THE DECLINE AND FALL

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chap, terminated hiscareer, dividing his precious move-LXVL ables among his children and the poor, his phy-sicians and his favourite servants. Of his sixsons, k Andronicus, the second,was invested withthe principality of Thessalonica , and died of aleprosy soon after the sale of that city to theVenetians , and its final conquest by the Turks.Some fortunate incidents had restored Pelopon-nesus, or the Morea, to the empire; and in hismore prosperous days,-Manuel had fortified thenarrow isthmus of six miles 1 with a stone walland one hundred and fifty-three towers. Thewall was overthrown by the first blast of the Otto-mans: the fertile peninsula might have been suf-ficient for the four younger brothers, Theodoreand Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; butthey wasted in domestic contests the remains oftheir strength ; and the least successful of therivals were reduced to a life of dependence inthe Byzantine palace.

Zeal of The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palae-oi°o h "us a n * °1°S US the second, was acknowledged, after his4. d. 1425 - father’s death, as the sole emperor of the Greeks,lie immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife,and to contract a new marriage with the princessof Trebizond; beauty was, in his eyes, the firstqualification of an empress; and the clergy hadyielded to his firm assurance, that unless he

k See Ducange , Fam. Byzant. p. 243-248.

1 The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was 3800orgygiae, or toisea, of six Greek feet fPhranzes, 1. i. c. 38), which wouldproduce a Greek mile, still smaller than that of 660 French toisea ,whichis assigned by d’Anviile as still in use in Tui key. Five miles are com-monly reckoned for the breaith of the isthmus. See the Travels ofUpon, Wheeler, and Chandler