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$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part II.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{cantacuzene
footnote
genoese
emperor
tom
constantinople
war
greeks
empire
gregoras}
$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter LXIII: Civil Wars And The Ruin Of The Greek Empire.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

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 Palaeologus 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. ^* 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
Palaeologi: 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

[Footnote *: 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.]

[Footnote 28: The princes of Servia (Ducange, Famil. Dalmaticae, &c., c. 2, 3,
4, 9) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in their native idiom, (Ducange,
Gloss. Graec. 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 a l'Histoire de Timur Bec, p. 39.)]

[Footnote 29: 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 ^* resolute prisoners of the Palaeologian 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 Palaeologus 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

[Footnote 30: The two avengers were both Palaeologi, 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.)]

[Footnote 31: 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.]

[Footnote *: Nicephorus says four, p.734.]

[Footnote 32: 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.)]

[Footnote 33: Nic. Greg. l. xv. 11.  There were, however, some true pearls,
but very thinly sprinkled.]

     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 Palaeologi, 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, Palaeologus 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.  Palaeologus 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
Palaeologus, 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
Palaeologus!" 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

[Footnote 34: 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.]

[Footnote 35: 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.]

[Footnote 36: 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.)]

[Footnote 37: Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honored with a letter from
the pope, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. 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

[Footnote 38: His four discourses, or books, were printed at Bazil, 1543,
(Fabric Bibliot. Graec. 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.]

[Footnote 39: See the Voyage de Bernier, tom. i. p. 127.]

[Footnote 40: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 522, 523.  Fleury, Hist.
Eccles. 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.]

[Footnote 41: 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. Graec. tom. x. p. 427 - 432.)]

[Footnote 42: 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. Gregorae,) from the unpublished books, and
Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. 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 Palaeologus 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 Palaeologus, 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 Maeotis. ^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 Crimaea. ^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.

[Footnote 43: Pachymer (l. v. c. 10) very properly explains (ligios).  The use
of these words in the Greek and Latin of the feudal times may be amply
understood from the Glossaries of Ducange, (Graec. p. 811, 812. Latin. tom.
iv. p. 109 - 111.)]

[Footnote 44: 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.)]

[Footnote 45: 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.)]

[Footnote 46: 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.]

[Footnote 47: 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.]

[Footnote 48: 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.)]

[Footnote 49: 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

[Footnote 50: 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, ^* 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; ^! 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.

[Footnote 51: 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.]

[Footnote 52: 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.]

[Footnote 53: 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.]

[Footnote *: 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.]

[Footnote !: Cantacuzene says that the Genoese lost twenty-eight ships with
their crews; 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]

[Footnote 54: The Abbe de Sade (Memoires 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.)]