XLVIII. tine X, Monoma chus, A. D. 1042, June 11. CHAP. indefatigable Zoe, at the age of sixty, consented, for the public good, to sustain the embraces of a Constan- third husband, and the censures of the Greek church. His name and number were Constantine X, and the epithet of Monomachus, the single combatant, must have been expressive of his valour and victory in some public or private quarrel. But his health was broken by the tortures of the gout, and his dissolute reign was spent in the alternative of sickness and pleasure. A fair and noble widow had accompanied Constantine in his exile to the isle of Lesbos, and Sclerena gloried in the appellation of his mistress. After his marriage and elevation, she was invested with the title and pomp of Augusta, and occupied a contiguous apartment in the palace. The lawful consort (such was the delicacy or corruption of Zoe) consented to this strange and scandalous partition; and the emperor appeared in public between his wife and his concubine. He survived them both: but the last measures of Constantine to change the order of succession were prevented by the more Theodora, vigilant friends of Theodora; and after his de A. D. 1054, Nov. 30. cease, she resumed, with the general consent, the possession of her inheritance. In her name, and by the influence of four eunuchs, the eastern world was peaceably governed about nineteen months; and as they wished to prolong their dominion, they persuaded the aged princess to nominate for her successor Michael VI. The Mic' ael surname of Stratioticus declares his military tioticus, profession; but the crazy and decripit veteran could only see with the eyes, and execute with VI, Stra XLVIII. .A. D. 1056, the hands, of his ministers. Whilst he ascended CHAP. the throne, Theodora sunk into the grave; the last of the Macedonian or Basilian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly dismiss, August 22 this shameful and destructive period of twentyeight years, in which the Greeks, degraded below the common level of servitude, were transferred like a herd of cattle by the choice or caprice of two impotent females. Isaac I, 1057, From this night of slavery, a ray of freedom, comue or at least of spirit, begins to emerge: the Greeks nus, A. D. either preserved or revived the use of surnames, August 31. which perpetuate the fame of hereditary virtue; and we now discern the rise, succession, and alliance of the last dynasties of Constantinople and Trebizond. The Comneni, who upheld for a while the fate of the sinking empire, assumed the honour of a Roman origin: but the family had been long since transported from Italy to Asia. Their patrimonial estate was situate in the district of Castamona in the neighbourhood of the Euxine; and one of their chiefs, who had already entered the paths of ambition, revisited with affection, perhaps with regret, the modest though honourable dwelling of his fathers. The first of their line was the illustrious Manuel, who, in the reign of the second Basil, contributed by war and treaty to appease the troubles of the East: he left, in a tender age, two sons, Isaac and John, whom, with the consciousness of desert, he bequeathed to the gratitude and favour of his sovereign. The noble youths were carefully trained in the learning of the monastery, the arts of the palace, and the exercises of the XLVIII. CHAP. camp: and from the domestic service of the guards, they were rapidly promoted to the command of provinces and armies. Their fraternal union doubled the force and reputation of the Comneni, and their ancient nobility was illustrated by the marriage of the two brothers, with a captive princess of Bulgaria, and the daughter of a patrician, who had obtained the name of Charon from the number of enemies whom he had sent to the infernal shades. The soldiers had served with reluctant loyalty a series of effeminate masters; the elevation of Michael VI was a personal insult to the more deserving general; and their discontent was inflamed by the parsimony of the emperor and the insolence of the eunuchs. They secretly assembled in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, and the votes of the military synod would have been unanimous in favour of the old and valiant Catacalon, if the patriotism or the modesty of the veteran had not suggested the importance of birth as well as merit in the choice of a sovereign. Isaac Com. nenus was approved by general consent, and the associates separated without delay to meet in the plains of Phrygia at the head of their respective squadrons and detachments. The cause of Michael was defended in a single battle by the mercenaries of the imperial guard, who were aliens to the public interest, and animated only by a principle of honour and gratitude. After their defeat, the fears of the empe ror solicited a treaty, which was almost accepted by the moderation of the Comnenial. But the former was betrayed by his ambassadors, XLVIII. and the latter was prevented by his friends. CHAP. The solitary Michael submitted to the voice of the people; the patriarch annulled their oath of allegiance; and as he shaved the head of the royal monk, congratulated his beneficial exchange of temporal royalty for the kingdom of heaven: an exchange, however, which the priest, on his own account, would probably have declined. By the hands of the same patriarch Isaac Comnenus was solemnly crowned; the sword which he inscribed on his coins, might be an offensive symbol, if it implied his title by conquest; but this sword would have been drawn against the foreign and domestic enemies of the state. The decline of his health and vigour suspended the operation of active virtue; and the prospect of approaching death determined him to interpose some moments between life and eternity. But instead of leaving the empire as the marriage-portion of his daughter, his reason and inclination concurred in the preference of his brother John, a soldier, a patriot, and the father of five sons, the future pillars of an hereditary succession. His first modest reluctance might be the natural dictates of discretion and tenderness, but his obstinate and successful perseverance, however it may dazzle with the shew of virtue, must be censured as a criminal desertion of his duty, and a rare offence against his family and country. The purple which he had refused was accepted by Con-stantine Ducas, a friend of the Comnenian house, and whose noble birth was adorned with the experience and reputation of civil policy. XLVIII. CHAP. In the monastic habit, Isaac recovered his health, and survived two years his voluntary abdication. At the command of his abbot, he observed the rule of St. Basil, and executed the most servile offices of the convent: but his latent vanity was gratified by the frequent and respectful visits of the reigning monarch, who revered in his person the character of a benefactor and a saint. Constan Ducas A. D. 1059, Dec. 25. If Constantine XI were indeed the subject tine XI, most worthy of empire, we must pity the debasement of the age and nation in which he was chosen. In the labour of puerile declamations he sought without obtaining, the crown of eloquence, more precious, in his opinion, than that of Rome; and, in the subordinate functions of a judge, he forgot the duties of a sovereign and a warrior. Far from imitating the patriotic indifference of the authors of his greatness, Ducas was anxious only to secure, at the expence of the republic, the power and prosperity of his children. His three sons, Michael VII, Andronicus I, and Constantine XII, were invested, in a tender age, with the equal title of Augustus; and the succession was speedily opened by Eudocia, their father's death. His widow, Eudocia, was 1067,May. intrusted with the administration; but experi A. D. ence had taught the jealousy of the dying monarch to protect his sons from the danger of her second nuptials; and her solemn engagement, attested by the principal senators, was deposited in the hands of the patriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants of Eudocia, or those of the state, called aloud for |