Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/478

 456 THE DECLINE AND FALL of eighteen years expanded the principality of Nice to the johnDucas magnitude of an empire. The throne of his successor and son- 1222 1255 ' in-law, Vataces, was founded on a more solid basis, a larsrer [1254J, Oct. 30 ', 1 4.-+- 1 J -^ 4.U 4. ^ scope, and more plentiiul resources ; and it was the temper as well as the interest of Vataces to calculate the risk, to expect the moment, and to ensure the success of his ambitious designs. In the decline of the Latins I have bi'iefly exposed the progress of the Greeks : the prudent and gi-adual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign of thirty-three years, rescued the provinces from national and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the Imperial city, a leafless and sapless trunk, which must fall at the first stroke of the axe. But his intei'ior and peaceful ad- ministration is still more deserving of notice and praise.-^ The calamities of the times had wasted the numbers and the sub- stance of the Greeks ; the motives and the means of agriculture were extirpated ; and the most fertile lands were left without cultivation or inhabitants. A portion of this vacant property was occupied and improved by the command, and for the benefit, of the emperor ; a powerful hand and a vigilant eye supplied and surpassed, by a skilful management, the minute diligence of a private farmer ; the royal domain became the garden and granary of Asia ; and without impoverishing the people the sovereign acquired a fund of innocent and productive wealth. According to the nature of the soil, his lands were sown with corn or planted with vines ; the pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with sheep and hogs ; and, when Vataces presented to the empress a crown of diamonds and pearls, he informed her with a smile that this precious ornament arose from the sale of the eggs of his innumerable poultry. The produce of his domain was applied to the maintenance of his palace and hospi- tals, the calls of dignity and benevolence ; the lesson was still more useful than the revenue ; the plough was restored to its ancient security and honour ; and the nobles were taught to seek a sure and independent revenue from their estates, instead of adorning their splendid beggary by the oppression of the people, or (what is almost the same) by the favours of the court. The superfluous stock of corn and cattle Avas eagerly purchased by the Turks, with whom Vataces preserved a strict and sincere alliance ; but he discouraged the importation of foreign manu- factures, the costly silks of the East and the curious labours of 3 Pachymer, 1. i. c. 23, 24 ; Nic. Greg. 1. ii. c. 6. The reader of the Byzantines must observe how rarely we are indulged with such precious details.