No More Learning

1 Albricus in M. G. H. Script. xxIII. 950.
CH. XVI.


## p. 492 (#534) ############################################

492
Reconquest of Macedonia from the Bulgarians
The Mongol peril and internal affairs kept Vatatzes occupied in Asia
during the next few years, for he had pledged himself to aid the new
Seljūq Sultan, Kai-Khusrū II, against this common enemy of both. But,
as soon as the Mongols abandoned their attack on Iconium for other
enterprises, he bethought himself once more of his European possessions.
John of Salonica was now dead, and his brother, the Despot Demetrius,
who had received his title from the Emperor of Nicaea, was a man of loose
and vicious habits, which rendered him unpopular. It was therefore
obvious that his position was insecure and that Vatatzes only needed a
plausible excuse for the annexation of Salonica. His western frontier had
now advanced from the Maritza to a place called Zichna near Seres, and
only a small strip of Bulgarian territory served as a buffer-state between
the two Greek Empires. A coincidence enabled him in the same year to
conquer this Slavonic outpost of Salonica and Salonica itself.
In the autumn of 1246 he was returning from a tour of inspection in
his European dominions. On the banks of the Maritza he received the
news that the young Bulgarian Tsar Kaliman was dead, and that his still
younger brother, Michael Asên, had succeeded him. The temptation to
attack the Bulgarians at such a moment was great, for Greek rulers have
ever been haunted by the vision of Basil“ the Bulgar-slayer. ” Accordingly
Vatatzes returned at once to Philippi, and there on the historic battle-field
summoned a council of war to consider the question. Some argued against
the proposal, on the ground that the army was weak and that the citadel
of Seres, the first Bulgarian fortress, was a strong natural position ;
but Andronicus Palaeologus, father of the future Emperor, whose advice
was all the weightier because he held the post of commander-in-chief, .
urged a forward policy. The governor of Seres speedily capitulated;
the citizens of Melnik responded to an appeal to their Greek origin, while
the Bulgarian party was reminded that a Bulgarian princess was the wife
of the future Greek Emperor. Other places followed their example; the
conquests which John Asên II had made at the expense of the Empire
of Salonica sixteen years before were restored to the Empire of Nicaea;
a treaty of peace was signed with Bulgaria which made the Maritza
the northern, as it had once been the western, boundary of Vatatzes;
while Köstendil in the modern kingdom of Bulgaria and Skoplje in
Serbian Macedonia owned his sway. The days of Basil “ the Bulgar-
slayer " seemed to have returned. A patriotic historian could truly boast
that “ the western frontier of Nicaea marched with that of Serbia. ”ı
At this moment the discontent at Salonica had reached a climax.
The frivolous despot had trampled on the ancient customs and privileges
of that city, and a body of leading citizens sent one of their number to
Vatatzes' camp at Melnik, praying for a renewal of their charter. The
Emperor gladly consented, and resolved to see for himself how matters
stood. He ordered Demetrius to present himself before his lawful
Acropolita, 11. 18.


## p. 493 (#535) ############################################

Annexation of Salonica
493
suzerain and render the homage due. The foolish youth was persuaded
by the conspirators to refuse. A second refusal sealed his fate. The
troops of Vatatzes, aided by treachery, entered the city, and thus in
December 1246 the last shadow of the short-lived Empire of Salonica ceased
to exist. Its last ruler was imprisoned in an Asiatic dungeon; his dominions
were annexed to those of his conqueror. Still, however, Vatatzes had not
united all the free Greeks beneath his sceptre. Michael II, a bold scion
of the house of Angelus, had established himself in Corfù and Epirus and
extended his sway as far east as Monastir, while old blind Theodore still
exercised his ruling passion for power by the waters of Vodená and on
the lake of Ostrovo. For the present, however, the Emperor deemed it
wiser to content himself with the organisation of his new and vast pos-
sessions. Each of the captured cities received an imperial message ;
the future Emperor, Michael Palaeologus, was appointed governor of
Seres and Melnik, and his father governor-general of the European pro-
vinces of the Nicene Empire with residence at Salonica.
Elated with these bloodless triumphs over Bulgarians and Greeks,
Vatatzes returned to Europe in the following spring for the purpose of
recovering the fortress of Chorlu from the Franks, an undertaking
which the growing weakness of the Latin Empire seemed to facilitate.
The governor was Anseau de Cayeux, ex-Regent of the Empire, whose wife
was sister-in-law of the Greek sovereign. Thinking that the latter would
never besiege a place which contained his wife's sister, Anseau left the
castle almost undefended. But Vatatzes was not the man to allow his
private relationships to interfere with his public policy; he prosecuted
the siege, recaptured Chorlu, and cut off the communications of Con-
stantinople with the west by land. But this exploit nearly cost him his
life; he rashly approached the walls to parley with the garrison, and was
only saved as by a miracle from the well-aimed bolt of a Frankish
bowman. He did not press further the advantages which he had gained.
Probably the fear of the Mongols restrained him from continuing his
campaign against Constantinople, for in 1248 we find two Mongol envoys
at the Papal court. Innocent IV received them cordially, and did not
scruple to suggest that their master should attack the schismatic Vatatzes.
But the Mongol emissaries rejoined, with delicate irony, that they could
not advise this policy, because they disliked to encourage “the mutual
hatred of Christians. ”i Having given the Holy Father this lesson in
Christianity, the infidels returned to their own savage country. The
reluctance of the Mongols to invade his dominions seems to have
reassured Vatatzes, for in 1249 he was once more preparing for an
attempt upon Constantinople, with the assistance of his vassal, John
Gabalās, the new ruler of Rhodes, when a sudden revolution in the
fortunes of that island caused the postponement of his plans for the
annexation of what little still remained of the Latin Empire.
1 Matthew Paris, Iistoria Minor, . 38-9; Chronica Majora, v. 38.
cross-
CH, XVI.


## p. 494 (#536) ############################################

494
Recovery of Rhodes. Defeat of Michael II
וי
We saw how Vatatzes had failed, sixteen years before, in his expedition
against Leo Gabalâs, the independent “Lord of Rhodes and the
Cyclades. " Gabalâs had, however, thought it prudent, after that invasion,
to become “the man of Venice," the most powerful maritime state of
that day, and had promised to assist the Venetian authorities in Crete
against Vatatzes during the Cretan insurrection. Soon, however, he
seems to have recognised the suzerainty of Nicaea, retaining the title of
“Caesar" but adding that of “servant of the Emperor" on his coins,
and perhaps receiving as his reward the post of Lord High Admiral'.
His brother and successor dropped the Caesarean style and described
himself as simple “Lord of Rhodes," who, if he were bound to help
his suzerain, looked to him for protection. While the two were at
Nicomedia, the news arrived that the Genoese, who coveted Rhodes as
a commercial centre, had surprised the citadel by a night attack.
Vatatzes at once sent one of his best officers to recover the place. But
the Genoese received valuable assistance from a body of the famous
Frankish cavalry of the Morea, left by Prince William of Achaia on his
way through the island. Reinforcements were necessary before the
French knights could be annihilated, the Genoese garrison reduced to
surrender, and the imperial suzerainty restored.
The last campaign of Vatatzes was directed against his still existing
Greek rivals in Europe. Michael II, the crafty Despot of Epirus, had
thought it prudent to remain on good terms with the conqueror of
Salonica, who was since 1246 his neighbour in Macedonia. He made
a treaty with him and even affianced his eldest son and heir, Nicephorus,
to the Emperor's grand-daughter Maria. But, before the wedding had
taken place, the restless despot, instigated by his uncle, the old in-
triguer Theodore, invaded the Nicene territory in Europe and thus
forced Vatatzes to take up arms for the preservation of his recent
conquests. The despot had shown little diplomatic skill in his choice
of opportunity, for his rival had nothing to fear from either the
Musulmans in Asia or the Bulgarians in Europe. Vatatzes carried all
before him. Old Theodore fled from his possessions at Vodená and
Ostrovo; one distinguished personage after another deserted the despot's
standard, and the latter was compelled to send the Metropolitan of
Lepanto to sue for peace. The Nicene envoys, of whom the historian
Acropolita was one, met Michael II at Larissa, the ancient Thessalian
city, then an important political, ecclesiastical, and even learned? centre.
There peace was signed ; Michael ceded the three Macedonian lakes of
Castoria, Prespa, and Ochrida, as well as the historic fortress of Kroja
in Albania, to the victor; and the historian returned to his master with
the despot's eldest son and the aged schemer Theodore as his prisoners.
1 Schlumberger, Numismatique de l'Orient latin, 216 ; Pl. viii. 19-20; Miklosich
and Müller, Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Aevi, iv. 254.
2 Blemmýdes, 36.


## p. 495 (#537) ############################################

Second marriuge of Vatatzes
495
Theodore vanishes from history in the dungeons of Vatatzes. For half
a century he had disturbed the peace of the Balkan peninsula; he had
experienced every change of fortune; he had made and lost an empire;
he had been the victor and the captive of an Emperor. Now at last
he was at rest.
Meanwhile, the domestic life of the Emperor had been less fortunate
than his campaigns against Franks, Bulgarians, and Epirote Greeks.
On the death of his first wife, Irene, for whose loss the courtly Acropolita',
turned poet for the occasion, had expressed the fear that he would never
be comforted, Vatatzes had married in 1244 Constance of Hohenstaufen,
daughter of the Emperor Frederick II and sister of the luckless Manfred.
The union, despite the great discrepancy of age between the two parties,
promised considerable political advantages. Both the Emperors hated
the Papacy, and while Greek troops were sent to aid Frederick in his
struggle against Rome, Frederick asserted the rights of “the most
Orthodox Greeks” to Constantinople. Vatatzes, as we learn from his
own son’, was dazzled by the brilliance of a match which made him the
son-in-law of the most famous and versatile monarch of the thirteenth
century, while the scholars and theologians of Nicaea would not have
been Greeks if they had not admired the abilities of a ruler who, if a
Frank by birth, yet wrote letters in their beautiful language in praise
of their historic Church. The wedding was celebrated at Prusa with all
the pomp of a military Empire, a court poet composed a nuptial ode,
and Constance took the Greek name of Anna, the more closely to
identify herself with her husband's people. On the other hand, the
Pope was furious at the marriage, and one of the counts of the indict-
ment drawn up against Frederick II at the Council of Lyons was that
he had given his daughter to the excommunicated heretic Vatatzes.
Unfortunately, the young Empress had brought with her from the
West a dangerous rival to her own charms in the person of an attractive
young Italian marchioness, who was one of her maids of honour. The
languishing eyes and the graceful manners of the lady-in-waiting
captivated the heart of the susceptible sovereign, and his infatuation
for his mistress reached such a pitch that he allowed her to wear the
purple buskins of an Empress and gave her a more numerous suite than
that of his lawful consort. The ceremonious court of Nymphaeum was
scandalised at this double breach of morals and etiquette. Its indigna-
tion found vent in the bitter lampoons of Nicephorus Blemmýdes, the
Abbot of St Gregory near Ephesus, whose autobiography is one of the
most vivid pieces of Byzantine literature. Blemmýdes hated the
favourite for her abandoned life and her Italian nationality, for women
and foreigners were his pet aversions. Resolved to brave the patriotic
6.
2 “Satire du Précepteur” (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale), MS. sup. gr. , xxxvII.
f. 56 vº.
1
II.
CH. XVI.


## p. 496 (#538) ############################################

496
Career of Constance of Hohenstaufen
moralist, she forced her way into his church, in all the pomp of the
imperial emblems, at the moment of the consecration. The abbot
instantly ordered the service to cease and bade the shameless hussy quit
the holy place which she defiled by her presence. Stunned by his rebuke,
she burst into tears, while one of her escort attempted to draw his sword
to slay the bold monk at the altar. But the weapon stuck in the scabbard;
the accident was, of course, ascribed to the black arts of the abbot;
and Blemmýdes was accused of lèse-majesté and magic by the infuriated
woman and her baffled cavalier. The accused defended himself in a
violent encyclical"; and the Emperor, from qualms of conscience or
motives of policy, refused to punish so just a man, who had only spoken
the truth, and whose influence was so great with the Puritans and the
Chauvinists of the Empire. From this moment the marchioness dis-
appears from the chronicles of the Nicene court; possibly she married
an Italian and returned to Italy and respectability? For a time the
legitimate Empress gained influence over her husband; she doubtless
read with pleasure the rhetorical funeral oration which her stepson, the
future Emperor Theodore, composed on the death of her father in 1250;
she welcomed her uncle Galvano Lancia and her other relatives, when
they were exiled by Frederick's successor; and a special mission under
the direction of Berthold of Hohenburg was required to procure their
removal from a court at which they had so powerful a protectresss.
The death of Vatatzes and the accession of her step-son deprived her
of her power; but she was still young and attractive, and when
Michael Palaeologus usurped the throne, he sought her first as his
mistress, then, when she scorned the liaison with one who had been her
subject, as his wife, although he was already married. Defeated in this
object, he sent the ex-Empress back to her brother Manfred; but the
latter's fall at Benevento placed her at the mercy of Charles of Anjou.
The Angevin conqueror allowed her to seek an asylum at the court of
Aragon, where her nephew Peter III granted her and her daughter an
annuity. At last, entering a convent, she renounced her claims to the
Greek Empire to James II, and died at a great age in the city of
Valencia. 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.