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 420 THE DECLIXE AND FALL is less tragical : he was sent by the marquis a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king of the Romans ; but he had not much to applaud his fortune^ if the sentence of imprisonment and exile were changed from a fortress in the Alps to a monastery in Asia. But his daughter, before the national calamity, had been given in marriage to a young hero, who continued the succession, and restored the throne, of the Greek princes.-^ The valour of Theo Theodore dorc Lascaris was signalised in the two sieges of Constantinople. perorofNice. After tlic fliffht of Mourzouflc, when the Latins were already in A D 1204-1222 ^ the city, he offered himself as their emperor to the soldiers and people ; and his ambition, which might be virtuous, was un- doubtedly brave. Could he have infused a soul into the multi- tude, they might have crushed the strangers under their feet ; their abject despair refused his aid ; and Theodore retired to breathe the air of freedom in Anatolia, beyond the immediate view and pursuit of the conquerors. Under the title, at first of despot, and afterwards of emperor, he drew to his standard the bolder spirits, who were fortified against slavery by the contempt of life ; and, as every means was lawful for the public safety, im- plored without scruple the alliance of the Turkish sultan. Xice, where Theodore established his residence, Prusa and Philadelphia, Smyrna and Ephesus, opened their gates to their deliverer ; he derived strength and reputation from his victories, and even from his defeats ; and the successor of Constantine preserved a fi-ag- ment of the empire from the banks of the Mteander to the suburbs Thednkesand of Nicomcdia, and at length of Constantinople. Another portion, Trebizoad distant and obscure, was possessed by the lineal heir of the Comneni, a son of the virtuous Manuel, a grandson of the tyrant Andronicus. His name was Alexius ; and the epithet of great was applied perhaps to his stature, rather than to his exploits. By the indulgence of the Angeli,-'^ he was appointed governor Latin conquest, the poet Tzetzes (Chiliad, ix. 277) relates the dream of a matron, who saw an army in the forum, and a man sitting on the column, clapping his hands and uttering a loud exclamation. 2-"' The dynasties of Nice, Trebizond, and Epirus (of which Nicetas saw the origin without much pleasure or hope) are learnedly explored, and clearly re- presented, in the Familias Byzantinse of Ducange. 2^ [Rather, by the help of his aunt queen Thamar of Iberia. On the death of Andronicus in 1185 his two grandsons, Alexius and David, escaped to Iberia. Their aunt helped .-Vlexius to found the independent state of Trapezus in 1204 ; and there he assumed the title of Grand-Komnenos. His brother David seized Paphlagonia. The Comneni never made common cause with the Emperors of Nicsea against the common enemies, either Turks or Latins. On the contrary, Theodore Lascaris defeated David and wrested his kingdom from him, leaving him only a small region about Sinope (1212), and in 1214 the Turks captured Sinope and