AN'DRONI'CUS. The name of four Byzan tine emperors.—AmmoNteus 1. (1110-S5) was the son of Isaac Comnenus. This life was full of vicissitudes. During part of his youth he was a prisoner of the Turks in Asia Minor. He after ward spent some time at the court of his cousin, the Emperor Manuel, and a niece of the Emperor became his mistress. lie was appointed to a mil itary command in Cilieia; but, although the favorite of the army, his imprudence and waste of time in dissolute pleasures involved him in de feat. Having engaged in a treasonable corre spondence with the King of Hungary and the German Emperor, he was thrown into prison by Manuel, and remained there more than twelve years. At last he succeeded in making his escape. and reached Kiev, the residence of Prince Yaro.slay. lie regained the favor of his cousin by persuading the Russian Prince to join iu the invasion of Ilungary, but incurred his cousin's displeasure again by refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Prince of Hungary, the intended husband of Manuel's daughter, as presumptive heir to the Empire. Ile was sent in honorable banishment to Cilieia, where he found a new mistress in a sister of the Empress. The resentment of the Emperor breaking out against him, he sought refuge in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His professions of zeal caused his former conduct to be forgotten, and he was in vested with the lordship of Berytus; but his prof ligacy became, if possible, more scandalous than ever. He seduced Theodora, the widow of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, who lived with him for years as his mistress. The Emperor's anger made the Syrian coast unsafe for him, and he fled with Theodora to Damascus, and finally settled down among the Turks in Asia Minor, with a band of outlaws, making frequent inroads into the Roman province of Trebizond, from which he carried away spoil and slaves. Theodora and her children were at last taken and sent to Constantinople, and thither lie fol lowed. imploring the forgiveness of the Em
peror, which he obtained; but he was sent to (lino, in Pontus. After the death of Manuel, popular indignation was excited against the Em press. who acted as regent for her son, Alexius II., and Andronicus was recalled, in 1182. to de liver the Empire from her tyranny. He was ap pointed guardian of the young Emperor, and soon after his colleague in the Empire. He caused the Empress-mother to be strangled, and afterward Alexius himself, whose widow he married. His reign, though short, was vigorous, and restored prosperity to the provinces; but tyranny and murder were its characteristics in the capital. Ile set no bounds to the gratification of his re venge against all who hail ever offended him, and his jealousy of possible rivals was equally sanguin ary. At last, a destined victim, Isaac Angelus, one of his relatives, having fled to the church of St. Sophia for sanctuary, a crowd gathered, and a sudden insurrection placed Isaac on the throne, while Androuicus was put to death by the in furiated populace. after horrible mutilations and tortures, on September 12. 1185. Ile was the last, of the Comneni that sat on the throne of Constantinople; but the succeeding dukes and emperors of Trehizond were descendants of his son, Alanuel.—Axintoxicus II. (1260-1332), the son of Michael 1 'a tvologus, ascended the throne in 1282; but, a weak and inglorious reign, was driven from it, in 1328, by Ids grandson.— A NunoNictis. ( 1291i-1311 ) , after a reign equal ly inglorious, died in 1341.—AstmoNters IV., as the result of a conspiracy against his father. John Pahrologns, was proclaimed Emperor, 1377. but was oldiged to abdicate and beg forgive the following year. Consult Gibbon, De cline and Fall of the Roman Empire.