§ 1. Changes in the Frontier of the Empire.
♦Power of revival in the Empire.♦
In tracing the fluctuations of the frontier of the Eastern Empire from the beginning of the ninth century, we are struck by the wonderful power of revival and reconquest which is shown throughout the whole history. Except the lands which were won by the first Saracens, hardly a province was finally lost till it had been once or twice won back. No one could have dreamed that the Empire of the seventh century, cut short by the Slavonic settlements to a mere fringe on its European coasts, could ever have become the Empire of the eleventh century, holding a solid mass of territory from Tainaros to the Danube. But before this great revival, the borders of the Empire had both advanced and fallen back in the farther West. ♦Sardinia, Sicily, Southern Italy.♦ At the time of the separation of the Empires, the New Rome still held Sardinia, Sicily, and a small part of southern Italy. The heel of the boot still formed the theme of Lombardy,[25] while the toe took the name of Calabria which had once belonged to the heel. Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi were outlying Italian cities of the Empire; so was Venice, which can hardly be called an Italian city. ♦Loss of the islands.
Advance on the continent.♦ In the course of the ninth century the power of the Empire was cut short in the islands, but advanced on the mainland. ♦Loss of Sardinia.♦ The history of Sardinia is utterly obscure; but it seems to have passed away from the Empire by the beginning of the ninth century. ♦Loss of Sicily, 827-965.♦ Sicily was now conquered bit by bit by the Saracens of Africa during a struggle of one hundred and forty years. ♦Loss of Agrigentum, 827;
of Palermo, 831;♦ Agrigentum, opposite to the African coast, fell first; Palermo, once the seat of Phœnician rule, became four years later the new Semitic capital. ♦Messina, 842;♦ Messina on the strait soon followed; but the eastern side of the island, its most thoroughly Greek side, held out much longer. ♦Malta, 869;♦ Before the conquest of this region, Malta, the natural appendage to Sicily, passed into Saracen hands. ♦Syracuse, 878.♦ Syracuse, the Christian capital, did not fall till fifty years after the first invasion, and in the north-western corner of the island a remnant still held out for nearly ninety years. ♦Tauromenion, 902-963.
Rametta, 965.♦ Tauromenion or Taormina, on its height, had to be twice taken in the course of the tenth century, and the single fort of Rametta, the last stronghold of Eastern Christendom in the West, held out longer still. By this time Eastern Christendom was fast advancing on Islam in Asia; but the greatest of Mediterranean islands passed from Christendom to Islam, from Europe to Africa, and a Greek-speaking people was cut off from the Empire which was fast becoming Greek. ♦Partial recovery and final loss of Sicily, 1038-1042.♦ But the complete and uninterrupted Mussulman dominion in Sicily was short. The Imperial claims were never forgotten, and in the eleventh century they were again enforced. By the arms of George Maniakês, Messina and Syracuse, with a part of the island which at the least took in the whole of its eastern side, was, if only for a few years, restored to the Imperial rule.
♦Advance of the Empire in Italy.♦
While Sicily was thus lost bit by bit, the power of the Empire was advancing in the neighbouring mainland of Italy. ♦Taking of Bari, 871.♦ Bari was won back for Christendom from the Saracen by the combined powers of both Empires; but the lasting possession of the prize fell to the Cæsar of the East. At the end of the ninth century, the Eastern Empire claimed either the direct possession or the superiority of all southern Italy from Gaeta downwards. ♦Fluctuations of the Imperial power in Italy.♦ The extent of the Imperial dominion was always fluctuating; there was perhaps no moment when the power of the Emperors was really extended over this whole region; but there was perhaps no spot within it which did not at some time or other admit at least the Imperial overlordship. The eastern coast, with the heel and the toe in a wider sense than before, became a real and steady possession, while the allegiance of Beneventum, Capua, and Salerno was always very precarious. ♦Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi.♦ But Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi, however nominal their allegiance might be, never formally cast it aside.
Thus, at the beginning of the ninth century, the Eastern Emperors held all Sicily, with some patches of territory on the neighbouring mainland. At the beginning of the eleventh century, the island had been wholly lost, while the dominion on the mainland had been greatly enlarged. ♦The Normans in Italy and Sicily.♦ In the course of the eleventh century a new power, the Normans of Apulia, conquered the Italian possessions of the Empire, won Sicily from the Mussulman, and even made conquests from the Empire east of the Hadriatic. Thus arose the Sicilian kingdom, the growth of which will best be traced when we come to the powers which arose out of the breaking-up of the Empire.
The great islands of the Eastern Mediterranean also fluctuated between Byzantine and Saracen dominion. ♦Loss of Crete, 823.♦ Crete was won by a band of Mussulman adventurers from Spain nearly at the time when the conquest of Sicily began. ♦Its recovery, 963.♦ It was won back in the great revival of the Imperial power one hundred and forty years later. ♦Cyprus lost, 708; recovered and lost again c. 881-888; recovered again, 965.♦ Cyprus was lost sooner; but it went through many fluctuations and divisions, a recovery and a second loss, before its final recovery at the same time as the recovery of Crete and the complete loss of Sicily. ♦Loss and gain among the great islands.♦ Looking at the Empire simply as a power, there can be no doubt that the loss of Sicily was altogether overbalanced by the recovery of Crete and Cyprus. Geographically Sicily was an outlying Greek island; Crete and Cyprus lay close to the body of the Empire, essential parts of a Greek state. But Crete and Cyprus, as lands which had been lost and won back, were among the lands where the tendency to fall away from within showed itself earliest. Crete never actually separated from the Empire. ♦Separation of Cyprus, 1182-1185.
Conquered by Richard of Poitou, 1191.♦ Cyprus fell away under a rebel Emperor, to be presently conquered by Richard, Count of Poitou and King of England, and to pass away from the Empire for ever.
♦Fluctuations in the possession of the great islands, 801.♦
We may thus sum up the fluctuations in the possession of the great islands. At the beginning of the ninth century, the Eastern Empire still took in Sardinia, Sicily, and Crete; Cyprus was in the hands of the Saracens. ♦901.♦ At the beginning of the tenth century, the Empire held nothing in any of the four except the north-eastern corner of Sicily. ♦1001.♦ At the beginning of the eleventh, Crete and Cyprus had been won back; Sicily was wholly lost. ♦1101.♦ At the beginning of the twelfth, Crete and Cyprus were still Imperial possessions; a great part of Sicily had been won and lost again. ♦1201.♦ At the beginning of the thirteenth, Cyprus, like Sicily, had passed to a Western master; Crete was still held by the Empire, but only by a very feeble tie. Thus they stood at the fall of the old Roman Empire of the East; of the revived Empire of the Palaiologoi none of them ever formed a part.
♦Relations of the Empire towards the Slavonic powers.♦