1204 A.D. pended at the capital during the residence of 1261. the Latins, religious hatred and political ani mosity alike preventing the captives from coalescing with their conquerors, whose patronage was in some degree essential to the encouragement of literary pursuits. The individuals of education or genius who survived the siege, sought refuge at Trebizond and Nice; and Byzantium was abandoned to the strangers, and those whom poverty prevented from emigration. Under Vataces, who, in a. D. 1222, succeeded to Theodore Lascaris in the empire of Nice, the cause of public instruction was warmly supported ;† and whilst at Constantinople the vernacular dialect of the people was rapidly imbibing corruption from the idiom of the French, the ancient language of Greece was preserved in its purity by the inhabitants of these flourishing retreats, whence it again emerged on the restoration of the Paleologi: nor were their pens in the interim unemployed. It was then that Blemmidas studied philosophy, physics, and the theory of government, and Acropolita§ and Pachy • Rizo, p. 17. + Gibbon, c. lxii. ↑ Schoell, 1. vi. c. 94. He likewise wrote some works on geography.-Ib. c. 90. § Gibbon, c. lxii. Schoell, 1. vi. c. 86. Fabricius, l. v. c. i. 10. 1204 meres devoted themselves to commemorating A.D. the events of their own times. 1261. 1261. One of the objects of the attention of A.D. Michael Paleologus, on the expulsion of the Latins from Constantinople, was the revival of education, and the re-establishment of seminaries for public instruction. The direction of these he entrusted to Manuel Holobolus, a scholar and a churchman, whom, however, he shortly after deprived of his ears and nose, for daring to censure his barbarity to John Lascaris, his pupil and lawful sovereign,† and finally drove from the capital with the grossest indignities, in consequence of his opposition to the union of the eastern and western churches, attempted by Michael. It was not under the patronage of such a monarch, that the fallen character of the age could be retrieved; and, in fact, after a few years of his stormy reign had elapsed, he was forced to devote his energies rather to the protection than the improvement of his dominions. 1282. The reign of Andronicus II. which extended A.D. into the fourteenth century, was remarkable merely for religious controversy and foreign, and Schoell, 1. vi. c. 86. Pachymeres, besides history, applied himself likewise to the study of mathematics and philosophy. Ib. c. 92-94. Harles, sec. v. p. 572. Fabricius, 1. vi. c. i. 11. + Gibbon, c. lxii. A.D. domestic broils; whilst the advancing power 1282. of the Turks was from year to year extending over the unprotected provinces of his dominions. The ornaments of his court were Theodore Metochita, his logothete, or principal minister, Nicephorus Gregoras, the historian, and Maximus Planudes, the learned editor of Esop, and compiler of a valuable Anthology. The former was as highly distinguished for the graces of his person, as the endowments of his mind; and so extensive was his erudition, that he was designated by his colleagues a living cyclopædia. His studies included natural philosophy, history, and the more abstruse sciences, in which his proficiency has been enthusiastically mentioned by his friend and fellowstudent, Nicephorus.* The Byzantine History of the latter, which is his most celebrated production, abounds with that affectation and pomposity, which characterised the mind and demeanour of its writer; but in it events are impartially and clearly detailed. A portion of it only has been published, the conclusion remaining still in manuscript.† Planudes, however, Berington, app. i. p. 618. Schoell, 1. vi. c. 94. Fabricius, 1. v. c. xxx. + Fabricius, l. v. c. 1. Berington, app. i. p. 614, et seq. Schoell, l. vi. c. 84. Boeclerus, sec. P. C. xiii. p. 105. Harles, sec. v. p. 576. 1282. was, if not in mind the most original, at least A.D. in acquirement the most extraordinary man of his age. Of his life but few particulars are known; he was born in Nicomedia, resided at Constantinople, was ambassador from Andronicus to the Venetians, and died about A.D. 1350. Amongst his other peculiarities, I may observe, that he was the first individual who introduced the use of what are termed the Arabic numerals. His learning, which extended to almost every branch, was devoted to the composition of works on a variety of subjects; and poetry and philology, arithmetic and Latin literature, rhetoric and ethics, have been equally illustrated by the pen of Planudes.* It must not, however, be omitted, that he possessed neither the power of creative genius, nor discerning taste, and that strength, rather than elegance, was the characteristic of his mind. During the civil wars, in the reign of the younger Andronicus,t the dynasty of the emperors received the fatal wound, which was Schoell, l. vi. c. 72, 74, 79, Berington, app. i. p. 628. 81. Harles, sec. v. p. 575. † Of these an eloquent but insincere account has been furnished us by the principal actor, John Cantacuzenus, written after his abdication, in a convent.-Gibbon, c. Ixiii. Schoell, 1. vi. c. 86. Berington, app. i. p. 622. Boeclerus, sec. P. C. xiii. p. 105. Harles, sec. v. p. 577. Fabricius, l. v. A.D. to terminate in its annihilation; the Turks 1333. gained that footing in the dominions of the * In A. D. 1333, the Turks established themselves at Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia. Such were the Omphalopsychi, who sought for the divine. light in their navel; a controversy which occupied a long portion of the reign of John Palæologus.-Gibbon, c. lxiii. |