The Latins in the Levant : a history of Frankish Greece, 1204-1566

Preface

PROFESSOR KRUMBACHER says in his History of Byzantine Literature, that, when he announced his intention of devoting himself to that subject, one of his classical friends solemnly remonstrated with him, on the ground that there could be nothing of interest in a period when the Greek preposition airo governed the accusative instead of the genitive case. I am afraid that many people are of the opinion of that orthodox grammarian. There has long prevailed in some quarters an idea that, from the time of the Roman Conquest in 146 B.C. to the day when Archbishop Germanos raised the standard of Independence at Kalavryta in 1821, the annals of Greece were practically a blank, and that that country thus enjoyed for nearly twenty centuries that form of happiness which consists in having no history. Forty years ago there was, perhaps, some excuse for this theory : but the case is very different now. The great cemeteries of mediaeval Greece — I mean the Archives of Venice, Naples, Palermo, and Barcelona — have given up their dead. We know now, year by year — yes, almost month by month — the vicissitudes of Hellas under her Frankish masters, and all that is required now is to breathe life into the dry bones, and bring upon the stage in flesh and blood that picturesque and motley crowd of Burgundian, Flemish, and Lombard nobles, German knights, rough soldiers of fortune from Cataluna and Navarre, Florentine financiers, Neapolitan courtiers, shrewd Venetian and Genoese merchant princes, and last but not least, the bevy of high-born dames, sprung from the oldest families of France, who make up, together with the Greek archons and the Greek serfs, the persons of the romantic drama of which Greece was the theatre for 250

vii viii

PREFACE years. The present volume is an attempt to accomplish that delightful but difficult task.

Throughout I have based the narrative upon first-hand authorities. I can conscientiously say that I have consulted all the printed books known to me in Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and Latin, which deal in any way with the subject ; and I have endeavoured to focus all the scattered notices concerning the Frankish period which have appeared in periodical literature, and in the documents of the epoch which have been published. These I have supplemented by further research in the archives of Rome and Venice. My aim has been to present as complete an account as is possible in the existing state of our knowledge of this most fascinating stage in the life of Greece. I have also visited all the chief castles and sites connected with the Frankish period, believing that before a writer can hope to make the Franks live on paper, he must see where they lived in the flesh. Enormous as is the debt which every student of mediaeval Greek history owes to the late Karl Hopf, it was here that he failed, and it was hence that his Frankish barons are labelled skeletons in a vast, cold museum, instead of human beings of like passions with ourselves.

One word as to the arrangement of the book. The historian of Frankish Greece is confronted at the outset with the problem of telling his tale in the clearest possible manner. He may describe, like Finlay, the history of each small state separately — a course which not only involves repetition, but prevents the reader from obtaining a view of the country as a whole ; or he may, like Hopf, combine the separate narratives in one — a policy which inevitably leads to confusion. I have adopted an intermediate course. The three states of the Morea and continental Greece — the principality of Achaia, the duchy of Athens, and the Despotat of Epiros — were so closely connected as to form a fairly homogeneous whole ; and with them naturally go the island county of Cephalonia and the island of Eubcea. The duchy of the Archipelago and the Venetian colony of Corfu, on the other hand, form separate sections, for their evolution differed widely from the other states. I have therefore treated them apart. Crete I have omitted for two reasons : it is not yet

PREFACE ix a part of the Greek kingdom, and it so happens that Prankish Greece almost exactly coincided with the area of modern Greece ; moreover, the history of Venetian Crete cannot be written till the eighty-seven volumes of the " Duca di Candia " documents at Venice are published.

I owe thanks to many friends for help and advice, especially to K. A. M. Idromenos of Corfu.

W. M.

ROME, December 1907.

a 2

Chapter I Greece At The Time Of The Frankish Conquest

i

Administrative divisions. The Ionian islands. Thessaly. Slavonic elements. Tzakones. Jews. Italians. Byzantine oppression. Piracy. Local tyrants. The Church. Material condition of Athens. The Ancient Monuments : the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Theseion. Byzantine Churches. Monasteries. Culture. English at Athens. Thebes. Chalkis. The Peloponnese. Corfu. The Cyclades

Chapter II

The deed of partition. Sale of Crete to Venice. Boniface of Montferrat marches into Greece. Leon Sgouros besieges Athens. Bestowal of baronies in Thessaly. Marquisate of Boudonitza. Barony of Salona. Capture of Athens by the Franks. Akominatos in Exile. Attica and Bceotia bestowed on Othon de la Roche. D'Avesnes takes Eubcea. Siege of Corinth. GeofTroy de Villehardouin lands in Messenia. Meeting with Champlitte. Conquest of the Morea. Battle of Koundoura. Doxapatres. Champlitte "Prince of all Achaia." Venice takes Modon and Coron. Death of Boniface. Michael I. Angelos founds the Despotat of Epiros. Marco I. Sanudo founds the duchy of the Archipelago. The triarchs of Eubcea. The Venetians colonise Corfu. Crete ........

xi xii

Chapter III The Organisation Of The Conquest (1207-i214)

PAGE

Departure of Champlitte. Villehardouin bailie of Achaia. The baronies of Achaia. Feudal Society : the prince, the great barons, the Greeks, the serfs. Continuation of the conquest of Achaia. Treaty with Venice. Geoffrey I. becomes " Prince of Achaia." Capture of Corinth, Nauplia, and Argos. Organisation of the Church in Achaia. Society in Attica. Othon de la Roche : his family and dominions. The Athenian Church. Death of Akominatos. The Lombard rebellion. The Parliaments of Ravenika. Venice obtains a footing in Eubcea. Michael I. of Epiros captures Corfu : his death . 49

Chapter IV

Fall of the Kingdom of Salonika. Theodore of Epiros becomes its Emperor. Marriage and reign of Geoffrey II. of Achaia : he builds Chloumoutsi : his quarrel with the Church : the Concordat of 1223 : his services to the Latin Empire. Reign and retirement of Othon de la Roche of Athens : Guy I. succeeds him. Union of the Greek Empires of Nice and Salonika. Michael II. " Despot of Hellas." Prince William of Achaia. Siege and surrender of Monemvasia. Building of Mistra, Old Maina, and Beaufort. Splendour and commercial prosperity of Achaia. The mint at Chloumoutsi. The Eubcean war. Frankish Athens fights Frankish Sparta : battle of Karydi. The Parliament of Nikli. Guy I. becomes Duke of Athens : history of the title. William of Achaia becomes involved in Epiros. Battle of Pelagonia. Imprisonment of the prince. The Emperor Baldwin II. at Athens. The " Ladies' Parliament." Cession of the three fortresses. Treaty of Thebes. General situation in 1262 . . .82

Chapter V

THE GREEK REVIVAL ( 1 262- 1 278) Franco-Greek war in the Morea. Battle of Prinitsa. The Turks xiii desert to the Franks. Battle of Makryplagi. First Settlement of Turks in the Morea. Treaty of Viterbo. The Angevin connection. Prince William at Tagliacozzo. Marriage of Princess Isabelle with Philip of Anjou. Resumption of the war in the Morea. Death of Michael II. of Epiros. Division of the Despotat : the duchy of Neopatras. War between Byzantium and Neopatras. John of Athens aids the duke. Naval battle off Demetrias. Rise and career of Licario in Euboea. Capture of John of Athens : his release and death. Feudal difficulties in Achaia : the cases of Skorta and Akova. Death of Prince William. Condition of the great baronies. The Gasmides. General situation of Frankish Greece in 1278. Commerce and agriculture. Culture: Leonardo of Veroli's library. Piracy. General insecurity. Frankish nomenclature . . . . . .120

Chapter VI

Charles I. of Anjou Prince of Achaia. Rule of his bailies : Galeran d'lvry, Filippo de Lagonessa, and Guy de la Tremouille. William, Duke of Athens and bailie of Achaia. Nicholas de St Omer bailie : he builds the castles of St Omer and Avarino. Origin of the name Navarino. Geoffroy de Bruyeres captures Bucelet. Florent of Hainault marries Isabelle de Villehardouin and becomes Prince of Achaia. The Angevins in Epiros. Capture of Sully. Latin coalition against the Greek Empire : treaty of Orvieto. Effect of the Sicilian Vespers on Greece. Collapse of the coalition. War between the Greeks in Thessaly. Seven years' peace in Achaia. Condition of Epiros : Florent intervenes there. Flistory and origin of Sta. Mavra. Philip of Taranto marries Thamar of Epiros and becomes suzerain of all the Frankish states. The Angevins at Lepanto. Roger de Lluria ravages the Morea. Surprise of Kalamata. Unpopularity of the Flemings : story of Photios. The market at Vervaina : capture of St George. Death of Florent. Coming of age of Guy II. of Athens : the scene at Thebes. Boniface of Verona. Guy II. marries Matilda of Hainault. Isabelle of Achaia at the Jubilee of 1300: her marriage with Philip of Savoy. Philip as Prince of Achaia : his quarrel with St Omer : his extortionate government. Guy II. of Athens guardian of Thessaly: spread of French influence there : his campaign against Epiros. The tournaxiv ment on the Isthmus. Charles II. of Anjou makes Philip of Taranto Prince of Achaia. Exile and death of Princess Isabella The Savoyard "Princes of Achaia." Great prosperity of Athens. Review of the Frankish states in 1307 . 161

Chapter VII

Origin of the Catalan Grand Company. Roger de Flor. The Company enters the Byzantine service. Quarrels with the Emperor. Ravages Thrace and Macedonia. The Infant Ferdinand of Majorca. His arrest with Muntaner at Negroponte. His imprisonment at Thebes. The Catalans negotiate with Duke Guy II. They murder their captains. Death of Guy II. The disputed succession: decision of the High Court of Achaia. Duke Walter of Brienne. The Catalans in Thessaly. Walter employs them against the Greeks. His quarrel with them. Battle of the Kephissos ( 1 5 th March 131 1). The Catalans occupy the duchy of Athens. Memorials of the French dukes . . . . . .211

Chapter VIII The Catalans And Their Neighbours (i3ii-i333)

The Company places the duchy under Sicilian protection. Manfred of Sicily Duke of Athens. Estanol sent as governor. Organisation of the Catalan duchy. The vicar-general. The marshal. The veguers^ captains, and castellanos. Representative and municipal institutions. Code of law and language. Ecclesiastical organisation. Treatment of the Greeks. Finances. Estanol's administration. Alfonso Fadrique head of the Company. His Eubcean marriage and campaign. Truce with Venice in 13 19. Importance of the Piraeus. Turkish danger. Death of the last Greek Duke of Neopatras : break-up of his dominions. Venice takes Pteleon. The Catalan duchy of Neopatras. First appearance of the Albanians in Thessaly. The Venetian marquisate of Boudonitza. End of the Angeli in Epiros. The Orsini in Epiros. Their crimes and Greek culture. The principality of Achaia : Louis of xv

Burgundy marries Matilda of Hainault and becomes prince. Tragic end of the Lady of Akova. Civil war in Elis : expedition of Ferdinand of Majorca. Death of both claimants. John of Gravina Prince of Achaia. The last of the Villehardouins. Expansion of the Byzantine province : loss of Arkadia. First mention of the Acciajuoli. Achaia exchanged for Durazzo. Walter of Brienne attempts to recover Athens. Destruction of the castle of St Omer. Subsequent career of Walter. Condition of Greece in 1333 . . . . 235

CHAPTER IX THE RISE OF THE ACCIAJUOLI (l333~I373)

Catherine of Valois in Achaia. Niccolo Acciajuoli. Byzantine annexation of Epiros. The Achaian barons treat with James II. of Majorca: report on the principality in 1344. The papacy recognises the Catalans at Athens. Frederick III. of Sicily becomes Duke of Athens. Condition of the duchies. Moncada vicar-general. The Serbs in Thessaly. Greek revival in the Morea : the Cantacuzenes at Mistra. Character of the Moreot archons : revolt of Lampoudios. Manuel's national policy. Franco-Greek alliance against the Turks. Roger de Lluria invites the Turks to Thebes. Their defeat at Megara. The Emperor Robert Prince of Achaia. Niccolo Acciajuoli receives Corinth. Death of Prince Robert: a disputed succession. Exploits of Carlo Zeno, canon of Patras. Nerio Acciajuoli's origin and establishment at Corinth. Rise of the Tocchi. Leonardo Tocco becomes Count of Cephalonia and Duke of Leucadia. Epiros divided between Serbs and Albanians. Foundation of Meteora. Condition of Athens : dissensions between Lluria and Pedro de Pou. Lluria vicar-general. Schemes of the house of Enghien for the recovery of Athens. State of the Venetian colonies. General position of the Frankish states in 1373 . 269

CHAPTER X THE NAVARRESE COMPANY (l373"I388)

Congress at Thebes. Nerio Acciajuoli seizes Megara. Death of King Frederick III. of Sicily : disputed succession at Athens. The majority proclaims Pedro IV. of Aragon as duke. Intervention of the Navarrese Company. Its origin. Jacques de Baux claims Achaia. Queen Joanna I. of Naples Princess of xvi

Achaia. The principality pawned to the Knights of St John. Heredia in Greece. The Albanians capture Lepanto. The Navarrese in Attica. Capture of Thebes. The Akropolis defended by Bellarbe. The capitulations of Athens and Salona. Pedro IV. and the Akropolis. Rocaberti vicar-general. The head of St George. Albanian immigration into Attica. The Navarrese Company established in the Morea. Various claimants to the principality. Growth of Venetian influence in Argolis and Eubcea. Rocaberti recalled. Nerio Acciajuoli seizes Attica. Pedro de Pau defends the Akropolis : its surrender. Fate of the survivors : Catalan families still left in Greece. Memorials of Catalan rule : the Catalan Madonna. State of Athens in the Catalan period. " Catalan " as a term of reproach. The Florentines in Epiros : Esau Buondelmonti becomes Despot. Review of Greece in 1388 . 303

Chapter XI Florentine And Venetian Athens (1388-i415)

Restoration of the Greek see of Athens. Nerio's philhellenic policy. Greek becomes the official language. Venice purchases Argos and Nauplia. Theodore Palaiologos seizes Argos. Nerio the prisoner of the Navarrese : his release : he strips the Parthenon to pay his ransom. His alliance with Amadeo of Savoy. List of the Achaian baronies in 1391. The Turks in Greece : Evrenosbeg ravages Attica. Tragic end of the last Countess of Salona. Nerio created " Duke of Athens " : his death and will : feud between his heirs. Venice accepts the city of Athens. The Venetian administration. Description of Athens in 1395. Fresh Turkish inroads. Antonio Acciajuoli master of Athens. Venice acquires Lepanto. Further Venetian gains : condition of Negroponte. State of the Morea : Albanian colonisation : Theodore Palaiologos sells Corinth to the Knights of St John. Centurione Zaccaria last Prince of Achaia. The Duchess Francesca Tocco's court at Cephalonia : Froissart's description. Carlo I. Tocco conquers Epiros. End of the marquisate of Boudonitza . . . . . . 334

Chapter XII

THE GREEK RECONQUEST OF ACHAIA (1415-I441) The Emperor Manuel II. restores the Hexamilion. Platonic xvii proposals of Gemistos Plethon. The satire of Mazaris. Civilisation of Maina. Extension of the Venetian colonies in Messenia : purchase of Navarino. Venice meditates buying the Morea : report on its condition in 1422 : Turakhan invades it. Constantine Palaiologos in the Morea. He captures Patras. End of the Frankish principality of Achaia. The Turks take Salonika and Joannina : Carlo II. Tocco a tributary of the sultan. Antonio Acciajuoli's successful rule at Athens. Florentine society there. The Akropolis under the Acciajuoli : their palace in the Propylaea : the Frankish Tower. Other Florentine buildings at Athens. Literary culture. Depopulation : slavery at Athens. Death of Antonio : conspiracy of Chalkokondyles. Nerio II. proclaimed. Antonio II. supplants him. Nerio II. 5s restoration. .... 377

Chapter XIII The Turkish Conquest (144i-i460)

Quarrels of the Palaiologoi brothers. State of the Morea. Constantine's triumphs in Northern Greece : Athens tributary to him. Battle of Varna. Murad II. storms the Hexamilion. Constantine crowned emperor at Mistra. End of Italian rule in Akarnania. Cyriacus of Ancona visits Greece : the antiquary at Athens. Death of Plethon. Turakhan invades the Morea : battle of Dervenaki. Effect of the taking of Constantinople on Greece. Albanian insurrection in the Peloponnese. Centurione's son claims the principality. The rising subdued by Turkish aid. The Palaiologoi omit to pay their tribute. Mohammed II.'s campaign in the Morea. Surrender of Corinth. Turkish province constituted. Death of Nerio II. Usurpation of Chiara Zorzi at Athens : her tragic end. Franco Acciajuoli. Omar takes Athens : end of Frankish rule there. Mohammed visits Athens. The anonymous account of the antiquities. The sultan in Bceotia and Negroponte. Fratricidal war in the Morea. Mohammed's second Peloponnesian campaign : surrender of Demetrios. Monemvasia holds out and becomes papal territory. Flight of Thomas. Heroic defence of Salmenikon. Fate of the Palaiologoi. End of Phrantzes. Murder of Franco Acciajuoli. End of the duchy of Athens. Subsequent history of the Acciajuoli. Condition of the Venetian colonies : acquisition of JEg'ms. and of the Northern Sporades ...... 407 xviii

Chapter XIV Pagk

Removal of St George's head from ALg'ma. to Venice. Turco- Venetian war of 1463. Greeks and Albanians rise against the Turks. The Venetians rebuild the Isthmian wall. Death of Bertoldo d'Este at Corinth. Monemvasia becomes Venetian. Sigismondo Malatesta in the Morea. Siege of Mistra. Plethon's remains removed to Rimini. Vettore Cappello captures Athens. Second anonymous description of the city. Venetian defeats at Patras and Kalamata. Death of Cappello in Eubcea. Siege of Negroponte : Canale's fatal inaction. Fall of Negroponte : indignation in Venice. Fate of the survivors. The Turks repulsed at Lepanto. Peace of 1479. Origin of the stradioti. Venice abandons the Tocchi. Prosperity of Cephalonia and Zante under Leonardo III. The Turks conquer the palatine county. Antonio Tocco recovers Zante and Cephalonia. Venice dislodges him, and keeps Zante. Later history of the Tocchi. The twenty years' peace : insurrection of Korkodeilos Kladas : schemes of Andrew Palaiologos. Turco-Venetian war of 1499. Loss of Lepanto. Condition of Modon, and its capture by the Turks. Loss of Navarino and Coron. Venice takes Cephalonia and Sta. Mavra. Cession of Sta. Mavra. Peace of 1502-3. State of the remaining Venetian colonies : Nauplia, /Egina, Monemvasia. The Knights of St John seize Modon. Andrea Doria captures Coron. Its abandonment by the Spaniards. Fate of its inhabitants. Turco-Venetian war of 1537. Sack of ^Egina by Barbarossa. Heroic defence of Nauplia. Peace of 1540. Cession of Nauplia and Monemvasia : disappearance of Venice from the Greek mainland .... 464

Chapter XV

Corfu under the Despots of Epiros : zenith of the Greek Church. Civil administration. Filippo Chinardo. Charles I. of Anjou master of Corfu. Disestablishment of the Greek Church : Catholic predominance. Jewish immigration. Angevin administration : the Captain, the M agister Massarius, the Curia Regis, the "annual judges." The four bailiwicks. The feudal system. Economic value of the island. Philip of Taranto " Lord of Corfu." Robert and Philip 1 1 . Origin of the Corfiote xix gypsies. Joanna I. of Naples Lady of Corfu. The Navarrese Company conquers the island for Jacques de Baux. Charles III. of Naples its ruler. Venice occupies Corfu. The Venetian charter. Formal purchase of the island. Effects and traces of Angevin sway. Venetian administration : the bailie, councillors, and firovz 'edi 'tore. The flrovvedi tore generale del Levante. Local government : the General Assembly and the Council of 150. The "Golden Book." The dependencies of Corfu : Butrinto, Parga, the islands of the Harpies. Ecclesiastical organisation. The Jews. The feudal system. The gypsies' fief. The serfs. Neglect of education. The Greek language. Trade. Taxes. Present memorials of Venetian rule. Aspect of the town in Venetian times. Genoese attacks. The Turkish peril. Greek exiles in Corfu after 1453. St Spiridion. Services of the Corfiotes to Venice 512

Chapter XVI

Acquisition of Zante. Its colonisation and administration. The Catholic Church. The Greek Church. Cephalonia a Venetian colony : its administration. Character of the Cephalonians. Ithaka. Prosperity of Zante and Cephalonia. First Turkish siege of Corfu. History of Cerigo : the Venieri : the Monoyannai. Cerigo a Venetian colony. Its partial restoration to the Venieri. Its organisation. Barbarossa's raid. The Ionian islands in 1540 ......

Chapter XVII

Marco I. Sanudo does homage to the Emperor Henry. Creation of the duchy. Marco's treachery in Crete. His capture by the Greeks of Nice. His religious tolerance. Foundation of the Catholic Church in the Cyclades. Angelo Sanudo a vassal of the Prince of Achaia. He imitates his father in Crete. The castles of the Cyclades. Marco II. Loss of the Northern Sporades and many other islands. Venice claims suzerainty over the duchy. Piracy. War of the Ass. The worship of St Pachys. Recovery of the lost Cyclades. New Latin families established there. The Knights of St John at Delos. Exploits of Niccolo I. Sanudo. State of the Archipelago about

XX

1330. John L taken by the Genoese. Prosperity of Seriphos. The Duchess Fiorenza : struggle for her hand. Evil reign of her son, Niccolo dalle Carceri. Francesco Crispo assassinates him and seizes the duchy. He pacifies Venice. First appearance, and origin of the Sommaripa. Venice inherits Tenos and Mykonos. Popularity of Venetian rule : the case of Seriphos. State of the Archipelago about 1420. Giacomo I. institutes the Salic law. His visit to England. John II. succeeds as a Venetian nominee. Genoese invasion. The Sommaripa in Andros. Culture in the Archipelago : visit of Cyriacus of Ancona. The Knights of St John at Naxos. Eruption of Santorin. William II. pays tribute to the sultan 570

Chapter XVIII

Sufferings of the Archipelago during the Turco- Venetian war. The Idyll of Santorin. The Pisani case. Tyranny of John III. ^ Venice administers the duchy. State of the Archipelago. Venice restores the duchy to the Crispi. The Mad Duke of Naxos. Second Venetian administration. Life in the islands. John IV. His capture by Corsairs. The question of Paros. Barbarossa's fatal cruise. Capture of Paros. Naxos tributary to the Turks. The duke's letter to the Powers. Loss of Mykonos. Barbarossa's second cruise. Capture of the Northern Sporades. Venetian report on the Cyclades in 1563. Giacomo IV. the last Christian duke. End of the duchy. Selim II. bestows it upon Joseph Nasi. The Jewish duke and his deputy Coronello. Temporary restoration and death of Giacomo IV. Condition of the Archipelago under Nasi. The duchy annexed to Turkey. The Gozzadini retain seven islands. Feudalism under the dukes. Culture

Table of Frankish Rulers . . . 55I

Bibliography Index .

Maps : —

655 665

Greece in 1214 . . . . Face p gl

Greece in 1278 ...

Greece in 1388

Greece in 1462 . ,

* • .464

THE LATINS IN THE LEVANT

Chapter I Greece At The Time Of The Frankish Conquest

The history of Frankish Greece begins with the Fourth Crusade — that memorable expedition which influenced for centuries the annals of Eastern Europe, and which forms the historical basis of the Eastern question. We all know how the Crusaders set out with the laudable object of freeing the Holy Sepulchre from the Infidel, how they turned aside to the easier and more lucrative task of overturning the oldest empire in the world, and how they placed on the throne of all the Caesars Count Baldwin of Flanders as first Latin emperor of Constantinople. The Greeks fled to Asia Minor, and there, at Nice, the city of the famous council, and at Trebizond, on the shores of the Black Sea, founded two empires, of which the former served as a basis for the reconquest of Byzantium, while the latter survived for a few years the Turkish Conquest of the new Rome.

At the time of the Latin Conquest, most of Greece was still nominally under the authority of the Byzantine emperor. The system of provincial administration, which had been completed by Leo the Isaurian early in the eighth century, was, with some alterations, still in force, and the empire was parcelled out into divisions called Themes — a name originally applied to a regiment, and then to the district where it was quartered. Continental Greece, from the Isthmus to the river Peneios in the north and to ^Etolia in the west, composed the Theme of Hellas, which thus included Attica, Bceotia, Phokis, Lokris, part of Thessaly, and the islands of Eubcea and yEgina ; the Peloponnese gave its name to a second Theme, but at this

A time these two Themes were administered together by the same official.1 Nikopolis, the Roman colony which Octavian had founded to commemorate the battle of Actium, formed a third Theme, which included Akarnania, ^Etolia, and Epiros. Of the islands, the Cyclades, or Dodekanesos, as they were then called, were included in the ^Egean Theme, the Northern Sporades in that of Salonika, while Crete, since its restoration to the Byzantine Empire from the Saracens two-and-a-half centuries earlier, was governed by an imperial viceroy. But most of the Ionian islands no longer formed part of the emperor's dominions. Five years before the Latins conquered Constantinople, a bold Genoese pirate named Vetrano had made himself master of the then rich and fertile island of Corfu, which he may have still held ; while Cephalonia, Zante, and Ithaka had been permanently severed from the empire by the invasion of the Normans from Sicily twenty years before, and had been occupied by their admiral, Margaritone of Brindisi.2 At the time of the Fourth Crusade, they were in the possession of a Count Maio, or Matthew, a member of the great Roman family of Orsini, who seems to have been a native of Monopoli in Apulia and to have married the daughter of the admiral, acknowledging the suzerainty of the king of Sicily. A considerable Italian colony from Brindisi had settled in Cephalonia under the auspices of these Apulian adventurers.3

In Thessaly, too, the imperial writ no longer ran. Benjamin of Tudela,4 who travelled through Greece about forty years before the Latin Conquest, found a part of that province in the possession of the Wallachs, whose confines extended as far south as Lamia. Whatever may have been the origin of this mysterious and interesting race, which still dwells in summer on the slopes of Pindos and on the banks of the Aspropotamos, migrating in winter to the plains of

1 Ldmpros, Mtxa^X'A/co/xti'dTOU, i., 157, 160; At 'Afloat irepl ra t£\t) rov 8(*)8€k&tov al&vos, 25-6.

2 Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta Regis Ricardi, ii., 199, in Rolls Series.

3 Libra de los fechos, 53-4 ; Efiistolce lnnocentii II I ^ vol. ii., PP- J6, 73 ; A. Dandolo afiud Muratori, Rerum ltalicarum Scrip tores, xii'> 336 ; Archivio Veneto, xx., 93.

4 Asher, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, i.? 45-9.

WALLACHS AND SLAVS

Bceotia, they had firmly established themselves in Northern Greece by the middle of the twelfth century, and the district where they lived already bore the name of Great Wallachia.1 That the Wallachs are of Roman descent scarcely admits of doubt. At the present day the Roumanians claim them as belonging to the same family as themselves; but the worthy Rabbi of Tudela argued, from their Jewish names and the fact that they called the Jews " brethren," that they were connected with his own race. They showed, however, their brotherly love by contenting themselves with merely robbing the Israelites, while they both robbed and murdered the Greeks, when they descended from their mountains to pillage the plains. A terror to all, the Vlachi would submit to no king ; and, twenty years before the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the foolish attempt of Isaac II. Angelos to place a tax upon their flocks and herds caused a general rising, which led to the formation of the second Bulgarian, or Bulgaro-Wallachian Empire, in the Balkans. Their disaffection and readiness for revolt was further proved, only three years before the Conquest of Constantinople, when an ambitious Byzantine commander, Manuel Kamytzes, made himself master of Thessaly with the aid of a Wallachian officer, and disturbed the peace of both continental Greece and the Peloponnese, till the revolt was suppressed.2

The population of Greece at this time was not exclusively Hellenic. Besides the Wallachians in Thessaly, another alien element was represented by the Slavs of the Arkadian and Lakonian mountains, descendants of those Slavonian colonists who had entered the Peloponnese several centuries before. No one now accepts the once famous theory of Fallmerayer, that the inhabitants of modern Greece have " not a single drop of genuine Greek blood in their veins." No unbiassed historian can, however, deny the immigration of a large body of Slavs into the Peloponnese, where such names as Charvati (the village near Mycenae) and Slavochorio still preserve the memory of their presence. But the wise measures of the Emperor Nikeph6ros I. in the ninth century and the marvellous power of the Hellenic race for

1 So Niketas Chonidtes (p. 841) calls it.

2 Niketas Choniates, 708-9.

absorbing and Hellenising foreign races — a power like that of the Americans in our day — had prevented the Peloponnese from becoming a Slav state — a Southern Servia or Bulgaria. At this time, accordingly, they were confined to the mountain fastnesses of Arkadia and Taygetos (called in the Chronicles u the mountain of the Slavs where one of their tribes, the Melings, is often mentioned as residing. In the Peloponnese, too, were to be found the mysterious Tzakones — a race which is now only existing at Leonidi, in the south-east of the peninsula, and in the adjacent villages, but was then apparently occupying a wider area. Opinions differ as to the origin of this tribe, which has, to this day, a dialect quite distinct from that spoken anywhere else in Greek lands, and which was noticed as a "barbarian" tongue by the Byzantine satirist, Mdzaris, in the fifteenth century. But the first living authority on their language, who has lived among them, regards them as descendants of the Lakonians and calls their speech " New Doric," 2 and both Mazaris and the Byzantine historians, Pachymeres and Nikephoros Gregoras, expressly say that their name was a vulgar corruption of the word " Lakones." Scattered about, wherever money was to be made by trade, wTere colonies of Jews. We read of Jews at Sparta in the tenth century, and I have myself seen numbers of later Jewish inscriptions at Mistra. Benjamin of Tudela found the largest Hebrew settlement at Thebes, where the Jews were, in his day, "the most eminent manufacturers of silk and purple cloth in all Greece." Among the 2000 Jewish inhabitants of that ancient city there were also u many eminent Talmudic scholars," indeed, the