|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE | LIBRARIES | BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | FREEWARE | BOOKSTORE |
|
|
The First Crusade and Byzantium
|
Page 25
In the external life of the Empire, Alexius succeeded in a very hard task. Very often Alexius' activity has been considered and estimated from the point of view of his relations to the crusaders, but not from the point of view of the total of his external policy. Such a point of view is undoubtedly wrong.
In one of his letters, Alexius' contemporary, the archbishop of Bulgaria, Theophylact, using the words of a Psalm (79:13) compares the Bulgarian province with a grape-vine, whose fruit is plucked by all who pass by. This comparison, as says the French historian Chalandon, may be applied to the Eastern Empire of the time of Alexius. All his neighbors tried to take advantage of the weakness of the Empire and to seize some of its regions. The Normans, Patzinaks, Seljuqs, and the crusaders threatened Byzantium. Alexius, who had received the Empire in a state of weakness, succeeded in making adequate resistance to them all and thereby delayed for a considerable time the process of the dissolution of Byzantium. Under Alexius, the frontiers of the state, both in Europe and in Asia, were extended. The Empire's enemies were forced to recede everywhere, so that, on the territorial side, his rule signifies an incontestable progress. The charges particularly often brought against Alexius concerning his relations to the crusaders must be given up, if we consider Alexius as a sovereign defending the interests of his state, to which the westerners, full of desire to pillage and spoil, were a serious danger. Thus, in his external policy Alexius successfully overcame all difficulties, improved the international position of the Empire, extended its limits, and for a time stopped the progress of the numerous enemies who on all sides pressed against the Empire
A History of the Byzantine Empire - Table of Contents
|
|
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/vasilief/first-crusade.asp?pg=25
