Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/524

 502 THE DECLINE AND FALL But Anne soon learned to hate without a teacher : she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the indifference of a stranger : her jealousy was exasperated by the competition of a rival empress ; and, on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a synod and degrade him fi-om his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage ; but the civil war was pro- tracted by the weakness of both parties ; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of timidity and indo- lence. He successively recovered the provinces and cities ; ^^ and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls of Con- stantinople ; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the rest of the empire ; nor could he attempt that important conquest, till he had secured in his favour the public voice and a private correspondence. An Italian, of the name of Facciolati,^^ had coit^u" succeeded to the office of Great Duke : the ships, the guards, ^7' jamiMT ^^^ ^^^ golden gate were subject to his command ; but his [F«bniary] 8 ^ ["The Greek Empire consisted of several detached provinces when Cantacuzenos seated himself on the throne ; and the inhabitants of these different parts could only communicate freely by sea. The direct intercourse by land, even between Constantinople and Thessalonica, by the Egnatian Way, was interrupted, for the Servian Emperor possessed Amphipolis, and all the country about the mouth of the Strymon from Philippi to the lake Bolbe. The nucleus of the imperial power consisted of the city of Constantinople and the greater part of Thrace. On the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, the Greek possessions were confined to the suburb of Skutari, a few forts and a narrow strip of coast extending from Chalcedon to the Black Sea. In Thrace the frontier extended from Sozopolis along the mountains to the south-west, passing about a da)s journey to the north of Adria- nople, and descending to the Aegean Sea at the pass and fortress of Christopolis. It included the districts of Morrah and the Thracian Chalkidike [of which Gratia- nopolis was the chief town]. The second portion of the Empire in importance consisted of the rich and populous city of Thessalonica, with the western part of the Macedonian Chalkidike and its three peninsulas of Cassandra, Longos and Agionoros ['A-yio>Opo5]- By land it was entirely enclosed in the Servian empire. The third detached portion of the empire consisted of a part of Vallachian Thessaly and of Albanian Epirus, which formed a small imperial province interposed between the Servian empire and the Catalan duchy of Athens and Neopatras. The fourth consisted of the Greek province in the Peloponnesus, which obtained the name of the Despotat of Misithra, and embraced about one third of the penin- sula. Cantacuzenos conferred the government on his second son, Manuel, who preserved his place by force of arms after his father was driven from the throne. The remaining fragments of the empire consisted of a few islands in the Aegean Sea which had escaped the domination of the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Knights of St. John ; and of the cities of Philadelphia and Phocaea, which still recognised the suzerainty of Constantinople, though surrounded by the territories of the emirs of Aidin and Saroukhan. Such were the relics of the Byzantine empire." Finlay, iv. p. 447-8.] '' The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic. Gregoras (1. xv. c. 8), but the name is more discreetly suppressed by his great accomplice (Cantacuzen. 1, iii. c. 99)-