Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/229

 THE CONDITION OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1200. 211 pretence that the nomination had been revealed by the Vir- gin, lie dismissed in order to place the favorite of the hour on the patriarchal throne. The latter, however, was vio- lently opposed, and in his turn had to give way to a new favorite.' The history of the twenty years preceding 1200 is full of . illustrations of the effeminacy and corruption of the the later em- timcs. iiiQ boy empcror, Alexis Comnenos, passed his life, says Nicetas, at play and in hunting, while the courtiers who were about the empress were decked out, curled, and scented like women. The treasury was robbed to support the debauchery of the palace. Andronicos Comnenos, his successor, although, as we have seen, an old man, devoted himself largely to the shows of the hippodrome and to horse- racing. His orgies in his country palace on the shores of the Marmora, where he was accompanied by a number of mis- tresses, and spent days in drunken debauchery, w^ere alternated with journeys to the city, where his visits were more dreaded than his absence, because it had come to be remarked by ex- perience that each visit was attended by some act of striking cruelty. A feminine love of display was the characteristic of his successor, Isaac Angelos. He appeared every day in new robes. His table was a daily show of wasteful profusion. There were, says Nicetas, "forests of game, seas of fishes, rivers of wine, and mountains of bread." He went every other day to the Eastern, or, as it is now called, the Turkish, bath, making use there of the most exquisite perfumes. He went about glorious as a peacock, was fond of songs, and his gates were ever open to actors, buffoons, and jugglers. Though the revenues of the empire had been for many years constant- ly decreasing, the palace expenditure had not been diminished, and the emperor was forced to fall back on the usual resources of Eastern despots in order to provide for it. The coinage was debased. Taxes were largely increased. Officers were sent to administer the government or to dispense what ought to have been justice without any means to pay their own ex- ' Nicetas, " Isaac," Book II.