Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/462

 June [July] 25 440 THE DECLINE AND FALL schismatic conqueror provoked the indignation of the Latin church.'- constanti- Intent on his srreat obiect, the emperor Michael visited in uople re- ^ »' ^ i covered ty pei-son and strengthened the troops and fortifications of Thrace. the Greeks i c7 r AD. 1261, ' The remains of the Latins were driven from their last possessions ; June r.Tnlvl 9Ji p l -■} l he assaulted without success the suburbs of Galata ; '^ and corre- sponded with a perfidious baron,"* who proved unwilling, or un- able, to open the gates of the metropolis. The next spring, '^^ his favourite general, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had decorated with the title of Caesar, passed the Hellespont with eight hundred horse and some infantry/^ on a secret expedition. His instructions enjoined him to approach, to listen, to watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous enterprise against the city. The adjacent territory" between the Propontis and the Black Sea was cultivated by an hardy race of peasants and out- laws, exercised in arms, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by language, religion, and present advantage, to the party of the Greeks. They were styled the vohinteers," and by their free senice the army of Alexius, with the regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries,"^ was augmented to the number of five and twenty thousand men. By the ardour of the volunteers, "2 The Greeks, ashamed of any foreign aid, disguise the alliance and succour of the Genoese ; but the fact is proved bj' the testimony of J. Villani (Chron. 1. vi. c. 71, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii. p. 202, 203) and William de Nangis (Annales de St. Louis, p. 248, in the Louvtc Joinville), two impartial foreigners ; and Urban IV. threatened to deprive Genoa of her archbishop. [For the treaty of Michael with Genoa in March, 1261, see Buchon. Recherches et matdriaux, p. 462 sqq. (in French), or Zacharia v. Lingenthal, Jus. Greeco-Rom., iii. p. 574 sqq. (in Latin). The Genoese undertook to furnish a fleet ; but when these ships arrived Michael was already in possession of the city.] '^2 [Spring, 1260.] ■"^ [Anseau de Cayeu. (if that is the name), who was married to a sister-in-law of John Vatatzes. Cp. Meliarakes, op. cit. p. 551-2.] " [Michael himself this spring passed and repassed repeatedly from Asia to Europe. He first took Selymbria, which was a valuable basis for further operations (Pachymeres, p. no). Ecclesiastical business then recalled him to Asia ; and having settled this he recrossed the Hellespont and for the second time besieged Galata (Pachymeres, p. 118 sqq.). He raised the siege and returned to Nymphaeum, where he concluded the treaty with the Genoese.] "'^ Some precautions must be used in reconciling the discordant numbers ; the 800 soldiers of Nicetas ; the 25,000 of Spandugino (apud Ducange, 1. v. c. 24) ; the Greeks and Scythians of Acropolita ; and the numerous army of Michael, in the Epistles of pope Urban IV. (i. 129). '" 0€AT)|u.aTopioi. They are described and named by Pachymer(l. ii. c. 14). [The chief of these, who was very active in the capture of the city, was named Kutritzakcs.] ''^ It is needless to seek these Comans in the deserts of Tartary, or even of Mol- davia, A part of the horde had submitted to John Vataces and was probably settled as a nursery of soldiers on some waste lands of Thrace (Cantacuzen. 1. i. c. 2).