A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

~ JOANNES. JOANNES.!83
Some time before this an event took place' wnich BAyazfd previous to this prince having, succeeded
showed the utter decay of the Greek power. his father in 1389? If this were the case, the
When prince Manuel was despot of Thessalonica, whole matter would be clear. Gibbon pays no
lie waged war on his own account against the attention to the chronology of this period, and it
Turks, who were then engaged in serious contests cannot be denied that the account he gives of the
with the Servians in Europe, and some Turkoman last Greek emperors is very short and incomplete.
princes in Asia. His undertaking was rash, and The submission of Manuel to sultan Miirad, and:his forces inadequate. Khair-ed-din Pasha advanced the generous pardon. he obtained, are not even
upon Thessalonica, and' despairing of defending alluded to by Gibbon, although he had undoubtedly
-himself with success, Manuel left the town to its read it in Chalcocondylas and Phranza: the last
fate, and fled by sea to Constantinople. Trembling three volumes of'Ameilhon's continuation of Le
for his own safety, his father refused to receive in Beau's'b Histoire' du Bas Empire" we're not
his palace a son who had incurred the anger of the published when Gibbon, in 1787, concluded the
sultan, and the unfortunate prince sailed to Lesbos, last volume of his " Decline and Fall." The
in hopes of finding protection at the court of Gas- writer of this article has endeavoured, but in
teluzzi, the Latin prince of that island, but there vain, to clear up the chronology of the events
also the gates were closed at his appearance. alluded to, by means of " Hammer's History of
Having no other alternative but voluntary exile the Turkish Empire;" and the conjecture he has
or death, Manuel, with noble boldness, hastened offered seems to be the only means of solving the
to Brusa, appeared resolutely in presence of the difficulty.'sultan, confessed himself guilty, and implored his When John was once more established on his
enemy's mercy. After a silence of some minutes, throne, lie sent his son Manuel, then co-emperor,
the sultan said to him, " You have been wicked, and acknowledged by all parties as his future sucbe better, and if you are good, the condition of the cessor, as a hostage to sultan Bayazid. Both of them
empire over which you are destined to rule will be were summoned by the sultan to assist him in regood, too. Return to Constantinople-I will give ducing the -town of Philadelphia, now Allah Shehr,
orders to your father to receive you well." Not which was the last possession of the Greeks in
till then did the emperor dare to embrace his Asia Minor; and so complete was their dependson. In 1389 sultan MUirad was assassinated by ellce, that they followed the summons, and were
a Servian captive, Milosh Kobilovicz; and his suc- seen among the foremost of the Turks while the
Fcessor, the terrible Bhyazid, soon manifested more town was stormed, thus compelling their own subhostile intentions than his father. Availing hil- jects to'submit to the Turkish yoke (1390).
self of the dissensions in the imperial family, he Manuel, moved by fear,:now- secretly proposed to
carried on secret negotiations with Andronicus and his father to strengthen and increase the fortifica;his son while they were imprisoned in the tower tions of Constantinople, but the emperor having
of Anemas, and with them and the leaders of the begun the work, and already constructed several
Genoese at Pera he concerted the plan of dethron- new walls and towers, a peremptory order came
ing John. Andronicus having escaped from his from Bayazid to pull down the new fortifications,
prison, with the aid of the Genoese, Bayazid sud- and leave every thing in its former state. The
denly surprised John and Manuel in one of their order was complied with; and it is said that the
palaces without the gates of Constantinople, and shame which the old emperor felt at being thus
gave them to the custody of Andronicus, who con- treated as an humble vassal of the Turks, hastened
fined them in the same prison whence he had his death, which took place in 1391. (Chalcoconescaped, and treated them with humanity, although dylas, i. 2, &c.; Phranza, i. 16, &c.; Ducas, c. 5the sultan constantly urged him to put them to 15; Cantacuzenus, iii. 4, &c.) [W. P.]
death. Andronicus was acknowledged as emperor JOA'NNES VIL. PALAEO'LOGUS, emperor
by Bayazid on condition of paying a heavy tribute; of Constantinople (A. D. 1425-1448), was born in
but the captive emperor having promised to pay 1390, and succeeded his father, the emperor Manuel
the same tribute, to take the oath of allegiance to 1I;, in 1425, after having been made co-emperor in
the sultan, and to assist'him in all his wars with 1419. In the year of his accession he concluded a'12,000 horse and foot, Bayazid, after ascertaining new peace with sultan Miirad II., and the Turks'that the Greeks- preferred Manuel to Andronicus, being then engaged in war with Hungary, Servia,'ordered the latter to restore his father to liberty, Wallachia, Venice, and the Turkomans, in Asia
and to be satisfied with the conditions which he Minor, he enjoyed the quietude of a slave during
would make, in order to prevent any further dis- more than ten years. His empire consisted of the'sensions between him and his father. These con- city of Constantinople and its immediate neighditions were, that John and Manuel should reign bourhood: the other Greek possessions in Greece,
over Constantinople and its environs as far as' they on the Propontis and on the Black Sea, were gowere subject to the imperial sceptre, and that verned with sovereign power by his six brothers,
Andronicus should hold, as a fief of the crown, the among whom was Constantine, the last emperor of
towns and districts of Selymbria, Heracleia. Rhae- Constantinople. But the peace with Miirad did
destus or Rhodosto, Danias and Panidas, on the not include his brothers also, and several of them.
Propontis, and the fine town of Thessalonica, which, were deprived by the sultan of their small prin-'during the time, had alternately' been in the hands cipalities, and took refuge at Constantinople. Still,:of the Turks, the Venetians, and the Greeks. The hoping that the Greek empire'could be restored,
chronology of these events is far from being clear. through the western princes, he followed the line of
Bayazid succeeded in 1389, and John died in policy which had been adopted by so many of his
1391. Yet it is said that John was imprisoned predecessors, and promised to'unite the Greek
through the same sultan, remained in prison during church with the Roman, if the pope would rouse'two years, and afterwards reigned again during the kings of Europe for his defence. Pope Euseveral years. Was John perhaps arrested by gene IV, invited him to Rome, alleging'that his
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