Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/477

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 455 CHAPTER LXII The Greek Emperors of Nice and Constantinople — Elevation and Reign of Michael PaUcologus — His false Unio7i rvith the Pope and the Latin Church — Hostile Designs of Charles of Anjou — Revolt of Sicily — War of the Catalans in Asia and Greece — Revolutions and Present State of Athens TfiE loss of Constantinople restored a momentary vigour to the Restoration Greeks. From their palaces the princes and nobles were driven empire "* into the field ; and the fragments of the falling monarchy were grasped by the hands of the most vigorous or the most skilful candidates. In the long and barren pages of the Byzantine annals,^ it would not be an easy task to equal the two char- Theodore lm- acters of Theodore Lascai-is and John Ducas Vataces,^ who re-ilM'i222 planted and upheld the Roman standard at Nice in Bithynia. The difference of their virtues was happily suited to the di- versity of their situation. In his first efforts the fugitive Las- caris commanded only three cities and two thousand soldiers ; his reign was the season of generous and active despair ; in every military operation he staked his life and crown ; and his enemies, of the Hellespont and the Maeander, were surprised by his celerity and subdued by his boldness. A victorious reign 1 For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more especially of John Vataces and his son, their minister, George Acropolita, is the only genuine contemporary ; but George Pachymer returned to Constantinople with the Greeks, at the age of nine- teen (Hanckius, de Script. Byzanl. c. 33, 34, p. 564-578 ; Fabric. Bibliot. Gra;c. tom. vi. p. 448-460). Yet the history of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the xivth century, is a valuable narrative from the taking of Constantinople by the Latins. [We have subsidiary contemporary sources, such as the autobiography of Nice- phorus Blemmydes (recently edited by A. Heisenberg, 1896), who was an im- portant person at the courts of Vatatzes and Theodore II. See Appendix i. The limpire of Niczea and Despotate of Epirus have been treated in the histories of Finlay and Hopf, but more fully in a recently published special work in modern Greek by AntonioS Meliarakes : 'laropia toD /Soo-iAeiou TJjs Niitacas Kal tov SecnroTaTov rqi 'Hircipou, 1898.] 2 Nicephorus Gregoras (1. ii. c. i) distinguishes between the of «ta6p>i.^ of Lascaris, and the evcrrafliia of Vataces. The two portraits are in a very good style.