who at last rebel, A.D. 1348,
The usurpations of the Genoese, which extended
over nearly a century, every year increasing in
their arrogance, ended, as might have been anticipated,
with a demand for the empire itself. Having
been refused some commanding heights at Pera, on
which to erect additional fortifications, they embraced
the opportunity of the emperor's temporary
absence from his capital to rise in open rebellion.
"A Byzantine vessel," remarks Gibbon,[1]
"which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the
harbour, was sunk by these audacious strangers; the
fishermen were murdered. Instead of suing for
pardon, the Genoese demanded satisfaction; required
in a haughty strain that the Greeks should renounce
the exercise of navigation; and encountered with
regular arms the first sallies of the popular indignation.
They instantly occupied the debatable land;
and by the labour of a whole people, of either sex
and of every age, the wall was raised, and the ditch
was sunk with incredible speed. At the same time,
they attacked and burnt two Byzantine galleys; while
the three others, the remainder of the imperial navy,
escaped from their hands; the habitations without
the gates or along the shore were pillaged and destroyed;
and the care of the regent, of the empress
Irene, was confined to the preservation of the city.
The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the public consternation;
the emperor inclined to peaceful counsels,
but he yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies, who
rejected all reasonable terms, and to the ardour of his
subjects, who threatened, in the style of Scripture,
'to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'. . .
The merchants of the colony, who had
- ↑ Gibbon, ch. lxiii.
