$ 6.

CHAP. IX. perience had so frequently proved to be useless as a fortification. For a fortnight the work was pursued with ardour; but, in the mean time, the Venetian army was repulsed in all its attacks on Corinth; and, the season setting in with intense cold early in autumn, the lines at the isthmus were abandoned, and the whole Venetian force retreated to Nauplia. In 1466, the Venetians, under Victor Capello, the advocate of the war, succeeded in taking Athens; but subsequently, on debarking his troops near Patras, they sustained a disastrous defeat. When peace was concluded between Venice and the Porte in 1479, the republic retained possession of Nauplia, Monemvasia, Coron, Modon, and Navarin ; but it was compelled to cede to the Turks the fortresses of Maina, Vatica, and Rampano, which had been captured during the war. In the year 1500, sultan Bayezid II. gained possession of Modon and Coron; and in 1540 the Venetians were driven from all their remaining possessions in the Peloponnesus by Suleiman, who took Nauplia and Monemvasia.

To the last hour of the Byzantine domination in Greece learning was not neglected; and all men of any rank in society devoted some portion of their youth to study, and the acquirement of a knowledge of ancient Greek and of the history and laws of the Greek church. The annals of the Morea have given us the means of estimating the value of such an education as can be obtained from books alone, without the soulinspiring culture of the moral and religious feelings that can be gained only in the domestic circle, and which must have its seeds sown before books can enlarge the mind. Some Greek manuscripts have been preserved, written at this disastrous period, even in the mountains of Zakonia and the city of Misithra, one of which contains the history of Herodotus, and another treats of the miraculous light on Mount Thabor. The selection

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indicates the nature of the Hellenic mind at this epoch. The classes that floated on the surface of society were in 1360-1460. their mental dotage, and their pride and superstition sought gratification equally in the legends of Christian fable, narrated in pedantic phraseology, and in the tales of the father of history, sketched with the noble simplicity of nature.1

1 See notice of these MSS. in Mountfaucon's Palæographia Graca, p. 72. The discourses on the miraculous light were transcribed at Misithra in 1370. Herodotus was copied at Astros in 1372. Mountfaucon, at p. 71, A.D. 1362, mentions another MS. by the same scribe of Misithra; and at page 70 he notices several medical works by an Athenian scribe, A.D. 1339. There is also a MS. of the Etymologicum Magnum from Chalcis in Euboea, 1386, and one of five books of Polybius, by an Athenian, A.D. 1417 and 1435.-See pages 76, 79.

CHAPTER X.

DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO, OR NAXOS.1

SECT. I.-OBSERVATIONS ON THE VENETIAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

IT must not be supposed that the Venetian republic succeeded in establishing a greater degree of order, in the different portions of the empire of Romania which fell to its share, than the Frank Crusaders. The government of Venice was not yet either rich or powerful; its strength lay in the wealth, patriotism, and greatness of individual citizens. But her nobility partook of the spirit of the age, and were as deeply imbued with pride of caste as the haughtiest of the crusading barons. Within the walls of the capital the wealth of a numerous middle class, and the independent position of a maritime population, compelled the feudal pride of the nobles to yield to their interest; but abroad, the Venetian nobles were as eager to act the territorial baron as any adventurer in the crusading army at Constantinople. When

1 The principal authority relating to the duchy of the Archipelago is a little work entitled Histoire Nouvelle des Anciens Ducs, et autres Souverains, de l'Archipel., Paris, 1699, 12mo, published without the name of the author, but known to have been written by Père Sauger, a Catholic missionary who spent many years in the Levant. Some additional materials, enabling us to rectify the chronology of this work, have been collected by recent travellers who have examined documents still existing in the islands. Genealogical tables of the dukes will be found in James Emerson's (Sir J. E. Tennent) History of Modern Greece, vol. i. p. 181, and Buchon's Recherches et Matériaux pour servir à une Histoire de la Domination Française en Orient-Tables des Généalogies, vii.; but both require some corrections.

VENICE GRANTS FIEFS IN ISLANDS.

321

the partition of the Byzantine empire was settled, and the republic became sovereign of a quarter and an eighth of the whole empire of Romania, the senate soon perceived that its resources would be inadequate to conquer the territory to which it had thus acquired a right.1 The Venetians were not inclined to quit mercantile enterprises which secured them a certain profit, in order to toil for the glory of the state; nor would the nobles have been willing to act as governors of the many petty dependencies which the partition placed under the command of the senate. On the other hand, the enormous pay then exacted by knights and men-at-arms, who were the only efficient troops of the age, rendered it impossible to preserve any conquest with advantage to the republic by means of mercenary garrisons. Indeed, mercenary leaders in distant possessions, where they must have enjoyed unrestrained power, would immediately have rendered themselves independent, or transferred their allegiance to some rival protector. If the Venetian conquests in the empire of Romania had been intrusted to foreign troops, the noblemen and gentlemen who commanded these mercenaries would have been the liegemen of other sovereigns; and though they might have paid homage to the mercantile republic, in order to secure their pay, would immediately have cast off that allegiance when they found that they could secure greater profits by seizing the revenues of the country they were employed to guard.

These considerations induced the republic to adopt a singular policy in order to take possession of its share of the empire-a policy which produced little immediate advantage to the Venetian state, but saved Venice from all expense, and at least excluded its rivals, whether Frank Crusaders or citizens of the other commercial

1 "Quartæ partis et dimidiæ totius imperii Romaniæ."-Andrea Dandolo Chronicon. Muratori, Script. Rev. Ital. xii. 331.

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1207.

§ 1.

CHAP. X. republics of Italy, from the territories in question. The senate authorised individual nobles to conquer certain portions of the empire, on condition that their conquests should be held as fiefs from the Venetian republic. In consequence of this authorisation, it would seem that Mark Dandolo and Jacomo Viaro occupied Gallipoli; that Marino Dandolo conquered the island of Andros ; the family of Ghisi seized Tinos, Mykone, Skyros, Skiathos, and Skopelos; Justiniani and Michieli the island of Keos or Zea; Navigajosa that of Lemnos, and Quirini that of Astypalia. It was the intention of the government to reserve Corfou and Crete as dominions of the republic.

In the partition of the empire, the twelve islands of the Archipelago, which had formed the theme of the Egean sea in the provincial division of the Byzantine empire, fell to the share of the crusading barons; but Mark Sanudo, one of the most influential of the Venetian nobles in the expedition, obtained possession of the principal part of the ancient theme-though whether by purchase from the Frank barons to whom it had been allotted, or by grant to himself from the emperor, is not known.2 Sanudo, however, made his appearance at the parliament of Ravenika as one of the great feudatories of the empire of Romania, and was invested by the emperor Henry with the title of Duke of the Archipelago, or Naxos. It is difficult to say on what precise footing Sanudo placed his relations with

1 Ramnusius, De Bello Constantinopolitano, lib. vi. p. 273, edit. 1634. When the Greek emperor Michael VIII. recovered possession of Constantinople, he encouraged the Genoese nobles to make conquests in the Archipelago, in order to counterbalance the power of the Venetians. The Embriachi gained possession of Lemnos, the Centurioni of Mytilene, the Gatilusi of Enos, the Catanei of Phokea, and the family of Zacharia, and at a later period the Justiniani, of Chios.

2 We find in the Crusaders' portion, Provin. Preseppet et Dodecanisos. The theme of the Egean is mentioned by Const. Porphyr., De Thematibus, lib. 1 p. 18, edit. Banduri, as the seventeenth Asiatic province. The name Awdékávmoov is found applied to it as early as the year 780. Theophanes, Chron. 383. The larger islands of the Byzantine theme which escaped from the domination of Sanudo were replaced by smaller, to complete the number twelve.