Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/99

65 CHAPTEE IV DYNASTIC STBUG-GKLES IN EMPIRE I APPEALS TO POPE FOE AID ; BEIG-NS OF ANDEONICUS THE SECOND, JOHN CAN- TACUZENUS AND JOHN ; EEPEATED FAILUEE OF EFFOETS BY POPES TO INDUCE WESTEEN POWEES TO ASSIST IN CHECKING MOSLEM ADVANCE. When, in 1320, the Emperor Michael the Ninth died, the empire was already threatened by large and ever-increasing armies of Asiatics, both on the north and on the south. Those on the south were steadily being incorporated into the group ruled over by Othman. The sixty years which had passed since the expulsion of the Latins had nevertheless done something, though not much, towards restoring the empire. Territory had been recovered. The walls of the capital had been repaired. The population had begun once again to look to the emperor at Constantinople as their natural ruler. 1 On the other hand the ravages of war had been terrible. Distressed The population of those portions of the Balkan peninsula o?^he ion which were under the rule of the empire had greatly ei ^p^e. diminished. Thousands had been murdered by the Catalan Grand Company and their allies during their successive devastations of the country. Land had gone out of cultiva- tion. In Asia Minor many of the Christian inhabitants had voluntarily submitted to the Turks to save their lives or to obtain protection. The demand for soldiers to serve the 1 Sir John Maundeville, who visited Constantinople in 1322, remarks on the diminution of the empire : ' For he was emperor of Bomania and of Greece, of all Asia the Less, and of the land of Syria, of the land of Persia and Arabia but he hath lost all but Greece ' (Early Travels in Palestine, p. 130). F