Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor

Family of Anastatius

Flavius Anastatius, I. (Dicorus,) was born at Dyrrachium, in 430, and was killed by lightning in his palace in 518, having reigned twenty-seven years and eleven months. He was distinguished for running a wall from the Euxine to the Propontis, and including a triangular space, called the “Delta of Thrace.”

Family of Justinus Thrax.

Flavius Anicius Justinus I. was born in 450, in Illyria, called to the throne on the death of Anastatius, and died in 527, after a reign of eight years and seven months.

Flavius Anicius Justinianus I. was born in Dacia, in 482, and died in 565, after a long reign of thirty-seven years and seven months, which was devoted to useful objects. Besides the erection of the church of St. Sophia, he introduced the culture of silk into Europe, and caused to be drawn up the codes, pandects, institutes, and, a few years after, the digest of laws, forming a system of civil jurisprudence, which is an everlasting monument of his reign. Under him, Proclus, a second Archimedes, set fire to the Gothic fleet by means of a concave mirror of brass.

Flavius Anicius Justinus II. junior, (Curopalata,) was born in Thrace, crowned on the death of his uncle Justinian, and died in 578, after a reign of twelve years and ten months. He had been superintendent of the palace, and hence the title Curopalata.

Family of Tiberius

Flavius Anicius Tiberius, I. called the New Constantine, was born in Thrace, and died in 582, after a reign of three years and ten months.

Flavius Mauricius Tiberius II. was born in Cappadocia, in 539, and was killed in 602, having reigned twenty years and three months. In his reign Augustine and his monks proceeded to preach Christianity in Britain, and the Saxon heptarchy commenced.

Family of Phocas

Flavius Phocas was crowned in 602; he died in 610, after a reign of eight years. He murdered his predecessor Mauricius, and decapitated him and his five children: he was himself assassinated by his successor Heraclius. He is represented as a monster among the emperors: his person small and deformed; his hair and eyebrows red and shaggy; and his cheeks disfigured with scars; his temper was savage; his pleasures brutal; and he was grossly ignorant, not only of letters, but his own profession−war. From the time of Justinian, the pleadings of the courts had been in Latin, but from the reign of Phocas, they were held in Greek, and the writings formed a barbarous mixture of Greek and Latin characters.

Family of Heraclius

Flavius Heraclius, son of the præfect of Africa, sailed to Constantinople, and having put Phocas to death, was crowned in 610. He died in 641, of dropsy, after a reign of thirty years and five months. He was distinguished for his conquests over the Persians, and for his pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true cross; the ceremony resulting from it is still called “the Elevation of the Cross.” In his reign Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina, and the era of the Hegira commenced.

Flavius Heraclius II. or Constantinus III. was born in 612; and died by poison in 641; having reigned but one hundred and three days. He was associated in the empire with his brother Heracleonas.

Flavius Heraclius Constans II. was born in 630; and was smothered in a bath in 668; after a reign of twenty-seven years.

Flavius Constantinus IV., (Pogonatus,) died in 685; after a reign of seventeen years. He was called Pogonatus, or “the Bearded,” because when he went against the tyrant of Sicily to avenge his brother’s death, he would not suffer his beard to be cut till he had effected his purpose. In his reign the city was besieged by the Saracens, and their fleet destroyed by the Greek fire.

Flavius Justinianus II., (Rhinometus,) was born about the year 670, and was killed in 711; he reigned first ten years. He was called Rhinometus because he was seized by his enemy Leontius, who cut off his nose. After a reign of seven years he was deposed, and then restored, and reigned six more. With him and his young son was extinguished the race of Heraclius, after enjoying the sovereignty for one hundred years.

Filepicus Bardanes, was blinded, and deposed one year and six months after his coronation.

Anastatius II., (Artemius,) was crowned in 713; resigned; and was put to death by Leo Isaurus, when he attempted again to recover the crown.

Theodosius III. was crowned in 715; resigned. His sanctity in retirement was such, that he was reputed to work miracles.

Family of Leo Isaurus

Flavius Leo III., called Conon, died of a dropsy in 741; after a reign of twenty-four years and eleven months. He was called the Isaurian, from the country whence his family came to Constantinople. He began the first reformation in the Greek church, by causing all images to be pulled down, and excluded from places of worship as idolatrous.

Flavius Constantinus V., (Copronimus,) was born, 719; and died, 775; after a reign of thirty-five years and eleven months. He was in derision called Copronimus, because he defiled the font at his baptism. During his long reign he followed up the reformation of his father, and was seconded by the people, who formed themselves into associations, called Iconoclasts or “image breakers,” and destroyed every such idolatrous representation. He also suppressed monasteries. The writers of the Latin church represented Copronimus as “chained with demons in the infernal abyss;” while the Greeks venerated his tomb, and prayed before it as that of a heaven-directed saint. In his reign, historians first dated from, the birth of Christ.

Flavius Leo IV., (Chazarus,) was born at Constantinople in 750; and died of a fever in 780, after a reign of five years. He followed up the reformation, and the Latin writers affirm that he sacrilegiously took a crown with precious stones, from the church of Santa Sophia, and when he placed it on his head, his face burst out into carbuncles, similar to those in the crown, as a punishment for his impiety, and this caused the fever of which he died.

Flavius Leo Constantinus VI. was born at Constantinople in 771; and died in 797; after his eyes had been put out, he reigned seven years. In concert with his mother, Irené, he restored the worship of images, for which he is highly praised by Latin writers.

Flavius Nicephorus I. was born in Seleucia; he was drawn into an ambush by the Bulgarians, and killed in battle in 811; having reigned nine years and nine months.

Flavius Stauricius was presented with the diadem by his father Nicephorus in 803. He was grievously wounded in battle, and, after lingering in hopeless pain, he became a monk, and retired to a monastery, where he died in 812.

Michael I., (Rhangabe Curopalata,) married the daughter of Nicephorus; was proclaimed emperor in 811, on the death of his father-in-law; but was deposed, and died in a monastery, after a reign of one year and ten months.

Family of Leo the Armenian

Flavius Leo V., (Armenus,) was born in Armenia, and crowned in 813; and was assassinated while celebrating divine service in his palace in 820; after a reign of seven years and five months.

Family of Michael Balbus

Flavius Michael II. (the Stammerer,) was born in Phrygia, crowned in 820; and died in 829, of a dysentery, having reigned eight years and nine months. He was named Balbus from a hesitation in his voice. He revived the reformation by expelling images from churches.

Flavius Theophilus, called Augustus by his father, was born in 820, crowned in 829, and died in 842; having reigned twelve years and three months. He vigorously continued the reformation of the church, and is thus described, Is impietatis paternæ æmulus cultores imaginum persecutus est.

Flavius Michael III., (Ebriosus,) was born in 836; crowned in 842; and was assassinated in 867. He acquired the name of Ebriosus, or the Drunken, from his constant intemperance. He suffered his mother, Theodora, to introduce images into churches. The sister of the king of Bulgaria having embraced Christianity, he and all his subjects, by her persuasion, became converts in this reign. Clocks were then first brought from Venice to Constantinople.

Family of Basilius Macedo

Flavius Basilius I., (Cephalos,) was born in Macedonia, crowned in 866, and died in 886. He was called Cephalos from the size of his head. He was a zealous promoter of image worship. In his reign, Alfred king of England died.

Flavius Leo VI., the Philosopher, was crowned by his father at the age of five years in 870; and died in 911. He devoted a long reign of twenty-five years, after his father’s death, to literary pursuits, and composed works which have come down to us: amongst others, a “Treatise on Tactics.”

Flavius Constantinus VII., (Porphyrogenitus,) the son of Leo VI. by his fourth wife, was born in 905; crowned in 913; and died in the year 959, of poison, administered by his own son. He was called Porphyrogenitus, or born in the purple, because an apartment in the palace was lined with that colour, in which his birth took place. It was a title generally given to those whose fathers were on the throne when they were born, a rare distinction in the Lower Empire. He was the first to whom the distinction was applied. His birth was accompanied by the appearance of a comet. He was distinguished for his devotion to literature, and left behind him “the Geography of the Empire,” and other works. In his reign Arabic numerals were first used for the clumsy prolixity of alphabetic letters.

Romanus I., (Lecapenus,) was born in Armenia, crowned in 919; and died in 946. His reign was remarkable by the siege of Constantinople by the Bulgarians.

Romanus II. junior, was born in 937; and crowned in 959. He died of poison in 963; after a reign of four years.

Basilius II., (Bulgarotoctonos,) was born in 955; crowned in 960; and died in 1025. He obtained the name “Bulgarian-killer,” from the cruelty he exercised over them. He took 15,000 prisoners, and ordered the eyes to be scooped out from the heads of every ninety-nine out of one hundred.

Nicephorus II. (Phocas,) was born at Constantinople, and crowned, 963, on the death of Romanus. He was assassinated by Zemisces, and other conspirators, in 969.

Flavius Constantinus VIII. son of Lecapenus, was associated with his brother, and in 1026, became sole emperor at the age of sixty-nine, and died in 1028. It was in his reign the practice of duelling was introduced: one, fought in 1026, is the first on record in the annals of the empire.

Johannes Zemisces was a domestic in the palace while Nicephorus Phocas enjoyed the crown. After his assassination, he assumed himself the purple, but was poisoned in 975, after a reign of six years.

Constantinus IX., brother of Basilius II., was born in 961, and reigned singly, after the death of Basilius, three years. He died in 1028, having enjoyed the title of Augustus sixty-six years. The reign of the two brothers, with the intervening usurpations, is the longest and most obscure in Byzantine history.

Romanus III., (Argyrus,) succeeded to the empire in 1028, and was put to death by his wife Zoe in 1034. She had administered slow poison, but, impatient of its operation, caused him to be suffocated in a bath by an eunuch, who held his head under water.

Michael IV., (Paphlagonicus,) was born in Paphlagonia, crowned in 1034, and afterwards retired to a monastery in 1041. He married Zoe after the assassination of her former husband, and his death was hastened by never-ceasing remorse. The first schism commenced in this reign between the Greek and Latin churches.

Michael V., (Calaphates,) was crowned in 1041, and was put to death the same year, after a reign of four months. He was called Calaphates because his trade had been careening boats.

Zoe & Theodora, (the Matrons,) were crowned in 1042. They were taken at an advanced age, one from a prison, and the other from a monastery. Zoe, at the age of sixty, took a third husband, and died in 1050.

Flavius Constantinus X., (Monomachus,) was crowned in 1042. He was called Monomachus from his bravery in single combat. He died in 1055, having survived his atrocious wife Zoe two years. In his reign the Turks first entered the territories of the Greek empire in Asia.

Theodora was crowned sole empress in 1055, at the age of seventy-six, and reigned one year and ten months. She took an associate, and thus for twenty years two feeble sisters, and one an abandoned profligate, nominated whom they pleased to the empire.

Michael VI., (Stratioticus,) was crowned in 1056, and resigned the year after. He obtained the name of Stratioticus from his supposed skill in war. His aged and feeble associate died just before, the last of the Basilian dynasty.

Family of the Comneni

Isaak I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1057, and resigned in 1059. The name of Comnenus is one of the most distinguished of the Lower Empire.

Family of Ducas

Flavius Constantinus XI., (by some IX.) (Ducas,) was crowned in 1060, and died a natural death in 1066. During his reign Jerusalem was taken by the Turks and Saracens, William the Conqueror entered England, and the Norman dynasty began.

Eudocia was crowned in 1067, on the death of her husband, and reigned alone but one year. She was expelled from the palace, and lingered in obscurity till the time of Anna Comnena, who saw her alive in 1096.

Romanus IV., (Diogenes,) was crowned in 1068, and was killed in 1071. He had married Eudocia, and was nominated to the crown in prejudice of her sons. He was taken prisoner by the Turks, who scooped out his eyes; of which he died, covered with worms, and in extreme misery.

Michael VII.,(Parapinace,) crowned in 1071, and resigned in 1078, and retired to a monastery. He was called Parapinace because he had suffered the bushel of corn to be reduced to the size of a quart. He associated his two brothers with him in the empire, under the names of Andronicus I. and Constantine XII.

Nicephorus III., (Botoniates,) was crowned 1078: he resigned in 1081, and entered a monastery. In his reign, Doomsday Book began to be compiled in England, to ascertain the tenure of estates.

Restoration of the Family of Comnenus

Alexius I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1081, and died in 1118. He lived to the age of seventy-one, and reigned thirty-seven. His daughter, Anna Comnena, illustrated this era by her writings. The history of her father’s eventful reign is yet extant. In England, William Rufus and Henry I. were his contemporaries, and the first crusade commenced. Johannes II., (Comnenus,) Kalojohannes, began his reign in 1118, and died in 1143, of the wound of a poisoned arrow, accidentally inflicted by himself. He obtained the name of Kalojohannes for his personal beauty. His contemporary in England was Stephen.

Manuel I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1143, and died in 1180. In his reign the canon law was drawn up, and the second crusade commenced.

Alexius II., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1180, and died in 1183. He was murdered by his successor Andronicus.

Andronicus I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1183, and died in 1185. He was cruelly put to death, also, by his successor, who caused his eyes to be put out, and his hands cut off, and then led him through the city, seated on a camel, when he was torn in pieces by the multitude.

Isaak II., (Angelus,) was crowned in 1185, and in 1195 his eyes were put out. In his reign the third crusade commenced. His contemporary in England was Richard I.

Alexius III., (Angelus) was crowned in 1195, and died in 1204. The deposition of his brother Isaak was the pretext to the Crusaders for the sack of Constantinople.

Isaak III., Alexius IV., Alexius V., (Ducas Mourzoufle,) 1203. In six months, five emperors were crowned at Constantinople; three were murdered, and two fled. Mourzoufle (so called from his dark eyebrows) was cast from the monument of Theodosius. The Crusaders took and sacked the city, and the empire was partitioned: Lascaris obtained Nicæa and Bythinia; Alexius, Trebisond; and Michael, Epirus.

Frank Family

Baldwin I., (Robert,) crowned in 1204. He was drawn into an ambush by the Greeks and Bulgarians, by whom some say he was cut to pieces. He never afterwards appeared. Aristotle’s works were now first brought from Constantinople, Ghengis Khan reigned in Tartary, and Magna Charta was extorted from king John in England.

Henry was called to the throne on the supposed death of his brother in 1206, and reigned 10 years.

Baldwin II. was crowned in 1228; deposed in 1261. He fled to Italy. The Latin dynasty was extinguished, and the Greek restored. The Inquisition was established in the Latin church. Henry III. reigned in England.

Family of the Palæologi

Michael VIII., (Palæologus) crowned in 1262; died in 1283. He was regent during the minority of John Lascaris, whom he put to death. He endeavoured to effect an union between the Greek and Latin churches without success. The Mamelukes now seized on Egypt. Edward I. reigned in England.

Andronicus II., (Palæologus,) was crowned in 1283, and abdicated in 1328. He retired to a monastery, where he lived to the age of seventy-four. The Turks seized on Bythinia, and Othman established his capital at Brusa. From him they are since called Ottomans, or Osmanli. Edward II. reigned in England.

Andronicus III., (Palæologus,) crowned in 1328, having deposed his grandfather, with whom he had been associated. He died of an irregular life in 1341. Edward III. reigned in England.

Johannes III., (Cantacuzene,) was crowned in 1342, and abdicated in 1355. He retired, with his wife, to a monastery, where he lived till 1411. He there composed the “History of his own Time,” which is still extant. In his reign the Turks first entered Europe.

Johannes IV., (Palæologus,) was crowned on his father Andronicus’s death, in 1341, and died in 1391. In his reign Amurath took Adrianople, and established a capital in Europe. Richard II. reigned in England.

Manuel II., (Palæologus,) was crowned sole emperor in 1391, and died in 1425. In his reign, Bajazet laid siege to Constantinople, which was raised by Tamerlane. Henry IV. and Henry V. reigned in England.

Johannes V., (Palæologus,) crowned sole emperor in 1425, and died of the gout in 1448. In his reign the art of printing was first discovered in Europe. Henry VI. was his contemporary of England.

Constantinus XIII., by some XI., (Palæologus,) was crowned in 1448, and killed in 1453. Mohammed took the city of Constantinople, and put an end to the Greek empire. Constantine had two brothers−Demetrius, who basely submitted to slavery, and permitted his daughter to be received into the conqueror’s harem; and Thonas, who made vigorous efforts to rescue Greece from the Ottoman power. He finally retired to Italy. His children proceeded to England, where he died: and the ashes of the last of the family of the Greek dynasty repose among the free in Britain, where their monument is still to be seen in Llanulph Church in Cornwall. It is remarkable, that the first Christian emperor of the East was born, and the descendants of the last, repose in England.

TURKISH DYNASTY

Mahomet II., (Fatih,) He was proclaimed sultan in 1451, and took possession of Constantinople on the memorable 29th of May, 1453. He died of a colic in 1481. The title of Fatih, or “the Conqueror” was given to him on the occasion, as opening a way into the Christian capital. He prepared an epitaph to be placed on his tomb, containing the names of all the kings, countries, and cities he had conquered. His contemporary in England was Edward IV.

Bajazet II. He was proclaimed in 1481, and ceased to reign in 1512. His son Selim had appointed for him a place of retreat such as he wished, but in the meantime had corrupted his physician, who poisoned him at Tzurallo. His contemporaries in England were Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII.

Selim I. (Yavuz) began his reign in 1512, and died of a fever in 1520. His contemporary in England was Henry VIII.

Soliman I. (by some II.) (Kanuni) began his reign in 1520; and terminated it in 1566. He is generally called in Europe the “Magnificent,” but by Turks, Kanuni, or the “Institutor,” as he drew up a list of institutes by which the kingdom was afterwards to be governed, instead of those traditions which had before been their unwritten law. His contemporaries in England were, Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth.

Selim II. succeeded his father Soliman in 1566; he died in 1574. Contrary to the usual temperament of a Turkish sovereign, he was fond of peace, and sighed for repose, particularly after the loss of the terrible battle of Lepanto, in which Cervantes lost an arm. His contemporary in England was Elizabeth.

Amurath III. succeeded his father Selim in 1574; and died in 1595; a victim to melancholy and a morbid imagination. The discharge of a cannon broke the windows of his kiosk, as he reclined on his divan. Supposing that this portended his death, he died in a fever under that impression. His contemporary in England was Elizabeth, who wrote him a Latin letter.

Mohammed III. succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Mohammed in 1595; he died in 1603. He drowned all the odalisks, or female slaves, of the seraglio, suspected of pregnancy, and put to death nineteen of his brothers on the first day of his elevation. He, from policy, was advised by his mother to affect a dissipated life, and contracted a habit which he could not afterwards get rid of. He died prematurely of excess. His only contemporary in England was Elizabeth.

Achmet I. came to the throne in 1603; and died in 1607. He escaped the fate usually attendant on a younger brother in Turkey, by the premature death of his elder. His life was attempted by a Dervish, who hurled a large stone on him from the roof of a house, which bruised his shoulder. He supposed that dogs communicated the plague, and he ordered them all to be killed; but the mufti saved them, by affirming that every dog had a soul. His contemporary in England was James I.

Osman, or Othman II. succeeded his father Achmet in 1617; he was strangled by the janissaries in 1621, at the early age of nineteen years. A meteoric phenomenon, which assumed the appearance of a huge cymeter, was seen in the sky in his reign for a month, which the Turks were persuaded portended to them the conquest of the world. Charles I. was his contemporary in England.

Mustapha I. was dragged from prison, and set on the throne by the janissaries in 1621, on the death of his nephew Osman. In 1623 he was compelled to resign by the turbulent janissaries, and re-entered the prison from which they had taken him. James I. reigned in England.

Amurath IV. began his reign in 1624; and ended it in 1640; having hastened his death by an intemperate use of wine and ardent spirits, so as to break down a strong constitution at the age of thirty-one. He had conceived the extraordinary projects of extinguishing the Ottoman race, by putting his brother Ibrahim to death; but his own death anticipated his intention. He annexed Bagdad to the empire. In his reign, Cyril Lascaris, the Greek patriarch, published, at the patriarchal press, a confession of eighteen articles, declaring the faith of the Greeks on these points, similar to that of the reformed church in Europe. The contemporary reign in England was that of Charles I.

Ibrahim, succeeded his brother in 1640, and was strangled by the janissaries in 1668. He was a miserable-looking man, had a pale visage, scanty beard, seamed with the small-pox, mean appearance, spare person, hypochondriac, and subject to the falling sickness. His contemporary in England was Charles I.

Mohammed IV. the son of Ibrahim, ascended the throne in 1648, at the age of seven years. He was deposed in 1687, and shut up in the seraglio, where he lingered in solitude four years. In the year 1666, in this reign, Sabathi Levi, or Sevi, appeared in Palestine as the expected Messiah, and was invited to Constantinople by the sultan, who promised to restore Jerusalem. Multitudes of people, both Turks and Jews, believed on him. Among other miracles, he professed to be invulnerable; but when he was set up as a mark to be shot at, his courage failed, and he confessed the imposture. Contemporary governments in England, “the Commonwealth,” Charles II.