Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/242

 220 THE DECLINE AND FALL of Zoe) consented to this strange and scandalous partition ; and the emperor appeared in public between his wife and his con- cubine. He survived them both ; but the last measures of Constantine to change the order of succession were prevented by the more vigilant friends of Theodora ; and, after his decease, she resumed, with the general consent, the possession of her inheritance. In her name, and by the influence of four eunuchs, the Eastern world was peaceably governed about nine- teen months; and, as they wished to prolong their dominion, they persuaded the aged princess to nominate for her successor Michael the Sixth. The surname of Stratiuticu.s declares his military profession ; but the crazy and decrepit veteran could only see with the eyes, and execute with the hands, of his ministers. Whilst he ascended the throne, Theodora sunk into the grave, the last of the Macedonian or Basil ian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly dismiss, this shameful and destructive period of twenty-eight years, in which the Greeks, degraded below the common level of servitude, were transferred like a herd of cattle by the choice or caprice of two impotent females, isaaci. Cora- From tliis night of slavery, a ray of freedom, or at least of 1057, Aug. 31 spirit, begins to emerge : the Greeks either preserved or revived the use of surnames, which perpetuate the fame of here- ditary virtue ; and we now discern the rise, succession, and al- liances of the last dynasties of Constantinople and Trebizond. The Comneni, who upheld for a while the fate of the sinking empire, assumed the honour of a Roman origin ; but the family had been long since transported from Italy to Asia. Their patrimonial estate was situate in the district of Castamona in the neighbourhood of the Euxine ; and one of their chiefs, who had already entered the paths of ambition, revisited with affection, perhaps with regret, the modest though honourable dwelling of his fathers. The first of their line was the illustrious Manuel, who, in the reign of the second Basil, contributed by war and treaty to appease the troubles of the East ; he left in a tender age two sons, Isaac and John, whom, with the con- sciousness of desert, he bequeathed to the gratitude and favour of his sovereign. The noble youths were carefully trained in the learning of the monastery, the arts of the palace, and the exercises of the camp ; and from the domestic service of the guards they were rapidly promoted to the command of provinces and armies. Their fraternal union doubled the force and reputa- Xo of the Comneni, and their ancieiit nobility was illustrated