Chapter LXIII: Civil Wars And The Ruin Of The Greek Empire.—Part

II.

In the strong city of Demotica, his peculiar domain, the emperor
John Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple buskins: his right
leg was clothed by his noble kinsmen, the left by the Latin
chiefs, on whom he conferred the order of knighthood. But even in
this act of revolt, he was still studious of loyalty; and the
titles of John Palæologus and Anne of Savoy were proclaimed
before his own name and that of his wife Irene. Such vain
ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion, nor are there perhaps
any personal wrongs that can authorize a subject to take arms
against his sovereign: but the want of preparation and success
may confirm the assurance of the usurper, that this decisive step
was the effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople
adhered to the young emperor; the king of Bulgaria was invited to
the relief of Adrianople: the principal cities of Thrace and
Macedonia, after some hesitation, renounced their obedience to
the great domestic; and the leaders of the troops and provinces
were induced, by their private interest, to prefer the loose
dominion of a woman and a priest. 271 The army of Cantacuzene, in
sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks of the Melas to
tempt or to intimidate the capital: it was dispersed by treachery
or fear; and the officers, more especially the mercenary Latins,
accepted the bribes, and embraced the service, of the Byzantine
court. After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated between
the two characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen
remnant; but he failed in his enterprise on that important place;
and he was closely pursued by the great duke, his enemy
Apocaucus, at the head of a superior power by sea and land.
Driven from the coast, in his march, or rather flight, into the
mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his troops to
scrutinize those who were worthy and willing to accompany his
broken fortunes. A base majority bowed and retired; and his
trusty band was diminished to two thousand, and at last to five
hundred, volunteers. The _cral_, 28 or despot of the Servians
received him with general hospitality; but the ally was
insensibly degraded to a suppliant, a hostage, a captive; and in
this miserable dependence, he waited at the door of the
Barbarian, who could dispose of the life and liberty of a Roman
emperor. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to
violate his trust; but he soon inclined to the stronger side; and
his friend was dismissed without injury to a new vicissitude of
hopes and perils. Near six years the flame of discord burnt with
various success and unabated rage: the cities were distracted by
the faction of the nobles and the plebeians; the Cantacuzeni and
Palæologi: and the Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks, were
invoked on both sides as the instruments of private ambition and
the common ruin. The regent deplored the calamities, of which he
was the author and victim: and his own experience might dictate a
just and lively remark on the different nature of foreign and
civil war. “The former,” said he, “is the external warmth of
summer, always tolerable, and often beneficial; the latter is the
deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a remedy the
vitals of the constitution.” 29

271 (return) [ Cantacuzene asserts, that in all the cities, the
populace were on the side of the emperor, the aristocracy on his.
The populace took the opportunity of rising and plundering the
wealthy as Cantacuzenites, vol. iii. c. 29 Ages of common
oppression and ruin had not extinguished these republican
factions.—M.]

28 (return) [ The princes of Servia (Ducange, Famil. Dalmaticæ,
&c., c. 2, 3, 4, 9) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in
their native idiom, (Ducange, Gloss. Græc. p. 751.) That title,
the equivalent of king, appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from
whence it has been borrowed by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks,
and even by the Turks, (Leunclavius, Pandect. Turc. p. 422,) who
reserve the name of Padishah for the emperor. To obtain the
latter instead of the former is the ambition of the French at
Constantinople, (Aversissement à l’Histoire de Timur Bec, p.
39.)]

29 (return) [ Nic. Gregoras, l. xii. c. 14. It is surprising that
Cantacuzene has not inserted this just and lively image in his
own writings.]

The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of
civilized nations, is a measure pregnant with shame and mischief;
which the interest of the moment may compel, but which is
reprobated by the best principles of humanity and reason. It is
the practice of both sides to accuse their enemies of the guilt
of the first alliances; and those who fail in their negotiations
are loudest in their censure of the example which they envy and
would gladly imitate. The Turks of Asia were less barbarous
perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia; but their
religion rendered them implacable foes of Rome and Christianity.
To acquire the friendship of their emirs, the two factions vied
with each other in baseness and profusion: the dexterity of
Cantacuzene obtained the preference: but the succor and victory
were dearly purchased by the marriage of his daughter with an
infidel, the captivity of many thousand Christians, and the
passage of the Ottomans into Europe, the last and fatal stroke in
the fall of the Roman empire. The inclining scale was decided in
his favor by the death of Apocaucus, the just though singular
retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or plebeians, whom
he feared or hated, had been seized by his orders in the capital
and the provinces; and the old palace of Constantine was assigned
as the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising
the walls, and narrowing the cells, had been ingeniously
contrived to prevent their escape, and aggravate their misery;
and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of the
tyrant. His guards watched at the gate, and as he stood in the
inner court to overlook the architects, without fear or
suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground, by
two 291 resolute prisoners of the Palæologian race, 30 who were
armed with sticks, and animated by despair. On the rumor of
revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their fetters,
fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the
tyrant’s head, presuming on the favor of the people and the
clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall
of a haughty and ambitious minister, but while she delayed to
resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners,
were excited by the widow of the great duke to a sedition, an
assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of whom the far greater
part were guiltless or inglorious of the deed) escaped to a
neighboring church: they were slaughtered at the foot of the
altar; and in his death the monster was not less bloody and
venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the cause
of the young emperor; and his surviving associates, suspicious of
each other, abandoned the conduct of the war, and rejected the
fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute,
the empress felt, and complained, that she was deceived by the
enemies of Cantacuzene: the patriarch was employed to preach
against the forgiveness of injuries; and her promise of immortal
hatred was sealed by an oath, under the penalty of
excommunication. 31 But Anne soon learned to hate without a
teacher: she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the
indifference of a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by the
competition of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms of a
more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a
synod, and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and
discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage; but the
civil war was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the
moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of
timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces
and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls
of Constantinople; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the
rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest
till he had secured in his favor the public voice and a private
correspondence. An Italian, of the name of Facciolati, 32 had
succeeded to the office of great duke: the ships, the guards, and
the golden gate, were subject to his command; but his humble
ambition was bribed to become the instrument of treachery; and
the revolution was accomplished without danger or bloodshed.
Destitute of the powers of resistance, or the hope of relief, the
inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace, and have
smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the
possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends
and enemies; and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who
professed a loyal and zealous attachment to the son of his
benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John Palæologus was
at length consummated: the hereditary right of the pupil was
acknowledged; but the sole administration during ten years was
vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were
seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general amnesty quieted the
apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the most guilty
subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was
celebrated with the appearances of concord and magnificence, and
both were equally fallacious. During the late troubles, the
treasures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had
been alienated or embezzled; the royal banquet was served in
pewter or earthenware; and such was the proud poverty of the
times, that the absence of gold and jewels was supplied by the
paltry artifices of glass and gilt-leather. 33

291 (return) [ Nicephorus says four, p.734.]

30 (return) [ The two avengers were both Palæologi, who might
resent, with royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The
tragedy of Apocaucus may deserve a peculiar reference to
Cantacuzene (l. iii. c. 86) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xiv. c. 10.)]

31 (return) [ Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the
empress, the mother of his sovereign, (l. iii. 33, 34,) against
whom Nic. Gregoras expresses a particular animosity, (l. xiv. 10,
11, xv. 5.) It is true that they do not speak exactly of the same
time.]

32 (return) [ The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic.
Gregoras, (l. xv. c. 8;) but the name is more discreetly
suppressed by his great accomplice, (Cantacuzen. l. iii. c. 99.)]

33 (return) [ Nic. Greg. l. xv. 11. There were, however, some
true pearls, but very thinly sprinkled. The rest of the stones
had only pantodaphn croian proV to diaugeV.]

I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Cantacuzene. 34
He triumphed and reigned; but his reign and triumph were clouded
by the discontent of his own and the adverse faction. His
followers might style the general amnesty an act of pardon for
his enemies, and of oblivion for his friends: 35 in his cause
their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and as they
wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed the
selfish generosity of a leader, who, on the throne of the empire,
might relinquish without merit his private inheritance. The
adherents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and fortunes
by the precarious favor of a usurper; and the thirst of revenge
was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and even
the safety, of her son. They were justly alarmed by a petition of
the friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be released from
their oath of allegiance to the Palæologi, and intrusted with the
defence of some cautionary towns; a measure supported with
argument and eloquence; and which was rejected (says the Imperial
historian) “by _my_ sublime, and almost incredible virtue.” His
repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and seditions; and he
trembled lest the lawful prince should be stolen away by some
foreign or domestic enemy, who would inscribe his name and his
wrongs in the banners of rebellion. As the son of Andronicus
advanced in the years of manhood, he began to feel and to act for
himself; and his rising ambition was rather stimulated than
checked by the imitation of his father’s vices. If we may trust
his own professions, Cantacuzene labored with honest industry to
correct these sordid and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind
of the young prince to a level with his fortune. In the Servian
expedition, the two emperors showed themselves in cordial harmony
to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was
initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war and government.
After the conclusion of the peace, Palæologus was left at
Thessalonica, a royal residence, and a frontier station, to
secure by his absence the peace of Constantinople, and to
withdraw his youth from the temptations of a luxurious capital.
But the distance weakened the powers of control, and the son of
Andronicus was surrounded with artful or unthinking companions,
who taught him to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile, and to
vindicate his rights. A private treaty with the cral or despot of
Servia was soon followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on
the throne of the elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and
prerogative, which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At
his request the empress-mother undertook the voyage of
Thessalonica, and the office of mediation: she returned without
success; and unless Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we
may doubt the sincerity, or at least the fervor, of her zeal.
While the regent grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous
hand, she had been instructed to declare, that the ten years of
his legal administration would soon elapse; and that, after a
full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor Cantacuzene
sighed for the repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of a
heavenly crown. Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary
abdication would have restored the peace of the empire, and his
conscience would have been relieved by an act of justice.
Palæologus alone was responsible for his future government; and
whatever might be his vices, they were surely less formidable
than the calamities of a civil war, in which the Barbarians and
infidels were again invited to assist the Greeks in their mutual
destruction. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and
everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third
contest in which he had been involved; and the young emperor,
driven from the sea and land, was compelled to take shelter among
the Latins of the Isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy
provoked the victor to a step which must render the quarrel
irreconcilable; and the association of his son Matthew, whom he
invested with the purple, established the succession in the
family of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople was still attached
to the blood of her ancient princes; and this last injury
accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese
espoused the cause of Palæologus, obtained a promise of his
sister, and achieved the revolution with two galleys and two
thousand five hundred auxiliaries. Under the pretence of
distress, they were admitted into the lesser port; a gate was
opened, and the Latin shout of, “Long life and victory to the
emperor, John Palæologus!” was answered by a general rising in
his favor. A numerous and loyal party yet adhered to the standard
of Cantacuzene: but he asserts in his history (does he hope for
belief?) that his tender conscience rejected the assurance of
conquest; that, in free obedience to the voice of religion and
philosophy, he descended from the throne and embraced with
pleasure the monastic habit and profession. 36 So soon as he
ceased to be a prince, his successor was not unwilling that he
should be a saint: the remainder of his life was devoted to piety
and learning; in the cells of Constantinople and Mount Athos, the
monk Joasaph was respected as the temporal and spiritual father
of the emperor; and if he issued from his retreat, it was as the
minister of peace, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the
pardon, of his rebellious son. 37

34 (return) [ From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene
continues his history and that of the empire, one year beyond the
abdication of his son Matthew, A.D. 1357, (l. iv. c. l—50, p.
705—911.) Nicephorus Gregoras ends with the synod of
Constantinople, in the year 1351, (l. xxii. c. 3, p. 660; the
rest, to the conclusion of the xxivth book, p. 717, is all
controversy;) and his fourteen last books are still MSS. in the
king of France’s library.]

35 (return) [ The emperor (Cantacuzen. l. iv. c. 1) represents
his own virtues, and Nic. Gregoras (l. xv. c. 11) the complaints
of his friends, who suffered by its effects. I have lent them the
words of our poor cavaliers after the Restoration.]

36 (return) [ The awkward apology of Cantacuzene, (l. iv. c.
39—42,) who relates, with visible confusion, his own downfall,
may be supplied by the less accurate, but more honest, narratives
of Matthew Villani (l. iv. c. 46, in the Script. Rerum Ital. tom.
xiv. p. 268) and Ducas, (c 10, 11.)]

37 (return) [ Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honored with a
letter from the pope, (Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 250.)
His death is placed by a respectable authority on the 20th of
November, 1411, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 260.) But if he were of
the age of his companion Andronicus the Younger, he must have
lived 116 years; a rare instance of longevity, which in so
illustrious a person would have attracted universal notice.]

Yet in the cloister, the mind of Cantacuzene was still exercised
by theological war. He sharpened a controversial pen against the
Jews and Mahometans; 38 and in every state he defended with equal
zeal the divine light of Mount Thabor, a memorable question which
consummates the religious follies of the Greeks. The fakirs of
India, 39 and the monks of the Oriental church, were alike
persuaded, that in the total abstraction of the faculties of the
mind and body, the purer spirit may ascend to the enjoyment and
vision of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monasteries
of Mount Athos 40 will be best represented in the words of an
abbot, who flourished in the eleventh century. “When thou art
alone in thy cell,” says the ascetic teacher, “shut thy door, and
seat thyself in a corner: raise thy mind above all things vain
and transitory; recline thy beard and chin on thy breast; turn
thy eyes and thy thoughts toward the middle of thy belly, the
region of the navel; and search the place of the heart, the seat
of the soul. At first, all will be dark and comfortless; but if
you persevere day and night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and
no sooner has the soul discovered the place of the heart, than it
is involved in a mystic and ethereal light.” This light, the
production of a distempered fancy, the creature of an empty
stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists as the
pure and perfect essence of God himself; and as long as the folly
was confined to Mount Athos, the simple solitaries were not
inquisitive how the divine essence could be a _material_
substance, or how an _immaterial_ substance could be perceived by
the eyes of the body. But in the reign of the younger Andronicus,
these monasteries were visited by Barlaam, 41 a Calabrian monk,
who was equally skilled in philosophy and theology; who possessed
the language of the Greeks and Latins; and whose versatile genius
could maintain their opposite creeds, according to the interest
of the moment. The indiscretion of an ascetic revealed to the
curious traveller the secrets of mental prayer and Barlaam
embraced the opportunity of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed
the soul in the navel; of accusing the monks of Mount Athos of
heresy and blasphemy. His attack compelled the more learned to
renounce or dissemble the simple devotion of their brethren; and
Gregory Palamas introduced a scholastic distinction between the
essence and operation of God. His inaccessible essence dwells in
the midst of an uncreated and eternal light; and this beatific
vision of the saints had been manifested to the disciples on
Mount Thabor, in the transfiguration of Christ. Yet this
distinction could not escape the reproach of polytheism; the
eternity of the light of Thabor was fiercely denied; and Barlaam
still charged the Palamites with holding two eternal substances,
a visible and an invisible God. From the rage of the monks of
Mount Athos, who threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to
Constantinople, where his smooth and specious manners introduced
him to the favor of the great domestic and the emperor. The court
and the city were involved in this theological dispute, which
flamed amidst the civil war; but the doctrine of Barlaam was
disgraced by his flight and apostasy: the Palamites triumphed;
and their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri, was deposed by
the consent of the adverse factions of the state. In the
character of emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided in the
synod of the Greek church, which established, as an article of
faith, the uncreated light of Mount Thabor; and, after so many
insults, the reason of mankind was slightly wounded by the
addition of a single absurdity. Many rolls of paper or parchment
have been blotted; and the impenitent sectaries, who refused to
subscribe the orthodox creed, were deprived of the honors of
Christian burial; but in the next age the question was forgotten;
nor can I learn that the axe or the fagot were employed for the
extirpation of the Barlaamite heresy. 42

38 (return) [ His four discourses, or books, were printed at
Basil, 1543, (Fabric Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 473.) He composed
them to satisfy a proselyte who was assaulted with letters from
his friends of Ispahan. Cantacuzene had read the Koran; but I
understand from Maracci that he adopts the vulgar prejudices and
fables against Mahomet and his religion.]

39 (return) [ See the Voyage de Bernier, tom. i. p. 127.]

40 (return) [ Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Ecclés. p. 522, 523.
Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 22, 24, 107—114, &c. The former
unfolds the causes with the judgment of a philosopher, the latter
transcribes and transcribes and translates with the prejudices of
a Catholic priest.]

41 (return) [ Basnage (in Canisii Antiq. Lectiones, tom. iv. p.
363—368) has investigated the character and story of Barlaam. The
duplicity of his opinions had inspired some doubts of the
identity of his person. See likewise Fabricius, (Bibliot. Græc.
tom. x. p. 427—432.)]

42 (return) [ See Cantacuzene (l. ii. c. 39, 40, l. iv. c. 3, 23,
24, 25) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xi. c. 10, l. xv. 3, 7, &c.,)
whose last books, from the xixth to xxivth, are almost confined
to a subject so interesting to the authors. Boivin, (in Vit. Nic.
Gregoræ,) from the unpublished books, and Fabricius, (Bibliot.
Græc. tom. x. p. 462—473,) or rather Montfaucon, from the MSS. of
the Coislin library, have added some facts and documents.]

For the conclusion of this chapter, I have reserved the Genoese
war, which shook the throne of Cantacuzene, and betrayed the
debility of the Greek empire. The Genoese, who, after the
recovery of Constantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or
Galata, received that honorable fief from the bounty of the
emperor. They were indulged in the use of their laws and
magistrates; but they submitted to the duties of vassals and
subjects; the forcible word of _liegemen_43 was borrowed from the
Latin jurisprudence; and their _podesta_, or chief, before he
entered on his office, saluted the emperor with loyal
acclamations and vows of fidelity. Genoa sealed a firm alliance
with the Greeks; and, in case of a defensive war, a supply of
fifty empty galleys and a succor of fifty galleys, completely
armed and manned, was promised by the republic to the empire. In
the revival of a naval force, it was the aim of Michael
Palæologus to deliver himself from a foreign aid; and his
vigorous government contained the Genoese of Galata within those
limits which the insolence of wealth and freedom provoked them to
exceed. A sailor threatened that they should soon be masters of
Constantinople, and slew the Greek who resented this national
affront; and an armed vessel, after refusing to salute the
palace, was guilty of some acts of piracy in the Black Sea. Their
countrymen threatened to support their cause; but the long and
open village of Galata was instantly surrounded by the Imperial
troops; till, in the moment of the assault, the prostrate Genoese
implored the clemency of their sovereign. The defenceless
situation which secured their obedience exposed them to the
attack of their Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the elder
Andronicus, presumed to violate the majesty of the throne. On the
approach of their fleets, the Genoese, with their families and
effects, retired into the city: their empty habitations were
reduced to ashes; and the feeble prince, who had viewed the
destruction of his suburb, expressed his resentment, not by arms,
but by ambassadors. This misfortune, however, was advantageous to
the Genoese, who obtained, and imperceptibly abused, the
dangerous license of surrounding Galata with a strong wall; of
introducing into the ditch the waters of the sea; of erecting
lofty turrets; and of mounting a train of military engines on the
rampart. The narrow bounds in which they had been circumscribed
were insufficient for the growing colony; each day they acquired
some addition of landed property; and the adjacent hills were
covered with their villas and castles, which they joined and
protected by new fortifications. 44 The navigation and trade of
the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek emperors, who commanded
the narrow entrance, the gates, as it were, of that inland sea.
In the reign of Michael Palæologus, their prerogative was
acknowledged by the sultan of Egypt, who solicited and obtained
the liberty of sending an annual ship for the purchase of slaves
in Circassia and the Lesser Tartary: a liberty pregnant with
mischief to the Christian cause; since these youths were
transformed by education and discipline into the formidable
Mamalukes. 45 From the colony of Pera, the Genoese engaged with
superior advantage in the lucrative trade of the Black Sea; and
their industry supplied the Greeks with fish and corn; two
articles of food almost equally important to a superstitious
people. The spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have bestowed
the harvests of Ukraine, the produce of a rude and savage
husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt fish and caviare
is annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are caught at
the mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station of the rich
mud and shallow water of the Mæotis. 46 The waters of the Oxus,
the Caspian, the Volga, and the Don, opened a rare and laborious
passage for the gems and spices of India; and after three months’
march the caravans of Carizme met the Italian vessels in the
harbors of Crimæa. 47 These various branches of trade were
monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese. Their
rivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled; the natives
were awed by the castles and cities, which arose on the
foundations of their humble factories; and their principal
establishment of Caffa 48 was besieged without effect by the
Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks were oppressed by
these haughty merchants, who fed, or famished, Constantinople,
according to their interest. They proceeded to usurp the customs,
the fishery, and even the toll, of the Bosphorus; and while they
derived from these objects a revenue of two hundred thousand
pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thousand was reluctantly
allowed to the emperor. 49 The colony of Pera or Galata acted, in
peace and war, as an independent state; and, as it will happen in
distant settlements, the Genoese podesta too often forgot that he
was the servant of his own masters.

43 (return) [ Pachymer (l. v. c. 10) very properly explains
liziouV (_ligios_) by?lidiouV. The use of these words in the
Greek and Latin of the feudal times may be amply understood from
the Glossaries of Ducange, (Græc. p. 811, 812. Latin. tom. iv. p.
109—111.)]

44 (return) [ The establishment and progress of the Genoese at
Pera, or Galata, is described by Ducange (C. P. Christiana, l. i.
p. 68, 69) from the Byzantine historians, Pachymer, (l. ii. c.
35, l. v. 10, 30, l. ix. 15 l. xii. 6, 9,) Nicephorus Gregoras,
(l. v. c. 4, l. vi. c. 11, l. ix. c. 5, l. ix. c. 1, l. xv. c. 1,
6,) and Cantacuzene, (l. i. c. 12, l. ii. c. 29, &c.)]

45 (return) [ Both Pachymer (l. iii. c. 3, 4, 5) and Nic. Greg.
(l. iv. c. 7) understand and deplore the effects of this
dangerous indulgence. Bibars, sultan of Egypt, himself a Tartar,
but a devout Mussulman, obtained from the children of Zingis the
permission to build a stately mosque in the capital of Crimea,
(De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 343.)]

46 (return) [ Chardin (Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 48) was
assured at Caffa, that these fishes were sometimes twenty-four or
twenty-six feet long, weighed eight or nine hundred pounds, and
yielded three or four quintals of caviare. The corn of the
Bosphorus had supplied the Athenians in the time of Demosthenes.]

47 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 343, 344.
Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 400. But this land or water
carriage could only be practicable when Tartary was united under
a wise and powerful monarch.]

48 (return) [ Nic. Gregoras (l. xiii. c. 12) is judicious and
well informed on the trade and colonies of the Black Sea. Chardin
describes the present ruins of Caffa, where, in forty days, he
saw above 400 sail employed in the corn and fish trade, (Voyages
en Perse, tom. i. p. 46—48.)]

49 (return) [ See Nic. Gregoras, l. xvii. c. 1.]

These usurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the elder
Andronicus, and by the civil wars that afflicted his age and the
minority of his grandson. The talents of Cantacuzene were
employed to the ruin, rather than the restoration, of the empire;
and after his domestic victory, he was condemned to an
ignominious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoese should reign
in Constantinople. The merchants of Pera were offended by his
refusal of some contiguous land, some commanding heights, which
they proposed to cover with new fortifications; and in the
absence of the emperor, who was detained at Demotica by sickness,
they ventured to brave the debility of a female reign. A
Byzantine vessel, which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the
harbor, was sunk by these audacious strangers; the fishermen were
murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese demanded
satisfaction; required, in a haughty strain, that the Greeks
should renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered with
regular arms the first sallies of the popular indignation. They
instantly occupied the debatable land; and by the labor of a
whole people, of either sex and of every age, the wall was
raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible speed. At the
same time, they attacked and burnt two Byzantine galleys; while
the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped
from their hands: the habitations without the gates, or along the
shore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of the regent,
of the empress Irene, was confined to the preservation of the
city. The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the public
consternation: the emperor inclined to peaceful counsels; but he
yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies, who rejected all
reasonable terms, and to the ardor of his subjects, who
threatened, in the style of Scripture, to break them in pieces
like a potter’s vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes, that
he imposed for the construction of ships, and the expenses of the
war; and as the two nations were masters, the one of the land,
the other of the sea, Constantinople and Pera were pressed by the
evils of a mutual siege. The merchants of the colony, who had
believed that a few days would terminate the war, already
murmured at their losses: the succors from their mother-country
were delayed by the factions of Genoa; and the most cautious
embraced the opportunity of a Rhodian vessel to remove their
families and effects from the scene of hostility. In the spring,
the Byzantine fleet, seven galleys and a train of smaller
vessels, issued from the mouth of the harbor, and steered in a
single line along the shore of Pera; unskilfully presenting their
sides to the beaks of the adverse squadron. The crews were
composed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance
compensated by the native courage of Barbarians: the wind was
strong, the waves were rough; and no sooner did the Greeks
perceive a distant and inactive enemy, than they leaped headlong
into the sea, from a doubtful, to an inevitable peril. The troops
that marched to the attack of the lines of Pera were struck at
the same moment with a similar panic; and the Genoese were
astonished, and almost ashamed, at their double victory. Their
triumphant vessels, crowned with flowers, and dragging after them
the captive galleys, repeatedly passed and repassed before the
palace: the only virtue of the emperor was patience; and the hope
of revenge his sole consolation. Yet the distress of both parties
interposed a temporary agreement; and the shame of the empire was
disguised by a thin veil of dignity and power. Summoning the
chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to despise the trivial
object of the debate; and, after a mild reproof, most liberally
granted the lands, which had been previously resigned to the
seeming custody of his officers. 50

50 (return) [ The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene
(l. iv. c. 11 with obscurity and confusion, and by Nic. Gregoras
l. xvii. c. 1—7) in a clear and honest narrative. The priest was
less responsible than the prince for the defeat of the fleet.]

But the emperor was soon solicited to violate the treaty, and to
join his arms with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of Genoa
and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of peace and war,
his moderation was provoked by a wanton insult of the inhabitants
of Pera, who discharged from their rampart a large stone that
fell in the midst of Constantinople. On his just complaint, they
coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer; but the next day
the insult was repeated; and they exulted in a second proof that
the royal city was not beyond the reach of their artillery.
Cantacuzene instantly signed his treaty with the Venetians; but
the weight of the Roman empire was scarcely felt in the balance
of these opulent and powerful republics. 51 From the Straits of
Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered
each other with various success; and a memorable battle was
fought in the narrow sea, under the walls of Constantinople. It
would not be an easy task to reconcile the accounts of the
Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoese; 52 and while I depend on
the narrative of an impartial historian, 53 I shall borrow from
each nation the facts that redound to their own disgrace, and the
honor of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies the
Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with the
poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to
seventy-five sail: the Genoese did not exceed sixty-four; but in
those times their ships of war were distinguished by the
superiority of their size and strength. The names and families of
their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria, are illustrious in the
annals of their country; but the personal merit of the former was
eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in
tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued
from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the
Genoese applaud their prowess; the friends of the Venetians are
dissatisfied with their behavior; but all parties agree in
praising the skill and boldness of the Catalans, 531 who, with
many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation
of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen
Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken, were compensated by
a double loss of the allies; of fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans,
and two Greeks; 532 and even the grief of the conquerors
expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive victories.
Pisani confessed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified harbor,
from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the senate, he
steered with a broken and flying squadron for the Isle of Candia,
and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of the sea. In a
public epistle, 54 addressed to the doge and senate, Petrarch
employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two
luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valor and victory
of the Genoese, the first of men in the exercise of naval war: he
drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren; but
he exhorts them to pursue with fire and sword the base and
perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis of the East from the
heresy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the
Greeks were incapable of resistance; and three months after the
battle, the emperor Cantacuzene solicited and subscribed a
treaty, which forever banished the Venetians and Catalans, and
granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of
dominion. The Roman empire (I smile in transcribing the name)
might soon have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of
the republic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and
naval power. A long contest of one hundred and thirty years was
determined by the triumph of Venice; and the factions of the
Genoese compelled them to seek for domestic peace under the
protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the French
king. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conquest; and
the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the
Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude
of Constantinople itself.

51 (return) [ The second war is darkly told by Cantacuzene, (l.
iv. c. 18, p. 24, 25, 28—32,) who wishes to disguise what he
dares not deny. I regret this part of Nic. Gregoras, which is
still in MS. at Paris. * Note: This part of Nicephorus Gregoras
has not been printed in the new edition of the Byzantine
Historians. The editor expresses a hope that it may be undertaken
by Hase. I should join in the regret of Gibbon, if these books
contain any historical information: if they are but a
continuation of the controversies which fill the last books in
our present copies, they may as well sleep their eternal sleep in
MS. as in print.—M.]

52 (return) [ Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, tom. xii. p. 144)
refers to the most ancient Chronicles of Venice (Caresinus, the
continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p. 421, 422) and Genoa,
(George Stella Annales Genuenses, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092;) both
which I have diligently consulted in his great Collection of the
Historians of Italy.]

53 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, l.
ii. c. 59, p. 145—147, c. 74, 75, p. 156, 157, in Muratori’s
Collection, tom. xiv.]

531 (return) [ Cantacuzene praises their bravery, but imputes
their losses to their ignorance of the seas: they suffered more
by the breakers than by the enemy, vol. iii. p. 224.—M.]

532 (return) [ Cantacuzene says that the Genoese lost
twenty-eight ships with their crews, autandroi; the Venetians and
Catalans sixteen, the Imperials, none Cantacuzene accuses Pisani
of cowardice, in not following up the victory, and destroying the
Genoese. But Pisani’s conduct, and indeed Cantacuzene’s account
of the battle, betray the superiority of the Genoese.—M.]

54 (return) [ The Abbé de Sade (Mémoires sur la Vie de Petrarque,
tom. iii. p. 257—263) translates this letter, which he copied
from a MS. in the king of France’s library. Though a servant of
the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonishment and
grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the following
year, (p. 323—332.)]