252

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

the end of the tenth century, to clear them effectually of the freebooters, andcompletely protect not only their own commerce, but that of every othercountry, which, at the most respectful distance, and with great inferiority ofmeans, thought it conducive to its interest that it should engage in the samekind of pursuit.

Notwithstanding the power of the Eastern or Grecian empire was to beconsidered as materially in the wane, and though it was under the necessityof expending an immense treasure on that army which it was indispensablynecessary' should be kept constantly on foot for the defence of the frontiersas well as the interior : yet the wealth which still remained iu the country,(and of which the necessities of war had only occasioned the removal,from the hands of one class of inhabitants, into those of another, and notthe actual export from the empire itself:) enabled the emperor and hisministers to subsidize, according to the modern term, surrounding nations,who were less affluent, and were content to barter their own personal safetyfor the hire which they stipulated for the receipt of, in their character ofguards, and defenders of the Emperor of the East. The protection of thecoasts, and the necessary chastisement of those who had the boldness to insultor attack the towns situated near it, rendered the maintenance of a fleet ameasure not to be dispensed with. The Schlavonians, the Russians, the Bul-garians, and the Turks, enrolled themselves as mariners in the imperial service ;and the Venetians, rapidly rising in power, were content with the honour ofbeing considered as allies to the representative of the Caesars. Constantinoplewas the grand arsenal where the different stores necessary to the equipmentof a naval armament were deposited, and where the general rendezvous wasappointed ; so that although the Grecian empire in reality possessed little or nonaval force that could properly be considered its own, yet it acted as the parentand emplcver of an immense body of mercenaries who fought under its banners.Owing to these arrangements, it was enabled not onlv to protract its own fallfor many centuries longer than it would have been had it rested content withthe employment of its own native force, but to reign complete master of theMediterranean, with the exception of some short intervals, when the desultoryattacks of the Saracens caused its temporary cessation. Nature had been pecu-liarly bountiful on her part, and afforded along the extensive coasts of Asia, andof Greece, an infinity of harbours and islands, which furnished the easy means

of