A. D. 430. Procop. de 1. e. 5. While Leontius held the reigns of the eastern eu Bell Vanda. 1. pire, Genseric made a fresh incursion into Achaia. Procopius does not inform us how Sparta and Athens fared in this new invasion. A. D. 527. The same historian describes, in his Secret History, the ravages of the barbarians in the following terms: "Since Justinian has governed the empire, Thrace, the Chersonesus, Greece, and the whole country lying between Constantinople and the Gulf of Ionia, have been yearly ravaged by the Antes, the Sclavonians, and the Huns. More than two hundred thousand Romans have been killed or made prisoners by the barbarians in each invasion, and the countries which I have mentioned are become like the deserts of Scythia." Justinian caused the walls of Athens to be repaired, and towers to be built on the isthmus of Corinth. In the list of towns embellished or fortified by this Proc. de Edif. prince, Procopius has not included Lacedæmon. It is lib. 4. c. 2. remarked, that the emperors of the East had a Laconian, or, according to the pronunciation then introduced, a Tzaconian guard; the soldiers composing it were armed with pikes, and wore a kind of cuirass, adorned with the figures of lions; they were dressed in Cod. Curop. a short wide coat of woollen cloth, and had a hood ap. Byz. Script. to cover the head. The commander of these men was called Strulopedarcha. A. D. 527. A. D. 527. The eastern empire having been divided into governments, styled Themata, Lacedæmon became the appanage of the brothers, or eldest sons of the empeThe princes of Sparta assumed the title of Despots; their wives were denominated Despones, and the government Despotship. The despot resided at Sparta or Corinth.* ror. Here commences the long silence of history, concerning the most celebrated regions of the universe. This title of despot is not, however, peculiar to Sparta; and we find despots of the East, of Thessaly, &c. which produces very great confusion in history. tom. 2. Spon and Chandler lose sight of Athens for seven hundred years, either," as Spon observes, on ac- Spon. Voy. count of the defectiveness of history, which is brief and obscure in those ages, or because fortune granted it a long repose." We may, however, discover some traces of Sparta and Athens during this long interval. The first mention we find of Athens is in Theo- Theoph. 1. 8. c. 12. ap. phylactus Simocattus, the historian of the Emperor Byz, Script. Mauritius. He speaks of the Muses" who shine at -Athens in their most superb dresses," which proves that about the year 590, Athens was still the abode of the Muses. Raven. The anonymous geographer of Ravenna, a Gothic A. D. 650. writer, who probably lived in the seventh century, Anon. 1. 4. names Athens thrice in his Geography; a work of & 6. which we have as yet but an ill-executed abridgment by Galateus. Porph. de Under Michael III, the Sclavonians overran A D. 846. Const. Greece. Theoctistus defeated and drove them to the extremity of the Peloponnese. Two hordes of these Adm. Imp. people, the Ezerites and the Milinges, settled to the east and west of Taygetus, called at that time Pen- A. D. 846. tadactyle. Notwithstanding what we are told by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, these Sclavonians were the ancestors of the Mainottes, who are not descended from the ancient Spartans, as some yet maintain, without knowing that this is but a ridiculous opinion broached by the last mentioned writer.*. It was doubtless these Selavonians that changed the name of Amycle into that of Selabochorion. Leo. Vit. We read in Leo the Grammarian, that the inhabit- A. D. 915. ants of Greece, no longer able to endure the oppres- Const. c. 2. sions of Chases, the son of Job and prefect of Achaia, stoned him in a church at Athens during the reign of Constantine VII. Under Alexis Commenus, some time before the A. D. 1081. Leo. Ann. * The opinion of Pauw who makes the Mainottes the descend- Comn. lib. 7 ants not of the Spartans, but of Laconians set at liberty by the Romans, is not grounded on any historic probability. C A. D. 1085. 1. 11. c. 9. Crusades, we find the Turks ravaging the Archipelage and all the western coasts. In an engagement between the Pisans and the Ann. Comn. Greeks, a count, a native of the Peloponnese, distinguished himself by his valour about the year 1085; so that this country had not yet received the name of the Morea. A. D. 1085. et seq. lib. 4. 5. &c. A, D. 1130. A. D. 1130. A. D. 1140. Epire and Thessaly were the theatre of the wars of Alexis Commenus, Robert and Bohemond; and their history throws no light on that of Greece, properly so called. The first crusaders also passed through Constantinople without penetrating into Achaia. But, during the reign of Manuel Comnenus, who succeeded Alexis, the kings of Sicily, the Venetians, the Pisans, and other western nations, invaded Attica and the Peloponnese. Roger I, king of Sicily, removed Athenian artisans, skilled in the cultivation of silk, to Palermo. It was about this time that the Peloponnese changed its name for that of the Morea; at least I find the latter made use of by Nicetas, the historian. It is probable that as silk-worms began to multiply in the east, a more extensive cultivation of the mulberry was found necessary. The Peloponnese derived its new appellation from the tree which furnished it with a new source of wealth. Roger made himself master of Corfu, Thebes, and Comn.l.2.c.1. Corinth, and had the boldness, says Nicetas, to attack towns situated farther up the country. But according to the historians of Venice, those republicans assisted Coron. p. 17. the emperor of the East, defeated Roger and prevented him from taking Corinth. It was on account of this service, that two centuries afterwards, they asserted a claim to Corinth and the Peloponnese. A. D. 1170. Tadel. The travels of Benjamin of Tudela, in Greece, must Itiner. Benj. be placed about the year 1070. He visited Patras, Corinth and Thebes. In the latter city he found two thousand Jews engaged in the manufacture of silks and the dying of purple. Eustathius was then bishop of Thessalonica. Let ters must consequently have been still cultivated with success in their native land, since this Eustathius is the celebrated commentator on Homer. Nicet. in Ville c. 136, et seq The French, headed by Boniface marquis of Mont- A. B. 1204. ferrat, and Baldwin count of Flanders, and the Vene- Bald tians under the conduct of Dandolo, drove Alexis hard. from Constantinople, and re-placed Isaac Angelus on the throne. It was not long before they seized the crown for themselves. Baldwin obtained the empire and the marquis of Montferrat was declared king of Thessalonica. About this time a petty tyrant of the Morea, named Sgure, a native of Napoli di Romania, laid siege to Athens, but was repulsed by the archbishop Michael Choniates, brother to Nicetas, the historian. This prelate composed a poem, in which he compared the Athens of Pericles with the Athens of the twelfth century. Some verses of this manuscript poem are yet extant in the Imperial Library at Paris, A. D. 1204. Nicet. in Bald. c. 8. Sometime afterwards, Athens opened her gates to Nicet. in the marquis of Montferrat, who conferred the investi- Bald. c. 4. ture of the lordship of Thebes and Athens on Otho de la Roche. Otho's successors assumed the title of dukes of Athens and grand-sires of Thebes. According to Nicetas, the marquis of Montferrat extended his conquests to the farthest extremity of the Morea, and made himself master of Argos and Corinth, but was unable to reduce the castle of the latter city, defended by Leo Sgure. 175. et seq. While Boniface was following up his successes, a Ville-Hard. c. squall drove some more Frenchmen into Modon. Ducang. Hist. Geoffrey de Ville Hardouin, who commanded them,and Const. lib. 1. was on his return from the Holy Land, joined the marquis de Montferrat, then engaged in the siege of Napoli, and being well received by Boniface, undertook, with William de Champlite, the conquest of the Morea. Their success was equal to their hopes; all the towns surrendered to the two knights, except Lacedæ Nicet. in Bald. c. 9 Coronel. Giac. Died. Ist. de. Venet. A D. 1210. Ducange -Hist. Const. lib. 2. A. D. 1214. mon, where reigned a tyrant named Leo Chamaretus. Soon afterwards, the Morea was given up to the Venetians, to whom it was ceded by the terms of a general treaty, concluded at Constantinople, between the crusaders. The Genoese pirate, Leo Scu trano, made himself master for a moment of Coron and Modon, but was soon driven out of those places by the Venetians. William de Champlite assumed the title of prince of Achaia. At his death, William de Ville Hardouin inherited the possessions of his friend, and became prince of Achaia and the Morea. The origin of the Ottoman empire dates from Hist of the about the time of which we are treating. Solyman Oth.Emp.b.1. Shah, issued about the year 1214 from the deserts of the Oguzian Tartars, and advanced towards Asia MiDemetrius Cantemir, who has given us a history of the Turks, from the original authors is more worthy of credit than Paul Jovius and the Greek writers, who often confound the Saracens with the Turks. Died. nor. The marquis of Montferrat having been killed, his widow was declared regent of the kingdom of Thessalonica. Athens, apparently weary of the dominion of Otho de la Roche, or his descendants, determined to submit to the Venetians; but this design was frustrated by Magaducius, tyrant of the Morea, so that this country had probably shaken off the yoke of Ville Hardouin, or of Venice. This new tyrant, Magaducius, had under him other tyrants; for besides Leo Sgure, already mentioned, we find one Stephen a fisherman, Signore di molli stati nella Morea, says Giacomo Diedo. Theodore Lascaris re-conquered part of the Morea from the Franks. The struggle between the Latin emperors of the East, and the Greek emperors who had retired into Asia, lasted fifty-seven years. William de Ville Hardouin, successor of Geoffrey, had |