situation, his wife, with self-sacrificing devotion, took the veil and
entered a monastery. Constantine destined Theodora, the younger and more
capable of his daughters, for the throne as spouse to Romanus, but
through religious compunctions she refused to marry the husband of
another woman, and consequently Zoe was chosen as bride and empress at
the tender age of forty-eight. Romanus was sixty when he ascended the
throne.
Zoe never forgave her sister Theodora the fact that because of her more
stable character their father had offered his younger daughter the
throne; Romanus had no love for her because she had refused him.
Consequently, spies were set over her movements, and every effort was
made to connect her with the various plots of courtiers who had designs
upon the throne. Finally, accused of being privy to the plans of one of
the most hostile of the courtiers, Theodora was driven from her palace
and imprisoned in the monastery of Petrion; sometime after, Zoe, upon a
visit to the monastery, compelled her sister to assume the monastic
habit.
Romanus and Zoe were never an affectionate couple. He devoted himself
strictly to affairs of state and looked with indifference upon the many
intrigues of his amorous spouse, who, like Queen Elizabeth, believed
herself to be the mistress of all hearts. But one of these amours,
perhaps, cost him his life.
The royal consorts had turned the management of the palace largely over
to eunuchs. One of these, John the Paphlagonian, became very powerful,
and, as he was precluded from the imperial title himself, sought to
raise a brother to that high honor. This brother, Michael, had begun
life as a goldsmith and money changer, but his brother appointed him to
a place in the imperial household. Owing to his personal beauty and
graceful and dignified manners, he soon became the favorite chamberlain
to his royal mistress. Unfortunately, however, he was subject to sudden
and violent attacks of epilepsy. This, instead of repelling Zoe, merely
aroused her pity, and she fell in love with her handsome servant and
carried on an amorous intrigue with him. Romanus was duly informed of
his wife's conduct, but remained indifferent to it and probably deemed
the accusation untenable because of the epilepsy of Michael. Zonaras, an
ancient chronicler, tells the story that in the night the emperor
frequently called Michael to rub his feet when he was in bed with Zoe.
And he naively adds: "Who can refrain from supposing that the hands of
the young valet-de-chambre did not find an opportunity of touching also
the feet of the empress?" During the last two years of his life, Romanus
was afflicted with a wasting disease and rumor had it that it was due to
a slow poison administered either by Zoe, or by the eunuch John, who
wished to bring about his brother's elevation. At any rate, in his dying
moments, before the breath had left his body, the empress quitted his
bedside to take measures with John the Paphlagonian for placing her
epileptic paramour on the throne.
The moment Romanus III. ceased to live, Zoe called an assembly of the
officers of state in the palace and invested Michael IV.
with the diadem
and the purple robe. He was straightway proclaimed Emperor of the
Romans, and was formally seated beside Zoe on the vacant throne. The
patriarch Alexius was filled with disgust at this flagrant display of
contempt for decency, but for reasons of state and to avoid greater
scandal, he celebrated the marriage between the empress and her
paramour. "Thus a single night saw the aged Zoe the wife of two
emperors, a widow and a bride, and Michael a menial and a sovereign."
Michael was twenty-eight when he wedded Zoe at the age of fifty-four and
ascended the throne. In spite of his humble origin, he showed himself a
capable ruler, and succeeded in repelling some of the enemies of the
Empire. But his usefulness was hindered by his epileptic fits and by the
unfriendly attitude of his subjects who regarded his disease as evidence
of the divine wrath because of his ingratitude toward his benefactor,
Romanus. He became a hopeless invalid before the age of thirty-six, and,
when he felt his end approaching, he renounced the world and all the
vanities of imperial station, and retired to the monastery of Saint
Anarghyras where he became a monk. He died on December 10, 1041, after a
reign of seven years and eight months.
After the death of her second husband, the irrepressible Zoe at first
attempted to carry on the Empire alone, with the assistance of the
eunuchs of her household, but the prevailing aversion to female
sovereignty and her own disinclination to be without companionship of
the male sex led her to a realization of the necessity of giving the
Empire a male sovereign. The alternative which presented itself was
whether she should adopt a son or marry a husband.
Having twice
experienced matrimonial bliss, but never having tasted the joys of
filial devotion, for the sake of a new sensation Zoe adopted the former
expedient.
She selected for the honor another Michael, the nephew of her late
husband, but, as she was aware of his volatile character, she made him
take a solemn oath, before conferring on him the crown, that he would
ever regard her as his benefactress and treat her as his mother. Michael
was ready enough to promise everything, and the diadem was placed on his
head.
But as soon as he was established in power, Michael V.
revealed his
meanness of soul, and showed both insolence and ingratitude toward the
woman through whom he had attained his elevation. He finally carried his
insolence so far that he banished the empress Zoe to Prince's Island and
compelled her to adopt the monastic habit. But this base act was more
than the people could stand. Their fury burst through every restraint.
The mob paraded the streets and proclaimed the reign of Michael at an
end. They threatened to seize him and scatter his bones abroad like
dust. An assembly was held in the church of Saint Sophia, to which the
aged Theodora was brought from the monastery of Petrion, and she was
proclaimed joint empress with her sister Zoe. In the meantime, Michael,
alarmed at the rapid and overwhelming spread of the sedition, had Zoe
brought back to the palace, and endeavored to pacify the people by
persuading her to appear on a balcony overlooking the Hippodrome. But it
was impossible for him to stem the current of the popular fury. The
palace was stormed, and three thousand people were killed in the
conflict which followed. Michael saved his life by escaping to the
monastery of Studion; his eyes were finally put out, and he passed the
rest of his days in the garb of a monk.
Zoe immediately entered upon the duties and responsibilities of power,
of which for a time she had been deprived, and she endeavored to force
her sister back into religious retirement; but the Senate and people
insisted upon the joint reign of the two sisters. But this singular
union lasted less than two months. In temperament and in interests the
two sisters were antipodal. Different factions were their support, the
clerical party favoring the devout Theodora, and the worldlings the
volatile Zoe. For a time, the twain appeared always side by side at the
meetings of the Senate and at the courts of justice.
Unlike Zoe,
Theodora showed great aptitude for public business, and took pleasure in
performing her administrative duties.
Zoe's plots against her sister being frustrated, and recognizing that
Theodora was rapidly gaining the ascendency, she bethought herself of
taking a third husband, to whom she might resign the throne and thus
deprive her sister of the influence she was rapidly acquiring.
Hence, at the advanced age of sixty-two, Zoe began to cast about for a
third husband, in spite of the canons of the Church, which forbade a
third marriage. Her thoughts first turned to a powerful nobleman,
Constantine Dalasennus, whom her father had once chosen for her in her
earlier years, and about whom her recollections cast a halo of romance.
But in place of the gallant hero of her imagination she found she had
summoned to the palace for an interview a stern old gentleman, who
strongly expressed his disapprobation of the existing imperial system;
who censured in unmeasured terms the vices of the court, and who took no
pains to conceal his contempt for her own questionable conduct. Such a
spouse would have been a most excellent antidote for the prevailing
corruption of the Empire, but Zoe had no desire to submit to the control
of so severe a master, and she quickly made up her mind to look
elsewhere.
A former lover, Constantine Artoclinas, then became the object of her
matrimonial designs. But he already had a wife, who was not of the
self-sacrificing disposition of the wife of Romanus. As soon as she
heard of the honor to which Zoe destined her husband, Constantine
Artoclinas fell ill and did not long survive. It was the general opinion
that his wife had poisoned him, either through jealousy of Zoe, or
because she felt an aversion to passing the rest of her days in a
convent. Zoe, however, was readily consoled.
She again selected an old admirer, Constantine Monomachus, whom Michael
IV. had banished to Mitylene because of his attentions to the empress,
but who had been recalled on the accession of Zoe and Theodora and
appointed to a high official position in Greece. An imperial galley was
despatched with a royal courier to notify him of the new dignity that
awaited him, and to bring him back to Constantinople.
Upon his arrival
he was invested with the imperial robes. His marriage with Zoe was
performed by one of the clergy, for the patriarch Alexius declined to
officiate at the third marriage of the empress, which in this case was
doubly uncanonical, as both Zoe and Constantine had been twice married.
The choice made by Zoe is a sad commentary on the immorality of the age.
The life and character of Constantine X. show the utter lack of moral
principle which prevailed in the court circles. After he had buried two
wives, Constantine Monomachus had won the affections of a beautiful and
wealthy young widow called Sclerena, who openly became his mistress and
accompanied him in his exile to Mitylene. Yet, in the eyes of the
orthodox, her position as mistress was more respectable, as being less
uncanonical than if she had become his third wife. As Sclerena had stood
by him in the days of his adversity, Constantine insisted upon her
sharing with him his prosperity, and when he assumed the purple he
bargained with Zoe that he should retain his mistress, a condition to
which Zoe in her shamelessness agreed. Hence, "the people of
Constantinople were treated to the singular spectacle of an Emperor of
the Romans making his public appearance with two female companions
dignified with the title of Empress, one as his wife, the other as his
mistress."
Sclerena was officially saluted with the title of Augusta, and possessed
a rank equal to that of Theodora, whose relative importance had been
reduced by the advent of the Emperor Constantine X. She held a court of
her own and was installed in apartments of the imperial palace.
Owing to her beauty and her elegant manners she gathered about her a
brilliant court circle, which in its sumptuousness and ostentation
contrasted greatly with the dull ceremony and sombre atmosphere of the
apartments of the elderly sisters, Zoe and Theodora.
Sclerena's
disposition, too, was amiable and winning, and she was admired for the
constancy with which she had clung to her lover in the days of his
misfortune. Constantine, in return for her self-sacrificing devotion
when he was an impoverished exile, sought to repay her by the most
lavish expenditure of the public funds. Her apartments were made the
most elegant and luxurious in the city, and her toilettes were the envy
of all the aristocratic ladies of Constantinople.
Though Constantine showed in every way his partiality for his mistress,
it did not disturb the domestic tranquillity of the imperial household.
Zoe and Sclerena lived on the best of terms, and the utter absence of
jealousy in the aged wife is less remarkable than her utter
shamelessness.
The moral feelings of the people, however, were not so completely
corrupted as those of their superiors. They resented the lavish
expenditures of the public moneys upon the concubine of the emperor, and
they also resented the insult thus put upon their empress. They felt
that the lives of the aged sisters, the only survivors of the Macedonian
house, could not be safe in a palace where vice reigned supreme, and
where secret murders had so often occurred.
The incensed populace raised a sedition on the feast of the Forty
Martyrs, when it became the duty of the emperor to walk in solemn
procession to the church of Our Saviour in Chalke, whence he proceeded
on horseback to the church of the Martyrs. As the procession was about
to move from the palace, a cry was raised: "Down with Sclerena; we will
not have her for empress! Zoe and Theodora are our mothers--we will not
allow them to be murdered!" The mob then sought to lay hands on the
emperor to tear him in pieces, but the tumult was quieted by the sudden
appearance of Zoe and Theodora on the balcony and the people were
dispersed without serious damage being done.
The Empress Zoe died in 1050, at the age of seventy.
Constantine X.
survived to the year 1055. He, before the end came, was anxious to name
his successor, but as soon as Theodora heard of the attempt of her
brother-in-law to deprive her of the throne, she hastened to the palace,
where the Senate was quickly convened, and presented herself as the
lawful empress. With universal acclamation, Theodora was proclaimed sole
sovereign of the Empire.
Though seventy-five years of age when she became sole ruler of the
destinies of the Eastern Empire, Theodora exhibited great vigor of
character and her short reign was a fortunate period for the Byzantines,
owing to her attention to public business and the freedom from external
conflicts. To preserve power in her own hands, Theodora presided in
person at the meetings of the Cabinet and the Senate, and heard appeals
as supreme judge in civil cases. Her long monastic life had developed in
her the narrow views and acrimonious passions of a recluse, but an
ascetic spirit was a relief after the sensual performances of the court
of Constantinople. Even at the advanced age of seventy-six, Theodora
felt so robust that she looked forward to a long life.
The monks
flattered her with prophecies that she was to reign for many years. But
in the midst of her plans, she was suddenly attacked by an intestinal
disorder that speedily brought her to the grave.
Theodora was the last
scion of a family which had upheld with glory the institutions of the
Empire for nearly two centuries, and had secured to its subjects a
degree of internal tranquillity and commercial prosperity far greater
than that enjoyed during the same period by any other portion of the
human race. "And with her, expired the race of Basil, the Slavonian
groom, and the administrative glory of the Byzantine Empire, on the 30th
of August, 1057."
[Illustration 6: _BYZANTINE INTERIOR, NINTH CENTURY
From a
water-color by S. Baron, after a restoration by P.
Bénard.
In this period military exigencies did not permit of numerous
apartments. We find the great room, the place of reunion, a
sumptuously decorated apartment, in which also the meals were
served and the bed was placed. The floor was of bricks, and the
apartment was warmed by hot air supplied from a_
hypocaustum,
_placed below the floor, and admitted through a painted iron
grating. The wall decorations presented an infinite variety of
beautifully executed mouldings and scroll designs of flowers and
foliage, common to the Byzantine manner. The furniture of the
room was sober in style. The bed was shaped and ornamented
somewhat like a modern sofa. A curtain on sliding rings served
to screen from draughts, as well as to separate beds.
In this
room the lady received her guests._]
What a contrast is offered between the empresses of these later
centuries and the great names of the earlier period, Eudoxia and
Pulcheria and Eudocia and the great Theodora! We have fallen on evil
times; and in the general corruption, woman has degenerated. During the
remaining centuries which it falls to our lot to consider, we shall find
that the chronicles of women continue to exhibit the downward march of
womanhood, until with the utter debasement of woman, the fabric of
society gives way, and all is darkness in the history of the sex.
We have had a glimpse of the luxury with which the Empress Eudoxia
surrounded herself in her palace on the Bosporus, and our curiosity and
interest may be satisfied concerning the domestic surroundings of a
woman of rank during the period of the Byzantine decadence. The only
truly original Christian art, down to the eleventh century, was the
Byzantine; it dominated both Christian and pagan artists. In the period
to which we refer, military exigencies did not permit of numerous
apartments. We find the great room, the place of reunion, a sumptuously
decorated apartment, in which also the meals were served and the bed was
placed.
This chief room showed little constructive quality, but it was superbly
decorated. The square, heavy door was usually contrived below a
relieving arch, whose archivolt was richly charged with sculptured and
painted ornaments; the twin windows were supported by a pied-droit or on
small columns. The flat walls rarely had a real projecting entablature;
the ends of joists were simulated by cornices resting on consoles or
modillions; the architrave and the frieze were only a painted effect.
The floor was of bricks. Chimneys were not yet used, and the apartment
was warmed by hot air supplied from a hypocaustum, placed within the
walls or below the floor, and admitted through a painted iron grating.
The wall decorations presented an infinite variety of beautifully
executed mouldings and scroll designs of flowers and foliage, common to
the Byzantine style. A prominent feature of the mural decoration was the
numerous figures, in stiff attitudes, draped with garments falling in
meagre folds, and decked with abundant fringes and precious stones,
after the Oriental fashion; close to these figures were placed groups of
Greek letters.
The furniture of the room was sober in style. The bed was shaped and
ornamented somewhat like a modern sofa. The occupant reclined rather
than lay on it, for the cushions were heaped up increasingly toward the
head of the bed. It was customary to sleep without garments, the only
covering being an ample sheet. A curtain on sliding rings was
indispensable; it served to screen from draughts, as well as to separate
beds; moreover, it supplemented the scanty furniture of the room.
Over the bed was a lighted lamp. This was invariably used, for darkness
was dreaded, and it was believed that the light kept off evil spirits
and prevented baleful apparitions. In this room the great lady of our
period received her guests; here intrigues were plotted; here she
partook of her repasts, waited upon by her many serving-maids; here she
passed, indeed, most of her life.
XIV
THE PRINCESSES OF THE COMNENI
With the end of the Macedonian house in 1057, all the elements of
discord in the Byzantine Empire seemed to have been loosed. Civil war
and foreign invasions rapidly succeeded one another, and the empire
hastened to its doom. But the downward progress was for a time checked
by the rise of the Comneni, a prominent family, who controlled the
destinies and exerted a paramount influence over the career of the
Byzantine government for over a century, in fact, until its overthrow by
the Latin Crusaders in 1204. In the chronicles of the Comneni, its
princesses played a notable though not always creditable role; and the
undercurrent of Byzantine history for a century and a half was
determined largely by woman's influence and woman's artifice.
Of the great families whose names appear on every page of the Byzantine
history of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, that of the Comneni is by
far the most illustrious. The hypothesis that the Comneni were an
ancient Roman house which followed Constantine from Old Rome to New Rome
must be given up: so important an item in the family glories of the
house would not have been passed over in silence by Anna Comnena and her
husband in their historical works. We must accept the testimony of a
contemporary, Psellus, that the family was of Greek or Thracian origin,
and derived its name from the ancestral seat, the village of Comne in
the valley of the Torniga, near the site of the city of Adrianople.
The first of the line prominent in Byzantine annals was the illustrious
Manuel Comnenus, who, under Basil II., aided in settling the troubled
condition of the East and in reestablishing the Empire on a firm
footing. As a result of his labors for the state, Manuel acquired vast
estates in Cappadocia, and, from this time, his family ranked as one of
the wealthiest and most aristocratic houses of the Byzantine nobility.
Manuel, upon his deathbed, left his two sons, Isaac and John, to the
care and the gratitude of his sovereign. The two lads were carefully
educated in all the learning and trained in all the manly
accomplishments of the day; and their brotherly love became the subject
of comment in an age when self-seeking was the most salient
characteristic of the aristocratic class. When they attained manhood,
both made brilliant marriages which greatly increased the lustre of
their family name: Isaac married a captive princess of Bulgaria, and
John wedded Anna Dalassena, the daughter of the patrician Dalassenus,
nicknamed Charon from the number of enemies he had sent to the infernal
regions. Isaac was fated to die childless and his wife is unknown to
fame, but Anna, the wife of John, was destined to be the most remarkable
woman of her house.
The Empress Theodora, in her last days, had nominated Michael
VI.,--Stratioticus,--an aged and decrepit veteran, as her successor; but
his elevation was resented by the soldiers, who plotted and successfully
carried through a conspiracy by which Michael was dispossessed and Isaac
Comnenus, at that time the most popular general of the East, was
elevated to the throne. But the usurpation was not attended with the
blessings of heaven: Isaac was stricken with disease before he had
reigned a full year, and retired to a monastery to die, abdicating the
throne and selecting h