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the Bulgarians from their country, were firft defeated by 
Bardas Slerus. The emperor himfelf then marched againft 
them ; and, after reducing the town of Perifthlaba, in which 
he fet free the fons of the Bulgarian king, he drove the 
Ruffian prince Swatoflaus to the banks of the Danube, 
and there defeated him with great (laughter. In the end, 
-he made a treaty with him, by which the remainder of 
the nation were allowed to march back unmolefted. Af¬ 
ter the conclufion of this war, John entered Conftantino- 
ple in triumph ; but, with the piety of the age, aferibed 
his fuccefs to the Virgin Mary, whofe image, drawn in a 
fplendid car, he Followed on horfeback. He afterwards 
made an expedition into the eaftern provinces, where fe- 
veral places which had fubmitted to his. predeceffor had 
revolted. He proceeded as far as Damafcus in a career of 
i’uccefs, and refided for fome time in that city in order 
to reftore the public tranquillity. Obferving in this 
journey that the wealth of thefe provinces had been chiefly 
engroifed by the eunuchs about the court, he incautioufly 
expreffed his indignation on the fubjefh The report of 
this is fuppofed to have fliortened his life by the admi¬ 
niftration of poifon, from the effects of which he is (aid 
to have died on his journey to Conftantinople, in De¬ 
cember 975, after a reign of fix years. John Zimifces, 
though arriving at the crown by an art of treafon, wore 
it with glory, and feemed to merit it by his public and 
private virtues. His piety is particularly extolled by the 
writers of the time; and he is recorded as the firft em¬ 
peror who caufcd the effigy of Chrift to be damped upon 
the coin, with the legend, <l Jefus Chrift, the King of 
kings.” He died without iffue. 
JOHN II. emperor of the Eaft, of the family of Com- 
Nenus, born in 1088, fucceeded his father Alexius in 
HiS. He had the appellation of Ca/o-Johannes, or John 
the Handfortie, which fome affert to have been ironical, and 
others ferious. But, whatever were his bodily qualities, 
his foul was formed in the mould of moral beauty, and 
few poffeflors of a throne have graced it with purer man¬ 
ners and more humane principles. Soon after his accef- 
fion a confpiracy was excited by his After, the celebrated 
Anna Comnena, to depofe him in favour of her liufband 
'Bryennius. It was difeovered in time, and the confpira- 
tors were feized and convirted ; but the emperor’s cle¬ 
mency limited their punifhment to the forfeiture of their 
eftates, which lie afterwards reftored. This was the only 
domeftic trouble by which his reign was dilturbed ; and 
he had the happinefs of being able, during an adminiftra- 
tion of twenty-five years, to banifli capital punifhments 
from the whole empire. His ntildnefs of difpofition did 
Ttot, however, prevent him from engaging in aftive war¬ 
fare againft his public enemies. In the fecond year of 
his reign be marched againft the Turks, who had made an 
inroad into Phrygia; and, after feveral defeats, forced them 
back within their former limits. He repulfed the Scy¬ 
thians, who had crofted the Danube and invaded Thrace ; 
"and obtained virtories over the Servians and Huns. In a 
fecond expedition into Afin, he again drove back the 
Turks, and made'himfelf mafter of all Armenia. Flufhed 
■with fuccefs, he entertained the ambitious projeft of ex¬ 
tending the eaftern empire to its former limits, and reco¬ 
vering Antioch from the dominion of the Latins. Ac¬ 
companied by his three eldeft fons, he proceeded on this 
euterprife, when a premature death carried oft’ two of the 
fons, to the father’s extreme grief. He, however, marched 
into Syria; and, being unable to gain admiffion into An¬ 
tioch, turned to Cilicia. There, as he was hunting the 
wild boar in the valley of Anazarbus, a poifoned arrow 
from his own quiver gave him a wound in the hand, of 
•which he died in 1143. 
JOHN III. Ducas, furnamed Vataces, emperor of the 
Eaft, was born in 1193 at Didymoticum in Thrace. At 
the death of Theodore Lafcaris, in 1222, whofe daughter 
be had married, John fucceeded to the empire. Its capi¬ 
tal was then Nice, or Nicasa, in Bithynia; for Conftan- 
tinople was in the hands of the Latins, of whom Robert 
4 
H N, 
was the nominal emperor. He efpoufed the esufe of the 
two brothers of the late Theodore, who had been fet afide 
for John ; and put them at the head of an army, which, 
met with a total defeat. John purfued his fuccefs by fit¬ 
ting out a powerful fleet, with which he fubdued moft of 
the ifiands in the Archipelago. He then made an alli¬ 
ance with Azan king of Bulgaria, with whofe aid he reri- 
dered himfelf niafter of all the places held by the Latins 
on the Bofphorus and the Hellefpont. The defpot of: 
Epirus having taken poffeffion of Thrace, and caufed hira- 
felf to be crowned emperor, John marened againft him, 
and defeated and took him prifoner. When Baldwin II. 
had fucceeded to the throne of Conftantinople, under the 
guardianfiiip of John de Brienne king of Jerufalem, John 
Ducas, in conjunction with Azan, laid fiege to that ca¬ 
pital, 1235 ; but they were obliged to retreat with great 
lofs. A renewed attempt the next year was not more 
fuccefsful ; but the death of John de Brienne would pro¬ 
bably have occafioned the final fall of the city, had not a 
mifunderftanding arifen between John and Azan, the lat¬ 
ter of whom joined the Latins. John, however, pro¬ 
ceeded in a courfe of conqueft, in which he recovered all 
the other places which the Latins had difmembered from, 
the empire of the Eaft, and reduced under his dominion 
the European territories almoft to the gates of Conftan¬ 
tinople, and nearly the whole of Afia Minor. While he 
was thus victorious in war, he was equally diftinguifhed 
for the excellence of his internal adminiftration, by which, 
he reftored profperity to the haraffed fubjerts of the 
eaftern empire. The imperial domain in Alia became the 
granary of the country, and a fource of wealth to the em¬ 
peror, which he liberally employed in inftitutions for the 
public welfare. He encouraged agriculture and the ufe- 
ful arts, and promoted fimplicity and regularity of man¬ 
ners. After the death of his firft wife, he was contracted 
to a daughter of the emperor Frederic II. but her imma¬ 
ture age gave occafion to the fway of a concubine, for 
whom he betrayed a weaknefs which is almoft the dole 
blemifh of his character. After a glorious reign of thirty- 
three years, he died in 1255, at the age of fixty-twp. 
JOHN V. Cantacuzenus, emperor of the Eaft, was 
of a noble race, defeended from the paladins of France. 
He was one of the principal confidants of the younger 
Andronicus at the time of his revolt from his grandfather; 
and he arted with great vigour and fidelity in the fervice 
of the young prince, whatever might be the juftice of his 
condurt with refpert to the old emperor. In the reign 
of young Andronicus he held the office of great domejhc , 
by virtue of which he ruled both the emperor and the 
empire. At the death of that prince, in 1341, Cantacu¬ 
zenus was left guardian to the eldeft of his fons, then 
nine years of age, and regent of the empire. He governed 
with equity and prudence, and carefully attended to the 
education of the young emperor and his brother; but the 
tranquillity of his adminiftration was difturbed by the 
ambition and artifice of the great duke Apocaucus, who 
infufed a jealoufy of the regent into the emprefs-do wager, 
and encouraged her to affert a maternal right to the tute¬ 
lage of her fon. The patriarch John joined in the oppo- 
fition, and brought forward his own claim to the office 
of guardian ; and fuch was the power of the cabal, that 
Cantacuzenus, during an abfence from court, received an 
order to refign ; and upon his refufal, till he fliould have 
openly juftified his condurt, was declared a public enemy. 
Being thus driven to defperate meafures, he liftened to 
the advice of his friends, and caufed himfelf to be declared 
emperor at Didymoticum in 1342. A civil war enfued, 
in which Cantacuzenus was at firft deferted by his fol¬ 
lowers, and obliged to take refuge in Servia. Hoftilities 
continued for feveral years, to the great prejudice of the 
empire, which was defolated by the barbarian troops hired 
by each party. In particular, Cantacuzenus, by marry¬ 
ing his daughter to a Turkifh emir, and (flowing the Ma¬ 
hometans the way into Europe, did lafting injury to the 
Chriftia».cauie. The death of Apocaucus at length gave 
a pre- 
