Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantium and the Crusades

Policies of Manuel I and the Second Crusade 

Page 18

It might be more correct to say that the decline of the Empire had begun much earlier, in the epoch of the Macedonian dynasty, after the death of Basil II Bulgaroctonus in 1025. The first two Comneni, Alexius and John, succeeded in retarding the progress of the decline, but they failed to stop it. The erroneous policy of Manuel led the Empire again into the path of decline and this time into definite decadence. Hertzberg commented: with Manuel, the ancient brilliance and ancient greatness of Byzantium sank into the grave forever. This opinion of the historian of the nineteenth century agrees with the words of a well-known writer of the end of the twelfth century, contemporary with the Comneni and Angeli, Eustathius of Thessalonica: According to divine purpose, with the death of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus there has perished all that still remained intact from the Romans, and darkness has enveloped all our country as if it were under an eclipse of the sun.

Such a colorful figure as that of Manuel Comnenus could not fail to leave a deep impress far beyond the confines of the Byzantine Empire. His name and his exploits, the latter mostly legendary, were well known in the Russian heroic epics and in Russian songs, as well as in the Russian annals. Manuel sent to the princess of Polotzk, Euphrosinia, an icon of the Mother of God, of Ephesus. It should not be forgotten that the famous legendary letter of Prester John was addressed to Manuel

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