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 108 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. entered upon the territory of the Coraans while its army was invading the empire, and forced them to reth-e. Eomanos was regarded in Constantinople, says the great contemporary historian of the age, as a divinely sent protector for the de- fence of religion. During Lent in 1202, Ivan of Bulgaria was again at the from the he^d of a large army devastating territory in the Buig:uiau3. J^hodopc, wlicuce, passiug eastward, he laid siege on Good Friday to Yarna. It was defended by a body of Italians in the pay of the emperor ; but no one appears to have be- lieved that he would attempt an assault at a time so generally observed in both churches as a holy season. They were dis- appointed, however. The city was attacked and taken, the walls were destroyed, and the enemy returned in triumph to Bulgaria. Manuel Camyzes, the captured leader of the im- perial troops, who had remained prisoner in Bulgaria, had begged the emperor to pay the ransom demanded by his captors from the property which the emperor was supposed to be guarding in trust. When Alexis refused, Manuel joined the Bulgarians, assisted them in sacking Prosacus, passed down through Macedonia intoThessaly as far as the Yale of Tempe, and plundered even the Morea. Alexis sent one of his sons- in-law, who succeeded in compelling him to leave Thessaly, and in forcing him and Ivan to come to terms. The short reign of Alexis, like that of his predecessors, was troubled with a host of pretenders to the throne, and pretenders to wliilc iiQ was continually engaged with external enemies, his most constant foes were those of his own household. He had no son. Many candidates for the imperial succession were suggested, and were supported by those who believed that in their election they saw a means of furthering their own interests. Among those best qualified for the dignit}' was Manuel Camyzes Protostrator. He, how- ever was strongly opposed by John Sebastocrator, his uncle. Each of the three brothers of the emperor, as well as his brother-in-law, had a son. Each of the four fathers, all of whom, it may be mentioned, had been blinded by Andronicos, was desirous of seeing his own son upon the throne, and