Chapter LXII: Greek Emperors Of Nice And Constantinople.—Part

III.

I shall not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must
remark that, even in this world, the natural order of events will
sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution. The
first Palæologus had saved his empire by involving the kingdoms
of the West in rebellion and blood; and from these scenes of
discord uprose a generation of iron men, who assaulted and
endangered the empire of his son. In modern times our debts and
taxes are the secret poison which still corrodes the bosom of
peace: but in the weak and disorderly government of the middle
ages, it was agitated by the present evil of the disbanded
armies. Too idle to work, too proud to beg, the mercenaries were
accustomed to a life of rapine: they could rob with more dignity
and effect under a banner and a chief; and the sovereign, to whom
their service was useless, and their presence importunate,
endeavored to discharge the torrent on some neighboring
countries. After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of Genoese,
_Catalans_, 47 &c., who had fought, by sea and land, under the
standard of Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by the
resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard that the
Greek provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks: they resolved
to share the harvest of pay and plunder: and Frederic king of
Sicily most liberally contributed the means of their departure.
In a warfare of twenty years, a ship, or a camp, was become their
country; arms were their sole profession and property; valor was
the only virtue which they knew; their women had imbibed the
fearless temper of their lovers and husbands: it was reported,
that, with a stroke of their broadsword, the Catalans could
cleave a horseman and a horse; and the report itself was a
powerful weapon. Roger de Flor 477 was the most popular of their
chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his
prouder rivals of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a
German gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second and a damsel
of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, an apostate, a
pirate, and at length the richest and most powerful admiral of
the Mediterranean. He sailed from Messina to Constantinople, with
eighteen galleys, four great ships, and eight thousand
adventurers; 478 and his previous treaty was faithfully
accomplished by Andronicus the elder, who accepted with joy and
terror this formidable succor. A palace was allotted for his
reception, and a niece of the emperor was given in marriage to
the valiant stranger, who was immediately created great duke or
admiral of Romania. After a decent repose, he transported his
troops over the Propontis, and boldly led them against the Turks:
in two bloody battles thirty thousand of the Moslems were slain:
he raised the siege of Philadelphia, and deserved the name of the
deliverer of Asia. But after a short season of prosperity, the
cloud of slavery and ruin again burst on that unhappy province.
The inhabitants escaped (says a Greek historian) from the smoke
into the flames; and the hostility of the Turks was less
pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans. 479 The lives and
fortunes which they had rescued they considered as their own: the
willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of circumcision
for the embraces of a Christian soldier: the exaction of fines
and supplies was enforced by licentious rapine and arbitrary
executions; and, on the resistance of Magnesia, the great duke
besieged a city of the Roman empire. 48 These disorders he
excused by the wrongs and passions of a victorious army; nor
would his own authority or person have been safe, had he dared to
punish his faithful followers, who were defrauded of the just and
covenanted price of their services. The threats and complaints of
Andronicus disclosed the nakedness of the empire. His golden bull
had invited no more than five hundred horse and a thousand foot
soldiers; yet the crowds of volunteers, who migrated to the East,
had been enlisted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While his
bravest allies were content with three byzants or pieces of gold,
for their monthly pay, an ounce, or even two ounces, of gold were
assigned to the Catalans, whose annual pension would thus amount
to near a hundred pounds sterling: one of their chiefs had
modestly rated at three hundred thousand crowns the value of his
_future_ merits; and above a million had been issued from the
treasury for the maintenance of these costly mercenaries. A cruel
tax had been imposed on the corn of the husbandman: one third was
retrenched from the salaries of the public officers; and the
standard of the coin was so shamefully debased, that of the
four-and-twenty parts only five were of pure gold. 49 At the
summons of the emperor, Roger evacuated a province which no
longer supplied the materials of rapine; 496 but he refused to
disperse his troops; and while his style was respectful, his
conduct was independent and hostile. He protested, that if the
emperor should march against him, he would advance forty paces to
kiss the ground before him; but in rising from this prostrate
attitude Roger had a life and sword at the service of his
friends. The great duke of Romania condescended to accept the
title and ornaments of Cæsar; but he rejected the new proposal of
the government of Asia with a subsidy of corn and money, 497 on
condition that he should reduce his troops to the harmless number
of three thousand men. Assassination is the last resource of
cowards. The Cæsar was tempted to visit the royal residence of
Adrianople; in the apartment, and before the eyes, of the empress
he was stabbed by the Alani guards; and though the deed was
imputed to their private revenge, 498 his countrymen, who dwelt
at Constantinople in the security of peace, were involved in the
same proscription by the prince or people. The loss of their
leader intimidated the crowd of adventurers, who hoisted the
sails of flight, and were soon scattered round the coasts of the
Mediterranean. But a veteran band of fifteen hundred Catalans, or
French, stood firm in the strong fortress of Gallipoli on the
Hellespont, displayed the banners of Arragon, and offered to
revenge and justify their chief, by an equal combat of ten or a
hundred warriors. Instead of accepting this bold defiance, the
emperor Michael, the son and colleague of Andronicus, resolved to
oppress them with the weight of multitudes: every nerve was
strained to form an army of thirteen thousand horse and thirty
thousand foot; and the Propontis was covered with the ships of
the Greeks and Genoese. In two battles by sea and land, these
mighty forces were encountered and overthrown by the despair and
discipline of the Catalans: the young emperor fled to the palace;
and an insufficient guard of light-horse was left for the
protection of the open country. Victory renewed the hopes and
numbers of the adventures: every nation was blended under the
name and standard of the _great company_; and three thousand
Turkish proselytes deserted from the Imperial service to join
this military association. In the possession of Gallipoli, 509
the Catalans intercepted the trade of Constantinople and the
Black Sea, while they spread their devastation on either side of
the Hellespont over the confines of Europe and Asia. To prevent
their approach, the greatest part of the Byzantine territory was
laid waste by the Greeks themselves: the peasants and their
cattle retired into the city; and myriads of sheep and oxen, for
which neither place nor food could be procured, were unprofitably
slaughtered on the same day. Four times the emperor Andronicus
sued for peace, and four times he was inflexibly repulsed, till
the want of provisions, and the discord of the chiefs, compelled
the Catalans to evacuate the banks of the Hellespont and the
neighborhood of the capital. After their separation from the
Turks, the remains of the great company pursued their march
through Macedonia and Thessaly, to seek a new establishment in
the heart of Greece. 50

47 (return) [ In this motley multitude, the Catalans and
Spaniards, the bravest of the soldiery, were styled by themselves
and the Greeks _Amogavares_. Moncada derives their origin from
the Goths, and Pachymer (l. xi. c. 22) from the Arabs; and in
spite of national and religious pride, I am afraid the latter is
in the right.]

477 (return) [ On Roger de Flor and his companions, see an
historical fragment, detailed and interesting, entitled “The
Spaniards of the Fourteenth Century,” and inserted in “L’Espagne
en 1808,” a work translated from the German, vol. ii. p. 167.
This narrative enables us to detect some slight errors which have
crept into that of Gibbon.—G.]

478 (return) [ The troops of Roger de Flor, according to his
companions Ramon de Montaner, were 1500 men at arms, 4000
Almogavares, and 1040 other foot, besides the sailors and
mariners, vol. ii. p. 137.—M.]

479 (return) [ Ramon de Montaner suppresses the cruelties and
oppressions of the Catalans, in which, perhaps, he shared.—M.]

48 (return) [ Some idea may be formed of the population of these
cities, from the 36,000 inhabitants of Tralles, which, in the
preceding reign, was rebuilt by the emperor, and ruined by the
Turks. (Pachymer, l. vi. c. 20, 21.)]

49 (return) [ I have collected these pecuniary circumstances from
Pachymer, (l. xi. c. 21, l. xii. c. 4, 5, 8, 14, 19,) who
describes the progressive degradation of the gold coin. Even in
the prosperous times of John Ducas Vataces, the byzants were
composed in equal proportions of the pure and the baser metal.
The poverty of Michael Palæologus compelled him to strike a new
coin, with nine parts, or carats, of gold, and fifteen of copper
alloy. After his death, the standard rose to ten carats, till in
the public distress it was reduced to the moiety. The prince was
relieved for a moment, while credit and commerce were forever
blasted. In France, the gold coin is of twenty-two carats, (one
twelfth alloy,) and the standard of England and Holland is still
higher.]

496 (return) [ Roger de Flor, according to Ramon de Montaner, was
recalled from Natolia, on account of the war which had arisen on
the death of Asan, king of Bulgaria. Andronicus claimed the
kingdom for his nephew, the sons of Asan by his sister. Roger de
Flor turned the tide of success in favor of the emperor of
Constantinople and made peace.—M.]

497 (return) [ Andronicus paid the Catalans in the debased money,
much to their indignation.—M.]

498 (return) [ According to Ramon de Montaner, he was murdered by
order of Kyr (kurioV) Michael, son of the emperor. p. 170.—M.]

509 (return) [ Ramon de Montaner describes his sojourn at
Gallipoli: Nous etions si riches, que nous ne semions, ni ne
labourions, ni ne faisions enver des vins ni ne cultivions les
vignes: et cependant tous les ans nous recucillions tour ce qu’il
nous fallait, en vin, froment et avoine. p. 193. This lasted for
five merry years. Ramon de Montaner is high authority, for he was
“chancelier et maitre rational de l’armée,” (commissary of
_rations_.) He was left governor; all the scribes of the army
remained with him, and with their aid he kept the books in which
were registered the number of horse and foot employed on each
expedition. According to this book the plunder was shared, of
which he had a fifth for his trouble. p. 197.—M.]

50 (return) [ The Catalan war is most copiously related by
Pachymer, in the xith, xiith, and xiiith books, till he breaks
off in the year 1308. Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 3—6) is more
concise and complete. Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as
French, has hunted their footsteps with his usual diligence,
(Hist. de C. P. l. vi. c. 22—46.) He quotes an Arragonese
history, which I have read with pleasure, and which the Spaniards
extol as a model of style and composition, (Expedicion de los
Catalanes y Arragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos: Barcelona, 1623
in quarto: Madrid, 1777, in octavo.) Don Francisco de Moncada
Conde de Ossona, may imitate Cæsar or Sallust; he may transcribe
the Greek or Italian contemporaries: but he never quotes his
authorities, and I cannot discern any national records of the
exploits of his countrymen. * Note: Ramon de Montaner, one of the
Catalans, who accompanied Roger de Flor, and who was governor of
Gallipoli, has written, in Spanish, the history of this band of
adventurers, to which he belonged, and from which he separated
when it left the Thracian Chersonese to penetrate into Macedonia
and Greece.—G.——The autobiography of Ramon de Montaner has been
published in French by M. Buchon, in the great collection of
Mémoires relatifs à l’Histoire de France. I quote this
edition.—M.]

After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new
misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred and
fifty years between the first and the last conquest of
Constantinople, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude
of petty tyrants; without the comforts of freedom and genius, her
ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and intestine war;
and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might repose
with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not pursue the obscure
and various dynasties, that rose and fell on the continent or in
the isles; but our silence on the fate of Athens 51 would argue a
strange ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal
science and amusement. In the partition of the empire, the
principality of Athens and Thebes was assigned to Otho de la
Roche, a noble warrior of Burgundy, 52 with the title of great
duke, 53 which the Latins understood in their own sense, and the
Greeks more foolishly derived from the age of Constantine. 54
Otho followed the standard of the marquis of Montferrat: the
ample state which he acquired by a miracle of conduct or fortune,
55 was peaceably inherited by his son and two grandsons, till the
family, though not the nation, was changed, by the marriage of an
heiress into the elder branch of the house of Brienne. The son of
that marriage, Walter de Brienne, succeeded to the duchy of
Athens; and, with the aid of some Catalan mercenaries, whom he
invested with fiefs, reduced above thirty castles of the vassal
or neighboring lords. But when he was informed of the approach
and ambition of the great company, he collected a force of seven
hundred knights, six thousand four hundred horse, and eight
thousand foot, and boldly met them on the banks of the River
Cephisus in Botia. The Catalans amounted to no more than three
thousand five hundred horse, and four thousand foot; but the
deficiency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and order.
They formed round their camp an artificial inundation; the duke
and his knights advanced without fear or precaution on the
verdant meadow; their horses plunged into the bog; and he was cut
in pieces, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His
family and nation were expelled; and his son Walter de Brienne,
the titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of Florence, and the
constable of France, lost his life in the field of Poitiers
Attica and Botia were the rewards of the victorious Catalans;
they married the widows and daughters of the slain; and during
fourteen years, the great company was the terror of the Grecian
states. Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignty
of the house of Arragon; and during the remainder of the
fourteenth century, Athens, as a government or an appanage, was
successively bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the French
and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Accaioli, a
family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, and sovereign in
Greece. Athens, which they embellished with new buildings, became
the capital of a state, that extended over Thebes, Argos,
Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly; and their reign was
finally determined by Mahomet the Second, who strangled the last
duke, and educated his sons in the discipline and religion of the
seraglio.

51 (return) [ See the laborious history of Ducange, whose
accurate table of the French dynasties recapitulates the
thirty-five passages, in which he mentions the dukes of Athens.]

52 (return) [ He is twice mentioned by Villehardouin with honor,
(No. 151, 235;) and under the first passage, Ducange observes all
that can be known of his person and family.]

53 (return) [ From these Latin princes of the xivth century,
Boccace, Chaucer. and Shakspeare, have borrowed their Theseus
_duke_ of Athens. An ignorant age transfers its own language and
manners to the most distant times.]

54 (return) [ The same Constantine gave to Sicily a king, to
Russia the _magnus dapifer_ of the empire, to Thebes the
_primicerius_; and these absurd fables are properly lashed by
Ducange, (ad Nicephor. Greg. l. vii. c. 5.) By the Latins, the
lord of Thebes was styled, by corruption, the Megas Kurios, or
Grand Sire!]

55 (return) [ _Quodam miraculo_, says Alberic. He was probably
received by Michael Choniates, the archbishop who had defended
Athens against the tyrant Leo Sgurus, (Nicetas urbs capta, p.
805, ed. Bek.) Michael was the brother of the historian Nicetas;
and his encomium of Athens is still extant in MS. in the Bodleian
library, (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc tom. vi. p. 405.) * Note: Nicetas
says expressly that Michael surrendered the Acropolis to the
marquis.—M.]

Athens, 56 though no more than the shadow of her former self,
still contains about eight or ten thousand inhabitants; of these,
three fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the Turks,
who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in their intercourse
with the citizens, somewhat of the pride and gravity of their
national character. The olive-tree, the gift of Minerva,
flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey of Mount Hymettus lost
any part of its exquisite flavor: 57 but the languid trade is
monopolized by strangers, and the agriculture of a barren land is
abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The Athenians are still
distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their
understandings; but these qualities, unless ennobled by freedom,
and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish
cunning: and it is a proverbial saying of the country, “From the
Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of
Athens, good Lord deliver us!” This artful people has eluded the
tyranny of the Turkish bashaws, by an expedient which alleviates
their servitude and aggravates their shame. About the middle of
the last century, the Athenians chose for their protector the
Kislar Aga, or chief black eunuch of the seraglio. This Æthiopian
slave, who possesses the sultan’s ear, condescends to accept the
tribute of thirty thousand crowns: his lieutenant, the Waywode,
whom he annually confirms, may reserve for his own about five or
six thousand more; and such is the policy of the citizens, that
they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive governor.
Their private differences are decided by the archbishop, one of
the richest prelates of the Greek church, since he possesses a
revenue of one thousand pounds sterling; and by a tribunal of the
eight _geronti_ or elders, chosen in the eight quarters of the
city: the noble families cannot trace their pedigree above three
hundred years; but their principal members are distinguished by a
grave demeanor, a fur cap, and the lofty appellation of _archon_.
By some, who delight in the contrast, the modern language of
Athens is represented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the
seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek: 58 this picture is too
darkly colored: but it would not be easy, in the country of Plato
and Demosthenes, to find a reader or a copy of their works. The
Athenians walk with supine indifference among the glorious ruins
of antiquity; and such is the debasement of their character, that
they are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors.
59

56 (return) [ The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is
extracted from Spon, (Voyage en Grece, tom. ii. p. 79—199,) and
Wheeler, (Travels into Greece, p. 337—414,) Stuart, (Antiquities
of Athens, passim,) and Chandler, (Travels into Greece, p.
23—172.) The first of these travellers visited Greece in the year
1676; the last, 1765; and ninety years had not produced much
difference in the tranquil scene.]

57 (return) [ The ancients, or at least the Athenians, believed
that all the bees in the world had been propagated from Mount
Hymettus. They taught, that health might be preserved, and life
prolonged, by the external use of oil, and the internal use of
honey, (Geoponica, l. xv. c 7, p. 1089—1094, edit. Niclas.)]

58 (return) [ Ducange, Glossar. Græc. Præfat. p. 8, who quotes
for his author Theodosius Zygomalas, a modern grammarian. Yet
Spon (tom. ii. p. 194) and Wheeler, (p. 355,) no incompetent
judges, entertain a more favorable opinion of the Attic dialect.]

59 (return) [ Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name
of Athens, which they still call Athini. From the eiV thn
'Aqhnhn, we have formed our own barbarism of _Setines_. * Note:
Gibbon did not foresee a Bavarian prince on the throne of Greece,
with Athens as his capital.—M.]