History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
correct these sordid and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind
of the young prince to a level with his fortune. In the Servian
expedition, the two emperors showed themselves in cordial harmony
to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was
initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war and government.
After the conclusion of the peace, Palæologus was left at
Thessalonica, a royal residence, and a frontier station, to
secure by his absence the peace of Constantinople, and to
withdraw his youth from the temptations of a luxurious capital.
But the distance weakened the powers of control, and the son of
Andronicus was surrounded with artful or unthinking companions,
who taught him to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile, and to
vindicate his rights. A private treaty with the cral or despot of
Servia was soon followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on
the throne of the elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and
prerogative, which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At
his request the empress-mother undertook the voyage of
Thessalonica, and the office of mediation: she returned without
success; and unless Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we
may doubt the sincerity, or at least the fervor, of her zeal.
While the regent grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous
hand, she had been instructed to declare, that the ten years of
his legal administration would soon elapse; and that, after a
full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor Cantacuzene
sighed for the repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of a
heavenly crown. Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary
abdication would have restored the peace of the empire, and his
conscience would have been relieved by an act of justice.
Palæologus alone was responsible for his future government; and
whatever might be his vices, they were surely less formidable
than the calamities of a civil war, in which the Barbarians and
infidels were again invited to assist the Greeks in their mutual
destruction. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and
everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third
contest in which he had been involved; and the young emperor,
driven from the sea and land, was compelled to take shelter among
the Latins of the Isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy
provoked the victor to a step which must render the quarrel
irreconcilable; and the association of his son Matthew, whom he
invested with the purple, established the succession in the
family of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople was still attached
to the blood of her ancient princes; and this last injury
accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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