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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 483 tary association. In the possession of Gallipoli,^^ the Catalans intercepted the trade of Constantinople and the Black Sea, while they spread their devastations on either side of the Helles- pont over the confines of Europe and Asia. To prevent their approach, the greatest part of the Byzantine territory was laid waste by the Greeks themselves : the peasants and their cattle retired into the city : and myriads of sheep and oxen, for which neither place nor food could be procured, were unprofitably slaus^htered on the same day. Four times the emperor Androni- cus sued for peace, and four times he was inflexibly repulsed, till the want of provisions, and the discord of the chiefs, com- pelled the Catalans to evacuate the banks of the Hellespont and the neig:hbourhood of the capital. After their separation from the Turks, the remains of the great company pursued their march through Macedonia and Thessaly, to seek a new establishment in the heart of Greece.^'' After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new ?^7°i'i"°? ?f " /.IT Athens. A.D. misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred and ^201-006 fifty years between the first and the last conquest of Constanti- nople, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude of petty tyrants ; without the comforts of freedom and genius, her ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and intestine war : and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might repose with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not pursue the obscure and various djTiasties that rose and fell on the continent or in the isles ; ^^ but our silence on the fate of Athens ^^ would argue a strange ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal science and amusement. In the partition of the empire, the principality ^ [Ramon Muntaner, the historian of the expedition, was for a long time cap- tain of Gallipoli, and he describes (c. 225) the good time he had.] '^ The Catalan war is most copiously related bj- Pachymer, in the xith, xiith, and xiiith books, till he breaks off in the year 1308. Nicephorus Gregoras (1. vii. 3-6) is more concise and complete. Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as French, has hunted their footsteps with his usual diligence (Hist, de C. P. 1. vi. c. 22-46). He quotes an Arragonese history, %vhich I have read with pleasure, and which the Spaniards extol as a model of style and composition (Expedicion de los Catalanes y An-agoneses contra Turcos y Griegos ; Barcelona. 1623, in quarto ; Madrid, 1777, in octavo). Don Francisco de Moncada, Conde de Osona, may imitate Cjesar or Sallust ; he may transcribe the Greek or Italian contemporaries ; but he never quotes his authorities, and I cannot discern any national records of the exploits of his countrymen. rSee Appendix i.] "" [For a summary of the island dynasties see Appendix 18.] ••^ See the laborious history of Ducange, whose accurate table of the French dynasties recapitulates the thirty-five passages in which he mentions the dukes of Athens. [Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter.]