One of the most important figures in the history of fourteenth
century Byzantium was John Cantacuzenus, a military commander under Andronicus
III, who then rebelled against the regency government of Anna of Savoy,
and himself emperor from 1347 to 1354. Furthermore, John also wrote
a history of this period, including his own reign, one of the very few
chronicles to be written by a medieval ruler (he refers to himself in the
third person). Although biased in favour of himself, John's account
is a very important source for the internal and external threats faced
by the Byzantine empire. In the section translated below, two conflicts
are reported: the first takes place in the early summer of 1348, when the
Emperor was planning a campaign against Serbia, but had to disband his
forces before hearing of Turkish raids in Thrace. The second conflict
involves the Genoese colony of Galata, which lies just outside of Constantinople.
The Genoese demanded to have their colony's boundaries and their fortifications
extended, but were refused by the emperor. This would lead to hostilities
between the Genoese and the Byzantines (who are called Romans).
During the time that the emperor was ill in Didymoteichus, the war
with the Latins of Galata flared up. It took its origin from the
following source. These people were hostile to the Romans and always
plotting; they were most ready to break oaths if they regarded any undertaking
as possible. In fact while the young Andronicus was still alive,
they gained possession of Phokaia and Mitylene in violation of their oaths
even though they were able to profit nothing from their treachery. Righty,
they were driven out with the disgrace which they deserved. After Andronicus'
death, when the Romans were involved in the civil war, they attacked and
conquered Chios without a thought of the oaths and pacts with the empress
Anna. Later, when there was peace and the emperor Cantacuzenus had mastered
the situation, they came forward and asked the emperor to yield to them
the piece of land above their fortification, offering the excuse that they
were about to enclose an area larger than their fort which was insufficient
to house them, whereas in fact they wished to surround this land with walls
so that it would not be easy to besiege them. Since this place was so steep
that it hung above their heads, it would be the source of much injury,
if ever it happened that war broke out with the Romans. In fact they were
planning nothing trivial but they wanted to control the sea and, as though
the sea belonged to them, to prevent the Romans from sailing. For they
saw that the Romans, at that time more than any other, were turning their
attention to the sea and possessed merchant ships and quite a few other
cargo carriers, since the emperor Cantacuzenus had taken great interest
in this. They suspected that the emperor would not tolerate their plans.
Therefore, before they revealed what they had in mind, they wanted to take
over beforehand the places which they viewed with suspicion and from which
they thought they could be harmed.
The emperor was not ignorant of their intention, but he prepared ships so that, if it were necessary to fight, the Romans would be ready, and he altogether forbade the surrendering of this piece of land to the Genoese. He knew that they kept away from foolish plots rather because of fear than because of goodwill or respect for oaths. For this reason the other Latins compare this race to asses. For, if the driver of an ass is ever unable to lay on heavy blows, the ass does not walk straight along the road but turns aside and carelessly diverts his attention from the journey because the driver is powerless. These people too, unless they have some fear of suffering hanging over them, will never want to do what they must for any other reason. Since the emperor knew their treachery, he did not hand over the piece of land. When the Genoese saw the galleys being prepared and were as much annoyed by their failure to obtain the land as by the multitude of merchant ships which the Romans possessed, they decided to begin a war in order both to keep the Romans from the sea and to fortify the piece of land, if they could, against the emperor's will. They collected unhewn rocks under some other pretext, and procured other materials in secret.
When the emperor was known to be sick in Didymoteichus, they thought that the time was most opportune for their attempt. First, by night they suddenly attacked the Roman dwellings on the opposite shore and set fire to all the houses. On the next day they armed their own galleys which had been readied and as many light boats and fast-sailing ones as they had, and burned the houses outside the walls of Byzantium along the sea. They also captured some transports while others they burned. They burned all the galleys which had been prepared except three which, under the orders of the emperor's son, the Byzantines took from the place called Kosmidion where they were being readied, since the destruction was encompassing everything. Leading them across the river which flows by the place called Pissa, they dragged them up onto dry land and, placing a guard on either side, they watched over them.
Thus the Latins clearly were the cause of the war against the Romans,
and now that they had gained control of the sea, they sailed up and down
along the coasts, causing destruction and consigning everything to the
flames. They also sallied forth together and first fortified the hill,
raising a tower on its summit. Both men and women displayed equally every
eagerness. Even the most distinguished did not consider it beneath them
to take part with the others in the construction. After marking out the
rest of the land, they then fortified it with a wall as far as the material
would go, raising the wall to a height they thought sufficient. They contrived
every other means of safety from their resources. To the extent they were
unable to construct a wall because of a lack of material, they enclosed
the ground with great palisades and stakes so that in a short time the
whole area was surrounded. When the emperor learned of the outrages of
the men from Galata, he was quite distressed because he suffered such things
at the hands of the Latins who dwelled in the land of the Romans and ought
rightly to serve them punctiliously. Despite his condition and although
he still suffered from the disease, he came to Byzantium.
The Latins in Galata hoped that, when the emperor arrived, he would
immediately abandon the war against them, would yield everything to them
which they wanted, and would come to an accord, leaving them rulers of
the sea. When nothing turned out as they expected, but rather they saw
the emperor constructing ships and preparing for battle, they changed their
course and sent an embassy to open discussions concerning peace. The emperor
berated them for their treachery and ill will, that they had acted so unfairly,
and unjustly had begun such destruction, though they had suffered no injustice
either earlier or later at his hands nor had brought forth any pretext
for war. Then he commanded them to leave the place they had fortified
and to level the walls. On these terms he would offer them a treaty
and a peace including indemnity for the things they damaged during the
war. They paid practically no attention to him, but said that the emperor
had to hand over to them the area which had been fortified or they would
attend to none of their obligations. Immediately the war was stepped
up and the Galatans sailed around destroying those whom they encountered.
When they had made the sea unnavigable for the Romans, they placed upon
a transport of huge tonnage a siege engine by means of which a stone could
be thrown of such a weight that a healthy man might pick it up. Then
pulling along the transport with a galley, they hurled stones everywhere
inside the city, but they caused no damage.
Since the emperor was unable immediately to oppose them by sea because he had no galleys, he sent an army by land and ordered that frequent attacks be made. These caused as much damage as possible. He was not, however, completely unmindful of the sea, but set up giant-sized machines, designed to hurl rocks, and ordered that stones be launched from Byzantium against Galata. They reached across and destroyed many houses, especially those along the sea, and the stones did considerable damage to the transports of the Latins. These catapults sank the transport carrying the war machine so that the sailors barely fled the danger. The Latins, on their part, sent two embassies, and then a third one, for peace, but the emperor would not be content unless they levelled the walls and left the fort.
While quite same time was spent in these matters and while the galleys were being constructed, the emperor selected sailors and heavily-armed soldiers and readied all else for battle. He appointed as generals the protostrator Fazzolati over the three galleys along the Pissa, and Tzamplakon, the megadux, over those built in the Reptaskalon. In a spirit of rivalry the megadux desired that his ships perform more impressively since they were the largest in size. He set wooden towers on them and roofed over the rowers. He made the galleys twice as large and placed on board a great number of heavily-armed troops and light-armed soldiers. This caused a great deal of harm during the battle as will be related a little later.
On the day before the galleys were going to be brought out from the dock, a transport was sighted sailing from Genoa and carrying, it was said, great riches. When the winds stopped and conditions kept the ship from sailing, she anchored near the Island of the Princes. At night two imperial galleys with the same number of single-tiered ships put to sea. When they attacked the transport and those inside put up a strong defence, the men from the galleys hurled fire and thus won the engagement. They boarded the transport and killed quite a few of the defenders and were soon masters of the situation. But when vague rumors reached the galleys that Latin galleys were sailing from Galata, the Byzantines turned to flight, leaving a little less than fifty of their own men on the transport. The rumors were completely false. When the Romans left on the transport discovered that their galleys had sailed away and that they were helpless, they came to terms with the Latins who had already been conquered by force. Then they made an agreement so that they extinguished together the blaze aboard the ship in order that they themselves might not be destroyed. They also agreed that if, on the following day, the Romans were to sail out and gain control of the transport, the Romans who had been left behind would intercede with their leaders and save the Latins along with themselves. However, if the Latins sailed out and took over the transport, the Latins aboard ship agreed to do the same thing for the Romans. This was in fact what happened dust at dawn. Since all the imperial galleys were not fitted out, the Latins set sail and towed in the half-burnt transport. But those Latins on the ship saved the Romans according to the oaths.
When all the imperial galleys had been thoroughly readied, they set out from the dockyard, fittingly equipped and inferior to none of the fleets mustered by the Romans in many years, both in numbers of heavily-armed troops and in the splendor and scale of the preparations. Quite a few single-tiered vessels, both fast-sailing vessels and small boats carrying heavily-armed soldiers, accompanied the fleet, and all joined in the expedition eagerly because of their hatred of the Latins. The Latins, struck by the size of the armada, considered everything other than engaging in a sea battle with the imperial galleys. They waited at anchor in front of their fortifications with their own galleys filled as if they were about to ram the attacking imperial boats, but they were prepared in such a way that they would pull up the galleys onto the beach with small cords if they saw the imperial boats attacking and would defend themselves from the walls. They were men with but the faintest hopes of being saved inside the walls. After the imperial galleys had sailed out from the dockyard, they passed the night somewhere near by since the commanders intended that on the following day, when they were united with the three ships of Fazzolati, they would attack by sea. Fazzolati himself had armed his galleys and had readied himself to set out on the next day. The emperor sent many good cavalry with his son, the despot, so that they would attack from the land when the galleys began to fight.
When it was daylight, the galleys which had put to sea from the dockyard were already at the gate of Eugenius while those with the protostrator Fazzolati had also set out from the river and were pressing on to be with the others in the same place. God directed all and fairly weighed the Romans in all things and, as it seems, took vengeance to the full for their many other sins by allowing them to be defeated by a much inferior force. Suddenly an unexpected wind fell upon them and upset the first three galleys on which the wooden towers stood. The rest of the men with their armor fell from the other ships into the sea, sailors as well as heavily-armed soldiers, and in one instant all the boats appeared empty of seamen. At the same time the men whom Pazzolati commanded fell from the decks into the sea so that there was a general destruction of sailors as well as of heavily-armed soldiers. Many in fact were saved since the capsizing occurred close to land, but a little less than two hundred died in the water. From among those assigned to Tzamplakon, the megadux, Manuel Philanthropinos died, the commander of the admiral's ship, a man noble in strength and especially enjoying the good will of the emperor. The Latins in Galata put to sea with revived courage and, taking the galleys in tow, pulled them up onto the beach. No one prevented them or defended the ships, so that they had a bloodless victory.
The land army with the emperor's son wished to execute their task since they thought that the naval force would attack from the sea, but, when they saw the empty Roman ships pulled up on the beach, they also retreated. When the emperor saw such a large force, destroyed for no reason, he first bemoaned such misfortune for the Romans, since he knew that an offense against God was the cause of such evils, but thereafter was unyielding in his purpose and did not falter because of the defeat. Rather he immediately commanded them to set out and cut wood in order to prepare galleys once more, and he put in charge men responsible for the work.
The men in Galata considered that day most fortunate on which they had
overcome such a multitude of enemy ships, when they had themselves contributed
nothing to the defeat. They feasted not only in honor of their victory
but also in honor of their salvation since all their hopes for salvation
had been very slim. On the following day they fitted out all their
own galleys by crowning them in honor of the victory and by decorating
them fittingly. They sailed opposite the palace, trailing along in
dishonor the conquered imperial banners as was the custom. They thought
that the emperor, defeated in his purpose by the failure, would immediately
renounce the war and yield to peace by handing over the piece of land.
When he responded to them not at all as they hoped, and they learned that
the emperor was again preparing to construct galleys, they sent an embassy
and opened discussions concerning peace. First, they tested the emperor
to see if he would surrender to them the piece of land. When they saw that
he was in no way frightened nor defeated in his purpose, but that he considered
this misfortune as the price of acme other sins and held on firmly to his
former resolve, and even if he should suffer countless defeats, he would
not be willing to surrender the land, and when they saw that he was rather
moved to anger at the defeat and was more eager for preparations as though
dust now he had for the first time undertaken the war, they were afraid
that their love of strife would end in disaster for them and agreed to
leave the land.
This text is from The History of John Cantacuzenus (Book IV): Text,
Translation and Commentary, by Timothy S. Miller (PhD diss. Catholic University
of America, 1975).