Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 61 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 61 takes up partition of the Empire by the French and Venetians—Five Latin emperors of the Houses of Flanders and Courtenay—Their wars against the Bulgarians and Greeks—Weakness and poverty of the Latin Empire—Recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks—General consequences of the Crusades. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.