The Greeks after Alexander the Great cation of it in the engagements of 921 and 990 by France, and in those of 1075, 1106, 1128, and 1167 by Germany, besides which the fact of the appearance of the triple-attack system in 843 forbids us to look for its source in the "Tactica,” supposing that this treatise is the work of Leo VI (cf. p. 68). In conclusion, we may point out how the enlightenment of Byzantium spreads over the Slavonic world (cf. p. 77) as far as the Finno-Ugrian races and the Carelians and Mordwines. On the other side, Byzantine suggestions reached Moravia and Bohemia (between Neuhof and Rabstein), where the stone-masons make crosses whose arms taper from the centre to the ends. 0. THE LATIN EMPIRE (1204-1261) (a) The Divisions of Empire. The residence of Alexius V was at Tzurulon; farther to the west was the seat of the sovereignty of Alexius III at Mosynopolis. Leo Sgurus (cf. p. 97) had pressed on to Thessaly. The cousin of Alexius III was lord of the despotic monarchy of Epirus from Naupactus to Dyrrhachium, Cephallenia, Zante, Ithaca, Santa Maura, Baxo. In Asia the grandson of Andronicus I, Alexius Comnenus, with the help of his brother David and Queen Thamar of Georgia, had founded the empire of Trebizond, which embraced the coast district of Pontus and Paphlagonia and the Crimea. The Venetians received a strip of country from Adrianople to the Propontis, the coast from Perinthus to Sestos, the islands of the Ægean Sea with Crete, a large portion of Morea with the harbours of Modona and Patras, the coast from the Ionian islands to Dyrrhachium. The Podestá (despotes) of the Venetian colony in Constantinople became an imperial dignitary and exercised the rights of a sovereign. For the kingdom of Thessalonica, westward of Nestus, King Bonifacio had to fight against Leo Sgurus and his ally Alexius III. He easily succeeded in the case of Athens and Thebes (both intrusted to Otto de la Roche), but in the case of the Peloponnese, only with the help of Godfrey of Villehardouin and William of Champlitte. The successes of the emperor Baldwin's brother Henry, the most pleasing figure among the Latins, and of Louis of Blois against Lascaris are important, until, finally, the boundless hatred of the Greeks for the Latins cemented an alliance with the Czar Joannisza of Bulgaria. The emperor Baldwin was taken prisoner in the battle of Adrianople (April 15, 1205). Fire and sword then did their work. The prisoners were sacrificed to the gods, towns like Philippopolis were levelled to the ground. Then Henry, the new vice-regent of the empire, after August 20, 1206, styled emperor, tried to use the ill-will of the Greeks toward the Bulgarians to effect a peace between Greeks and Latins. Theodore Vranas, a friend to the Latins, became lord of Adrianople and Didymoteichos. The most gifted of the "Romans," the hope of the Greek nobility and clergy which had assembled in Nicæa, Theodore Lascaris, crowned emperor in 1206, was now the mark of friend and foe. Since he was threatened on the one side by David Comnenus, who in the summer of 1206 had become a vassal of the Latin emperor, and on the other hand by the Seljuk Sultan Ghayâth ed-dîn Kai Khusrau of Iconium, who had received Alexius III, he had not shrunk from calling in the help of the Bulgarian scourge of the Latins. After the murder of Joannisza before Thessalonica (October 9, 1207) his empire split up (Boril or Boris II in Trnowo, Strêz in Prosek, and Slav or Esklas in Melenicon). May 2, 1210, saw the parliament of Greece meet in the valley of Ravennika near Zeitun or Lamia. The following was the result of the arrangement and confirmation of the territories. The French were left as the virtual possessors of Greece proper; the prince of the whole of Achæa was William of Champlitte († 1209). The twelve lords of Morea (uopéa = mulberry-tree, the land of mulberries, primarily applied to Elis than to the whole peninsula) are thorough Frenchmen: de Bruyères in Carytena, de Rosières in Acova, Aleman in Patras, Valaincourt in Veligosti, Nivelet in Gheraki, Tournay in Calavryta, Lille of Charpigny in Vostitza, Tremouille in Chalandritza, Neuilly in Passava (“Passavant," from the war cry), William in Nikli, Luke in Gritzena, Godfrey of Villehardouin in Misithra. Athens and Thebes are under Saint Omer and Otto de la Roche; Amphissa is in the possession of the Stromoncourts. The Lombards had occupied Macedonia and Thessaly with Euboea, where the dalle Carceri had settled; the Pallavicini resided in Bodonitza in Thermopyla; on the other hand, Venice had chosen the islands for herself, and possessed a colony and the patriarchate in Constantinople. The Flemings, lastly, were in possession of the capital and the empire. In the capital, under the first emperor Baldwin, the Greek element had been momentarily thrust into the background, while his statesmanlike brother Henry clearly saw the necessity of bringing Byzantine into close touch with the government. The island of Cerigo was under the Venieri, Cerigotto under the Viari, Tinos and Miconos under the Ghisi, Andros under the Dandoli, Zia (Ceos) and Serfene (Seriphos) under the Giustiniani, Michieli, Ghisi; under the Sanudi were Delos, Gyaros, Syra, Thermia (Cythnos), Sifanto (Siphnos), Polycandro (Pholegandros), Nio (Annea), Naxos, Paros, Milos, Cimolos, Antiparos. Marco Sanudo, the judge of the Venetian colony, had conquered seventeen islands and planned to make Naxos the seat of the government, which extended over the "Duchy of the Dodecanesos." On Santorin (Sancti Herini in the year 1207 in Enrico Dandolo, derivation from St. Irene, Thera) and Therasia the Barozzi ruled; on Namphio (Anaphe), the Foscoli; on Scyros, Sciathus, Chelidromi, Scopelos, Amorgos, the Ghisi; on Negroponte (σTòv "Euρiπov), the dalle Carceri, Peccorari, and the Verona; on Lemnos, the Navigajosi; on Nicaria (Icaria), the Beazzani; the Quirini on Stampali (Astypalaia); on Scarpanto (Carpathos), Nisyros, Piscopia, and Calchi, the Gavalas. The result follows that the Greek Empire had now only kept Lesbos for itself, and the empire of Romania possessed only Chios and Samos. (b) The Mixture of Civilizations. The stratum of Frankish knights and Italian colonists was imposed upon the Greek, Slavonic, and Armenian settlers of the Balkan Peninsula. It was a strange mixture of nationalities, of social and political institutions. A vivid picture of this absorption of two foreign civilizations is presented to us by the chronicle of the Morea, composed in its most ancient form in the Greek vernacular after 1300. The writer of the chronicle was certainly a true Frank, no half-Frank or Gasmule,1 since otherwise he would have had Greek sympathies. No modern writer has more thoroughly recognised the spirit of this racial mixture than Goethe in the third act of the second part of "Faust," where in the palace of Faust and Helena he is describing Misithra. The 1 Son of a Frank by a Greek wife, probably Basmule, from the corresponding roots ßas [cf. bastard = fils de bas] and μoûλos, mulatto, mulâtre. The Greeks after Alexander the Great = Greek spirit and the Frankish spirit were indeed long opposed one to the other. There were at first but isolated instances of mixed marriages; but slowly and surely the Frankish feudal system with all its expressions forced its way into the Greek life and language. We then find: óμávo = hommage, Tаρλаμâ = parlement (also βουλή οι συντυχία), λίζιος = lige (liege), κόντος = comte (count), ἡ μπαρουνία = baronie, πρεσαντίζω = présentir, ῥεβεστίζω = revestir, παραφρίζω =paroffrir, KoμEVTоúpns commendore, períoтpo = régistre, Kovтóσravλos = conte κοντόσταυλος stabulum. The court life (koúρTη) of the Frankish principalities was magnificently developed. Godfrey II of Villehardouin was always followed by eighty knights with golden spurs; eight hundred of the flower of the chivalry of Western Europe lived at the court of William II of Villehardouin. Twelve families were lords over the Greek and Slavonic peasants in Morea. The Tápokoi, serfs, became parigi, rustici, who were forced to perform labour service on the latifundia of the Frankish knights. Through the strict enforcement of Frankish feudalism the last relics of a free peasantry disappeared from Greece. Frankish castles rose up on the spurs of mountain ranges and on hills which fell away precipitously on every side. Misithra first of all, built on an outlying ridge of Taygetus with an octagonal wall of circumvallation, and guarded by strong towers; then Acova in North Arcadia, on a hill 1,914 feet high, which commands the valley of the Alpheus, and with it the high road of the peninsula of Carytena; and lastly the most complete medieval fortress, Gritzena, between Ira and Ithome, vast battlemented lines of walls, behind which rise round and pointed. towers. Churches were erected in a peculiar early Gothic style. We may instance Sancta Sophia in Andravida, and Isova above the left bank of the Alpheus, where Gothic lancet windows are inserted in the plain windows of the former Greek church, and eight-ribbed capitals falteringly express some artistic capabilities. A stirring life of jousts and tournaments was developed; troubadours came on the scene, and the singing matches of the palaces aroused the echoes of the valleys. The Franks, with their superiority in military science, were responsible for the introduction of many new military terms: κάστρον, σάγιττα, βούκκινον = buccina, σκουτάρι, scutum, γαρνιζουν = garnison, τριποντσέτο, trebuchet, φλαμουρόν, flammour, poyaтópoi, from roga, mercenaries, κovpo atópoi, cursatores, σévrov, siège, παρτοῦν, ἀσεντζεύω, Tаρтоûν, pardon, aσevTeuw, assiéger, diapevteúw, diffendere (also Armenian difentel), àσevTiw, asseggiare, άππλкеów = аpplicare, àμpáλns French amiral, ἀσεντζίζω, ἀππλικεύω from Arabic amir, äpμara, armes, коνукéσтα, сonqueste. The modes of address: pav@ápa, madame, vápa, dame, píope, mesire; and titles: poï, roi, pnyíva, reine, βικάριος (also Armenian bikar), ντζενεράλ, vicar général, πρίνκιπας, princeps, passed into Greek. In compensation the Frankish knights in Morea after a few decades spoke the Greek vernacular: this is proved by the general statement of the chronicle of the Morea, but also by the exclamation of Godefroi de Brières in the battle of Boula Lagos, 1259, "We speak one tongue." = But the thought of the terrible sack of Constantinople in 1204 had sunk too deeply into the hearts of the Greeks to allow them to be won over by this. The deep religious difference prevented the hatred of the Latin movement from slumbering, more especially among the monks and the clergy. The latter now = 1 The name is derived from μvýpa, cheese, μvšnopâs cheese monger, contracted later into μvorpâs; cf. the engraving, "Ruins of Mistra in Laconia," where at any rate in the first line buildings of a later Greek period are discernible; French influences can also be traced. |