Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/394

 372 THE DECLIXE AND FALL named Dorotheus, alarmed the fears, and restored the con- fidence, of the emperor, by a prophetic assurance that the German heretic, after assaulting the gate of Blachemes, would be made a signal example of the divine vengeance. The pas- sage of these mighty armies were rare and perilous events ; but the crusades introduced a frequent and familiar intercourse be- tween the two nations, which enlarged their knowledge without The Latins at abating their prejudices. The wealth and luxury of Constan- tinopie tinople demanded the productions of every climate ; these im- ports 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 sendees were rewarded with honours and immunities : they acquired the pos- session of lands and houses ; their families were multiplied by marriages with the natives ; and, after the toleration of a Ma- hometan mosque, it was impossible to interdict the churches of the Roman rite.^'' The two wives of Manuel Comnenus i' were of the race of the Franks : the first, a sister-in-law of the Em- peror 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 Mar- quis of Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the palace of Constantinople. The Greek encountered the arms, and as- pired to the empire, of the West ; he esteemed the valour, and trusted the fidelity, of the Franks ; ^^ their military talents were unfitly recompensed by the lucrative offices of judges and treasurers ; the policy of Manuel had solicited the alliance of the pope ; and the popular voice accused him of a partial bias digfnabattir ; quorum sanguinem effundere pene inter merita reputabant (Gesta Innocent. III. c. 92, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, torn. iii. pars i. p. 536). There may be some exaggeration, but it was as effectual for the action and re-action of hatred. 18 See Anna Comnena (Alexiad, 1. vi. p. 161, 162 [c. 5]), and a remarkable passage of Nicetas (in Manuel, 1. v. c. 9), who observes of the Venetians. Kara o-jirjiTi Kol <paTpias Txiv Kun'OToi'TicoviroAif t^s oi/cet'as TKa.^a.VTO, &C. 1" Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 186, 187. 1* Nicetas in Manuel, 1. vii. c. 2. Regnante enim (Manuele) . . . apud eum tantam Latinus populus repererat graiiam ut neglectis Gra?cuUs suis tanquam viris mollibuset effoeminatis, . . . solis Latinis grandia committeret negotia . . . erga eos profusi liberalitate abundabat ... ex omni orbe ad eum tanquam ad bene- factorem nobiles et ignobiles concurrebant. Willerm. Tyr. .xii. c. 10.