagonia
was a noble Frank, Ancelin de Toucy', who was a cousin of the Greek
Emperor. His relationsbip had procured him his release, and he was at
this time living in a house on the wall and had command of certain of
the gates. Michael accordingly thought that this man, a kinsman whom
he had loaded with presents, might be trusted to betray the city. He
therefore amused the Franks by an attack upon the castle of Galata,
while he was really all the time awaiting the fulfilment of his corre-
spondent's promises. But time went on, the famous archers of Nicaea
continued to display their skill, and yet the gates remained closed. At
last, an evasive message came from Ancelin, to the effect that the governor
of the city had taken away the keys. The Emperor then withdrew, and
accepted the offer of a year's truce with his Latin foes. The only result
of this futile attack was the discovery of the remains of Basil “the
Bulgar-slayer" in the ruined monastery of St John the Evangelist in the
Hebdomon quarter. Michael VIII received the skeleton of his great
1 Acropolita and the Anonymous Chronicler call him simply ’Agéa, adding that
he was one of the prisoners of Pelagonia, which points to Ancelin de Toucy, and
a cousin of Michael VIII, which might apply to a descendant of A. de Cayeux.
But the former was living in Constantinople in the last years of the Latin Empire
(Χρονικόν του Μορέως, 1. 1321).
+
CH. XVI.
## p. 510 (#552) ############################################
510
Diplomatic manquvres of Palaeologus
predecessor with the highest honour, and ordered it to be laid to rest in
the monastery of the Saviour in his newly-won city of Selymbria.
Like a cautious diplomatist, the Emperor used the breathing-space
that he had obtained by his truce with the Latins to create a political
situation favourable to his great design. He sent the serviceable Acro-
polita on a secret mission to the Bulgarian Tsar, Constantine Asên,
doubtless with the object of securing the neutrality of that monarch,
whose wife, the sister of John IV, was naturally indignant at her brother's
exclusion from his rights by the usurper and was urging her husband to
assist him. The Greek envoy was only partially successful ; but on the
side of his Asiatic neighbours, the Seljūq Turks, Michael was able to
feel perfectly secure. With their Sultan he was already on terms of
friendship, dating from the time when he had fled to the court of
Iconium, and now, by a sudden reverse of fortune, Kai-Kā’ūs II and his
brother were glad to find a refuge from the advancing Mongols in the
Greek Empire, and Michael to use the Seljūgs as a buffer against those
formidable hordes. The wives and children of the Sultan were carefully
guarded at Nicaea, while the Sultan accompanied his host on his com-
paigns as a further hostage for the good behaviour of his people.
Having thus courted the neutrality of the Bulgarians and gained the
security of his Asiatic dominions, Michael sought the alliance of some
Latin state which might aid him in his designs against the Latin
Empire. Of all the Western governments Genoa was most clearly in-
dicated as his ally. The Genoese were a maritime power; they were the
rivals of Venice, whose participation in the Latin conquest of Greece had
given her an enormous preponderance in the Levantine trade, and whose
recent victory in the long-drawn struggle for the church and commerce
of Acre rankled in their minds. On the other hand, if they had fought
against the Nicene Empire in defence of Constantinople in 1236 and had
surprised the vassal island of Rhodes in 1249, and if Vatatzes had once tried
to restrict their commercial privileges, he also had endeavoured to make
them his allies in 1239, and his successor was now only carrying out his
policy. To the shrewd statesmen of Genoa the only obstacle to the
suggested alliance was the certainty of incurring the anger of the Pope,
the special protector of the Latin Empire. But the prospects of larger
profits prevailed over the fear of spiritual punishments. Two Genoese
envoys proceeded to Nymphaeum, and there, on 13 March 1261, was
signed the memorable treaty? which transferred to the Genoese the
commercial supremacy in the Levant so long enjoyed by their hated
competitor. The concessions granted them by Michael were of two
kinds: those within his own Empire, which it was in his power to
bestow at once, and those in his prospective dominions, at present
1 Continuator Caffari apud Muratori, RR. II. SS. vi. 481.
2 The best text is in Atti della Società Ligure di Storia patria, xxvii. 791-809.
## p. 511 (#553) ############################################
Treaty of Nymphaeum
511
occupied by the Franks. In the former category were included the
absolute possession of Smyrna, already a flourishing port; and the
right to an establishment with churches and consuls not only there but
at Anaia and Adramyttium, in the islands of Lesbos and Chios, and
at Cassandria in the parts of Salonica ; in the latter were comprised
similar grants at Constantinople and in the islands of Crete and Euboea,
together with the confirmation of their old privileges in the imperial
city, and the church of St Mary and the site of the Venetian castle
there in the event of their sending a naval force to aid in the siege.
Free-trade throughout the present and future provinces of the Greek
Empire, and the closing of the Black Sea to all foreign ships except
those of Genoa and Pisa; an annual present of money and three
golden pallia to the commune and archbishop of Genoa, in revival
of the ancient custom; and war against Venice till such time as both
the high contracting parties should decide upon peace : such were
the further advantages gained by the Genoese. On their side they
promised to grant free-trade to the Emperor's subjects, to allow no
hostile force to be equipped against him in their ports, and to arm a
squadron of 50 or fewer galleys, if the Emperor demanded it, for his
service but at his expense, provided that they were not employed against
the Pope, or the friends of the republic in the West or East, among the
latter the Prince of Achaia and his successors, the King of Cyprus, and
the Knights of St John. On 10 July this treaty was ratified by the
republic; fifteen days later, before the Genoese Alotilla had had time
to arrive", Constantinople fell.
In the early part of 1261 Michael VIII had sent his experienced
general, Alexius Strategopulus, now released from his Epirote prison,
to Thrace at the head of a small force of Greeks and Cumans, with
orders to keep that region quiet and the Bulgarians in check. At the
same time he was told to make a demonstration before Constantinople,
not with any hope of taking the city-for his army was not considered
sufficient for such an enterprise—but in order to frighten the Latin
garrison. Strategopulus, on reaching the modern village of Kuchuk
Chekmejeh, received from the “ Independents,” who were constantly
going to and fro between the city and their farms in the country, informa-
tion which led him to risk an attempt at capturing the capital of the
Latin Empire. He knew that Baldwin II was in desperate straits ; his
informants told him that the new Venetian podestà, Marco Gradenigo, had
gone with almost the whole of the garrison to attack the island of
Daphnusia, which lies off the south coast of the Black Sea, and then
formed part of the Nicene Empire? ; while his nephew Alexius and an
1 Cf. Meliarikes, Ιστορία του Βασιλείου της Νικαίας, 654-8, where all the
authorities for this statement are collected.
Fragmentum Murini Sunuti apud Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romanes, 172.
2
CH. XVI.
## p. 512 (#554) ############################################
512
Capture of Constantinople
“Independent” called Koutritzákes reminded him of a prophecy that
three persons of their names should one day take Constantinople. He
therefore moved to Balukli, opposite the Selymbria gate, where his con-
federates shewed him an old aqueduct, through which a body of soldiers
one by one could enter the city, underneath the walls. A dark night
was chosen for the venture; the band of subterranean invaders emerged
safely inside the fortifications, silently scaled the ramparts, hurled the
somnolent Latins to destruction below, burst open the gate, and pro-
claimed the Emperor Michael from the walls, as a signal to their
friends to enter. Strategopulus and his troops, not more than 1000 in
number, thus obtained possession of Constantinople without striking a
blow, in the early morning of 25 July 1261. The cautious general did
not advance into the heart of the city till broad daylight enabled him to
ascertain the real numbers of the remaining garrison. Indeed, at one
moinent he had almost given the signal for retreat at the appearance of
an armed body of Franks. But the“ Independents,” who knew that their
lives depended on his success, rallied to his aid ; panic seized the Latins,
who fled to the monasteries for safety; while their Emperor took refuge
in the Great Palace above the Golden Horn and then, leaving in his
haste the emblems of sovereignty behind him, embarked on a vessel for
Greece and the West.
Meanwhile the expedition against Daphnusia, having failed to
capture that island, was on its way back when the news reached it that
the Greeks were masters of Constantinople. The podestà was not the
man to abandon the city without a struggle for its recovery ; but his
followers had left hostages behind them in the persons of their wives and
children; and when the Greeks set fire to their homes and they saw
their families fleeing in despair across the burning squares which lined the
water's edge, they thought only of saving them. They conveyed all
whom they could on board their vessels, and followed their fugitive
Emperor, leaving Constantinople in the possession of the victorious
Greek general, whom an extraordinary accident had enabled unaided to
accomplish in a night the dream of fifty-seven years.
Michael VIII was at Meteorion in the Hermus valley, when his
sister aroused him from his sleep with the news that Constantinople was
his. At first he refused to believe that so small a force could have
taken so great a city ; indeed, the people would not credit the story
until they saw the regalia of the Latin Emperor. But, as soon as the
report was confirmed, he set out in haste for his new capital, taking
with him his wife and his little son Andronicus, but leaving behind him
at Magnesia the legitimate occupant of the throne, whom he was now
more than ever anxious to displace. On 14 August he arrived before
Constantinople, and, after passing the night in the monastery of
Kosmidion, the modern Eyyüb, entered the city on the morrow through
the Golden Gate. His entry, by his own special desire, partook of a
## p. 513 (#555) ############################################
Nicaea merges in Byzantium
513
religious rather than a political character. Special prayers for the
occasion were composed by the historian Acropolita, in the absence of
Blemmýdes, and recited from one of the towers of the gate by the Metro-
politan of Cyzicus—for the widowed Church had no Patriarch. The
famous image of the Path-finding Virgin guided the Emperor, as, after
many genuflexions, he passed on foot through the Golden Portal to the
neighbouring monastery of Studion; and a thanksgiving service in the
church of the Divine Wisdom completed the ceremonial. But Michael
did not consider the recovery of the ancient seat of Empire duly ratified
till he had been crowned Emperor in the imperial city of Constantine.
His enemy Arsenius was induced to resume his functions as Patriarch,
and to perform this second coronation in Santa Sophia. No mention
was made of the legitimate sovereign in the coronation oath, but
Strategopulus, the real conqueror of Constantinople, received the
honour of a triumph, and his name was ordered to be mentioned for the
space of a year in the public prayers throughout the Empire. John IV
was blinded and imprisoned in a fortress, where many years later the
conscience-stricken successor of the usurper visited him? .
Thus, after the lapse of fifty-seven years, the Empire of Nicaea merged
in the greater glories of Byzantium, and the centre of gravity of Hellenism
was removed from Bithynia to the Bosphorus. Amidst the universal re-
joicing, we are told that one voice was raised in lament at the return to
Constantinople, that of the Emperor's private secretary, who may have
foreseen with the eye of a statesman that the coming Turkish peril
needed a strong bulwark in Asia Minor, or who may have realised that
the past can never be recalled and that the newly-conquered Byzantium
would not be the old. But with a patriotism similar to that of the
Piedmontese and Florentines in our own day, the people of Nicaea and
Nymphaeum acquiesced in an act which, while it redounded to the glory
of the Greek name, reduced their cities to the dull level of provincial
towns. We are told, indeed, that, though Nicaea “like a mother aided
her daughter with all that she had,” yet even after this sacrifice she
still excelled all other cities, some by her situation, some by her fertile
soil, others by her great circumference, others by her beautiful buildings,
others again by her philanthropic establishments. But, when every
year the great festival of St Tryphon was celebrated in the church
which Theodore II had built, the thoughts of the older men may have
gone back with regret to the time when the Patriarch resided in their
midst, when letters flourished by the waters of the Askanian mere,
when
the heralds announced the arrival of the Emperor in the holy city from
his autumn pleasaunce of Nymphaeum.
The Empire of Nicaea, the chief of the three mainstays of Hellenism
after the Frankish Conquest, has left but few tangible memorials behind
? But a document of Charles I of Anjou, dated Trani 9 May 1273, states that he
has escaped and invites him to Sicily. ASI, Ser. 111. , vol. xxii. 32.
C. MED. A. VOL.
coffin still bears the simple epitaph: “Here lies the lady Constance,
august Empress of Greece. "" Even in the strange romance of medieval
Greek history there are few stranger pages than the varied career of this
unhappy exile, a sacrifice to politics and the sport of chance.
The connexion between Vatatzes and the great enemy of the Papacy
in Western Europe did not prevent the astute Emperor from endeavour-
1 MPG. , cxlii. 605-9.
2 Les Registres d'Alexandre IV, 1. 88.
3 N. de Jamsilla apud Muratori, RR. II. SS. vii. 506.
+ Carini, Gli Archivi e le biblioteche di Spagna, 11. 9, 18, 19, 189; Revue des deux
Mondes, 15 March 1902; Diehl, Figures byzantines, 11. 207–25.
## p. 497 (#539) ############################################
Futile attempts at Union with Rome
497
ing to secure the support of Rome, when it suited his policy, by holding
out hopes of a reunion of the Churches. In 1232 the presence of five
Minorites at Nicaea suggested to the Patriarch the despatch of letters to
Pope Gregory IX and the Sacred College, advocating an enquiry into
the differences between the East and the West. The Pope replied,
urging the Greeks to return to the bosom of the Church, and sent four
learned theologians to discuss the doctrinal points at issue. The nice
points raised by the Latins in support of the filioque clause proved too
much for the distinguished philosopher whom the Greeks had put
forward as their champion. Blemmýdes had to be called in to their
aid, and, in the presence of the Emperor, refuted their arguments to his
own complete satisfaction. Vatatzes acted throughout like a statesman,
seeking to make one of those compromises which are the essence of
politics but which are rare in theology. His wise policy failed to
appease the celestial minds of the controversialists, and for some time at
Nymphaeum it rained treatises on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, till
at last the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope. Still, whenever he
thought that he could hasten the fall of the Latin Empire, Vatatzes
renewed his diplomatic overtures to the Holy See, thus calling down
upon his head the reproaches of his father-in-law, who plainly told him
that the papal emissaries really aimed, not at uniting the Churches, but
at sowing tares between the two affectionate sovereigns of the East and
the West. To the very last the Greek Emperor maintained this policy of
compromise. Constantinople, he thought, was worth the promise of a
mass.
Vatatzes was no more successful in healing the schism which had
arisen with the foundation of the despotat of Epirus between the Greek
Churches in Europe and Asia. The despots did not go so far as to
elect a rival Patriarch ; but the bishops in their dominions were con-
secrated by the local metropolitans instead of going to Nicaea. At
first the Metropolitan of Lepanto acted as the head of the Epirote
Church ; when the political centre of gravity was transferred to Salonica,
Demetrius Chomatianós, the learned theologian who held the ancient
see of Ochrida, became its primate, and crowned the Emperor Theodore,
an act which caused the greatest indignation at Nicaea, as a usurpation
of the Patriarch's prerogative. The dispute between the rival ecclesias-
tical authorities reached its height when the Emperor of Salonica refused
to allow the see of Durazzo to be filled by a nominee of the Nicene
Patriarch. The schism continued until 1232, when the Emperor
Theodore had fallen and his brother Manuel, anxious to secure the
favour of Vatatzes, made his submission to the Patriarch, who sent an
ecclesiastic from Asia to represent him in Europe? . But, even after the
annexation of the Empire of Salonica and throughout the rest of this
1 Miklosich and Müller, Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Aevi, III. 59–65; B2.
C. MED. H. VOL. IV. CH. XVI.
32
XVI. 120-42.
## p. 498 (#540) ############################################
498
Ecclesiastical policy. Material prosperity
period, the Greek Church in the independent despotat of Epirus
remained autocephalous. The only European bishops who took part in
the synods of Nicaea were those from the European provinces of the
Empire. As both the Serbian and Bulgarian Churches had obtained
the recognition of their independence, owing to the political exigencies
of the Nicene Emperors, the Ecumenical Patriarch had a very restricted
jurisdiction. Even in Asia Minor, Trebizond continued to dispute his
authority, while the Manichaean heresy, which has played so important
a part in the history of Bosnia and Bulgaria, now crept into the Nicene
Empire. It was some compensation, however, that after 1231 no Roman
Catholic bishopric survived there.
Like a wise statesman, Vatatzes took pains to cultivate the favour of
so powerful a national and political force as the Greek Church, while he
was careful to see that the Patriarch should not be too independent.
One of his biographers? tells us that he was especially good to monks,
and that" he spoke to an archbishop almost as if he were in the presence
of God. ” He issued strict orders that the civil authorities should not
seize Church property either in the lifetime or on the demise of a bishop,
but that an ecclesiastical administrator should take charge of the estate
until the vacancy had been filled? He founded or restored the famous
monastery of Sósandra near Magnesia--that “wonder of the world"
which inspired Blemmýdes to write verses, and which was the mausoleum
of the Emperor and his son; he rebuilt and endowed the monastery on
Mt Lembos near Smyrna, and erected the church of St Anthony the
Great at Nicaea, while his first wife founded that of St John Baptist
at Prusa and a convent of Our Lady. But, with a view to the extension
of his political influence, he did not confine his munificence to his
own dominions. He redeemed many churches in Constantinople from
destruction by the Franks, and even in the French seigneurie of Athens
the Greek monasteries received benefits from his hand 3.
In the intervals of his campaigns Vatatzes devoted himself with con-
spicuous success to the economic development of his Empire. Under his
patriarchal government the land enjoyed great material prosperity. He
was so excellent a manager that the produce of the crown lands not only
sufficed for the maintenance of his table, but left him a surplus for the
foundation of hospitals, workhouses, and asylums for the aged, so that
after his time Nicaea was said to have better philanthropic institutions
than any other city. He devoted much attention to stock-breeding,
after the fashion of modern monarchs, and endeavoured to induce the
aristocracy to subsist on their landed estates by practical farming. The
Seljūq Empire afforded a ready market for their cattle and corn, owing
1 Sathas, Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, νια. 506.
2 Revue des études grecques, vii. 71-80.
3 Blemmýdes, 112, 115; Ephraemius, 318; Sáthas, op. cit. , 509; Nicephorus
Gregorâs, I. 44, 50; BZ. xiv. 217, 232.
## p. 499 (#541) ############################################
Literature
499
to the devastations committed there by the Mongols, and so great was the
demand that the Greek farmers could command fancy prices for their
produce. Out of the money obtained from the sale of eggs from the
imperial hen-roosts the Emperor was able in a short time to buy his
consort a magnificent coronet of pearls. The natural result of this
general prosperity was the increase of luxury, and the nobles spent their
money in silken garments from Italy and the East. The Emperor resolved to
restrain the extravagance of his subjects and at the same time to encourage
national industries at the expense of the foreigner, who had profited by
the free-trade policy of his predecessor. He therefore forbade them to
wear foreign stuffs or to consume foreign products, under pain of losing
their position in society. A Greek nobleman should wear, he thought,
a Greek costume, a doctrine no longer esteemed by his countrymen.
He shewed his sincerity by making his own family conform to the law,
and sternly rebuked his son for going out hunting in a rich garment of
silk, reminding him that such luxuries were wrung from the life-blood of
the Greeks, and should only be displayed when it was necessary to
impress foreign ambassadors with the wealth of the nation. Instead of
wasting its resources upon court pageants, he devoted what was thus
saved to the strengthening of the national defences against the Mongols,
forming a central depôt at Magnesia, and accumulating large quantities
of corn, which was stored in sealed granaries for use in case of invasion.
In short, all his financial arrangements were of the most business-like
character; every effort was made to prevent the Oriental vice of pecula-
tion on the part of the “dukes " who governed the provinces, and the
dilatoriness of an official of the treasury was punished by so severe a
fogging that he died.
Although he was a practical man of affairs, Vatatzes shewed the
usual Greek desire for the encouragement of learning. The historian
Acropolita acted as his secretary and envoy; the austere Blemmýdes
and the historian were successively tutors of his son; another historian,
George Pachyméres, was born at Nicaea during his reign ; one of his
Patriarchs, Germanus II, has left behind him some literary remains.
Rhetoric and philosophy were cultivated under his auspices; he founded
libraries of technical and scientific books in various cities, sent Blem-
mýdes to collect valuable manuscripts in Thessaly and Macedonia, and
expressed the opinion that the king and the philosopher are alone really
famous.
His first wife, a woman of masculine abilities, shared his
literary tastes, and once tried to pose the young Acropolita by asking
hin the cause of an eclipse, while the Margrave of Hohenburg's mission
was made the occasion for a learned competition between the Latins and
their Greek hosts, in which the latter were victorious.
Vatatzes did not long survive his campaign against the Epirote
Greeks. On his return to Nicaea he was suddenly seized with an attack
of apoplexy, which rendered him speechless for thirty-six hours. As
יי
CH. XVI.
3242
## p. 500 (#542) ############################################
500
Death and Canonisation of Vatatzes
soon as he had recovered sufficiently to travel, he ordered his attendants
to convey him to his beloved Nymphaeum. The change of climate
availed nothing, however, against the return of his malady. He was
affected with frequent fainting-fits; his flesh wasted away; and he in
vain made a pilgrimage to the miraculous image of Our Lord at Smyrna
in the hope of obtaining relief. At length, after his malady had lasted
for more than a year, he died at Nymphaeum on 30 October 1254, aged
62 years, nearly 33 of which he had passed on the throne. The faithful
Acropolita delivered his funeral oration ; a eulogy of his exploits was
composed by his son, and future generations looked back upon him as
“the father of the Greeks. ” In the fourteenth century he even attained
to the honours of a saint. When the Turks threatened the Sósandra
monastery about 1304, his remains were removed for safety to Magnesia.
The watchman of the castle, while going his rounds, was struck by the
appearance of a strange lamp, which moved about the ramparts as if
on a tour of inspection. When the phenomenon was thrice repeated, he
reported it to his superiors, and a search was made. For some time the
phantom light eluded the investigators, until at last the watchman's
deaf brother declared that he had seen a man dressed in imperial robes
and had heard him say that he had charge of the watch. The ghostly
guardian of Magnesia was at once recognised as none other than that of
the dead Emperor John “the Merciful,” who had risen from his grave to
defend the city. The capture of Magnesia confirmed, instead of dimin-
ishing, the fame of his supernatural power ; for when the Turks threw
his bones over the cliffs, they worked miracles on the faithful, who
collected them with pious care and built a shrine above them. Thence-
forth St John Vatatzes the Merciful was worshipped as a saint at
Magnesia, at Nymphaeum, and in Tenedos; 4 November was celebrated
as his festival ; and an encomium and a choral service were composed in
his honourl.
Vatatzes had not followed the usual Byzantine custom of proclaiming
his successor during his own lifetime, for he was afraid of spoiling the
character of the heir-apparent and of offending the susceptibilities of the
people. But there was no doubt that his only son Theodore, who bore
the name of Lascaris to shew his direct descent from the founder of the
dynasty, would be chosen. As soon as his father's funeral was over, he
was lifted on a shield and proclaimed Emperor at Nymphaeum. The
ceremony was not, however, complete until he had been consecrated by
the Patriarch, whose office had just fallen vacant. Theodore accordingly
hastened on the election of that official ; and, for the sake of form,
offered the post to his old tutor Blemmýdes, in the hope that the
wilful ecclesiastic would refuse. Blemmýdes knew his former pupil, and
did not disappoint him. He declined the honour so insincerely tendered ;
i Pachyméres, 11. 400–2; B2. xiv. 193-233 ; Agathángelos, ’Aquatekŋ ’Akolovdia
του Αγίου Βασιλέως Ιωάννου του Βατάτση του Ελεήμονος.
## p. 501 (#543) ############################################
Theodore II Lascaris : his education and writings 501
Theodore at once ordered the election of a monk of little culture who in
the brief space of a single week was consecrated successively deacon,
priest, and Patriarch. Without further delay, on Christmas Day,
Theodore II Lascaris was crowned Emperor at Nicaea.
The new Emperor had not completed his thirty-third year when he
ascended the throne. Few sovereigns have been more carefully pre-
pared for their duties than the heir of Vatatzes. All that education, in
the Byzantine sense of the word, could do, had been done for the future
monarch. He had enjoyed the best instruction that his father's Empire
could provide; he had studied literature, mathematics, and, above all,
philosophy, and he professed the eminently Greek opinion that know-
ledge was synonymous with virtue. Save for an occasional hunting-
party, he had devoted his ample leisure before his accession exclusively
to his books, and he early aspired to a place in the gallery of royal
authors. He has accordingly left us a voluminous literary legacy, mostly
the work of these earlier years. Theology and satire, a prayer to the
Virgin and a eulogy of Nicaea, a funeral oration on Frederick II, and
no less than 218 letters, are among the varied products of his instructed
mind. But as a writer he was too academically educated to be original;
his ideas are overwhelmed in a jungle of rhetoric; and his style, on
which he prided himself and eagerly sought the judgment of the critics,
strikes us, even in his private letters, as frigid and jejune. His corre-
spondence, to which we naturally look for interesting sidelights on his
temperament and times, abounds in commonplaces, but, with the excep-
tion of the letters written after his accession, is singularly barren of
historical facts. Upon his character his studies had made no real imprint;
like Frederick the Great, he affected philosophy as a Crown Prince, only
to discard it as mere theory when he was brought face to face with the
realities of government. Feeble in health and fond of solitude, he had
abnormally developed one side of his nature. He was, in a word, a
mass of nerves, an“ interesting case” for a modern mental specialist.
His short reign not only falsified the maxim of Plato that all would be
well if kings were philosophers or philosophers kings, but afforded one
more instance of the truism that the intellectual type of monarch is not
the most successful, even for a nation which, in its darkest hours, by the
waters of Nicaea or in the Turkish captivity, has never ceased to cherish
the love of learning.
The new Emperor had good reasons for hastening on his coronation.
No sooner had the news of Vatatzes' death reached the Bulgarian capital
than the Tsar Michael Asên seized this opportunity of recovering his
lost provinces, which the Greek Government had not had time to con-
solidate with the rest of the Empire. The Bulgarian inhabitants
welcomed, and the Greek garrisons were not strong enough to resist, the
invaders. Rhodope at once rose in rebellion; it was feared that the
whole Greek Empire in Europe might become Bulgarian. So pressing
. . .
CH. XVI.
## p. 502 (#544) ############################################
502
Theodore Lascaris' Bulgarian campaigns
was the danger that Theodore crossed the Dardanelles in January 1255,
and began, though in the depth of winter, his first Bulgarian campaign.
Success crowned his arms; Stara Zagora fell; but the impregnable
fortress of Chepina in the hollow between the ranges of Rila and Rhodope,
the key of both Sofia and Philippopolis, baffled all his efforts. When
ordered to attack it, his generals, one of them Alexius Strategopulus
the future conqueror of Constantinople, first fled at the sound of the
enemy's approach, and then refused to renew the attempt. Theodore's
energy might have shamed these cowardly or treacherous soldiers.
Hearing that Melnik was being besieged by the governor to whom
it had been entrusted, he marched with extraordinary rapidity from
Hadrianople to Seres, forced the narrow defile through which the
Struma flows, and saved the threatened citadel, whose garrison hailed
him as "the swift eagle. ” Thence he hastened as far west as Prilep,
recovering one place after another from his Bulgarian brother-in-law,
till at last Chepina alone remained unconquered. But the season was
now far advanced for a Balkan campaign, and Theodore's plucky march
against that mountain-girt fortress had to be abandoned. Leaving his
forces at Demotika in the charge of two incompetent generals (for, like
most speculative statesmen, he was a bad judge of character) the
Emperor re-crossed into Asia.
In the following spring he began a second Bulgarian campaign.
During his absence, the position had changed for the worse; the
Bulgarian Tsar had attracted a force of Cumans to his standards, and
the Greek generals, in direct disobedience of their master's orders, had
risked an engagement with those formidable auxiliaries, in which one was
taken prisoner and the other only escaped thanks to the swiftness of his
horse. Theodore's energy and large army speedily restored the prestige
of the Greek name. Michael Asên accordingly begged his father-in-law,
the Russian prince Rostislav of Chernigov, to mediate between him and his
enemy. The Russian prince accepted the office of peace-maker, met the
Greek Emperor, and had no difficulty in making a treaty with him on
terms which both parties considered favourable. Bulgarians and Greeks
received back their ancient frontiers, but the virgin fortress of Chepina
was ceded to Theodore. Such was his joy that he loaded the Russian
prince with presents, and despatched a dithyrambic proclamation to
his Asiatic subjects announcing the signature of peace, and extolling the
importance of the cession of Chepina'. His nervous system was so much
affected by this excitement that the mere suggestion of fraud on the
part of the Russian negotiator made him fall upon the luckless
Acropolita, who had drafted the treaty, call that rather solemn personage
an “ass" and a “fool," and order a sound beating to be given him for
his pains. The assassination of Michael Asên and the marriage of the
וי
1 Epistulae, pp. 279-82; Archiv f. slav. Philol. xxi. 622-6; B2. ix. 569; xvII. 181.
## p. 503 (#545) ############################################
Early career of Michael Palaeologus
503
new Tsar with one of Theodore's daughters confirmed the validity of
the peace.
The close of the Bulgarian war made the Despot Michael II of
Epirus anxious to conciliate a rival who might now turn his undivided
attention to the invasion of that independent Greek state, always an
eye-sore of the Nicene Emperors. The long engagement of their children
had not yet ripened into marriage; so the saintly consort of the despot
was sent with her son Nicephorus to meet the victorious monarch.
Theodore on this occasion shewed a lack of chivalry which proved how
much his character had materialised since his accession. He took advan-
tage of his visitor's sex and defenceless position to extort from her the
two cities of Servia and Durazzo, respectively the keys of the east and
the west, as the price of this alliance. Thereupon the marriage ceremony
was solemnly performed at Salonica, but the contract which he had been
forced to sign rankled in the mind of Michael, and a breach of the
peace between Epirus and Nicaea was only a question of time.
Theodore had scarcely celebrated the wedding of his daughter when
the arrival of an alarming despatch from his deputies in Bithynia
hastened his return to Asia. The news was that Michael Palaeologus,
the most ambitious of his officials, had fled to the Seljūq Turks! We
have already seen this crafty intriguer, who was destined to play so
great a part in Byzantine history, receiving the post of governor of
Seres and Melnik from Vatatzes. The family of Palaeologus, according
to a legend still preserved on the walls of the Palazzo Municipale at
Viterbo, traced its origin to a certain Remigius Lellius of Vetulonia.
Historically, however, it is first mentioned towards the end of the
eleventh century, and a hundred years later had risen to such eminence
that one of its members married the eldest daughter of Alexius III, and
was intended by that emperor to be his successor. The daughter of
this marriage married another Palaeologus, who held high office at the
Nicene court, and the offspring of the latter union was the future
Emperor, who was thus “ doubly a Palaeologus," alike on his father's
and on his mother's side. His direct descent from the Emperor
Alexius, combined with his ambitious disposition, made him an object of
suspicion and envy. While governor of Melnik he had been accused
of high treason, and had only saved himself by the witty offer to submit
his innocence to the ordeal of red-hot iron if the holy Metropolitan of
Philadelphia would hand him the glowing metal. The embarrassment
of the divine, suddenly invited to test in his own person his theory that
pure hands would be unscathed by the fiery ordeal, greatly delighted the
court; the accused was acquitted, but the suspicions of Vatatzes were
only allayed when he had bound his intriguing subject by a fresh oath
of loyalty and by a matrimonial alliance with his great-niece still closer
to his throne. The rank of Great Constable and the command in
1 Miklosich and Müller, op. cit. , vi. 197-8.
CH. XVI.
## p. 504 (#546) ############################################
504
War in Epirus
Bithynia might seem sufficient to satisfy even the vaulting ambition of
this dangerous noble. But Theodore II, whose policy it was to diminish
the influence of the aristocracy and to surround the throne with men of
humble origin who owed everything to himself, still nourished suspicions
of Palaeologus, and publicly threatened to put out his eyes. This
tactless conduct was the immediate cause of the Great Constable's flight
to the court of Iconium. The Emperors of Nicaea were always nervous
of Seljūq invasions, and Theodore therefore returned to his eastern
dominions, leaving Acropolita, once more restored to favour, as his
governor-general in the west.
Fortunately the Sultan Kai-Kā'ús II was at this moment himself
threatened with a Mongol attack. Instead of returning at the head of
a Seljūq force to usurp the Greek throne, the fugitive, with profuse
expressions of loyalty to the Christian Emperor and of devotion to the
Christian religion, assisted the Turks to defeat the Mongol hordes.
But the advance of the Mongols soon forced the Sultan to implore the
aid of Theodore himself against the common enemy, ceding him as the
price of his support the cities of Laodicea and Chonae, the latter of
which had been abandoned by the first Emperor of Nicaea. The
Mongols, however, succeeded in making the Sultan their tributary, and
Palaeologus, finding his protector thus reduced, was glad to return to
the service of his former master. Theodore again exacted from him the
most solemn oaths of fidelity to himself and his son, and restored him
to his former office, nor was it long before the state of the European
provinces gave him a fresh opportunity of displaying his energies.
The appointment of his brother John as governor of Rhodes? was
doubtless a further part of the imperial policy of giving this dangerous
family honourable employment at a distance from the court.
The Despot of Epirus had not forgiven the treachery of Theodore
in extorting Durazzo, his chief city on the Adriatic and at that time
the port of transit between Macedonia and Italy, from a defenceless
The absence of the Emperor in the east and the treachery of
one of the imperial governors gave him the opportunity which he
sought.
The Serbs and Albanians joined his standard against the
Greeks of Nicaea, whose conquests in Europe had made them neighbours
of those peoples ; Acropolita was besieged in the castle of Prilep.
Alarmed at this dangerous coalition, the Emperor despatched Palaeologus
as commander-in-chief to the west ; but his suspicions caused him to
cripple the efficiency of his general by giving him an army small in
number and poor in quality. Thus handicapped, Palaeologus failed to
prevent the capitulation of Prilep, and the unfortunate historian,
dragged about in chains from place to place, had at last ample leisure
in the prison at Arta for meditating on the practical defects in his old
pupil's education. The fall of Prilep was followed by the loss of all
i Miklosich and Müller, op. cit. , vi. 198.
woman.
## p. 505 (#547) ############################################
The Union of the Churches. Domestic policy
505
Macedonia except Salonica ; one imperial commander after another
deserted to Michael II ; and the Emperor, having failed to subdue his
rival by force, resorted to theological weapons. At his instigation, the
Patriarch excommunicated his fellow-Greeks of Epirus. But the
intervention of Blemmýdes, who was a personal friend and correspondent
of the despot, prevented the publication of the anathema, and
Theodore, who had patiently endured to be lectured by his old tutor on
the duties of kingship’, meekly tore up the document and returned it
to the Patriarch. But the loss of his cities and the defection of his
generals made the Emperor more than ever suspicious of Palaeologus.
He ordered the arrest of the Great Constable, on the pretext that the
terrible malady, from which he had now begun to suffer acutely, was due
to the incantations of the man in whom he already saw the future
usurper of his son's throne.
His theological studies on the Procession of the Holy Ghost did not
prevent him from renewing the futile attempts of his father for the
Union of the Churches. Two letters? are extant, in which Theodore
writes to Pope Alexander IV that he desires peace and begs the Most
Holy Father with many adjectives to send inspired men to compose the
differences between Nicaea and Rome. His wish was heard, and in 1256
envoys from the Pope arrived in Macedonia on their way to his capital.
But meanwhile the Emperor had changed his mind. His victorious
campaigns had made the support of the Papacy less valuable to him ;
like his father, he desired union with Rone merely as a step to
Constantinople. After a barren interview with the Papal plenipoten-
tiaries, he told Acropolita to get rid of them as best he coulds.
It was not only in theology that his brief taste of power had made
Theodore an opportunist. He noticed, like all his friends, the deteriora-
tion of his own character. Before his accession he had prized knowledge
before riches; now he wrote that he only cared for gold and jewels.
His excuse was that he needed money for the defence of the Empire
against its many enemies, and for the expenses of representation, so
necessary for impressing the Eastern peoples whom he had to fear. It
was with this object that he received the Mongol ambassadors in
theatrical style, seated on a lofty throne sword in hand; while he held
the sound principle, not always remembered by his successors, that the
Greek Empire should look for its safety neither to foreign alliances
nor to foreign mercenaries, but to a strong Greek army. Accordingly,
he left to his successor a well-filled treasury, for he realised that sound
finance is the first requirement of a state. But, though his military and
financial occupations gave him no time for his old studies after his
accession, he did not neglect the patronage of learning in others. He
1 In his Λόγος, όποιον δει είναι βασιλέα, or Βασιλικός ανδριάς (MPG. CXLII.
611-74).
2 Epistulae, cxLII. -III.
3 Sathas, Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, VII. 529.
CH. XVI.
## p. 506 (#548) ############################################
506
Illness and death of Theodore
founded libraries of the arts and sciences in various cities of his
dominions, where the intellectual gymnastics of Byzantium continued to
be practised. He established and endowed schools of grammar and
rhetoric in the precincts of the church of St Tryphon, the martyr and
patron of Nicaea, which he erected there, provided six scholarships for
the students of the institution out of his privy purse, and conducted
the examinations in person. It appears, however, that the results did not
come up to the founder's expectation, for the pupils were sent back by
the imperial examiner to complete their education? A year or two
later, George of Cyprus found that Nicaea was not exactly the Christian
Athens that the glowing rhetoric of Theodore had depicted it. No one
could instruct him in Aristotle's logic; grammar and poetry were alone
taught and those only superficially, and the academic curriculum had
not got beyond the legend of Oedipus and the Trojan war? Still there
was no lack of literary society at Theodore's court. Acropolita and his
anonymous epitomisers were both companions of the monarch on his
journeys; the Patriarch Arsenius strove to imitate the measures of
Anacreon in a Paschal hymn; Theodore Metochítes vied with his
imperial namesake in a panegyric of their native city of Nicaea.
The hereditary malady from which he suffered, aggravated by over-
work, now began to tell upon the Emperor's brain. His suspicion of
everyone of eminence led him to commit acts of tyranny against the
aristocracy, in which he was obsequiously supported by the time-serving
Patriarch and by his bosom-friend and old playmate, George Muzalon,
a man of humble origin, whom he had raised to the highest offices of
state and married to a princess of the imperial house, and who was his
most trusted adviser. Soon Theodore's body as well as his brain was
affected, he felt that his end was at hand, and he craved from his old
tutor Blemmýdes the remission of his sins. The stern monk, who had
courageously opposed the Emperor's despotic policy, refused to forgive
the dying and repentant sovereign. Theodore then turned to the
Metropolitan of Mitylene, fell at his feet in a flood of tears, and implored
his pardon and that of the Patriarch. He then exchanged his imperial
robes for those of a monk, and soon afterwards, in August 1258,
breathed his last, aged 36. His brief reign of less than four years did
not enable him to make a great mark upon the history of his time;
while his voluminous writings are mainly interesting as a proof of that
morbid self-consciousness which was the key of his character and was
doubtless the result of disease.
Theodore's only son, John, was not quite eight years old at the death
of his father, who in his will had accordingly appointed George
Muzalon regent during the minority. Such an appointment was certain
? Epistulae, XLIV. , CCXVII.
2 MPG. CXLII. 21-5.
3 Identified by Heisenberg with Theodore Scutariota, Analecta, 3–18.
## p. 507 (#549) ############################################
Regency and murder of Muzalon
507
to arouse the indignation of the nobles, who had been proscribed by the
low-born favourite and were resolved never to accept his dictatorship.
Conscious of the opposition to himself, the regent in vain endeavoured to
secure the succession by extracting the most solemn oaths of allegiance
to his young charge from the prelates, the senate, the army, and the
people, and by removing the child-Emperor to a strong fortress, while he
offered to resign his own post to anyone whom the nobles might select.
For the moment the conspirators dissimulated, and Michael Palaeologus,
the most prominent of them, begged the regent in their name to retain
his office. When they had thus succeeded in allaying his suspicions,
they made their preparations for his overthrow. The commemoration of
the late Emperor in the mausoleum at Sósandra was chosen for the
attack; the Frankish mercenaries, who were commanded by Palaeologus,
and had been deprived of their pay and privileges during the late reign
at the instigation of the all-powerful minister, were ready to assassinate
their enemy at a hint from their leader. When the fatal day arrived,
the conspirators and the mercenaries took up their places at the church
of the monastery. As soon as Muzalon and his two brothers arrived,
the soldiers demanded that the young Emperor should be produced.
His
appearance only increased the uproar; a movement of his hand, in
token that the tumult should cease, was taken as a signal for attack; the
mercenaries rushed into the church, where the service had already begun,
and hacked Muzalon and his brothers to pieces as they crouched at the
altar. Even the still fresh tomb of the Emperor was not safe from
insult.
It was necessary to appoint a new regent without delay, for the
Mongols in the east, the Despot of Epirus in the west, and the lingering
Latin Empire in the north were all enemies whom a child could not
combat. Of the numerous nobles who had been the victims of
Theodore's tyranny, Michael Palaeologus was the ablest and the most
prominent.
He had been the brains of the late conspiracy; he was
affable, generous, and jovial ; he was a distinguished officer; he was
direct descendant of the Angeli and connected by marriage with the
reigning dynasty; his future greatness had been foretold—and the
Nicene Court was very superstitious. All classes of the population, all
three races in the army-Greeks, Franks, and Cumans-welcomed his
selection; he was appointed guardian, the dignity of Grand-Duke was
conferred upon him, and the clergy, obsequious as ever, soothed any
qualms of conscience that he might feign and told him that what he had
done would be a crown of righteousness at the Day of Judgment. Ere
long a mortal crown, that of Despot, was placed by the Patriarch on
his head. But nothing short of the imperial title would satisfy his
ambition. Possible rivals were driven into exile; promises and a liberal
use of the public money, now at his disposal, secured him the support of
the Church for his further designs; and the Patriarch, who still felt
CH. XVI.
## p. 508 (#550) ############################################
508
Michael VIII Palaeologus crowned Emperor
some scruples at the abandonment of the boy-Emperor's cause, was
compelled to perform the coronation ceremony. Oaths were cheap at
Nicaea, and the hypocritical Palaeologus found no difficulty in praying
that he might be handed over to the devil if he should plan any harm
against the lawful heir and successor of the Empire. With equal
readiness all ranks of the nation swore, under pain of excommunication,
that, if one of the two Emperors were found scheming against the other,
they would slay the schemer, and that if the plot were successful, they
would kill the usurper and raise some senator to the throne. This
done, Michael Palaeologus was, on 1 January 1259, proclaimed. Emperor,
and a little later crowned at Nicaea. It had been intended by the
partisans of the lawful dynasty that the coronation of the two Emperors
should take place on the same day, and that John IV should first receive
the crown. But, at the last moment, the friends of Palaeologus secured
the postponement of the boy's coronation, while the usurper blandly
promised to hold the imperial dignity merely as a trust during the
minority of the lawful Emperor. His innocent rival, caring for none of
these things and heedless of his approaching fate, was sent back to his
childish games at Magnesia, and Michael VIII, having secured his
position at home, devoted himself to the foreign policy of the Empire,
then in need of a firm hand.
His first thought was for the safety of his European provinces. His
namesake, Michael II of Epirus, had advanced his eastern frontier to the
Vardar, and threatened to become a formidable competitor for the
reversion of Constantinople. Even before his coronation, Palaeologus
had sent his brother John to attack the despot, while he gave him
the option of peace on favourable terms. Strengthened meanwhile by
two matrimonial alliances with Manfred of Sicily and William de
Villehardouin, Prince of Achaia, the despot replied with insolence to the
proposals of the Emperor, who, after futile negotiations at the Sicilian
and Achaian courts, ordered his brother to resume his attack. The
decisive battle of Pelagonia placed the Prince of Achaia at the mercy of
the Emperor, who was thus ultimately able to obtain a permanent footing
in the Peloponnese, and the imperial troops entered the Epirote capital
of Arta, where the luckless Acropolita was still languishing in prison.
The Nicene forces penetrated as far south as Thebes; but these latter
successes had little real value, for even the Greek population regarded
their compatriots from Nicaea as interlopers. Fresh reinforcements
arrived from Italy to aid the native dynasty, and a year after the battle
of Pelagonia the despot's son Nicephorus defeated and captured Alexius
Strategopulus, the imperial commander and the future captor of
Constantinople.
1 The year is absolutely settled not only by Pachyméres (1. 81, 96) but also
by documents signed by Michael VIII as Emperor in 1259. (Miklosich and Müller,
op. cit. , v. 10-3 ; vi. 199–202. )
## p. 509 (#551) ############################################
First attack on Constantinople
509
It was against that city that the efforts of Michael VIII were now
directed. The Emperor Baldwin II, with naïve ignorance of the
relative strength of their respective Empires, had demanded from him
the cession of all his European dominions from Salonica eastward, and,
when he sarcastically refused this ridiculous demand, professed willingness
to be content with an extension of territory to the mouth of the
Maritza. Michael VIII at this told the Latin envoys, who had already
had some experience of his quality as a soldier during his governorship of
Bithynia, that he would remain at peace with their master on condition
that he received half the customs dues and the same proportion of the
profits from the mint. His forces were not yet sufficient for the siege of
so great a city; but in the spring of 1260 they captured Selymbria, and
occupied all the country up to the walls of Constantinople, except the
strong fort of Aphameia outside the Golden Gate, a district inhabited
by Greek farmers, known as “the Independents” because neither party
could depend upon them. The Emperor had been prevented from
taking part in these operations by the resignation of his enemy, the
Patriarch Arsenius, who regarded himself as the representative of the
legitimate Emperor, and whose gran rifiuto, as rare in the Eastern as in
the Western Church, produced a schism dangerous to the usurper. The
election of a new Patriarch favourable to himself demanded his presence
at Lampsacus, and it was only after this question had been settled that
he felt it safe to join his troops before Constantinople. His hopes of
taking the city were based upon the treacherous overtures of one of the
garrison. Among the prisoners captured at the battle of Pelagonia
was a noble Frank, Ancelin de Toucy', who was a cousin of the Greek
Emperor. His relationsbip had procured him his release, and he was at
this time living in a house on the wall and had command of certain of
the gates. Michael accordingly thought that this man, a kinsman whom
he had loaded with presents, might be trusted to betray the city. He
therefore amused the Franks by an attack upon the castle of Galata,
while he was really all the time awaiting the fulfilment of his corre-
spondent's promises. But time went on, the famous archers of Nicaea
continued to display their skill, and yet the gates remained closed. At
last, an evasive message came from Ancelin, to the effect that the governor
of the city had taken away the keys. The Emperor then withdrew, and
accepted the offer of a year's truce with his Latin foes. The only result
of this futile attack was the discovery of the remains of Basil “the
Bulgar-slayer" in the ruined monastery of St John the Evangelist in the
Hebdomon quarter. Michael VIII received the skeleton of his great
1 Acropolita and the Anonymous Chronicler call him simply ’Agéa, adding that
he was one of the prisoners of Pelagonia, which points to Ancelin de Toucy, and
a cousin of Michael VIII, which might apply to a descendant of A. de Cayeux.
But the former was living in Constantinople in the last years of the Latin Empire
(Χρονικόν του Μορέως, 1. 1321).
+
CH. XVI.
## p. 510 (#552) ############################################
510
Diplomatic manquvres of Palaeologus
predecessor with the highest honour, and ordered it to be laid to rest in
the monastery of the Saviour in his newly-won city of Selymbria.
Like a cautious diplomatist, the Emperor used the breathing-space
that he had obtained by his truce with the Latins to create a political
situation favourable to his great design. He sent the serviceable Acro-
polita on a secret mission to the Bulgarian Tsar, Constantine Asên,
doubtless with the object of securing the neutrality of that monarch,
whose wife, the sister of John IV, was naturally indignant at her brother's
exclusion from his rights by the usurper and was urging her husband to
assist him. The Greek envoy was only partially successful ; but on the
side of his Asiatic neighbours, the Seljūq Turks, Michael was able to
feel perfectly secure. With their Sultan he was already on terms of
friendship, dating from the time when he had fled to the court of
Iconium, and now, by a sudden reverse of fortune, Kai-Kā’ūs II and his
brother were glad to find a refuge from the advancing Mongols in the
Greek Empire, and Michael to use the Seljūgs as a buffer against those
formidable hordes. The wives and children of the Sultan were carefully
guarded at Nicaea, while the Sultan accompanied his host on his com-
paigns as a further hostage for the good behaviour of his people.
Having thus courted the neutrality of the Bulgarians and gained the
security of his Asiatic dominions, Michael sought the alliance of some
Latin state which might aid him in his designs against the Latin
Empire. Of all the Western governments Genoa was most clearly in-
dicated as his ally. The Genoese were a maritime power; they were the
rivals of Venice, whose participation in the Latin conquest of Greece had
given her an enormous preponderance in the Levantine trade, and whose
recent victory in the long-drawn struggle for the church and commerce
of Acre rankled in their minds. On the other hand, if they had fought
against the Nicene Empire in defence of Constantinople in 1236 and had
surprised the vassal island of Rhodes in 1249, and if Vatatzes had once tried
to restrict their commercial privileges, he also had endeavoured to make
them his allies in 1239, and his successor was now only carrying out his
policy. To the shrewd statesmen of Genoa the only obstacle to the
suggested alliance was the certainty of incurring the anger of the Pope,
the special protector of the Latin Empire. But the prospects of larger
profits prevailed over the fear of spiritual punishments. Two Genoese
envoys proceeded to Nymphaeum, and there, on 13 March 1261, was
signed the memorable treaty? which transferred to the Genoese the
commercial supremacy in the Levant so long enjoyed by their hated
competitor. The concessions granted them by Michael were of two
kinds: those within his own Empire, which it was in his power to
bestow at once, and those in his prospective dominions, at present
1 Continuator Caffari apud Muratori, RR. II. SS. vi. 481.
2 The best text is in Atti della Società Ligure di Storia patria, xxvii. 791-809.
## p. 511 (#553) ############################################
Treaty of Nymphaeum
511
occupied by the Franks. In the former category were included the
absolute possession of Smyrna, already a flourishing port; and the
right to an establishment with churches and consuls not only there but
at Anaia and Adramyttium, in the islands of Lesbos and Chios, and
at Cassandria in the parts of Salonica ; in the latter were comprised
similar grants at Constantinople and in the islands of Crete and Euboea,
together with the confirmation of their old privileges in the imperial
city, and the church of St Mary and the site of the Venetian castle
there in the event of their sending a naval force to aid in the siege.
Free-trade throughout the present and future provinces of the Greek
Empire, and the closing of the Black Sea to all foreign ships except
those of Genoa and Pisa; an annual present of money and three
golden pallia to the commune and archbishop of Genoa, in revival
of the ancient custom; and war against Venice till such time as both
the high contracting parties should decide upon peace : such were
the further advantages gained by the Genoese. On their side they
promised to grant free-trade to the Emperor's subjects, to allow no
hostile force to be equipped against him in their ports, and to arm a
squadron of 50 or fewer galleys, if the Emperor demanded it, for his
service but at his expense, provided that they were not employed against
the Pope, or the friends of the republic in the West or East, among the
latter the Prince of Achaia and his successors, the King of Cyprus, and
the Knights of St John. On 10 July this treaty was ratified by the
republic; fifteen days later, before the Genoese Alotilla had had time
to arrive", Constantinople fell.
In the early part of 1261 Michael VIII had sent his experienced
general, Alexius Strategopulus, now released from his Epirote prison,
to Thrace at the head of a small force of Greeks and Cumans, with
orders to keep that region quiet and the Bulgarians in check. At the
same time he was told to make a demonstration before Constantinople,
not with any hope of taking the city-for his army was not considered
sufficient for such an enterprise—but in order to frighten the Latin
garrison. Strategopulus, on reaching the modern village of Kuchuk
Chekmejeh, received from the “ Independents,” who were constantly
going to and fro between the city and their farms in the country, informa-
tion which led him to risk an attempt at capturing the capital of the
Latin Empire. He knew that Baldwin II was in desperate straits ; his
informants told him that the new Venetian podestà, Marco Gradenigo, had
gone with almost the whole of the garrison to attack the island of
Daphnusia, which lies off the south coast of the Black Sea, and then
formed part of the Nicene Empire? ; while his nephew Alexius and an
1 Cf. Meliarikes, Ιστορία του Βασιλείου της Νικαίας, 654-8, where all the
authorities for this statement are collected.
Fragmentum Murini Sunuti apud Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romanes, 172.
2
CH. XVI.
## p. 512 (#554) ############################################
512
Capture of Constantinople
“Independent” called Koutritzákes reminded him of a prophecy that
three persons of their names should one day take Constantinople. He
therefore moved to Balukli, opposite the Selymbria gate, where his con-
federates shewed him an old aqueduct, through which a body of soldiers
one by one could enter the city, underneath the walls. A dark night
was chosen for the venture; the band of subterranean invaders emerged
safely inside the fortifications, silently scaled the ramparts, hurled the
somnolent Latins to destruction below, burst open the gate, and pro-
claimed the Emperor Michael from the walls, as a signal to their
friends to enter. Strategopulus and his troops, not more than 1000 in
number, thus obtained possession of Constantinople without striking a
blow, in the early morning of 25 July 1261. The cautious general did
not advance into the heart of the city till broad daylight enabled him to
ascertain the real numbers of the remaining garrison. Indeed, at one
moinent he had almost given the signal for retreat at the appearance of
an armed body of Franks. But the“ Independents,” who knew that their
lives depended on his success, rallied to his aid ; panic seized the Latins,
who fled to the monasteries for safety; while their Emperor took refuge
in the Great Palace above the Golden Horn and then, leaving in his
haste the emblems of sovereignty behind him, embarked on a vessel for
Greece and the West.
Meanwhile the expedition against Daphnusia, having failed to
capture that island, was on its way back when the news reached it that
the Greeks were masters of Constantinople. The podestà was not the
man to abandon the city without a struggle for its recovery ; but his
followers had left hostages behind them in the persons of their wives and
children; and when the Greeks set fire to their homes and they saw
their families fleeing in despair across the burning squares which lined the
water's edge, they thought only of saving them. They conveyed all
whom they could on board their vessels, and followed their fugitive
Emperor, leaving Constantinople in the possession of the victorious
Greek general, whom an extraordinary accident had enabled unaided to
accomplish in a night the dream of fifty-seven years.
Michael VIII was at Meteorion in the Hermus valley, when his
sister aroused him from his sleep with the news that Constantinople was
his. At first he refused to believe that so small a force could have
taken so great a city ; indeed, the people would not credit the story
until they saw the regalia of the Latin Emperor. But, as soon as the
report was confirmed, he set out in haste for his new capital, taking
with him his wife and his little son Andronicus, but leaving behind him
at Magnesia the legitimate occupant of the throne, whom he was now
more than ever anxious to displace. On 14 August he arrived before
Constantinople, and, after passing the night in the monastery of
Kosmidion, the modern Eyyüb, entered the city on the morrow through
the Golden Gate. His entry, by his own special desire, partook of a
## p. 513 (#555) ############################################
Nicaea merges in Byzantium
513
religious rather than a political character. Special prayers for the
occasion were composed by the historian Acropolita, in the absence of
Blemmýdes, and recited from one of the towers of the gate by the Metro-
politan of Cyzicus—for the widowed Church had no Patriarch. The
famous image of the Path-finding Virgin guided the Emperor, as, after
many genuflexions, he passed on foot through the Golden Portal to the
neighbouring monastery of Studion; and a thanksgiving service in the
church of the Divine Wisdom completed the ceremonial. But Michael
did not consider the recovery of the ancient seat of Empire duly ratified
till he had been crowned Emperor in the imperial city of Constantine.
His enemy Arsenius was induced to resume his functions as Patriarch,
and to perform this second coronation in Santa Sophia. No mention
was made of the legitimate sovereign in the coronation oath, but
Strategopulus, the real conqueror of Constantinople, received the
honour of a triumph, and his name was ordered to be mentioned for the
space of a year in the public prayers throughout the Empire. John IV
was blinded and imprisoned in a fortress, where many years later the
conscience-stricken successor of the usurper visited him? .
Thus, after the lapse of fifty-seven years, the Empire of Nicaea merged
in the greater glories of Byzantium, and the centre of gravity of Hellenism
was removed from Bithynia to the Bosphorus. Amidst the universal re-
joicing, we are told that one voice was raised in lament at the return to
Constantinople, that of the Emperor's private secretary, who may have
foreseen with the eye of a statesman that the coming Turkish peril
needed a strong bulwark in Asia Minor, or who may have realised that
the past can never be recalled and that the newly-conquered Byzantium
would not be the old. But with a patriotism similar to that of the
Piedmontese and Florentines in our own day, the people of Nicaea and
Nymphaeum acquiesced in an act which, while it redounded to the glory
of the Greek name, reduced their cities to the dull level of provincial
towns. We are told, indeed, that, though Nicaea “like a mother aided
her daughter with all that she had,” yet even after this sacrifice she
still excelled all other cities, some by her situation, some by her fertile
soil, others by her great circumference, others by her beautiful buildings,
others again by her philanthropic establishments. But, when every
year the great festival of St Tryphon was celebrated in the church
which Theodore II had built, the thoughts of the older men may have
gone back with regret to the time when the Patriarch resided in their
midst, when letters flourished by the waters of the Askanian mere,
when
the heralds announced the arrival of the Emperor in the holy city from
his autumn pleasaunce of Nymphaeum.
The Empire of Nicaea, the chief of the three mainstays of Hellenism
after the Frankish Conquest, has left but few tangible memorials behind
? But a document of Charles I of Anjou, dated Trani 9 May 1273, states that he
has escaped and invites him to Sicily. ASI, Ser. 111. , vol. xxii. 32.
C. MED. A. VOL.
