But his successor was vain and jealous of the supreme power, which he wanted courage and abilities to exercise: his vices were pernicious, his virtues (if he possessed any virtues) were useless, to mankind; and the Greeks, who imputed their calamities to his negligence, denied him the merit of any transient or accidental benefits of the times.

Isaac slept on the throne, and was awakened only by the sound of pleasure: his vacant hours were amused by comedians and buffoons, and even to these buffoons the emperor was an object of contempt: his feasts and buildings exceeded the examples of royal luxury: the number of his eunuchs and domestics amounted to twenty thousand; and a daily sum of four thousand pounds of silver would swell to four millions sterling the annual expense of his household and table.
His poverty was relieved by oppression; and the public discontent was inflamed by equal abuses in the collection, and the application, of the revenue.

While the Greeks numbered the days of their servitude, a flattering prophet, whom he rewarded with the dignity of patriarch, assured him of a long and victorious reign of thirty-two years; during which he should extend his sway to Mount Libanus, and his conquests beyond the Euphrates.

But his only step towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin, [19] to demand the restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an offensive and defensive league with the enemy of the Christian name.

In these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his brother, the remains of the Greek empire crumbled into dust.