Note 021
Except some facts in Pachymer and Nicephorus Gregoras,
which will hereafter be used, the Byzantine writers disdain to speak of the
empire of Trebizond, or principality of the Lazi; and among the
latins, it is conspicuous only in the romances of the 14th or 15th
centuries. Yet the indefatigable Duncange has dug out (Fam. Byz. p192.)
two authentic passages in Vincent of Beauvais (l. xxxi. c. 144.), and
the protonotary Ogerius (apud Wading, A.D. 1279, No. 4.).
Extra note by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782(Written), 1845(Revised)
On the revolutions of Trebizond under the later empire down to this period, see Fallmerayer, Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, ch. iii. The wife of Manuel fled with her infant sons and her treasure from the relentless enmity of Isaac Angelus. Fallmerayer conjectures that her arrival enabled the Greeks of that region to make head against the formidable Thamar, the Georgian queen of Teflis, p. 42. They gradually formed a dominion on the banks of the Phasis, which the distracted government of the Angeli neglected or were unable to suppress. On the capture of Constantinople by the Latins, Alexius was joined by many noble fugitives from Constantinople. He had always retained the name of Caesar. He now fixed the seat of his empire at Trebizond; but he had never abandoned his pretensions to the Byzantine throne, ch. iii. Fallmerayer appears to make out a triumphant case as to the assumption of the royal title by Alexius the First. Since the publication of M. Fallmerayer's work, (Munchen, 1827,) M. Tafel has published, at the end of the opuscula of Eustathius, a curious chronicle of Trebizond by Michael Panaretas, (Frankfort, 1832.) It gives the succession of the emperors, and some other curious circumstances of their wars with the several Mahometan powers.
The History Of The Decline And
Fall Of The Roman Empire
—Fall In The East
—Chapter 61