GREGORY’S WORLD

Rome’s Remains (565- 604)

The final scenes of our drama: in which it has begun to seem normal that the city of Rome is a pale shadow of its old self and that the older order of life in much of the Roman world has given way to new routines and new figures of authority. During these scenes, “noises off” will remind us of what is to come, while memories of a more robust imperial past will remind us that the medieval future was made possible—or necessary?— by the hubris of an empire that did not know what was in its own best interest.

Learning to Live Again

Justinian died on November 14, 565. We will visit his airless palace and witness his botched succession in a few pages, but we will see best what he left behind if we look first to the four corners of his earth. The affairs of the court at Constantinople were now, almost suddenly with Justinian’s passing, diminished in scale and importance. One can almost look around the world of 565, take a deep breath, and say, Well, that’s over. Justinian had worn out his mandate and his throne, and even the Ottomans would never match what Constantinople had known in antiquity. We are suddenly in a different world, where people were learning to live again, with very dif¬ferent expectations.

NORTHERN EXPOSURES

Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, but left the job unfinished. What he left undone made the European middle ages possible. Nowhere in the Roman world is the question of “decline and fall” more irrelevant, for northern Gaul was the part of the Roman empire that rose under Rome’s rule, rose again as that rule faded, and continued to rise almost without interruption for hundreds of years.

Consider again Theoderic’s fortunes in Gaul. He succeeded in staking a claim for himself across the Alps—a remarkable achievement for a king based in Italy and rivaling the success of the Roman republic in expanding into this territory after the Punic Wars. But Provence and the Rhone valley up to about Lyon were all he could manage. Aquitaine—that is, southwestern Gaul from the Mediterranean coast to the Atlantic and up to Bordeaux on the Garonne—was always beyond his reach. Farther north, another world.

Formally, of course, Roman rule of law had extended throughout the land. Gifts of land to colonists created nuclei of romanization, and more prominent figures came to possess extensive estates over which they presided from dignified country villas. But at no point did the landscape of northern Gaul—a landscape we now associate with the heart of what is French, from Normandy to the Ile de France to Champagne and Burgundy—ever become the home of the kind of aristocracy, first arriviste and then eventually quite settled and self-satisfied, that marked the lands of the south kukeri carnival.

More than that, northern Gaul, like the other western provinces, lacked the healthiest form of premodern culture, the village of peasant farmers. The villa and its plantation dominated in Africa, Italy, Spain, and Provence; they never had the kind of well-rooted local communities of people who farm the land because they care about it. That absence is what made these provinces most unlike the eastern realms of Syria and Egypt. It doesn’t matter so much whether peasants owned the land or rented it, as long as they had control over their lives and produce and had opportunities to benefit from what they did. The great Roman estates in southern Gaul offered few such opportunities, and created a population dependent on its “betters” for social leadership and economic development. Farther north, until you came to the Rhine valley and Rome’s military presence, there was even less structure.

When Theoderic crossed the Alps into Gaul, therefore, the advantage he had over Julius Caesar’s armies almost 600 years earlier was that there was already a natural community of interest and even family relationship between southern Gaul and northern Italy, and a long history of collegial association. By contrast, northern Gaul was terra incognita—dark much of the year on winter days shorter than the Mediterranean ever knew, dank, and too close to the military frontier for many travelers to venture that way. Militarily, the Roman momentum ran out at the Rhine, true enough, but the force of Roman civilization had truly dissipated hundreds of miles before reaching it. If Rome had really been ready to preserve and even extend its northern frontiers, it would have built cities in places like Trier and Strasbourg that were not merely camps and markets but centers of influence and radiation well beyond, supporting the growth and enrichment of people inside and outside the boundaries of the empire.

12 Theological handbooks

What that amphibiousness entailed needs a moment’s further reflection.12 Theological handbooks can tell us the distinction between Arian and Nicene doctrines of Christ, but not many of the military men on the frontier could have explained how their creed differed from Rome’s. The distinction was important, because religion had become integrated with the community in a manner casting long shadows into the future. Modern people may identify with a religious tradition even when, often, they do not practice it; by contrast, traditionalist ancient men and women all practiced religion, but they did not personally identify with it. As late antique religions gradually became part of people’s identities, those identities themselves began to be portable.

So if you let your religion mark you completely, then you were no longer defined by your birthplace, your family, or any other social status. You could pack up, move, and still be who you were before you moved. Social mobility was possible in the ancient world; but if you moved from Antioch on the Orontes to Rome on the Tiber, you didn’t just learn a new language: you probably also changed your religious practices. Judaism first, then Christianity, and then, especially, Islam capitalized on this emerging form of religion-based identity to enable believers to live more independent and mobile lives, and not incidentally this had the effect of making the religions themselves more powerful, cohesive, and influential. The Arians of the frontier would vanish into the Catholic community of the Latin church eventually, but not for decades or centuries after they began living among the Catholics. In the meantime, their presence would anticipate and rehearse our modern confrontations between cult, creed, and identity.

Think of Theoderic as Othello. Shakespeare’s Moor appears in his first scenes very much like the Theoderic we have met. Othello is the best of generals, but a gentleman withal, keenly intelligent, articulate, soft-spoken, patient, and magnanimous: the best of the Venetians, yet for all that, men call him “Moor” to claim superiority over him. Imagine Othello, only moderately darker of skin than the Venetians, rather better dressed, rather better spoken, and considerably more intelligent than those who surround him. The tragedy of that Othello lay in others’ ascribing to him the Moor’s stereotyped traits, traits entirely alien to him. In the course of the play, the people around him tell the story of Othello the Moor so convincingly that eventually the man becomes what people fear him to be. Desdemona’s killer is the man whom such fear and ignorance have created, and his tragedy is the betrayal of his true self. A fate not unlike Othello’s awaited Theoderic at the end of his life.

A BAD HALF CENTURY

Ordinary bad times in the Roman empire had brought hunger and disease to this city or that province, but worse lay in store when the heavy hand of distant government grew unsteady or unpredictable, and the years from the 420s to the 470s accustomed dwellers in the Latin west to an enduring, dispiriting sense of crisis. People who live through such times are seldom rational or farsighted in their interpretation of events around them balkan tours.

The Latin provinces of the empire, from the western Balkans through the upper Danube and the Rhine valleys to Britain, then down through Gaul, the Iberian peninsula, around to Africa, and back to Italy and the islands between, exemplified old Roman characteristics, yet did so on the periphery of the Mediterranean. How was that west different from the Greek, Syriac, and Egyptian lands to the east? First and most simply, Rome had gone from obscurity to empire by picking the right enemies and learning from them. Its best models were the seagoing, prosperous Carthaginians, who challenged Rome and lost, leaving the Romans suddenly masters of far more than they had ever dreamed possible .

But Rome and much of what it had conquered were unready for empire. Though Greek and Carthaginian outposts boasted some history and culture, the romanization of the west came about through the establishment of colonies of retired soldiers and the extension of institutions of Roman government and taxation to the new countries. A little emperor worship and a lot of taxpaying were enough to satisfy the government, and Latin was the language of prestige among elites—unless you had the pride of knowing Greek. The cities the Romans built all had a bit of modern-day planned cities like Brasilia or Canberra about them, and not much of the commercial vigor and sprawl of Mumbai or Chicago. They were official constructions, with economies that depended heavily on a government far away. Carthage, destroyed in 146 BCE, then reborn from the ruins, might claim to be the second city of the west, but there was never a serious candidate for third. The natural condition of the countryside, moreover, was villa rather than village: the home of large landowners and their tenants rather than the autonomous community generating its own prosperity. (Rome itself was the unruliest Roman city of all, the one that hadn’t been planned and embraced a nearly constant flow of immigrants.)

Theodore Lascaris

The Crusaders were obliged to withdraw to the capital, and nearly the whole of the country was abandoned to the enemy. Still less success awaited them in Asia Minor, where the Greeks were able to hold their own after the first surprise caused by the capture of the capital, and where the invaders found themselves glad, in 1206, to make a trance with Theodore Lascaris. The story of the following years is one of struggle with the people whom they had conquered, of reckless disregard of their rights, of raids over the country in search of plunder, of attacks from the Bulgarians and Comans, and of almost incessant warfare until, sixty years after the conquest, the Greeks again obtained possession of the capital, and the Latin Empire of the East came to an ignominious end.

Venice obtained the richest rewards and the fullest pay- The gains of ment for her share in the conquest of Constantino- vice. ple. Her acquisition of territory and of commerce made her for a time the undisputed mistress of the Mediterranean. Dandolo had stipulated that she should receive three out of the eight portions into which it had been agreed that Romania should be divided. He appears to have been allowed to take his choice of the portions of territory which were to be allotted as the share of the republic. He naturally chose lands adjacent to those already possessed by Venice on the Adriatic, and such ports, islands, or sea-boards as she could readily defend with her fleet. Dandolo retained the rank which had already been given him of Despot, and was allowed to wear the imperial buskins. In addition, he took the curious title of Lord of one quarter and a half of the Homan Empire.

The death of Dandolo

On the death of Dandolo his successor obtained a concession from the emperor authorizing any Venetian citizen or ally to take possession of any of the islands in the zEgean or places on its coasts which were not already occupied by the republic, and to hold it for him and his heirs. The granting1 of this concession was followed by a series of buccaneering expeditions, which speedily captured and occupied a number of important positions. Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles, was seized by Marc Dandolo and another prominent citizen, and with the Thracian Chersonese was erected into a duchy. Another band, under Sanuto, occupied Naxos, Paros, and other isles, which were held by him and his descendants for four centuries. Chios was occupied by the great chiefs, Justiniani and Michaeli.

Dalmatius went to the chest behind the altar

Dalmatius went to the chest behind the altar where the relic had been kept, stole the remainder, went out, mounted his horse and rode away. The head was placed with pious joy in the chapel of his house. He returned, disguised, some days after to the church, in order, as he pretended, to do reverence to the relic, in order really to ascertain that he had taken the right head, for there had been two in the chest. He was informed that the head of St. Clement had been stolen.

Church of Cluny

Then, being satisfied as to its authenticity, he took a vow that he would give the relic to the Church of Cluny in case he should arrive safely. He erabarked. The devil, from jealousy, sent a hurricane, but the tears and prayers before the relic defeated him, and the knight arrived safely home. The monks of Cluny received the precious treasure with every demonstration of reverent joy, and in the fullest confidence that they had secured the perpetual intercession of St. Clement on behalf of themselves and those who did honor to his head. The relics most sought after were those which related to the events mentioned in the New Testament, especially to the infancy, life, and passion of Christ, and to the saints popular in the West.

But the mass possessed by the imperial city ranged from the stone on which Jacob had slept, and from the rod of Moses which changed into a serpent, down to that of the latest opponents of heresy in Constantinople. Those connected with the life of Christ and his Mother existed in great number, and comprised objects supposed to be connected with almost every event of his life. There was the cross on which the Saviour had been crucified, the great drops of blood which he had shed in Gethsemane, one of his first teeth, and some of the hair of his childhood. The devout had venerated the purple robe, and could reverence also a portion of the bread which he had blessed at the Last Supper. But besides these there was hardly a disciple, a saint, or a martyr of whom some relic did not exist.

FROM CORFU TO CONSTANTINOPLE

The expedition left Corfu on the 23d of May, Whitsun eve. Villehardouin is again in raptures at the beauty of the spectacle presented by the fleet. It looked, says he, like one which could conquer the world. The sails of the vessels dotted the ocean from the shore to the verge of the horizon, so that the hearts of men rejoiced within them. All went well as far as Negroponte and Andros, at which latter island the leaders, with young Alexis, landed and received the submission of the inhabitants. The Marquis of Montferrat everywhere presented young Alexis to the population, and did his best to make the journey an imperial progress. On arrival at the Dardanelles the leaders and those vessels which had arrived with them waited a week until the galleys and the transports came up.

They occupied the time in plundering the neighboring country and gathering in the harvest, their own stores Expedition having run short. Then they sailed again, and on constitute 23d of June anchored off the Abbey of San Stefano, about twelve miles to the southwest of Constantinople and on the Marmora. The domes and churches, the walls and towers, of New Rome were at length in sight. The view from San Stefano is not the most picturesque which can be obtained of the imperial city, but even in these days it is sufficiently imposing.

The Crusaders were amazed at the sight before them. They could not have imagined, says Villehardouin, that there could have been in the world a city so rich as that which the high walls and higher towers now before them girt entirely round. No one would have believed that there could have been so many rich palaces and lofty churches if he had not seen it with his own eyes. Nor would he have credited that the city which was the sovereign among cities could have been so long or so broad. “ Be sure there was not a man who did not tremble, because never was so great an enterprise undertaken by so small a number of men.5’

Attempt to burn the Venetian fleet

There was now open hostility between the inhabitants and the invaders, and each side prepared to opposites com the other. The Greeks made a milts attempt to burn the Venetian fleet. They prepared seventeen boats, set fire to the wood and various combustibles with which they had been loaded, and at midnight on New Year’s Day, when a strong southerly wind was blowing, turned them adrift. The attempt, however, failed. A few persons were injured, and a Pisan merchantman was burned, with her cargo; but the Venetians with their boat-hooks managed to push the burning ships away from them to the mouth of the harbor, where the strong current which is always running soon carried them out of the way of doing harm. A week after the Greeks made a sortie with their cavalry, but were repulsed.

The people Revolution

Within the city the confusion increased daily. The people Revolution in were convinced that they had nothing to hope the city. from either emperor. They had at length awakened to a sense of danger. The question was no longer one of a mere change of rulers, but one of fulfilling a contract to which they were no party, of paying a band of robbers who were without the walls for a service which their young emperor had requested, but which they had not desired, and for which they certainly had no reason to be grateful. What they wanted was a ruler who would not allow them to be plundered. They saw an enemy which had already done them grievous wrong, and were burning to be delivered from him. The policy of Alexis seemed to the citizens to be to sacrifice everything in order to keep on good terms with their enemies. Even the Crusaders admitted that he was doing what he could for them. He was divided between loyalty to his own subjects and fear of displeasing Philip of Swabia and his late companions.

Venice was to prevent an attack upon Egypt

The evidence in support of an understanding between Venice and the sultan, by which Venice was to prevent an attack upon Egypt, is already weighty, and will probably be conclusive when a more careful examination has been made of the Venetian archives. Charles Hopf, the greatest of German authorities on all that relates to the history of the East during the Middle Ages, and who had amassed large stores of materials for his historical works, appears to have had a copy of this treaty in his possession.

The treaty is mentioned by one of the earliest historians of the crusade. Arnold of Ibelino, the probable author of the “ Continuation of the History of William of Tyre,” gives an account which is full of detail and which there is no reason to regard as seriously inaccurate. He says that when the Sultan of Babylon, as the ruler of Egypt was then generally called, from the fortified town on the Nile which he usually occupied, heard that a great fleet had been chartered by the Christians to proceed to Egypt, he sent for the cadis and priests to take counsel with him how he should save his country from the Christians ‘who were coming. He made various proposals for the defence of the country. Then he sent messengers to Venice with rich presents to the doge and the inhabitants. The messengers were charged to ask for the friendship of the Venetians, and to promise that if the Christians were diverted from their plan of an attack upon Egypt the Venetians should receive great treasures and large privileges in the port of Alexandria. The messengers went to Venice, and, as we have seen, succeeded.

Diversion of the crusading army from Egypt

The explanation, therefore, of the diversion of the crusading army from Egypt is to be found first and mainly in the treason of Venice. In order to obtain advantages of trade over her Italian rivals she had accepted a treaty which made it impossible for her to conduct the army of the Cross of Egypt.

The Crusaders grumbled, suspected treachery, and did all they could to fulfil their vows, but all in vain. Venice had a fixed and definite purpose. Circumstances enabled her to force the Crusaders to go to Zara, and the winter once lost it became easier to divert the expedition from its original purpose than it had been a year previously. We shall now have to examine how it came about that Dandolo was enabled again to prevent the Crusaders leaving for Egypt, and in so doing to carry out at once his part of the treaty with Egypt and to revenge his own wrongs and those of Venice against Constantinople.

Byzantine architecture was taking more and more the beautiful forms

The appreciation of works of art was probably growing in strength. Byzantine architecture was taking more and more the beautiful forms under which it was to become known to the world as Gothic. The internal decoration of churches, and probably also of private dwellings, had attained a high development.

The mosaics and frescoes of the churches of Constantinople were already renowned in Italy, whither artists had gone, and had already prepared the way for the rapid progress in these forms of mural decoration which was made in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Church was represented by a fairly educated and married priesthood, whose influence tended to the education of the whole people. The very frequent references to Ilomer, the constant classical allusions, the quotations from Scripture, show not merely comparatively widespread reading on the part of the Greek writers of this period, hut imply a corresponding amount of knowledge on the part of those whom they hoped to find as readers.

But it was in the great body of the people that the most hopeful signs were to be found. The municipal spirit developed among the Greek race had leavened the populations of Constantinople and the chief cities under Byzantine rule. The government of the municipalities had never been altogether surrendered by the people. The education given by the widespread commercial habits of the merchants was developing the intelligence of the people, with the result that they were never so intolerant in religious matters as the people of the West, and wTould never have tolerated among them a feudal system.

The great glory of the Byzantine Empire

Commerce, indeed, was the great glory of the Byzantine Empire. Commerce, with all its advantages and veiopment of all its drawbacks Visit Bulgaria, was the characteristic feature of the empire. ^ew Rome. The wealth, the luxury, the tolerance, the development of household and of ecclesiastical art were largely due to commerce. The neglect of the public weal, the lessening of interest in the management of public affairs, the abandonment of the wealthier classes to effeminacy and idleness, and the low ideal wdiicli was thus presented to the poorer classes, was largely due to the enormous increase of wealthy families which commerce had enriched.

Had the external foes of the New Rome been fewer or had she been able to overcome them, there is reason to believe that Europe might have seen the development of a State in which there would have been an amount of material comfort associated with family life such as is hardly yet to be found in any European country. Side by side with this there would have been an intellectual activity which wrould have enabled the empire to preserve the foremost rank among European nations. On the Bosphorus would have been the capital of an empire which for twelve centuries after Christ had preserved an unbroken tradition of order, of good government, of knowledge of Greek literature, of commercial prosperity, of literary and artistic development.

The imperial city had bridged over the dark centuries of turmoil which intervened between the pagan civilizations and those of Christianity. While the nations of the West had been in course of formation, the Homan Empire had, in the East, been continuing its history in almost unbroken prosperity. We may probably gain the best idea of the forms into which that prosperity would have developed by recalling what her great rival subsequently became. Venice, I repeat, was in her later history the reproduction on the Adriatic of what her former patron had been on the Bosphorus. The rule of the New Borne was over a wider area and under more difficult conditions than that of Venice, but the resemblance is not the less remarkable.

The condition of things in Constantinople

The condition of things in Constantinople at the moment comparison was attacked by the army of the West presents dftVo»e<5Vem- many resemblances, but with some all important Greeks differences, to that which exists in the same city at under Turks. ^he present moment. Then, as now, the people were oppressed, and in the practice of the government seemed to exist mainly for the purpose of paying taxes. Corruption had honeycombed every department of the State. Offices were bought and sold. The influence of the eunuchs was greater than that of ministers of state. Public debts were paid by delegations upon the provinces a mode which then, as now, allowed the local government to share the plunder of the people. Money collected for the State was seized by the palace and diverted from its legitimate purpose. Effeminacy had taken possession of the ruling classes, and had done much to demoralize them.

Merchants and citizens had alike taken

Merchants and citizens had alike taken in hand the redress of their own wrongs even in Constantinople, while Attacks upon condition of the Byzantine marine enabled Italian Latins to ravage the coasts and the islands when rates. Never they were at war with the empire. During the last few years of the century they were nearly always at war. In 1192 the Pisans and the Genoese were confirmed in their old privileges, or had new ones granted them, although at the very time Pisan and Genoese pirates were ravaging the Egean Sea. These pirates, in ships belonging respectively to the two states, captured a Venetian vessel on its way to Constantinople.

There was on board of it an ambassador from Isaac who was returning from Egypt, and another from Saladin who was bringing gifts of horses, wild animals, amber, and other valuable presents to the emperor. The ambassadors were murdered. Isaac resented their murder and the theft of the presents intended for him. He made complaints to Genoa and Pisa, seized merchant ships, and asked for indemnity. After some time the Genoese consented to give it, but the Pisans gave no satisfaction.

The government of Pisa was either unable or unwilling to control its citizens, who took to piracy with impunity. In 1191 a fleet of vessels belonging to similar freebooters virtually blockaded the Dardanelles and plundered imperial vessels. The emperor was powerless to capture them. The Council of Pisa took no step to oppose them. One of these pirates, in 1198, defeated the imperial admiral with thirty ships. The emperor only succeeded in putting an end to his ravages by proposing terms to him through the Genoese, and then setting the Pisans to attack him.

A Genoese pirate

The Genoese had, however, become equally troublesome. A Genoese pirate, named Caffario, had, after great difficulty, been captured and killed. On his death the emperor requested Genoa to send an ambassador to his court with a view to negotiations. This was done, and arrangements were made for the restoration of the buildings and wharves that the Genoese had possessed in Constantinople, but the negotiations can hardly be said to have been concluded when the city was captured by the Crusaders.

Manuel Camyzes Protostrator

Among those best qualified for the dignity was Manuel Camyzes Protostrator. He, however 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 plotted to attain that end. Apparently these rival candidates, or their protectors, were willing to wait until the death of Alexis, or at least to be content if they could succeed in obtaining from the emperor a recommendation or nomination which should come into effect upon his death. Other aspirants, however, outside the near relatives of the emperor, attempted to deprive Alexis of the throne. A certain John Comnenos, who was nicknamed the Fat, entered the Great Church with his followers, who were mostly of the nobility, and, taking down a small crown which hung suspended over the altar, put it upon his head, and was proclaimed emperor.

He took possession without difficulty of the Great Palace, took his seat upon the throne, and proceeded at once to make a distribution of the great offices of state. His followers proclaimed him throughout the city, and a mob seemed to think itself entitled to the reward for having shouted for him of pillaging the houses of the wealthy. John apparently thought his position secure, for at night he took no precautions for guarding the palace. The emperor, who had probably been absent at the palace of Blachern, assembled his friends, who made a night attack by sea, joined the guards who had remained faithful or indifferent, surprised the followers of John near the hippodrome, entered the palace and beheaded the pretender.

John Sebastocrator

About the same time Michael, a natural son of John Sebastocrator, who had been sent to levy the taxes due by the province of Mylassa, in Caria, made an attempt to obtain the throne. Troops were sent against him, and he was defeated. Like so many other pretenders and enemies of the empire, he sought and found refuge among the Turks. From the sultan he received troops with which he pillaged the cities and country round the Meander. The emperor set out in November to attack him. In returning to Constantinople he stopped to take the hot baths at Pythia, near the modern Yalova, on the Gulf of Ismidt. A violent storm, however, forced his party to take shelter on Prinkipo, whence they returned to Chalcedon and the capital.

The governor John Comnenos

The governor, John Comnenos, a brother of the protosebastos, was so convinced of his powers of persuasion that he refused to see him, and shut his gates against him. Andronicos thereupon crossed over to Nicomedia, the modern Ismidt. Andronicos Angelos, two of whose sons subsequently came to the throne, was sent against him, but was defeated. Andronicos then pushed boldly on to Constantinople, and on the hills opposite Prinkipo lit a great number of fires, in order to make the people of the capital believe that he was accompanied by a large army.

The protosebastos was greatly alarmed at his approach, and the more so that he had no confidence in the army. The inhabitants were known to be friendly to Andronicos, and, although he counted on the fleet and on the foreign colonists in the capital, he was by no means assured of the loyalty of Attempts to either. He at once collected every available ship inanes them in part with Homans and in part with Italians, distributing among them large sums of money. Contostephanos claimed the command of the fleet as a right; and although Alexis distrusted him, he was obliged to give way and content himself with surrounding him with friends in whom he had confidence.

Andronicos returned answer

Having thus barred the passage of the Bosphorus, he sent an embassy to Andronicos, with a letter in which he promised many dignities, favors, and rewards, if he would consent to disband his army. The embassy failed, possibly, as Nicetas thinks, because the ambassador himself urged the rejection of the proposals which he carried. Andronicos returned answer that he would retire into private life if the protosebastos and his friends were dismissed, if the empress cut short her hair and re-entered a monastery, and if the emperor alone assumed the government.