His name was Alexius; and the epithet of great [201] was applied perhaps to his stature, rather than to his exploits.

By the indulgence of the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke of Trebizond: [21] [211] his birth gave him ambition, the revolution independence; and, without changing his title, he reigned in peace from Sinope to the Phasis, along the coast of the Black Sea.

His nameless son and successor [212] is described as the vassal of the sultan, whom he served with two hundred lances: that Comnenian prince was no more than duke of Trebizond, and the title of emperor was first assumed by the pride and envy of the grandson of Alexius.

In the West, a third fragment was saved from the common shipwreck by Michael, a bastard of the house of Angeli, who, before the revolution, had been known as a hostage, a soldier, and a rebel.

His flight from the camp of the marquis Boniface secured his freedom; by his marriage with the governor's daughter, he commanded the important place of Durazzo, assumed the title of despot, and founded a strong and conspicuous principality in Epirus, AEtolia, and Thessaly, which have ever been peopled by a warlike race.