Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/507

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 485 dation : the duke and his knights advanced without fear or precaution on the verdant meadow ; their horses plunged into the bog ; and he was cut in pieces, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His family and nation were expelled ; and his son, Walter de Brienne, the titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of Florence, and the constable of France, lost his life in the field of Poitiers. Attica and Bceotia were the rewards of the victori- ous Catalans ; they married the widows and daughters of the slain ; and during fourteen years the great company was the [a.d. i3u- terror of the Grecian states. Their factions drove them to ac- ^^^ knowledge the sovereignty of the house of Arragon ; "^ and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens, as a government or an appanage, was successively bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the French and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Accaioli, a family, plebeian at Florence, [a.d. lass] potent at Naples, and sovereign in Greece. Athens, which they embellished with new buildings, became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly ; and their reign was finally determined by Mahomet [a.d. 1456] the Second, who strangled the last duke, and educated his sons in the discipline and religion of the seraglio."'^ Athens,"' though no more than the shadow of her former self. Present state still contains about eight or ten thousand inhabitants : of these, ° ^"^ three-fourths are Greeks in religion and language ; and the Turks, who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in their inter- course with the citizens, somewhat of the pride and gravity of their national character. The olive-tree, the gift of Minerva, flourishes in Attica ; nor has the honey of Mount Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavour ; '* but the languid trade is monopolized by strangers ; and the agriculture of a barren '* [They also held Neopatras in Thessaly ; their title was Duke of Athens and Neopatras ; and the kings of Spain retained the title.] "*• [For the Acciajoli see Appendi.x 17.] ■" The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is extracted from Spon (Voyage en Grece, torn. ii. p. 79-199) and Wheler (Travels into Greece, p. 337- 414), Stuart (Antiquities of Athens, passim), and Chandler (Travels into Greece, p. 23-172). The first of these travellers visited Greece in the year 1676, the last 1765 ; and ninety years had not produced much difference in the tranquil scene. [.t the end of the 12th century Michael Akominatos deplores the dechne of Athens (for his dirge see above, p. 417, note 14). He says that he has become a barbarian by living so long in Athens (ed. Lampros, vol. 2, p. 44).] "i^ The ancients, or at least the Athenians, believed that all the bees in the world had been propagated from Mount Hymettus. They taught that health might be preserved, and life prolonged, by the external use of oil and the internal use of honey (Geoponica, 1. xv. c. 7, p. 1089-1094, edit. Niclas).