THE LASCARIDS OF NIC/EA.* AT this time, when Constantinople is
the centre of the world's interest, Miss Gardner's carefully studied monograph ought to be sure of a welcome. It deals with the fifty-seven years after the Fourth Crusade, from 1204 to 1261, when the Greek Empire, in fact the lineal successor and continuation of the old Roman Empire, having been driven from Constantinople by the Latins, was biding its time in Asia Minor under the leadership of the men who kept it alive and strong until the hour struck for its return. Three of these men, at least, were of great ability and distinction. We have not forgotten our Gibbon, and Miss Gardner will send many of her readers back to those inimitable pages, though she observes with truth that much material has been rendered accessible since his day.
"In the long and barren pages of the Byzantine annals, it would not be an easy task to equal the two characters of Theodore Lascaris and John Duces Vataces, who replanted and upheld the Roman standard at Nimes, in Bithynia. . . . In his first efforts the fugitive Lascaris commanded only three cities and two thousand soldiers. . . . His reign was the season of generous and active despair ; in every military operation he staked his life and crown."
The romance of the Lascarids, of whom Theodore was the first
and greatest, is told with much clear detail by Miss Gardner, though indeed all Byzantine history, as she observes, is apt to seem remote, confused, and unfamiliar. Many of us would be puzzled to trace offhand the connexion between Lascarids and Comneni, beginning with the marriage of Theodore Lascaris with Anna, daughter of the Emperor Alexius M., while John III., the husband of Irene Lascaris, of whose wise and peaceful administration in Asia Minor Gibbon has much to say, in his turn succeeded his father-in-law. The house of Palteologus, again, raised to power by the famous Michael, who, after the death of Theodore Lascaris II., brought bao4 the Empire to Constantinople, staining his successes by his barbarous treatment of his helpless rival, the young Emperor • The Lasearids of Nscara: The Story of an Empire in EMU. Er Allatt Gardner. With 8 Illustrations and a Map. London: Methuen and 0a,
17s. ed. not.1
John, was not that of a mere usurper. Michael was descended from the Comneni by his mother, the elder daughter of Alexius III.; his family had therefore an even better claim to the throne than that of Lascaris.
Miss Gardner's chief theme is the benefit conferred on European civilization by the steady adherence of the Lascarids to their leading idea, the recovery of Constantinople. By that recovery, in spite of the many faults and weaknesses of the Byzantine Empire, the spirit and atmosphere of Greek culture were saved from extinction in a world of Latin and barbaric feudalism ; saved for two centuries, at the close of which, if Constantinople was lost, the Renaissance had triumphed in Europe.
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