Schism of the Greeks and Latins. State of Constantinople. Revolt of the Bulgarians. Isaac Angelus Dethroned by His Brother Alexius. Origin of the Fourth Crusade. Alliance of the French and Venetians with the Son of Isaac. Their Naval Expedition to Constantinople. The Two Sieges and Final Conquest of the City by the Latins.
Schism of the Greeks.
The restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne was speedily followed by the separation of the Greek and Latin churches. (1) A religious and national animosity still divides the two largest communions of the Christian world; and the schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies, and provoking her most dangerous enemies, has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the East.
Their aversion to the Latins.
In the course of the present History, the aversion of the Greeks for the Latins has been often visible and conspicuous. It was originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or dominion; and finally exasperated by the preference which their rebellious subjects had given to the alliance of the Franks. In every age the Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane and religious knowledge: they had first received the light of Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven general councils; they alone possessed the language of Scripture and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the darkness of the West, (2) presume to argue on the high and mysterious questions of theological science. Those Barbarians despised in then turn the restless and subtile levity of the Orientals, the authors of every heresy; and blessed their own simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the synods of Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene creed, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the Trinity. (3)Procession of the Holy Ghost. In the long controversies of the East, the nature and generation of the Christ had been scrupulously defined; and the well-known relation of father and son seemed to convey a faint image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a god; he was not begotten, but in the orthodox style he proceeded. Did he proceed from the Father alone, perhaps by the Son? or from the Father and the Son? The first of these opinions was asserted by the Greeks, the second by the Latins; and the addition to the Nicene creed of the word filioque, kindled the flame of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In the origin of the disputes the Roman pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and moderation: (4) they condemned the innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment, of their Transalpine brethren: they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and charity over the superfluous research; and in the correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the pope assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the prince descends to the passions and prejudices of a priest. (5) But the orthodoxy of Rome spontaneously obeyed the impulse of the temporal policy; and the filioque, which Leo wished to erase, was transcribed in the symbol and chanted in the liturgy of the Vatican. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds are held as the Catholic faith, without which none can be saved; and both Papists and Protestants must now sustain and
return the anathemas of the Greeks, who deny the procession
of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father.
Variety of ecclesiastical discipline. Such articles of faith are not susceptible of treaty; but the rules of discipline will vary in remote and independent churches; and the reason, even of divines, might allow, that the difference is inevitable and harmless. The craft or superstition of Rome has imposed on her priests and deacons
the rigid obligation of celibacy; among the Greeks it is
confined to the bishops; the loss is compensated by dignity
or annihilated by age; and the parochial clergy, the papas,
enjoy the conjugal society of the wives whom they have
married before their entrance into holy orders. A question
concerning the Azyms was fiercely debated in the eleventh
century, and the essence of the Eucharist was supposed in
the East and West to depend on the use of leavened or
unleavened bread. Shall I mention in a serious history the
furious reproaches that were urged against the Latins, who
for a long while remained on the defensive? They neglected
to abstain, according to the apostolical decree, from things
strangled, and from blood: they fasted (a Jewish
observance!) on the Saturday of each week: during the first
week of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese; (6)
their infirm monks were indulged in the taste of flesh; and
animal grease was substituted for the want of vegetable oil:
the holy chrism or unction in baptism was reserved to the
episcopal order: the bishops, as the bridegrooms of their
churches, were decorated with rings; their priests shaved
their faces, and baptized by a single immersion. Such were
the crimes which provoked the zeal of the patriarchs of
Constantinople; and which were justified with equal zeal by
the doctors of the Latin church. (7)
Ambitious quarrels of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, with the popes, A.D. 857-886.
Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of
every object of dispute; but the immediate cause of the
schism of the Greeks may be traced in the emulation of the
leading prelates, who maintained the supremacy of the old
metropolis superior to all, and of the reigning capital,
inferior to none, in the Christian world. About the middle
of the ninth century, Photius, (8) an ambitious layman, the
captain of the guards and principal secretary, was promoted
by merit and favour to the more desirable office of patriarch
of Constantinople. In science, even ecclesiastical science,
he surpassed the clergy of the age; and the purity of his
morals has never been impeached: but his ordination was
hasty, his rise was irregular; and Ignatius, his abdicated
predecessor, was yet supported by the public compassion and
the obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the
tribunal of Nicholas the First, one of the proudest and most
aspiring of the Roman pontiffs, who embraced the welcome
opportunity of judging and condemning his rival of the East.
Their quarrel was embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction
over the king and nation of the Bulgarians; nor was their
recent conversion to Christianity of much avail to either
prelate, unless he could number the proselytes among the
subjects of his power. With the aid of his court the Greek
patriarch was victorious; but in the furious contest he
deposed in his turn the successor of St. Peter, and involved
the Latin church in the reproach of heresy and schism.
Photius sacrificed the peace of the world to a short and
precarious reign: he fell with his patron, the Caesar
Bardas; and Basil the Macedonian performed an act of justice
in the restoration of Ignatius, whose age and dignity had
not been sufficiently respected. From his monastery, or
prison, Photius solicited the favour of the emperor by
pathetic complaints and artful flattery; and the eyes of his
rival were scarcely closed, when he was again restored to
the throne of Constantinople. After the death of Basil he
experienced the vicissitudes of courts and the ingratitude
of a royal pupil: the patriarch was again deposed, and in
his last solitary hours he might regret the freedom of a
secular and studious life. In each revolution, the breath,
the nod, of the sovereign had been accepted by a submissive
clergy; and a synod of three hundred bishops was always
prepared to hail the triumph, or to stigmatize the fall, of
the holy, or the execrable, Photius. (9) By a delusive
promise of succour or reward, the popes were tempted to
countenance these various proceedings; and the synods of
Constantinople were ratified by their epistles or legates.
But the court and the people, Ignatius and Photius, were
equally adverse to their claims; their ministers were
insulted or imprisoned; the procession of the Holy Ghost was
forgotten; Bulgaria was forever annexed to the Byzantine
throne; and the schism was prolonged by their rigid censure
of all the multiplied ordinations of an irregular patriarch.
The darkness and corruption of the tenth century suspended
the intercourse, without reconciling the minds, of the two
nations. But when the Norman sword restored the churches of
Apulia to the jurisdiction of Rome, the departing flock was
warned, by a petulant epistle of the Greek patriarch, to
avoid and abhor the errors of the Latins. The popes excommunicate the patriarch of Constantinople and the Greeks, A.D. 1054, July 16. The rising majesty of Rome could no longer brook the insolence of a rebel; and Michael Cerularius was excommunicated in the
heart of Constantinople by the pope's legates. Shaking the
dust from their feet, they deposited on the altar of St.
Sophia a direful anathema, (10) which enumerates the seven mortal heresies of the Greeks, and devotes the guilty teachers, and their unhappy sectaries, to the eternal
society of the devil and his angels. According to the
emergencies of the church and state, a friendly
correspondence was some times resumed; the language of
charity and concord was sometimes affected; but the Greeks
have never recanted their errors; the popes have never
repealed their sentence; and from this thunderbolt we may
date the consummation of the schism. It was enlarged by
each ambitious step of the Roman pontiffs: the emperors
blushed and trembled at the ignominious fate of their royal
brethren of Germany; and the people were scandalized by the
temporal power and military life of the Latin clergy. (11)
Enmity of the Greeks and Latins, A.D. 1100-1200.
The aversion of the Greeks and Latins was nourished and
manifested in the three first expeditions to the Holy Land.
Alexius Comnenus contrived the absence at least of the
formidable pilgrims: his successors, Manuel and Isaac
Angelus, conspired with the Moslems for the ruin of the
greatest princes of the Franks; and their crooked and
malignant policy was seconded by the active and voluntary
obedience of every order of their subjects. Of this hostile
temper, a large portion may doubtless be ascribed to the
difference of language, dress, and manners, which severs and
alienates the nations of the globe. The pride, as well as
the prudence, of the sovereign was deeply wounded by the
intrusion of foreign armies, that claimed a right of
traversing his dominions, and passing under the walls of his
capital: his subjects were insulted and plundered by the
rude strangers of the West: and the hatred of the
pusillanimous Greeks was sharpened by secret envy of the
bold and pious enterprises of the Franks. But these profane
causes of national enmity were fortified and inflamed by the
venom of religious zeal. Instead of a kind embrace, a
hospitable reception from their Christian brethren of the
East, every tongue was taught to repeat the names of
schismatic and heretic, more odious to an orthodox ear than
those of pagan and infidel: instead of being loved for the
general conformity of faith and worship, they were abhorred
for some rules of discipline, some questions of theology, in
which themselves or their teachers might differ from the
Oriental church. In the crusade of Louis the Seventh, the
Greek clergy washed and purified the altars which had been
defiled by the sacrifice of a French priest. The companions
of Frederic Barbarossa deplore the injuries which they
endured, both in word and deed, from the peculiar rancour of
the bishops and monks. Their prayers and sermons excited
the people against the impious Barbarians; and the patriarch
is accused of declaring, that the faithful might obtain the
redemption of all their sins by the extirpation of the
schismatics. (12) An enthusiast, named Dorotheus, alarmed the
fears, and restored the confidence, of the emperor, by a
prophetic assurance, that the German heretic, after
assaulting the gate of Blachernes, would be made a signal
example of the divine vengeance. The passage of these
mighty armies were rare and perilous events; but the
crusades introduced a frequent and familiar intercourse
between the two nations, which enlarged their knowledge
without abating their prejudices. The Latins at Constantinople. The wealth and luxury of
Constantinople demanded the productions of every climate:
these imports were balanced by the art and labour of her
numerous inhabitants; her situation invites the commerce of
the world; and, in every period of her existence, that
commerce has been in the hands of foreigners. After the
decline of Amalphi, the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese,
introduced their factories and settlements into the capital
of the empire: their services were rewarded with honours and
immunities; they acquired the possession of lands and
houses; their families were multiplied by marriages with the
natives; and, after the toleration of a Mahometan mosque, it
was impossible to interdict the churches of the Roman rite.
(13) The two wives of Manuel Comnenus (14) were of the race of
the Franks: the first, a sister-in-law of the emperor
Conrad; the second, a daughter of the prince of Antioch: he
obtained for his son Alexius a daughter of Philip Augustus,
king of France; and he bestowed his own daughter on a
marquis of Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the
palace of Constantinople. The Greek encountered the arms,
and aspired to the empire, of the West: he esteemed the
valour, and trusted the fidelity, of the Franks; (15) their
military talents were unfitly recompensed by the lucrative
offices of judges and treasures; the policy of Manuel had
solicited the alliance of the pope; and the popular voice
accused him of a partial bias to the nation and religion of
the Latins. (16) During his reign, and that of his successor
Alexius, they were exposed at Constantinople to the reproach
of foreigners, heretics, and favourites; and this triple
guilt was severely expiated in the tumult, which announced
the return and elevation of Andronicus. (17)their massacre, A.D. 1183. The people rose in arms: from the Asiatic shore the tyrant despatched his troops and galleys to assist the national revenge; and the hopeless resistance of the strangers served only to justify the rage, and sharpen the daggers, of the assassins. Neither age, nor sex, nor the ties of friendship or kindred, could save the victims of national hatred, and avarice, and religious zeal; the Latins were slaughtered in their houses and in the streets; their quarter was reduced to ashes; the clergy were burnt in their churches, and the sick in their hospitals; and some estimate may be formed of the slain from the clemency which sold above four thousand Christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks. The priests and monks were the loudest and most active in the destruction of the schismatics; and they chanted a thanksgiving to the Lord, when the head of a Roman cardinal, the pope's legate, was severed from his body, fastened to the tail of a dog, and
dragged, with savage mockery, through the city. The more diligent of the strangers had retreated, on the first alarm, to their vessels, and escaped through the Hellespont from the scene of blood. In their flight, they burnt and ravaged two hundred miles of the sea-coast; inflicted a severe revenge on the guiltless subjects of the empire; marked the priests and monks as their peculiar enemies; and compensated, by the accumulation of plunder, the loss of their property and friends. On their return, they exposed to Italy and Europe the wealth and weakness, the perfidy and malice, of the Greeks, whose vices were painted as the genuine characters of heresy and schism. The scruples of the first crusaders had neglected the fairest opportunities
of securing, by the possession of Constantinople, the way to the Holy Land: domestic revolution invited, and almost compelled, the French and Venetians to achieve the conquest of the Roman empire of the East.
The reign and character of Angelus, A.D. 1185-1195, Sept. 12.
In the series of the Byzantine princes, I have exhibited the
hypocrisy and ambition, the tyranny and fall, of Andronicus,
the last male of the Comnenian family who reigned at
Constantinople. The revolution, which cast him headlong
from the throne, saved and exalted Isaac Angelus, (18) who descended by the females from the same Imperial dynasty.
The successor of a second Nero might have found it an easy
task to deserve the esteem and affection of his subjects;
they sometimes had reason to regret the administration of
Andronicus. The sound and vigorous mind of the tyrant was
capable of discerning the connection between his own and the
public interest; and while he was feared by all who could
inspire him with fear, the unsuspected people, and the
remote provinces, might bless the inexorable justice of
their master. But his successor was vain and jealous of the
supreme power, which he wanted courage and abilities to
exercise: his vices were pernicious, his virtues (if he
possessed any virtues) were useless, to mankind; and the
Greeks, who imputed their calamities to his negligence,
denied him the merit of any transient or accidental benefits
of the times. Isaac slept on the throne, and was awakened
only by the sound of pleasure: his vacant hours were amused
by comedians and buffoons, and even to these buffoons the
emperor was an object of contempt: his feasts and buildings
exceeded the examples of royal luxury: the number of his
eunuchs and domestics amounted to twenty thousand; and a
daily sum of four thousand pounds of silver would swell to
four millions sterling the annual expense of his household
and table. His poverty was relieved by oppression; and the
public discontent was inflamed by equal abuses in the
collection, and the application, of the revenue. While the
Greeks numbered the days of their servitude, a flattering
prophet, whom he rewarded with the dignity of patriarch,
assured him of a long and victorious reign of thirty-two
years; during which he should extend his sway to Mount
Libanus, and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his
only step towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a
splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin, (19) to demand
the restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an
offensive and defensive league with the enemy of the
Christian name. In these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his
brother, the remains of the Greek empire crumbled into dust.
The Island of Cyprus, whose name excites the ideas of
elegance and pleasure, was usurped by his namesake, a
Comnenian prince; and by a strange concatenation of events,
the sword of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom on
the house of Lusignan, a rich compensation for the loss of
Jerusalem.
Revolt of the Bulgarians, A.D. 1186.
The honour of the monarchy and the safety of the capital were
deeply wounded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and
Walachians. Since the victory of the second Basil, they had
supported, above a hundred and seventy years, the loose
dominion of the Byzantine princes; but no effectual measures
had been adopted to impose the yoke of laws and manners on
these savage tribes. By the command of Isaac, their sole
means of subsistence, their flocks and herds, were driven
away, to contribute towards the pomp of the royal nuptials;
and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the denial of
equal rank and pay in the military service. Peter and Asan,
two powerful chiefs, of the race of the ancient kings, (20)
asserted their own rights and the national freedom; their
daemoniac impostors proclaimed to the crowd, that their
glorious patron St. Demetrius had forever deserted the cause
of the Greeks; and the conflagration spread from the banks
of the Danube to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After
some faint efforts, Isaac Angelus and his brother acquiesced
in their independence; and the Imperial troops were soon
discouraged by the bones of their fellow-soldiers, that were
scattered along the passes of Mount Haemus. By the arms and
policy of John or Joannices, the second kingdom of Bulgaria
was firmly established. The subtle Barbarian sent an
embassy to Innocent the Third, to acknowledge himself a
genuine son of Rome in descent and religion, (21) and humbly
received from the pope the license of coining money, the
royal title, and a Latin archbishop or patriarch. The
Vatican exulted in the spiritual conquest of Bulgaria, the
first object of the schism; and if the Greeks could have
preserved the prerogatives of the church, they would gladly
have resigned the rights of the monarchy.
Usurpation and character of Alexius Angelus, A.D. 1195-1203, April 8.
The Bulgarians were malicious enough to pray for the long
life of Isaac Angelus, the surest pledge of their freedom
and prosperity. Yet their chiefs could involve in the same
indiscriminate contempt the family and nation of the
emperor.
"In all the Greeks," said Asan to his troops, "the same climate, and character, and education, will be productive of the same fruits. Behold my lance," continued the warrior, "and the long streamers that float in the wind. They differ only in colour; they are formed of the same silk, and fashioned by the same workman; nor has the stripe that is stained in purple any superior price or value above its fellows." (22)
Several of these candidates for the purple successively rose and fell under the empire of Isaac; a general, who had repelled the fleets of Sicily, was driven to revolt and ruin by the ingratitude of the prince; and his luxurious repose was disturbed by secret conspiracies and popular insurrections. The emperor was saved by accident, or the merit of his servants: he was at length oppressed by an ambitious brother, who, for the hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the obligations of nature, of loyalty, and of friendship. (23) While Isaac in the Thracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary pleasures of the chase, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was invested with the purple, by the unanimous suffrage of the camp; the capital and the clergy subscribed to their choice; and the vanity of the new sovereign rejected the name of his fathers for the lofty and royal appellation of the Comnenian race. On the despicable character of Isaac I have exhausted the language of contempt, and can only add, that, in a reign of eight years, the baser Alexius (24) was supported by the masculine vices of his wife Euphrosyne. The first intelligence of his fall was conveyed to the late emperor by the hostile aspect and pursuit of the guards, no longer his own: he fled before them above fifty miles, as far as Stagyra, in Macedonia; but the fugitive, without an object or a follower, was arrested, brought back to Constantinople, deprived of his eyes, and confined in a lonesome tower, on a scanty allowance of bread and water. At the moment of the revolution, his son Alexius, whom he educated in the hope of empire, was twelve years of age. He was spared by the usurper, and reduced to attend his triumph both in peace and war; but as the army was encamped on the sea-shore, an Italian vessel facilitated the escape of the royal youth; and, in the disguise of a common sailor, he eluded the search of his enemies, passed the Hellespont, and found a secure refuge in the Isle of Sicily. After saluting the threshold of the apostles, and imploring the protection of Pope Innocent the Third, Alexius accepted the kind invitation of his sister Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia, king of the Romans. But in his passage through Italy, he heard that the flower of Western chivalry was assembled at Venice for the deliverance of the Holy Land; and a ray of hope was kindled in his bosom, that their invincible swords might be employed in his father's restoration.
The fourth crusade, A.D. 1198.
About ten or twelve years after the loss of Jerusalem, the
nobles of France were again summoned to the holy war by the
voice of a third prophet, less extravagant, perhaps, than
Peter the hermit, but far below St. Bernard in the merit of
an orator and a statesman. An illiterate priest of the
neighbourhood of Paris, Fulk of Neuilly, (25) forsook his
parochial duty, to assume the more flattering character of a
popular and itinerant missionary. The fame of his sanctity
and miracles was spread over the land; he declaimed, with
severity and vehemence, against the vices of the age; and
his sermons, which he preached in the streets of Paris,
converted the robbers, the usurers, the prostitutes, and
even the doctors and scholars of the university. No sooner
did Innocent the Third ascend the chair of St. Peter, than
he proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and France, the obligation
of a new crusade. (26) The eloquent pontiff described the
ruin of Jerusalem, the triumph of the Pagans, and the shame
of Christendom; his liberality proposed the redemption of
sins, a plenary indulgence to all who should serve in
Palestine, either a year in person, or two years by a
substitute; (27) and among his legates and orators who blew
the sacred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and most
successful. The situation of the principal monarchs was
averse to the pious summons. The emperor Frederic the
Second was a child; and his kingdom of Germany was disputed
by the rival houses of Brunswick and Swabia, the memorable
factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus of
France had performed, and could not be persuaded to renew,
the perilous vow; but as he was not less ambitious of praise
than of power, he cheerfully instituted a perpetual fund for
the defence of the Holy Land. Richard of England was satiated
with the glory and misfortunes of his first adventure; and
he presumed to deride the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly,
who was not abashed in the presence of kings.
"You advise me," said Plantagenet, "to dismiss my three daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: I bequeath them to the most deserving; my pride to the knights templars, my avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my incontinence to the prelates."
But the preacher was heard and obeyed by the great vassals, the princes of the second order; and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Champagne, was the foremost in the holy race. The valiant youth, at the age of twenty-two years, was encouraged by the domestic examples of his father, who marched in the second crusade, and of his elder brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the title of King of Jerusalem; Embraced by the barons of France. two thousand two hundred knights owed service and homage to his peerage; (28) the nobles of Champagne excelled in all the exercises of war; (29) and, by his marriage with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy Gascons from either side of the Pyrenaean mountains. His companion in arms was Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like himself of regal lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the same time, of the kings of France and England. In a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort, the scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of Villehardouin, (30) marshal of Champagne, (31) who has condescended, in the rude idiom of his age and country, (32) to write or dictate (33) an original narrative of the councils and actions in which he bore a memorable part. At the same time, Baldwin, count of Flanders, who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed the cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province. (34) The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they ratified in tournaments; the operations of the war were debated in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved to seek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since Saladin's death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war. But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils and perils of a land expedition; and if the Flemings dwelt along the ocean, the French barons were destitute of ships and ignorant of navigation. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy were alone possessed of the means of transporting the holy warriors with their arms and horses; and the six deputies proceeded to Venice, to solicit, on motives of piety or interest, the aid of that powerful republic.
State of the Venetians, A.D. 697-1200.
In the invasion of Italy by Attila, I have mentioned (35) the
flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the
continent, and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands
that line the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf. In the midst
of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and inaccessible,
they gradually coalesced into a republic: the first
foundations of Venice were laid in the Island of Rialto; and
the annual election of the twelve tribunes was superseded by
the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the
two empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive
and perpetual independence. (36) Against the Latins, their
antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, and may be
justified by the pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all
claims of sovereignty to the islands of the Adriatic Gulf:
his son Pepin was repulsed in the attacks of the lagunas or
canals, too deep for the cavalry, and too shallow for the
vessels; and in every age, under the German Caesars, the
lands of the republic have been clearly distinguished from
the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants of Venice were
considered by themselves, by strangers, and by their
sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of the Greek empire:
(37) in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs of their
subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and the vain
titles, the servile honours, of the Byzantine court, so
ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded
the magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this
dependence, which was never absolute or rigid, were
imperceptibly relaxed by the ambition of Venice and the
weakness of Constantinople. Obedience was softened into
respect, privilege ripened into prerogative, and the freedom
of domestic government was fortified by the independence of
foreign dominion. The maritime cities of Istria and Dalmatia
bowed to the sovereigns of the Adriatic; and when they armed
against the Normans in the cause of Alexius, the emperor
applied, not to the duty of his subjects, but to the
gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea
was their patrimony: (38) the western parts of the
Mediterranean, from Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed
abandoned to their rivals of Pisa and Genoa; but the
Venetians acquired an early and lucrative share of the
commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with
the increasing demand of Europe; their manufactures of silk
and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of
high antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their
industry in the magnificence of public and private life. To
assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to protect the
freedom of navigation, the republic could launch and man a
fleet of a hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens,
and the Normans, were encountered by her naval arms. The
Franks of Syria were assisted by the Venetians in the
reduction of the sea coast; but their zeal was neither blind
nor disinterested; and in the conquest of Tyre, they shared
the sovereignty of a city, the first seat of the commerce of
the world. The policy of Venice was marked by the avarice
of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, power; yet
her ambition was prudent: nor did she often forget that if
armed galleys were the effect and safeguard, merchant
vessels were the cause and supply, of her greatness. In her
religion, she avoided the schisms of the Greeks, without
yielding a servile obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a
free intercourse with the infidels of every clime appears to
have allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her
primitive government was a loose mixture of democracy and
monarchy; the doge was elected by the votes of the general
assembly; as long as he was popular and successful, he
reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince; but in the
frequent revolutions of the state, he was deposed, or
banished, or slain, by the justice or injustice of the
multitude. The twelfth century produced the first rudiments
of the wise and jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the
doge to a pageant, and the people to a cipher. (39)
Alliance of the French and Venetians, A.D. 1201.
When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arrived at
Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the palace of
St. Mark, by the reigning duke; his name was Henry Dandolo;
(40) and he shone in the last period of human life as one of the most illustrious characters of the times. Under the weight of years, and after the loss of his eyes, (41) Dandolo retained a sound understanding and a manly courage: the spirit of a hero, ambitious to signalize his reign by some memorable exploits; and the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to
build his fame on the glory and advantage of his country.
He praised the bold enthusiasm and liberal confidence of the
barons and their deputies: in such a cause, and with such
associates, he should aspire, were he a private man, to
terminate his life; but he was the servant of the republic,
and some delay was requisite to consult, on this arduous
business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of
the French was first debated by the six sages who had been
recently appointed to control the administration of the
doge: it was next disclosed to the forty members of the
council of state; and finally communicated to the
legislative assembly of four hundred and fifty
representatives, who were annually chosen in the six
quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was still
the chief of the republic; his legal authority was supported
by the personal reputation of Dandolo: his arguments of
public interest were balanced and approved; and he was
authorized to inform the ambassadors of the following
conditions of the treaty. (42) It was proposed that the crusaders should assemble at Venice, on the feast of St.
John of the ensuing year; that flat-bottomed vessels should
be prepared for four thousand five hundred horses, and nine
thousand squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the
embarkation of four thousand five hundred knights, and
twenty thousand foot; that during a term of nine months they
should be supplied with provisions, and transported to
whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should
require; and that the republic should join the armament with
a squadron of fifty galleys. It was required, that the
pilgrims should pay, before their departure, a sum of
eighty-five thousand marks of silver; and that all
conquests, by sea and land, should be equally divided
between the confederates. The terms were hard; but the
emergency was pressing, and the French barons were not less
profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was
convened to ratify the treaty: the stately chapel and place
of St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the
noble deputies were taught a new lesson of humbling
themselves before the majesty of the people.
"Illustrious Venetians," said the marshal of Champagne, "we are sent by the greatest and most powerful barons of France to implore the aid of the masters of the sea for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground till you have promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ."
The eloquence of their words and tears, (43) their martial aspect, and suppliant attitude, were applauded by a universal shout; as it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those motives of honour and virtue, which alone can be offered to a popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and despatched to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the Third. Two thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants for the first expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies, two repassed the Alps to announce their success, while their four companions made a fruitless trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of Genoa and Pisa.
Assembly and departure of the crusade from Venice, A.D. 1202, October 8.
The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unforeseen
difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to
Troyes, was embraced and approved by Thibaut count of
Champagne, who had been unanimously chosen general of the
confederates. But the health of that valiant youth already
declined, and soon became hopeless; and he deplored the
untimely fate, which condemned him to expire, not in a field
of battle, but on a bed of sickness. To his brave and
numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed his
treasures: they swore in his presence to accomplish his vow
and their own; but some there were, says the marshal, who
accepted his gifts and forfeited their words. The more
resolute champions of the cross held a parliament at
Soissons for the election of a new general; but such was the
incapacity, or jealousy, or reluctance, of the princes of
France, that none could be found both able and willing to
assume the conduct of the enterprise. They acquiesced in
the choice of a stranger, of Boniface marquis of Montferrat,
descended of a race of heroes, and himself of conspicuous
fame in the wars and negotiations of the times; (44) nor
could the piety or ambition of the Italian chief decline
this honourable invitation. After visiting the French court,
where he was received as a friend and kinsman, the marquis,
in the church of Soissons, was invested with the cross of a
pilgrim and the staff of a general; and immediately repassed
the Alps, to prepare for the distant expedition of the East.
About the festival of the Pentecost he displayed his banner,
and marched towards Venice at the head of the Italians: he
was preceded or followed by the counts of Flanders and
Blois, and the most respectable barons of France; and their
numbers were swelled by the pilgrims of Germany, (45) whose object and motives were similar to their own. The Venetians
had fulfilled, and even surpassed, their engagements:
stables were constructed for the horses, and barracks for
the troops: the magazines were abundantly replenished with
forage and provisions; and the fleet of transports, ships,
and galleys, was ready to hoist sail as soon as the republic
had received the price of the freight and armament. But
that price far exceeded the wealth of the crusaders who were
assembled at Venice. The Flemings, whose obedience to their
count was voluntary and precarious, had embarked in their
vessels for the long navigation of the ocean and
Mediterranean; and many of the French and Italians had
preferred a cheaper and more convenient passage from
Marseilles and Apulia to the Holy Land. Each pilgrim might
complain, that after he had furnished his own contribution,
he was made responsible for the deficiency of his absent
brethren: the gold and silver plate of the chiefs, which
they freely delivered to the treasury of St. Marks, was a
generous but inadequate sacrifice; and after all their
efforts, thirty-four thousand marks were still wanting to
complete the stipulated sum. The obstacle was removed by
the policy and patriotism of the doge, who proposed to the
barons, that if they would join their arms in reducing some
revolted cities of Dalmatia, he would expose his person in
the holy war, and obtain from the republic a long
indulgence, till some wealthy conquest should afford the
means of satisfying the debt. After much scruple and
hesitation, they chose rather to accept the offer than to
relinquish the enterprise; Siege of Zara, Nov. 10. and the first hostilities of the fleet and army were directed against Zara, (46) a strong city of the Sclavonian coast, which had renounced its allegiance to Venice, and implored the protection of the king of
Hungary. (47) The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the harbour; landed their horses, troops, and military engines; and compelled the inhabitants, after a defence of five days, to surrender at discretion: their lives were spared, but the revolt was punished by the pillage of their houses and the demolition of their walls. The season was far advanced; the French and Venetians resolved to pass the winter in a secure harbour and plentiful country; but their repose was disturbed by national and tumultuous quarrels of the soldiers and mariners. The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of discord and scandal: the arms of the allies had been stained in their outset with the blood, not of infidels, but of Christians: the king of Hungary and his new subjects were themselves enlisted under the banner of the cross; and the scruples of the devout were magnified by the fear or lassitude of the reluctant pilgrims. The pope had excommunicated the false crusaders who had pillaged and massacred their brethren,(48) and only the marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort escaped these spiritual thunders; the one by his absence from the siege, the other by his final departure from the camp. Innocent might absolve the simple and submissive penitents of France; but he was provoked by the stubborn reason of the Venetians, who refused to confess their guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, in their temporal concerns, the interposition of a priest.
Alliance of the crusaders with the Greek prince, the young Alexius.
The assembly of such formidable powers by sea and land had
revived the hopes of young (49) Alexius; and both at Venice
and Zara, he solicited the arms of the crusaders, for his
own restoration and his father's (50) deliverance. The royal
youth was recommended by Philip king of Germany: his prayers
and presence excited the compassion of the camp; and his
cause was embraced and pleaded by the marquis of Montferrat
and the doge of Venice. A double alliance, and the dignity
of Caesar, had connected with the Imperial family the two
elder brothers of Boniface: (51) he expected to derive a
kingdom from the important service; and the more generous
ambition of Dandolo was eager to secure the inestimable
benefits of trade and dominion that might accrue to his
country. (52) Their influence procured a favourable audience
for the ambassadors of Alexius; and if the magnitude of his
offers excited some suspicion, the motives and rewards which
he displayed might justify the delay and diversion of those
forces which had been consecrated to the deliverance of
Jerusalem. He promised in his own and his father's name,
that as soon as they should be seated on the throne of
Constantinople, they would terminate the long schism of the
Greeks, and submit themselves and their people to the lawful
supremacy of the Roman church. He engaged to recompense the
labours and merits of the crusaders, by the immediate payment
of two hundred thousand marks of silver; to accompany them
in person to Egypt; or, if it should be judged more
advantageous, to maintain, during a year, ten thousand men,
and, during his life, five hundred knights, for the service
of the Holy Land. These tempting conditions were accepted by
the republic of Venice; and the eloquence of the doge and
marquis persuaded the counts of Flanders, Blois, and St.
Pol, with eight barons of France, to join in the glorious
enterprise. A treaty of offensive and defensive alliance was
confirmed by their oaths and seals; and each individual,
according to his situation and character, was swayed by the
hope of public or private advantage; by the honour of
restoring an exiled monarch; or by the sincere and probable
opinion, that their efforts in Palestine would be fruitless
and unavailing, and that the acquisition of Constantinople
must precede and prepare the recovery of Jerusalem. But
they were the chiefs or equals of a valiant band of freemen
and volunteers, who thought and acted for themselves: the
soldiers and clergy were divided; and, if a large majority
subscribed to the alliance, the numbers and arguments of the
dissidents were strong and respectable. (53) The boldest
hearts were appalled by the report of the naval power and
impregnable strength of Constantinople; and their
apprehensions were disguised to the world, and perhaps to
themselves, by the more decent objections of religion and
duty. They alleged the sanctity of a vow, which had drawn
them from their families and homes to the rescue of the holy
sepulchre; nor should the dark and crooked counsels of human
policy divert them from a pursuit, the event of which was in
the hands of the Almighty. Their first offence, the attack
of Zara, had been severely punished by the reproach of their
conscience and the censures of the pope; nor would they
again imbrue their hands in the blood of their
fellow-Christians. The apostle of Rome had pronounced; nor
would they usurp the right of avenging with the sword the
schism of the Greeks and the doubtful usurpation of the
Byzantine monarch. On these principles or pretences, many
pilgrims, the most distinguished for their valour and piety,
withdrew from the camp; and their retreat was less
pernicious than the open or secret opposition of a
discontented party, that labored, on every occasion, to
separate the army and disappoint the enterprise.
Voyage from Zara to Constantinople, A.D. 1203, April 7-June 24.
Notwithstanding this defection, the departure of the fleet
and army was vigorously pressed by the Venetians, whose zeal
for the service of the royal youth concealed a just
resentment to his nation and family. They were mortified by
the recent preference which had been given to Pisa, the
rival of their trade; they had a long arrear of debt and
injury to liquidate with the Byzantine court; and Dandolo
might not discourage the popular tale, that he had been
deprived of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who perfidiously
violated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar armament,
for ages, had not rode the Adriatic: it was composed of one
hundred and twenty flat- bottomed vessels or palanders for
the horses; two hundred and forty transports filled with men
and arms; seventy store-ships laden with provisions; and
fifty stout galleys, well prepared for the encounter of an
enemy. (54) While the wind was favourable, the sky serene, and the water smooth, every eye was fixed with wonder and
delight on the scene of military and naval pomp which
overspread the sea. The shields of the knights and squires, at once an ornament and a defence, were arranged on either side of the ships; the banners of the nations and
families were displayed from the stern; our modern artillery
was supplied by three hundred engines for casting stones and
darts: the fatigues of the way were cheered with the sound
of music; and the spirits of the adventurers were raised by
the mutual assurance, that forty thousand Christian heroes
were equal to the conquest of the world. (55) In the
navigation (56) from Venice and Zara, the fleet was successfully steered by the skill and experience of the
Venetian pilots: at Durazzo, the confederates first landed
on the territories of the Greek empire: the Isle of Corfu
afforded a station and repose; they doubled, without
accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the southern point of
Peloponnesus or the Morea; made a descent in the islands of
Negropont and Andros; and cast anchor at Abydus on the
Asiatic side of the Hellespont. These preludes of conquest
were easy and bloodless: the Greeks of the provinces,
without patriotism or courage, were crushed by an
irresistible force: the presence of the lawful heir might
justify their obedience; and it was rewarded by the modesty
and discipline of the Latins. As they penetrated through
the Hellespont, the magnitude of their navy was compressed
in a narrow channel, and the face of the waters was darkened
with innumerable sails. They again expanded in the basin of
the Propontis, and traversed that placid sea, till they
approached the European shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen,
three leagues to the west of Constantinople. The prudent
doge dissuaded them from dispersing themselves in a populous
and hostile land; and, as their stock of provisions was
reduced, it was resolved, in the season of harvest, to
replenish their store-ships in the fertile islands of the
Propontis. With this resolution, they directed their
course: but a strong gale, and their own impatience, drove
them to the eastward; and so near did they run to the shore
and the city, that some volleys of stones and darts were
exchanged between the ships and the rampart. As they passed
along, they gazed with admiration on the capital of the
East, or, as it should seem, of the earth; rising from her
seven hills, and towering over the continents of Europe and
Asia. The swelling domes and lofty spires of five hundred
palaces and churches were gilded by the sun and reflected in
the waters: the walls were crowded with soldiers and
spectators, whose numbers they beheld, of whose temper they
were ignorant; and each heart was chilled by the reflection,
that, since the beginning of the world, such an enterprise
had never been undertaken by such a handful of warriors.
But the momentary apprehension was dispelled by hope and
valour; and every man, says the marshal of Champagne, glanced
his eye on the sword or lance which he must speedily use in
the glorious conflict. (57) The Latins cast anchor before
Chalcedon; the mariners only were left in the vessels: the
soldiers, horses, and arms, were safely landed; and, in the
luxury of an Imperial palace, the barons tasted the first
fruits of their success. On the third day, the fleet and
army moved towards Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of
Constantinople: a detachment of five hundred Greek horse was
surprised and defeated by fourscore French knights; and in a
halt of nine days, the camp was plentifully supplied with
forage and provisions.
Fruitless negotiations of the emperor.
In relating the invasion of a great empire, it may seem
strange that I have not described the obstacles which should
have checked the progress of the strangers. The Greeks, in
truth, were an unwarlike people; but they were rich,
industrious, and subject to the will of a single man: had
that man been capable of fear, when his enemies were at a
distance, or of courage, when they approached his person.
The first rumour of his nephew's alliance with the French and
Venetians was despised by the usurper Alexius: his
flatterers persuaded him, that in this contempt he was bold
and sincere; and each evening, in the close of the banquet,
he thrice discomfited the Barbarians of the West. These
Barbarians had been justly terrified by the report of his
naval power; and the sixteen hundred fishing boats of
Constantinople (58) could have manned a fleet, to sink them
in the Adriatic, or stop their entrance in the mouth of the
Hellespont. But all force may be annihilated by the
negligence of the prince and the venality of his ministers.
The great duke, or admiral, made a scandalous, almost a
public, auction of the sails, the masts, and the rigging:
the royal forests were reserved for the more important
purpose of the chase; and the trees, says Nicetas, were
guarded by the eunuchs, like the groves of religious
worship. (59) From his dream of pride, Alexius was awakened by the siege of Zara, and the rapid advances of the Latins;
as soon as he saw the danger was real, he thought it
inevitable, and his vain presumption was lost in abject
despondency and despair. He suffered these contemptible
Barbarians to pitch their camp in the sight of the palace;
and his apprehensions were thinly disguised by the pomp and
menace of a suppliant embassy. The sovereign of the Romans
was astonished (his ambassadors were instructed to say) at
the hostile appearance of the strangers. If these pilgrims
were sincere in their vow for the deliverance of Jerusalem,
his voice must applaud, and his treasures should assist,
their pious design but should they dare to invade the
sanctuary of empire, their numbers, were they ten times more
considerable, should not protect them from his just
resentment. The answer of the doge and barons was simple and
magnanimous.
"In the cause of honour and justice," they said, "we despise the usurper of Greece, his threats, and his offers. Our friendship and his allegiance are due to the lawful heir, to the young prince, who is seated among us, and to his father, the emperor Isaac, who has been deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his eyes, by the crime of an ungrateful brother. Let that brother confess his guilt, and implore forgiveness, and we ourselves will intercede, that he may be permitted to live in affluence and security. But let him not insult us by a second message; our reply will be made in arms, in the palace of Constantinople."
Passage of the Bosphorus, July 6.
On the tenth day of their encampment at Scutari, the
crusaders prepared themselves, as soldiers and as Catholics,
for the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the
adventure; the stream was broad and rapid: in a calm the
current of the Euxine might drive down the liquid and
unextinguishable fires of the Greeks; and the opposite
shores of Europe were defended by seventy thousand horse and
foot in formidable array. On this memorable day, which
happened to be bright and pleasant, the Latins were
distributed in six battles or divisions; the first, or
vanguard, was led by the count of Flanders, one of the most
powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of
his crossbows. The four successive battles of the French
were commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St. Pol
and Blois, and Matthew of Montmorency; the last of whom was
honoured by the voluntary service of the marshal and nobles
of Champagne. The sixth division, the rear-guard and
reserve of the army, was conducted by the marquis of
Montferrat, at the head of the Germans and Lombards. The
chargers, saddled, with their long comparisons dragging on
the ground, were embarked in the flat palanders; (60) and the knights stood by the side of their horses, in complete
armour, their helmets laced, and their lances in their hands.
The numerous train of serjeants (61) and archers occupied the transports; and each transport was towed by the strength and
swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed the
Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy or an obstacle: to
land the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the
resolution, of every division and of every soldier. Jealous
of the preeminence of danger, the knights in their heavy
armour leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as their
girdle; the sergeants and archers were animated by their
valour; and the squires, letting down the draw-bridges of the
palanders, led the horses to the shore. Before their
squadrons could mount, and form, and couch their Lances, the
seventy thousand Greeks had vanished from their sight: the
timid Alexius gave the example to his troops; and it was
only by the plunder of his rich pavilions that the Latins
were informed that they had fought against an emperor. In
the first consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved,
by a double attack, to open the entrance of the harbour. The
tower of Galata, (62) in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and
stormed by the French, while the Venetians assumed the more
difficult task of forcing the boom or chain that was
stretched from that tower to the Byzantine shore. After
some fruitless attempts, their intrepid perseverance
prevailed: twenty ships of war, the relics of the Grecian
navy, were either sunk or taken: the enormous and massy
links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken by
the weight, of the galleys; (63) and the Venetian fleet, safe
and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of
Constantinople. By these daring achievements, a remnant of
twenty thousand Latins solicited the license of besieging a
capital which contained above four hundred thousand
inhabitants, (64) able, though not willing, to bear arms in
defence of their country. Such an account would indeed
suppose a population of near two millions; but whatever
abatement may be required in the numbers of the Greeks, the
belief of those numbers will equally exalt the fearless
spirit of their assailants.
First siege and conquest of Constantinople by the Latins, July 7 -18.
In the choice of the attack, the French and Venetians were
divided by their habits of life and warfare. The former
affirmed with truth, that Constantinople was most accessible
on the side of the sea and the harbour. The latter might
assert with honour, that they had long enough trusted their
lives and fortunes to a frail bark and a precarious element,
and loudly demanded a trial of knighthood, a firm ground,
and a close onset, either on foot or on horseback. After a
prudent compromise, of employing the two nations by sea and
land, in the service best suited to their character, the
fleet covering the army, they both proceeded from the
entrance to the extremity of the harbour: the stone bridge of
the river was hastily repaired; and the six battles of the
French formed their encampment against the front of the
capital, the basis of the triangle which runs about four
miles from the port to the Propontis. (65) On the edge of a
broad ditch, at the foot of a lofty rampart, they had
leisure to contemplate the difficulties of their enterprise.
The gates to the right and left of their narrow camp poured
forth frequent sallies of cavalry and light-infantry, which
cut off their stragglers, swept the country of provisions,
sounded the alarm five or six times in the course of each
day, and compelled them to plant a palisade, and sink an
entrenchment, for their immediate safety. In the supplies
and convoys the Venetians had been too sparing, or the
Franks too voracious: the usual complaints of hunger and
scarcity were heard, and perhaps felt their stock of flour
would be exhausted in three weeks; and their disgust of salt
meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses. The
trembling usurper was supported by Theodore Lascaris, his
son-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired to save and to rule
his country; the Greeks, regardless of that country, were
awakened to the defence of their religion; but their firmest
hope was in the strength and spirit of the Varangian guards,
of the Danes and English, as they are named in the writers
of the times. (66) After ten days' incessant labour, the
ground was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches of the
besiegers were regularly made, and two hundred and fifty
engines of assault exercised their various powers to clear
the rampart, to batter the walls, and to sap the
foundations. On the first appearance of a breach, the
scaling-ladders were applied: the numbers that defended the
vantage ground repulsed and oppressed the adventurous
Latins; but they admired the resolution of fifteen knights
and sergeants, who had gained the ascent, and maintained
their perilous station till they were precipitated or made
prisoners by the Imperial guards. On the side of the harbour
the naval attack was more successfully conducted by the
Venetians; and that industrious people employed every
resource that was known and practiced before the invention
of gunpowder. A double line, three bow-shots in front, was
formed by the galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the
former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the
latter, whose decks, and poops, and turret, were the
platforms of military engines, that discharged their shot
over the heads of the first line. The soldiers, who leaped
from the galleys on shore, immediately planted and ascended
their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more
slowly into the intervals, and lowering a draw-bridge,
opened a way through the air from their masts to the
rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a
venerable and conspicuous form, stood aloft in complete
armour on the prow of his galley. The great standard of St.
Mark was displayed before him; his threats, promises, and
exhortations, urged the diligence of the rowers; his vessel
was the first that struck; and Dandolo was the first warrior
on the shore. The nations admired the magnanimity of the
blind old man, without reflecting that his age and
infirmities diminished the price of life, and enhanced the
value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand,
(for the standard-bearer was probably slain,) the banner of
the republic was fixed on the rampart: twenty-five towers
were rapidly occupied; and, by the cruel expedient of fire,
the Greeks were driven from the adjacent quarter. The doge
had despatched the intelligence of his success, when he was
checked by the danger of his confederates. Nobly declaring
that he would rather die with the pilgrims than gain a
victory by their destruction, Dandolo relinquished his
advantage, recalled his troops, and hastened to the scene of
action. He found the six weary diminutive battles of the
French encompassed by sixty squadrons of the Greek cavalry,
the least of which was more numerous than the largest of
their divisions. Shame and despair had provoked Alexius to
the last effort of a general sally; but he was awed by the
firm order and manly aspect of the Latins; and, after
skirmishing at a distance, withdrew his troops in the close
of the evening. The silence or tumult of the night
exasperated his fears; and the timid usurper, collecting a
treasure of ten thousand pounds of gold, basely deserted his
wife, his people, and his fortune; threw himself into a
bark; stole through the Bosphorus; and landed in shameful
safety in an obscure harbour of Thrace. As soon as they were
apprised of his flight, the Greek nobles sought pardon and
peace in the dungeon where the blind Isaac expected each
hour the visit of the executioner. Again saved and exalted
by the vicissitudes of fortune, the captive in his Imperial
robes was replace on the throne, and surrounded with
prostrate slaves, whose real terror and affected joy he was
incapable of discerning. At the dawn of day, hostilities
were suspended, and the Latin chiefs were surprised by a
message from the lawful and reigning emperor, who was
impatient to embrace his son, and to reward his generous
deliverers. (67)
Restoration of the emperor Isaac Angelus, and his son Alexius, July 19.
But these generous deliverers were unwilling to release
their hostage, till they had obtained from his father the
payment, or at least the promise, of their recompense. They
chose four ambassadors, Matthew of Montmorency, our
historian the marshal of Champagne, and two Venetians, to
congratulate the emperor. The gates were thrown open on
their approach, the streets on both sides were lined with
the battle axes of the Danish and English guard: the
presence-chamber glittered with gold and jewels, the false
substitute of virtue and power: by the side of the blind
Isaac his wife was seated, the sister of the king of
Hungary: and by her appearance, the noble matrons of Greece
were drawn from their domestic retirement, and mingled with
the circle of senators and soldiers. The Latins, by the
mouth of the marshal, spoke like men conscious of their
merits, but who respected the work of their own hands; and
the emperor clearly understood, that his son's engagements
with Venice and the pilgrims must be ratified without
hesitation or delay. Withdrawing into a private chamber with
the empress, a chamberlain, an interpreter, and the four
ambassadors, the father of young Alexius inquired with some
anxiety into the nature of his stipulations. The submission
of the Eastern empire to the pope, the succour of the Holy
Land, and a present contribution of two hundred thousand
marks of silver. —
"These conditions are weighty," was his prudent reply: "they are hard to accept, and difficult to perform. But no conditions can exceed the measure of your services and deserts."
After this satisfactory assurance, the barons mounted on horseback, and introduced the heir of Constantinople to the city and palace: his youth and marvellous adventures engaged every heart in his favour, and Alexius was solemnly crowned with his father in the dome of St. Sophia. In the first days of his reign, the people, already blessed with the restoration of plenty and peace, was delighted by the joyful catastrophe of the tragedy; and the discontent of the nobles, their regret, and their fears, were covered by the polished surface of pleasure and loyalty The mixture of two discordant nations in the same capital might have been pregnant with mischief and danger; and the suburb of Galata, or Pera, was assigned for the quarters of the French and Venetians. But the liberty of trade and familiar intercourse was allowed between the friendly nations: and each day the pilgrims were tempted by devotion or curiosity to visit the churches and palaces of Constantinople. Their rude minds, insensible perhaps of the finer arts, were astonished by the magnificent scenery: and the poverty of their native towns enhanced the populousness and riches of the first metropolis of Christendom. (68) Descending from his state, young Alexius was prompted by interest and gratitude to repeat his frequent and familiar visits to his Latin allies; and in the freedom of the table, the gay petulance of the French sometimes forgot the emperor of the East. (69) In their most serious conferences, it was agreed, that the reunion of the two churches must be the result of patience and time; but avarice was less tractable than zeal; and a larger sum was instantly disbursed to appease the wants, and silence the importunity, of the crusaders. (70) Alexius was alarmed by the approaching hour of their departure: their absence might have relieved him from the engagement which he was yet incapable of performing; but his friends would have left him, naked and alone, to the caprice and prejudice of a perfidious nation. He wished to bribe their stay, the delay of a year, by undertaking to defray their expense, and to satisfy, in their name, the freight of the Venetian vessels. The offer was agitated in the council of the barons; and, after a repetition of their debates and scruples, a majority of votes again acquiesced in the advice of the doge and the prayer of the young emperor. At the price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold, he prevailed on the marquis of Montferrat to lead him with an army round the provinces of Europe; to establish his authority, and pursue his uncle, while Constantinople was awed by the presence of Baldwin and his confederates of France and Flanders. The expedition was successful: the blind emperor exulted in the success of his arms, and listened to the predictions of his flatterers, that the same Providence which had raised him from the dungeon to the throne, would heal his gout, restore his sight, and watch over the long prosperity of his reign. Yet the mind of the suspicious old man was tormented by the rising glories of his son; nor could his pride conceal from his envy, that, while his own name was pronounced in faint and reluctant acclamations, the royal youth was the theme of spontaneous and universal praise. (71)
Quarrel of the Greeks and Latins.
By the recent invasion, the Greeks were awakened from a
dream of nine centuries; from the vain presumption that the
capital of the Roman empire was impregnable to foreign arms.
The strangers of the West had violated the city, and
bestowed the sceptre, of Constantine: their Imperial clients
soon became as unpopular as themselves: the well-known vices
of Isaac were rendered still more contemptible by his
infirmities, and the young Alexius was hated as an apostate,
who had renounced the manners and religion of his country.
His secret covenant with the Latins was divulged or
suspected; the people, and especially the clergy, were
devoutly attached to their faith and superstition; and every
convent, and every shop, resounded with the danger of the
church and the tyranny of the pope. (72) An empty treasury
could ill supply the demands of regal luxury and foreign
extortion: the Greeks refused to avert, by a general tax,
the impending evils of servitude and pillage; the oppression
of the rich excited a more dangerous and personal
resentment; and if the emperor melted the plate, and
despoiled the images, of the sanctuary, he seemed to justify
the complaints of heresy and sacrilege. During the absence
of Marquis Boniface and his Imperial pupil, Constantinople
was visited with a calamity which might be justly imputed to
the zeal and indiscretion of the Flemish pilgrims. (73) In
one of their visits to the city, they were scandalized by
the aspect of a mosque or synagogue, in which one God was
worshipped, without a partner or a son. Their effectual
mode of controversy was to attack the infidels with the
sword, and their habitation with fire: but the infidels, and
some Christian neighbours, presumed to defend their lives and
properties; and the flames which bigotry had kindled,
consumed the most orthodox and innocent structures. During
eight days and nights, the conflagration spread above a
league in front, from the harbour to the Propontis, over the
thickest and most populous regions of the city. It is not
easy to count the stately churches and palaces that were
reduced to a smoking ruin, to value the merchandise that
perished in the trading streets, or to number the families
that were involved in the common destruction. By this
outrage, which the doge and the barons in vain affected to
disclaim, the name of the Latins became still more
unpopular; and the colony of that nation, above fifteen
thousand persons, consulted their safety in a hasty retreat
from the city to the protection of their standard in the
suburb of Pera. The emperor returned in triumph; but the
firmest and most dexterous policy would have been
insufficient to steer him through the tempest, which
overwhelmed the person and government of that unhappy youth.
His own inclination, and his father's advice, attached him
to his benefactors; but Alexius hesitated between gratitude
and patriotism, between the fear of his subjects and of his
allies. (74) By his feeble and fluctuating conduct he lost
the esteem and confidence of both; and, while he invited the
marquis of Monferrat to occupy the palace, he suffered the
nobles to conspire, and the people to arm, for the
deliverance of their country. Regardless of his painful
situation, the Latin chiefs repeated their demands, resented
his delays, suspected his intentions, and exacted a decisive
answer of peace or war. The haughty summons was delivered
by three French knights and three Venetian deputies, who
girded their swords, mounted their horses, pierced through
the angry multitude, and entered, with a fearful
countenance, the palace and presence of the Greek emperor.
In a peremptory tone, they recapitulated their services and
his engagements; and boldly declared, that unless their just
claims were fully and immediately satisfied, they should no
longer hold him either as a sovereign or a friend. After
this defiance, the first that had ever wounded an Imperial
ear, they departed without betraying any symptoms of fear;
but their escape from a servile palace and a furious city
astonished the ambassadors themselves; and their return to
the camp was the signal of mutual hostility.
The war renewed, A.D. 1204.
Among the Greeks, all authority and wisdom were overborne by
the impetuous multitude, who mistook their rage for valour,
their numbers for strength, and their fanaticism for the
support and inspiration of Heaven. In the eyes of both
nations Alexius was false and contemptible; the base and
spurious race of the Angeli was rejected with clamorous
disdain; and the people of Constantinople encompassed the
senate, to demand at their hands a more worthy emperor. To
every senator, conspicuous by his birth or dignity, they
successively presented the purple: by each senator the
deadly garment was repulsed: the contest lasted three days;
and we may learn from the historian Nicetas, one of the
members of the assembly, that fear and weaknesses were the
guardians of their loyalty. A phantom, who vanished in
oblivion, was forcibly proclaimed by the crowd: (75) but the
author of the tumult, and the leader of the war, was a
prince of the house of Ducas; and his common appellation of
Alexius must be discriminated by the epithet of Mourzoufle,
(76) which in the vulgar idiom expressed the close junction
of his black and shaggy eyebrows. At once a patriot and a
courtier, the perfidious Mourzoufle, who was not destitute
of cunning and courage, opposed the Latins both in speech
and action, inflamed the passions and prejudices of the
Greeks, and insinuated himself into the favour and confidence
of Alexius, who trusted him with the office of great
chamberlain, and tinged his buskins with the colours of
royalty. At the dead of night, he rushed into the
bed-chamber with an affrighted aspect, exclaiming, that the
palace was attacked by the people and betrayed by the
guards. Starting from his couch, the unsuspecting prince
threw himself into the arms of his enemy, who had contrived
his escape by a private staircase. But that staircase
terminated in a prison: Alexius and his father deposed by Mourzoufle, February 8. Alexius was seized, stripped, and
loaded with chains; and, after tasting some days the
bitterness of death, he was poisoned, or strangled, or
beaten with clubs, at the command, or in the presence, of
the tyrant. The emperor Isaac Angelus soon followed his son
to the grave; and Mourzoufle, perhaps, might spare the
superfluous crime of hastening the extinction of impotence
and blindness.
Second siege, January - April.
The death of the emperors, and the usurpation of Mourzoufle,
had changed the nature of the quarrel. It was no longer the
disagreement of allies who overvalued their services, or
neglected their obligations: the French and Venetians forgot
their complaints against Alexius, dropped a tear on the
untimely fate of their companion, and swore revenge against
the perfidious nation who had crowned his assassin. Yet the
prudent doge was still inclined to negotiate: he asked as a
debt, a subsidy, or a fine, fifty thousand pounds of gold,
about two millions sterling; nor would the conference have
been abruptly broken, if the zeal, or policy, of Mourzoufle
had not refused to sacrifice the Greek church to the safety
of the state. (77) Amidst the invectives of his foreign and
domestic enemies, we may discern, that he was not unworthy
of the character which he had assumed, of the public
champion: the second siege of Constantinople was far more
laborious than the first; the treasury was replenished, and
discipline was restored, by a severe inquisition into the
abuses of the former reign; and Mourzoufle, an iron mace in
his hand, visiting the posts, and affecting the port and
aspect of a warrior, was an object of terror to his
soldiers, at least, and to his kinsmen. Before and after
the death of Alexius, the Greeks made two vigorous and
well-conducted attempts to burn the navy in the harbour; but
the skill and courage of the Venetians repulsed the
fire-ships; and the vagrant flames wasted themselves without
injury in the sea. (78) In a nocturnal sally the Greek
emperor was vanquished by Henry, brother of the count of
Flanders: the advantages of number and surprise aggravated
the shame of his defeat: his buckler was found on the field
of battle; and the Imperial standard, (79) a divine image of
the Virgin, was presented, as a trophy and a relic to the
Cistercian monks, the disciples of St. Bernard. Near three
months, without excepting the holy season of Lent, were
consumed in skirmishes and preparations, before the Latins
were ready or resolved for a general assault. The land
fortifications had been found impregnable; and the Venetian
pilots represented, that, on the shore of the Propontis, the
anchorage was unsafe, and the ships must be driven by the
current far away to the straits of the Hellespont; a
prospect not unpleasing to the reluctant pilgrims, who
sought every opportunity of breaking the army. From the
harbour, therefore, the assault was determined by the
assailants, and expected by the besieged; and the emperor
had placed his scarlet pavilions on a neighbouring height, to
direct and animate the efforts of his troops. A fearless
spectator, whose mind could entertain the ideas of pomp and
pleasure, might have admired the long array of two embattled
armies, which extended above half a league, the one on the
ships and galleys, the other on the walls and towers raised
above the ordinary level by several stages of wooden
turrets. Their first fury was spent in the discharge of
darts, stones, and fire, from the engines; but the water was
deep; the French were bold; the Venetians were skilful; they
approached the walls; and a desperate conflict of swords,
spears, and battle- axes, was fought on the trembling
bridges that grappled the floating, to the stable,
batteries. In more than a hundred places, the assault was
urged, and the defence was sustained; till the superiority
of ground and numbers finally prevailed, and the Latin
trumpets sounded a retreat. On the ensuing days, the attack
was renewed with equal vigour, and a similar event; and, in
the night, the doge and the barons held a council,
apprehensive only for the public danger: not a voice
pronounced the words of escape or treaty; and each warrior,
according to his temper, embraced the hope of victory, or
the assurance of a glorious death. (80) By the experience of
the former siege, the Greeks were instructed, but the Latins
were animated; and the knowledge that Constantinople might
be taken, was of more avail than the local precautions which
that knowledge had inspired for its defence. In the third
assault, two ships were linked together to double their
strength; a strong north wind drove them on the shore; the
bishops of Troyes and Soissons led the van; and the
auspicious names of the pilgrim and the paradise resounded
along the line. (81) The episcopal banners were displayed on
the walls; a hundred marks of silver had been promised to
the first adventurers; and if their reward was intercepted
by death, their names have been immortalized by fame. Four towers were scaled; three gates were burst open; and the French knights, who might tremble on the waves, felt themselves invincible on horseback on the solid ground.
Shall I relate that the thousands who guarded the emperor's
person fled on the approach, and before the lance, of a
single warrior? Their ignominious flight is attested by
their countryman Nicetas: an army of phantoms marched with
the French hero, and he was magnified to a giant in the eyes
of the Greeks. (82) While the fugitives deserted their posts
and cast away their arms, the Latins entered the city under
the banners of their leaders: the streets and gates opened
for their passage; and either design or accident kindled a
third conflagration, which consumed in a few hours the
measure of three of the largest cities of France. (83) In the
close of evening, the barons checked their troops, and
fortified their stations: They were awed by the extent and
populousness of the capital, which might yet require the
labour of a month, if the churches and palaces were conscious
of their internal strength. But in the morning, a suppliant
procession, with crosses and images, announced the
submission of the Greeks, and deprecated the wrath of the
conquerors: the usurper escaped through the golden gate: the
palaces of Blachernae and Boucoleon were occupied by the
count of Flanders and the marquis of Montferrat; and the
empire, which still bore the name of Constantine, and the
title of Roman, was subverted by the arms of the Latin
pilgrims. (84)
Pillage of Constantinople.
Constantinople had been taken by storm; and no restraints,
except those of religion and humanity, were imposed on the
conquerors by the laws of war. Boniface, marquis of
Montferrat, still acted as their general; and the Greeks,
who revered his name as that of their future sovereign, were
heard to exclaim in a lamentable tone, "Holy marquis-king,
have mercy upon us!" His prudence or compassion opened the
gates of the city to the fugitives; and he exhorted the
soldiers of the cross to spare the lives of their fellow-
Christians. The streams of blood that flowed down the pages
of Nicetas may be reduced to the slaughter of two thousand
of his unresisting countrymen; (85) and the greater part was
massacred, not by the strangers, but by the Latins, who had
been driven from the city, and who exercised the revenge of
a triumphant faction. Yet of these exiles, some were less
mindful of injuries than of benefits; and Nicetas himself
was indebted for his safety to the generosity of a Venetian
merchant. Pope Innocent the Third accuses the pilgrims for
respecting, in their lust, neither age nor sex, nor
religious profession; and bitterly laments that the deeds of
darkness, fornication, adultery, and incest, were
perpetrated in open day; and that noble matrons and holy
nuns were polluted by the grooms and peasants of the
Catholic camp. (86) It is indeed probable that the license of victory prompted and covered a multitude of sins: but it is certain, that the capital of the East contained a stock of venal or willing beauty, sufficient to satiate the desires of twenty thousand pilgrims; and female prisoners were no longer subject to the right or abuse of domestic slavery. The marquis of Montferrat was the patron of discipline and decency; the count of Flanders was the mirror of chastity: they had forbidden, under pain of death, the rape of married women, or virgins, or nuns; and the proclamation was sometimes invoked by the vanquished (87) and respected by the victors. Their cruelty and lust were moderated by the authority of the chiefs, and feelings of the soldiers; for we are no longer describing an irruption of the northern
savages; and however ferocious they might still appear, time, policy, and religion had civilized the manners of the French, and still more of the Italians. But a free scope was allowed to their avarice, which was glutted, even in the holy week, by the pillage of Constantinople. The right of
victory, unshackled by any promise or treaty, had confiscated the public and private wealth of the Greeks; and every hand, according to its size and strength, might lawfully execute the sentence and seize the forfeiture. A
portable and universal standard of exchange was found in the coined and uncoined metals of gold and silver, which each captor, at home or abroad, might convert into the possessions most suitable to his temper and situation. Of the treasures, which trade and luxury had accumulated, the silks, velvets, furs, the gems, spices, and rich movables, were the most precious, as they could not be procured for money in the ruder countries of Europe. Division of the spoil. An order of rapine was instituted; nor was the share of each individual abandoned to industry or chance. Under the tremendous penalties of perjury, excommunication, and death, the Latins were bound to deliver their plunder into the common stock: three churches were selected for the deposit and
distribution of the spoil: a single share was allotted to a
foot-soldier; two for a sergeant on horseback; four to a
knight; and larger proportions according to the rank and
merit of the barons and princes. For violating this sacred
engagement, a knight belonging to the count of St. Paul was
hanged with his shield and coat of arms round his neck; his
example might render similar offenders more artful and
discreet; but avarice was more powerful than fear; and it is
generally believed that the secret far exceeded the
acknowledged plunder. Yet the magnitude of the prize
surpassed the largest scale of experience or expectation.
(88) After the whole had been equally divided between the
French and Venetians, fifty thousand marks were deducted to
satisfy the debts of the former and the demands of the
latter. The residue of the French amounted to four hundred
thousand marks of silver, (89) about eight hundred thousand
pounds sterling; nor can I better appreciate the value of
that sum in the public and private transactions of the age,
than by defining it as seven times the annual revenue of the
kingdom of England. (90)
Misery of the Greeks.
In this great revolution we enjoy the singular felicity of
comparing the narratives of Villehardouin and Nicetas, the
opposite feelings of the marshal of Champagne and the
Byzantine senator. (91) At the first view it should seem that
the wealth of Constantinople was only transferred from one
nation to another; and that the loss and sorrow of the
Greeks is exactly balanced by the joy and advantage of the
Latins. But in the miserable account of war, the gain is
never equivalent to the loss, the pleasure to the pain; the
smiles of the Latins were transient and fallacious; the
Greeks forever wept over the ruins of their country; and
their real calamities were aggravated by sacrilege and
mockery. What benefits accrued to the conquerors from the
three fires which annihilated so vast a portion of the
buildings and riches of the city? What a stock of such
things, as could neither be used nor transported, was
maliciously or wantonly destroyed! How much treasure was
idly wasted in gaming, debauchery, and riot! And what
precious objects were bartered for a vile price by the
impatience or ignorance of the soldiers, whose reward was
stolen by the base industry of the last of the Greeks! These
alone, who had nothing to lose, might derive some profit
from the revolution; but the misery of the upper ranks of
society is strongly painted in the personal adventures of
Nicetas himself His stately palace had been reduced to ashes
in the second conflagration; and the senator, with his
family and friends, found an obscure shelter in another
house which he possessed near the church of St. Sophia. It
was the door of this mean habitation that his friend, the
Venetian merchant, guarded in the disguise of a soldier,
till Nicetas could save, by a precipitate flight, the relics
of his fortune and the chastity of his daughter. In a cold,
wintry season, these fugitives, nursed in the lap of
prosperity, departed on foot; his wife was with child; the
desertion of their slaves compelled them to carry their
baggage on their own shoulders; and their women, whom they
placed in the centre, were exhorted to conceal their beauty
with dirt, instead of adorning it with paint and jewels
Every step was exposed to insult and danger: the threats of
the strangers were less painful than the taunts of the
plebeians, with whom they were now levelled; nor did the
exiles breathe in safety till their mournful pilgrimage was
concluded at Sclymbria, above forty miles from the capital.
On the way they overtook the patriarch, without attendance
and almost without apparel, riding on an ass, and reduced to
a state of apostolical poverty, which, had it been
voluntary, might perhaps have been meritorious. In the mean
while, his desolate churches were profaned by the
licentiousness and party zeal of the Latins. Sacrilege and mockery. After
stripping the gems and pearls, they converted the chalices
into drinking-cups; their tables, on which they gamed and
feasted, were covered with the pictures of Christ and the
saints; and they trampled under foot the most venerable
objects of the Christian worship. In the cathedral of St.
Sophia, the ample veil of the sanctuary was rent asunder for
the sake of the golden fringe; and the altar, a monument of
art and riches, was broken in pieces and shared among the
captors. Their mules and horses were laden with the wrought
silver and gilt carvings, which they tore down from the
doors and pulpit; and if the beasts stumbled under the
burden, they were stabbed by their impatient drivers, and
the holy pavement streamed with their impure blood. A
prostitute was seated on the throne of the patriarch; and
that daughter of Belial, as she is styled, sung and danced
in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the
Orientals. Nor were the repositories of the royal dead
secure from violation: in the church of the Apostles, the
tombs of the emperors were rifled; and it is said, that
after six centuries the corpse of Justinian was found
without any signs of decay or putrefaction. In the streets,
the French and Flemings clothed themselves and their horses
in painted robes and flowing head-dresses of linen; and the
coarse intemperance of their feasts (92) insulted the
splendid sobriety of the East. To expose the arms of a
people of scribes and scholars, they affected to display a
pen, an inkhorn, and a sheet of paper, without discerning
that the instruments of science and valour were alike feeble
and useless in the hands of the modern Greeks.
Destruction of the statues.
Their reputation and their language encouraged them,
however, to despise the ignorance and to overlook the
progress of the Latins. (93) In the love of the arts, the
national difference was still more obvious and real; the
Greeks preserved with reverence the works of their
ancestors, which they could not imitate; and, in the
destruction of the statues of Constantinople, we are
provoked to join in the complaints and invectives of the
Byzantine historian. (94) We have seen how the rising city
was adorned by the vanity and despotism of the Imperial
founder: in the ruins of paganism, some gods and heroes were
saved from the axe of superstition; and the forum and
hippodrome were dignified with the relics of a better age.
Several of these are described by Nicetas, (95) in a florid
and affected style; and from his descriptions I shall select
some interesting particulars. 1. The victorious charioteers
were cast in bronze, at their own or the public charge, and
fitly placed in the hippodrome: they stood aloft in their
chariots, wheeling round the goal: the spectators could
admire their attitude, and judge of the resemblance; and of
these figures, the most perfect might have been transported
from the Olympic stadium. 2. The sphinx, river-horse, and
crocodile, denote the climate and manufacture of Egypt and
the spoils of that ancient province. 3. The she-wolf
suckling Romulus and Remus, a subject alike pleasing to the
old and the new Romans, but which could really be treated
before the decline of the Greek sculpture. 4. An eagle
holding and tearing a serpent in his talons, a domestic
monument of the Byzantines, which they ascribed, not to a
human artist, but to the magic power of the philosopher
Apollonius, who, by this talisman, delivered the city from
such venomous reptiles. 5. An ass and his driver, which
were erected by Augustus in his colony of Nicopolis, to
commemorate a verbal omen of the victory of Actium. 6. An
equestrian statue which passed, in the vulgar opinion, for
Joshua, the Jewish conqueror, stretching out his hand to
stop the course of the descending sun. A more classical
tradition recognized the figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus;
and the free attitude of the steed seemed to mark that he
trod on air, rather than on the earth. 7. A square and lofty
obelisk of brass; the sides were embossed with a variety of
picturesque and rural scenes, birds singing; rustics
laboring, or playing on their pipes; sheep bleating; lambs
skipping; the sea, and a scene of fish and fishing; little
naked cupids laughing, playing, and pelting each other with
apples; and, on the summit, a female figure, turning with
the slightest breath, and thence denominated the wind's
attendant. 8. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the
prize of beauty, the apple of discord. 9. The incomparable
statue of Helen, which is delineated by Nicetas in the words
of admiration and love: her well-turned feet, snowy arms,
rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming eyes, arched
eyebrows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her
drapery, and her flowing locks that waved in the wind; a
beauty that might have moved her Barbarian destroyers to
pity and remorse. 10. The manly or divine form of Hercules,
(96) as he was restored to life by the masterhand of
Lysippus; of such magnitude, that his thumb was equal to his
waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man: (97) his
chest ample, his shoulders broad, his limbs strong and
muscular, his hair curled, his aspect commanding. Without
his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin carelessly
thrown over him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right
leg and arm stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and
supporting his elbow, his head reclining on his left hand,
his countenance indignant and pensive. 11. A colossal statue
of Juno, which had once adorned her temple of Samos, the
enormous head by four yoke of oxen was laboriously drawn to
the palace. 12. Another colossus, of Pallas or Minerva,
thirty feet in height, and representing with admirable
spirit the attributes and character of the martial maid.
Before we accuse the Latins, it is just to remark, that this
Pallas was destroyed after the first siege, by the fear and
superstition of the Greeks themselves. (98) The other statues
of brass which I have enumerated were broken and melted by
the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders: the cost and labour
were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in
smoke; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money
for the payment of the troops. Bronze is not the most
durable of monuments: from the marble forms of Phidias and
Praxiteles, the Latins might turn aside with stupid
contempt; (99) but unless they were crushed by some
accidental injury, those useless stones stood secure on
their pedestals. (100) The most enlightened of the strangers,
above the gross and sensual pursuits of their countrymen,
more piously exercised the right of conquest in the search
and seizure of the relics of the saints. (101) Immense was
the supply of heads and bones, crosses and images, that were
scattered by this revolution over the churches of Europe;
and such was the increase of pilgrimage and oblation, that
no branch, perhaps, of more lucrative plunder was imported
from the East. (102) Of the writings of antiquity, many that
still existed in the twelfth century, are now lost. But the
pilgrims were not solicitous to save or transport the
volumes of an unknown tongue: the perishable substance of
paper or parchment can only be preserved by the multiplicity
of copies; the literature of the Greeks had almost centred
in the metropolis; and, without computing the extent of our
loss, we may drop a tear over the libraries that have
perished in the triple fire of Constantinople.
(103)
| « NEXT » | « Fall In The East » | « Fall In The West » | « Comments on the Fall » | « Decline and Fall » |