Partition of the Empire by the French and Venetians....Five Latin Empe- rors of the Houses of Flanders and Courtenay....Their Wars against the Bulgarians and Greeks.......Weakness and Poverty of the Latin Empire.... Recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks....General Consequences of the The Greek Emperors of Nice and Constantinople....Elevation and Reign of Michael Palæologus....His false Union with the Pope and the Latin Church....Hostile Designs of Charles of Anjou....Revolt of Sicily....War of the Catalans in Asia and Greece....Revolutions and present State of Civil Wars, and Ruin of the Greek Empire....Reigns of Andronicus the Elder and Younger, and John Palæologus....Regency, Revolt, Reign, and Abdication of John Cantacuzene....Establishment of a Genoese Colony at Pera or Galata....Their Wars with the Empire and City of Constan- 1282...1320. Superstition of Androni- 1320 First Disputes between the Elder 1341...1391. Reign of John Palæologus He is left Regent of the Empire ib. Conquests of Zingis Khan and the Moguls from China to Poland....Escape of Constantinople and the Greeks....Origin of the Ottoman Turks in Bithynia....Reigns and Victories of Othman, Orchan, Amurath the First, and Bajazet the First....Foundation and Progress of the Turkish Mo- narchy in Asia and Europe....Danger of Constantinople and the Greek 1206....1227. Zingis Khan, first Empe- 1210... 1214. His Invasion of China 1312 Loss of the Asiatic Provinces 456 1310....1523. The Knights of Rhodes 457 1341....1347. First Passage of the 1227....1295. Conquest of the Moguls under the Successors of Zingis 458 1346 Marriage of Orchan with a Greek ib. ib. ib. 1396....1398. Crusade and Captivity of 1355....1391. The Emperor John Pala- 470 1391....1425 The Emperor Manuel State of the Eastern Empire in the Tenth Century....Extent and A RAY of historic light seems to beam from the dark- CHAP. ness of the tenth century. We open with curiosity and re LIII. spect the royal volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,' Memorials which he composed at a mature age for the instruction of of the his son, and which promise to unfold the state of the East-Greek empire. ern empire, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. Works of In the first of these works he minutely describes the Constanpous ceremonies of the church and palace of Constantino- phyroge. ple, according to his own practice and that of his predeces- nitus. sors. In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of the pom 1 The epithet of Пop¶upoyevntos, Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple, is elegantly defined by Claudian: Ardua privatos nescit fortuna Penates; Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many passages 2 A splendid MS. of Constantine, de Cæremoniis Aulæ et Ecclesiæ Byzanfine, wandered from Constantinople to Buda, Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid edition by Leich and Reiske (A. D. 1751, in fo tine Por |