HISTORY

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. LXIII.

Civil wars, and ruin of the Greek empire.-Reigns of Andronicus the elder and younger, and John Palæologus.—Regency, revolt, reign, and abdication, of Jobn Cantacuzene.-Establishment of the Genoese colony at Pera or Galata. Their wars with the empire and city of Constantinople.

tion of Au

and the

A. D. 1282

-1320.

THE long reign of Andronicus" the elder is chiefly me- Superstimorable by the disputes of the Greek church, the inva- dronicus sion of the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. times, He is celebrated as the most learned and virtuous prince of the age: but such virtue, and such learning, contributed neither to the perfection of the individual, nor to the happiness of society. A slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on all sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the flames of hell less dreadful to his fancy, than those of a Catalan or Turkish war. Under the reign of the Palæologi, the choice of the patriarch was the most important business of the state; the heads of the Greek church were ambitious and fanatic monks; and their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally mischievous or contemptible. By his intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius

a Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the invective (Nicephorus Gregoras, lib. 1. c. 1.) which he pronounced against historic falsehood. It is true, that his censure is more pointedly urged against calumny than against adulation.

b For the anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer, (lib. 9. c. 24.) who relates VOL. VIII.

B

excited the hatred of the clergy and people; he was heard to declare, that the sinner should swallow the last dregs of the cup of penance; and the foolish tale was propagated of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted the lettuce of a convent garden. Driven from the throne by the universal clamour, Athanasius composed, before his retreat, two papers of a very opposite cast. His public testament was in the tone of charity and resignation, the private codicil breathed the direst anathemas against the authors of his disgrace, whom he excluded for ever from the communion of the holy Trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he inclosed in an earthern pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top of one of the pillars in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of discovery and revenge. At the end of four years, some youths, climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the fatal secret; and, as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly convened to debate this important question; the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was generally condemned; but as the knot could be untied only by the same hand, as that hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power. Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of the emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with no less ardour than Athanasius himself, the restoration of a patriarch, by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of night, a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bedchamber, announcing a revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes. Andronicus started the general history of Athanasius (lib. 8. c. 13-16. 20-24. lib. 10. c. 27-29. 3136. lib. 11. c. 1-3. 5, 6. lib. 13. c. 8. 10. 23. 35.) and is followed by Nicephorus Gregoras (lib. 6. c. 5. 7. lib. 7. c. 1. 9.) who includes the second retreat of this second Chrysostom.

from his bed, and spent the night in prayer, till he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the earth. The emperor, on foot, led the bishops and monks to the cell of Athanasius, and, after a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had been sent, consented to absolve the prince, and govern the church of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace, and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the flock, and his enemies contrived a singular, and, as it proved, a successful mode of revenge. In the night they stole away the footstool, or foot-cloth, of his throne, which they secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The emperor was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the libel were detected and punished; but as their lives had been spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell; and · the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for a moment, were again closed by his successor.

C

d

If this transaction be one of the most curious and important of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of my materials, since I reduce into some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer, Cantacuzene, and Nicephorus Gregoras, who have composed the prolix and languid story of the times. The name and situation of the emperor John Cantecuzene might inspire the most lively curiosity. His memorials of forty years extend from the revolt of the younger Andronicus to his own abdication of the empire; and it is observed, that, like Moses and Cæsar, he was the principal actor in the

• Pachymer, in seven books, three hundred and seventy-seven folio pages, describes the first twenty-six years of Andronicus the elder; and marks the date of his composition by the current news or lie of the day. (A. D. 1308.) Either death or disgust prevented him from resuming the pen.

d After an interval of twelve years from the conclusion of Pachymer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen; and his first book (c. 1-59. p. 9-150.) relates the civil war, and the eight last years of the elder Andronicus. The ingenious comparison with Moses and Cæsar is fancied by his French translator, the president Cousin,

e Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly includes the entire life and reign of Andronicus the elder (lib. 6. c. 1. lib. 10. c. 1. p. 96–291.) This is the part of which Cantacuzene complains as a false and malicious representation of his conduct.

First disputes between the

elder and Jounger Androni

cus,

1.

scenes which he describes. But in this eloquent work we should vainly seek the sincerity of a hero or a penitent. Retired in a cloister from the vices and passions of the world, he presents not a confession, but an apology, of the life of an ambitious statesman. Instead of unfolding the true counsels and character of men, he displays the smooth and specious surface of events, highly varnished with his own praises and those of his friends. Their motives are always pure; their ends always legitimate; they conspire and rebel without any views of interest; and the violence which they inflict or suffer is celebrated as the spontaneous effect of reason and virtue.

After the example of the first of the Palæologi, the elder Andronicus associated his son Michael to the honours of the purple, and from the age of eighteen to his premature death, that prince was acknowledged, above A. D. 1320. twenty-five years, as the second emperor of the Greeks.' At the head of an army he excited neither the fears of the enemy, nor the jealousy of the court: his modesty and patience were never tempted to compute the years of his father; nor was that father compelled to repent of his liberality either by the virtues or vices of his son. The son of Michael was named Andronicus from his grandfather, to whose early favour he was introduced by that nominal resemblance. The blossoms of wit and beauty increased the fondness of the elder Andronicus: and, with the common vanity of the age, he expected to realize in the second, the hope which had been disappointed in the first, generation. The boy was educated in the palace as a heir and a favourite; and in the oaths and acclamations of the people, the august triad was formed by the names of the father, the son, and the grandson. But the younger Andronicus was speedily corrupted by his infant

f He was crowned May 21, 1295, and died October 12, 1320. (Ducange, Fam. Byz. p. 239.) His brother Theodore, by a second marriage, inherited the marquisate of Montferrat, apostatized to the religion and manners of the Latins (óтi naι qvæμn xaι πίσει και σχηματι, και γενειων κουρα και πασιν εθεσιν Λατινος ην ακραιφνης. Nic. Greg. lib. 9. c. 1.) and founded a dynasty of Italian princes, which was extinguished A. D. 1533. (Ducange, Fam. Byz. p. 249–253.)