The Comnenian dynasty and Alexius I.—Decay of the Empire—The end of the Comneni—The Angeli—The mustering of the Fourth Crusade—The Conquest of Zara—The First and Second Captures of Constantinople—The Partition and Organisation of the Latin Empire—The Greek Revival—Rivalry of Constantinople and Thessalonica—The Latin Emperors—Michael Palæologus and the Fall of the Latin Empire—The Franks in the Peloponnesus. [Sidenote: The Comnenian dynasty.] The Comnenian dynasty, finally established by Alexius I. [see chapter vii.], ruled for more than a century over the Roman Empire in the East. We have already noticed the most stirring episodes of its external history, in tracing the dealings of the Comnenian Emperors with the Seljukian Turks, with the passing Crusaders, with the permanent Latin garrison in Syria, and with the Norman rulers of Apulia and Sicily, who strove to make southern Italy the starting-point for a Norman conquest of the Balkan Peninsula. It remains now to describe briefly the internal history of the Eastern Empire during the twelfth century, as a necessary preliminary to the understanding of the collapse of the Greek power in 1204. [Sidenote: Alexius I., 1081–1118.] The combination of strength and duplicity, which constituted the practical ability of Alexius Comnenus, had saved the Byzantine state from the ruin with which it had been threatened. But the rescue of the Empire had been accomplished at no small cost. The Crusaders had allowed Alexius to resume possession of a large share of Asia Minor, but the constant presence of Latins in the East was a permanent danger to him, both from their superior military capacity and their fierce Catholicism. The Eastern Empire sank into the condition of stagnation, which it was to retain for the rest of its existence. The low cunning and trickery of Alexius are glorified by his literary daughter Anna as the highest resources of civilisation when face to face with the barbarian Franks. Such methods might save the state, but they could hardly adapt it to meet the new conditions which Western activity in the East had brought about. [Sidenote: Internal decay of the Eastern Empire.]