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36 DESTEUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE so doing he became free to assist in organising the long- threatened expedition for the restoration of the Latin empire. Michael in reply simply contented himself with the omission of the pope's name from the prayers. Martin followed up his excommunication by joining in a league with Charles of Anjou and the Venetians in order to replace Michael by Philip, the son of Baldwin the Latin emperor. In the following year the pope in renewing his excommunication gave the emperor until May 1, 1282, within which to submit himself under pain of being deposed. Michael's position was desperate. He had alienated his own subjects ; he had risked his throne, imprisoned his nearest relations, had tried bribes, intrigues, flattery, and force. Worse than all, he had been forced to allow the various hordes of Moslems in Asia Minor — Turks, Kurds, and Tartars — to encroach on the territory of the empire at a time when, if he had had a free hand, a serious check might have been put to their progress. All was in vain. His failure with the popes was now as complete as with his own people. The threat of an expedition under Charles of Anjou was so serious that he sent thirty thousand ounces of gold to Peter of Aragon to assist him in defeating Charles and diverting his expedition from the Bosporus. He became irritable and melancholy at the obstinacy of his subjects and punished them with unreasonable severity and great cruelty. 1 The pope's expedition was, however, put an end to by the Sicilian Vespers in March 1282. The forces of Charles of Anjou found other employment than an expedition to Death of Constantinople. In December of the same year Michael Michael 3 • 9 viii. died. 2 1 Pach. vi. 24 and 25. 2 I have relied mostly for this account of the attempt at Union on Pachymer (I agree with Krumbacher's high estimate of the value of this author's history) : ' Pachymeres ragt durch seine Bildung und litterarische Thatigkeit iiber seine Zeitgenossen empor und kann als cler grosste byzantinische Polyhistor des 13. Jahrhunderts bezeichnet werden. In ihm erblickt man deutlich die Licht- und Schattenseiten des Zeitalters der Palaologen. Es fehlt dem Pachymeres nicht an Gelehrsamkeit, Originalitat und Witz.' Geschichte der Byzantinischen Litteratur, p. 289* Pachymer was himself a Greek, born in Nicaea but a