Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1092

Rh 1078 MICHAEL. son of the emperor Constantine XI., Ducas, who died in 1059, shortly after appointing his three sons, Michael, Andronicus, and Constantine, to succeed him in joint possession of the crown^ On account of their tender age, their mother, Eudoxia, reigned for them ; and having married Romanus Diogenes, this distinguished general enjoyed the im- perial title and power till he was made a prisoner by Alp Arslan, the sultan of the Seljuks, in August, 1071. When his captivity became known at Constan- tinople, Joannes Caesar caused his nephew, Michael, to be proclaimed emperor, with a view of reigning under his name. Soon afterwards Romanus re- turned from his captivity, but he came too late to retrieve his fate : he was seized and blinded, and died from the operation in October, 1071. Eudoxia was confined in a prison ; and these atrocities were committed without Michael taking the least step to prevent them. John, archbishop of Sida, in Pamphylia, John the Caesar, Nicephorizus, and other ministers, now governed the empire for Michael. Enraged that the ransom for which he had restored the late Romanus to liberty was not paid by Michael, sultan Alp Arslan invaded the empire in 107'2. Isaac and Alexis Comnenus commanded the Greek anny against him. Owing to the want of discipline of his troops, Isaac lost a battle and his liberty, but was soon ransomed by Alexis. The two bro- thers prepared for taking revenge, when affairs re- ceived a different turn, through the daring ambition of one Ursel, a kinsman of the kings of Scotland, and the commander of a body of European auxili- aries in the Greek service. Having made himself master of most of the strongholds and mountain passes in the anti- Taurus and portions of Armenia and Lazica, he ceased at once to fight against the Turks and to help the Greeks, intending to make himself independent in those parts. For this pur- pose he intrigued with John the Caesar, who joined him, and was proclaimed emperor of the Greeks by the Prankish auxiliaries. Both the Greeks and Turks looked at these proceedings with wonder, when the latter, impatient to come to blows, fell upon John and Ursel, defeated them, and made them both prisoners. Ursel soon re- deemed himself, and retired into Pontus, whither he was followed by Nicephorus Palaeologus, who gained a decisive battle over him. On his flight, Ursel was again taken by the Turks. Alexis Comnenus, wishing to obtain possession of this dangerous adventurer, offered a large bribe to the Turks for his person ; and having attained his ends, sent liira to Constantinople (1073), where he was kept in prison. In 1074 the Bulgarians, exasperated by the insatiable avarice of the minister Nicephorizus, attempted to throw off the Greek yoke, and offered the crown to Bodinus, the grandson of Michael, king of Servia, who accepted it, and came to their assistance with a body of his countrymen. Bul- garia was then governed by Nicephorus Carentenus, a very competent man, who had taken proper measures for quelling the revolt, when he was pre- vented from carrying them out by the arrival of Damianus Dalassenus, who was sent to supersede him as governor. Dalassenus owed his promotion to some court intrigue, and six weeks after his appointment had the satisfaction of seeing himself a prisoner of the Bulgarians, and his army flying through the country. Bryennius, who had been MICHAEL. created Caesar after the captivity of John, retrieved the fortune of the Greeks. Bodinus lost several battles, and fell into the hands of Bryennius, who, on the order of Michael, sent him as a state prisoner to some fortress in Syria, whence, however, the young prince escaped and returned to Servia, over which he became king after the death of his father. Bryennius likewise compelled the Servians to sue for peace ; purged the Adriatic and the Ionian sea of the Norman pirates ; and quelled a dangerous mutiny of some of his barbarian auxiliaries, who were headed by Nestor, the commander-in-chief of the army of observation on the Danube. His success deserved reward, but earning disgrace in- stead, he listened to the persuasive wishes of his numerous friends, raised the standard of rebellion, and was proclaimed emperor xmder the walls of Adrianople. He despatched his brother John to lay siege to Constantinople, while he continued to consolidate his authority in Thrace and Macedonia. The capital was gallantly defended by Constantine Ducas, Alexis Comnenus, and Ursel, who was re- stored to liberty on condition of employing hie great military talents for the defence of the emperor. Meanwhile, another rebellion broke out in the East. Only ten days after Bryennius had assumed the imperial title his example was followed by Ni- cephorus Botaniates in Asia Minor, who advanced with an army mostly composed of Turks, and soon penetrated as far as Nicaea. At that time Con- stantinople had ceased to be besieged by John Bryennius, whose men were too licentious to hold out long against well-disciplined troops, commanded by the best generals of Greece, and he consequently withdrew to the head-quarters of his brother. The conduct of the emperor during this crisis was so contemptible that the approach of Botaniates created joy among the people, and caused great satisfaction to a crowd of disaffected generals and ambitious priests : they sent a deputation! to him, inviting him formally to occupy the imperial throne ; and he of course complied with their wishes. Michael, forsaken by all his adherents except Alexis and Isaac Comnenus, who stood with him to the last moment, abandoned all hopes of resisting so for- midable an enemy, and without regret resigned the crown to Botaniates, on the 2.5th of March, 1078. The ensuing struggle between Botaniates and Bryennius belongs to the history of the former. Michael was allowed to retire into a convent, and Botaniates had so little fear of his harmless charac- ter that he made him Archbishop of Ephesus, a post for which the ex-emperor was decidedly more fit than for the throne of Constantinople. As weak-minded as his father, Michael had the mis- fortune to be put under the tutorship of the well- known Michael Psellus, a learned pedant, who, in-] stead of making the young prince fit to rule ove man, by teaching him law and history, and larging his mind, which was already narrow enougl instructed him chiefly in grammar and rhetoric thus creating in the young man an artificial tast for such studies, which never left him in after lif and made his mind quite unfit for the sever business of government and legislation. Whil Michael was a boy Psellus was proud of him, cause his pupil was more learned than other boj of his age, but when he became a man and a king, Psellus felt ashamed of him and himself, and to this feeling we must needs ascribe the circumstance that he did not extend his " history" to the rei^