438 THE DECLINE AND FALL most pious and enlightened Christians of France ; nor will the fact be easily disproved, except by those who are armed with a general antidote against religious credulity. ^'^ Progress of The Latins of Constantinople ^^ were on all sides encompassed A.D. 1237-1261 and pressed : their sole hope, the last delay of their ruin, was in the division of their Greek and Bulgarian enemies ; and of this hope they were deprived by the superior arms and policy of Vataces, emperor of Nice. From the Propontis to the rocky coast of Pamphylia, Asia was peaceful and prosperous under his reign ; and the events of every campaign extended his influence ? in Europe. The strong cities of the hills of Macedonia and Thrace were rescued from the Bulgarians ; and their kingdom was circumscribed by its present and proper limits, along the southern banks of the Danube. The sole empei-or of the Romans could no longer brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince of the West, should presume to dispute or share the honours of [A.D. 1243] the purple ; and the humble Demetrius changed the colour of' his buskins, and accepted with gratitude the appellation of des- pot. His own subjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity : they implored the protection of their supreme lord, After some resistance, the kingdom of Thessalonica Avas united,] to the empire of Nice ; ""^ and Vataces reigned without a com petitor from the Turkish borders to the Adriatic gulf. The princes of Europe revered his merit and power ; and, had he subscribed '5" Voltaire (Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 37 ; Oeuvres, torn. ix. p. 178, 179) strives] to invalidate the fact ; but Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 483, 484), with more skill and] success, seizes the battery, and turns the cannon against his enemies. 6» The gradual losses of the Latins may be traced in the third, fourth, andl fifth books of the compilation of Ducange ; but of the Greek conquests he hasl dropped many circumstances, which may be recovered from the large history! of George Acropolita, and the three first books of Nicephorus Gregoras, two! writers of the Byzantine series, who have had the good fortune to meet with learned editors, Leo Allatius at Rome, and John Boivin in the Academy of In-| scriptions of Paris. s** [The conquest of Thessalonica, from the young Demetrius, son of Boniface.l by Theodore Angelus, despot of Epirus, and Theodore's assumption of the Im-I perial title A.D. 1222, have been briefly mentioned above, p. 431. His brother ManuelJ and then his son John, succeeded to the Empire of Salonica. It was a matter off political importance for Vatatzes to bring this rival Empire into subjection ; he marched against Thessalonica, but raised the siege (A.D. 1243) on condition Ihatl John should lay down the title of Emperor and assume that of despot. John died in the following year and was succeeded by his brother Demetrius ; but in 1246 Demetrius was removed by Vatatzes, and Thessalonica became definitely part of the empire of Nictea. Thus the Thessalonian empire lasted 1222-1243. Mean- while Epirus had split off from the empire of Salonica, in 1236-7, under Michael II. (a bastard son of Michael I.), whose Despotalc survived that Empire. Se§ below, note 71.] i
