THE HISTORY OF GREECE UNDER OTHOMAN AND VENETIAN DOMINATION BY GEORGE FINLAY, LL.D. Hon Member of the Royal Society of Literature, Member of the American Antiquarian "From out the mass of never-dying ill, The plague, the prince, the stranger, and the sword, Vials of wrath but emptied to refill 1663 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS PREFACE. THIS Volume concludes the HISTORY OF GREECE UNDER FOREIGN DOMINATION. I have divided the long records of Hellenic servitude, which embrace nearly two thousand years, into six periods, each offering a distinct phase of Greek history:-1. Greece under the Romans; 2. The Byzantine Empire; 3. Greece under the Crusaders, who destroyed the Byzantine Empire; 4. The Greek Empire of Constantinople; 5. The Empire of Trebizond; and, 6. The Othoman and Venetian Domination.* I commenced this work as an introduction to the History of the Greek Revolution. My original design was enlarged by the conviction that in history there is no present. Without an accurate knowledge of the various ties which connect the events we witness with The four volumes previously published are I. GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS; an Historical View of the Condition of the Greek Nation, from its Conquest by the Romans until the Extinction of the Roman Power in the East, B.C. 146 to A.D. 716. II. III. THE HISTORY OF THE Byzantine Empire, A.D. 716 to 1204. The History of the Greek Empire of Nicæa and Constantinople, A.D. 1204 to 1453. IV. MEDIEVAL GREECE AND TREBIZOND; the History of Greece from its Conquest by the Crusaders to its Conquest by the Turks, A.D. 1204 to 1566. THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND, A.D. 1204 to 1461. those that have preceded; without a just appreciation of the circumstances which have moulded the characters of both nations and statesmen; and without some perception of the progress of public events which must exert an influence over the future, it is impossible to form an equitable judgment on the history of our own times. My object in becoming an author was to trace the success of the Greek Revolution to its true causes, and to examine the circumstances which tend to facilitate or to obstruct the progress of the Greeks in their attempt to consolidate a system of civil liberty on the firm basis of national institutions. The records of foreign domination in Greece may be extended to the year 1843, when a popular insurrection put an end to the domination of Bavarian officials, and rendered the Greeks the arbiters of their political organisation. That revolution was perhaps the true term of my History; but the difficulty of combining calm criticism of the acts of living men with an impartial narrative of contemporary events, makes me doubt whether I am competent to be the historian of the Greek Revolution. "He who the sword of Heaven will bear, ATHENS, 1st December 1855. GEORGE FINLAY. |