Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/443

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 421 or duke of Trebizond : -^ his birth gave him ambition, the re- volution independence ; and, without changing his title, he reigned in peace fi-om Sinope to the Phasis, along the coast of the Black Sea. His nameless son and successor -''^ is described as the vassal of the sultan, whom he sei''ed with two hundred lances ; that Comnenian prince was no more than duke of Trebizond, and the title of emperor was first assumed by the pride and envy of the grandson of Alexius. In the West, a third fragment was saved The despote from the common shipwreck by Michael, a bastard of the house of Angeli,-' who, before the revolution, had been known as an hostage, a soldier, and a rebel. His flight from the camp of the marquis Boniface secured his freedom ; by his marriage with the governor's daughter he commanded the important place of Durazzo, assumed the title of despot, and founded a strong and conspicuous principality in Epirus, .Etolia, and Thessaly, which have ever been peopled by a warlike race. The Greeks, who had offered their service to their new sovereigns, were excluded by the haughty Latins -^ from all civil and military honours, as a David fell fighting. On the other hand .Alexius maintained himself at Trebizond, and the Empire of Trebizond survived the Turkish conquest of Constantinople by eight years.] ^' Except some facts in Pachymer and Nicephorus Gregoras, which will hereafter be used, tiie Byzantine writers disdain to sjjeak of the empire of Trebizond, or principality of the Lasi ; and among the Latins, it is conspicuous only in the romances of the xivth or xvth centuries. Yet the indefatigable Ducange has dug out (Fam. Byz. p. 192) two authentic passages in Vincent of Beauvais (1. xxxi. c. 144), and the protonotary Ogerius (apud Wading, A. d. 1279, No. 4). [The short history of the Emperors of Trebizond from 1204-1426, by Michael Panaretos of Trebizond (lived in first half of 15th century) was published by Tafel at the end of his edition of Eustathius (p. 362 j^y.), 1833. It is translated in St. Martin's ed. of Lebeau's Hist, du bas-empire, vol. xx. p. 482 st/f. The first, who went thoroughly into the history of Trebizond, was Fallmerayer, and he published more material. Seethe Abhandlungen of the Bavarian Academy, 3 cl., vol. 3, 1843; and Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, 1827. The story is told at length by Finlay in History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 307 s^c/. But there is much more material, and A. Papadopulos-Kerameus has recently (1897) issued vol. i. of Fontes Historiae Imperii Trapezuntini. And a new history of Trapezus, from the earliest times to the present day, has appeared in modern Greek : icrroptar^s Tpajre^ovvTOi (Odessa), 1898, by T. E. Evangelides.] ^'His stepson. dronicus Gidos succeeded him in 1222, and was succeeded in 1235 by John, the eldest son of Alexius, who reigned only three years. Then came Manuel ; and then John, who assumed the title " Emperor of the East, Iberia and Peratea," avoiding the title of Roman Emperor, in order to keep the jieace with the Palaeologi of Constantinople. Peratea was a part of the Crimea which acknow- ledged his sway.] '^ [Michael was natural son of Constantine Angelus, uncle of the Emperors Isaac and Alexius III. He and his successors assumed the name Comnenus Angelus Ducas. Michael was murdered in 1214 and succeeded by his brother Theodore.] ^ The portrait of the French Latins is drawn in Nicetas by the hand of prejudice and resentment : Qvtkv Ttov aKXtor iOrotv et^ *peoq ^pya —aparrvfi^e^XriaOai 7ji'€iovTOy aAA ot'oe Tt? Twr xctP'Twi' t) toii' fiovtrotv irapa to'9 PapPdpoi^ tovtoi? fTT€^€VL^€TOf Ka'i irapa. touto oi/xoi TBI" if)v<ri,f ijcrai' ayrj/jiepoi, jcai tov x6ov ei^O ov Aoyou irpOTpe'xoi'Ta.