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200 DESTBUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE depend are mostly Churchmen, who describe the persons of whom they write as if they felt bound to make them corre- spond with one of half a dozen approved models. The absence of better indications may be accounted for. The subjects of the empire during the century and a half preceding 1453 lived in the midst of alarms. Its boundaries had been constantly changing and continually narrowing. Disaster followed disaster ; usurpations, dynastic struggles, inroads of Genoese and Venetians ; struggles with them and between them ; ever encroaching Turks, battles, triumphs, defeats, hopes of final success, but territory still decreasing ; hope of aid from the West or from Tamerlane ; illusions all : finally the last siege and extinction. The writers in the midst of such times thought they had more important matter to deal with than the depiction of scenes of domestic character or delineations of prominent persons.