The Project Gutenberg eBook of Destruction Of The Greek Empire, by Edwin Pears

406 Riccherio, 958: ‘Percioche Maometh pensava, ricreando gli stracchi col rimetter nuove genti nella zuffa, verrebbe a non dar punto di spatio per riposarsi a Greci, di maniera che, non potendo sostener tanta fatica per lo continuo combattimento, si sarebbono agevolmente potuti vincere.’

408 Michael Constantinovich, a Servian who was with a contingent of his countrymen in the Turkish army, says, ‘As far as our help went, the Turks would never have taken the city’ (quoted by Mijatovich, p. 234).

409 τούφακας, Crit. li.

411 Barbaro (54) says, Greeks and Venetians, omitting all mention of the Genoese.

413 Leonard: ‘in loco arduo Myriandri.’

414 Pusculus, iv. 173, and Zorzo Dolfin, 55.

416 Leonard, p. 98: ‘Tenebrosa nox in lucem trahitur, nostris vincentibus. Et dum astra cedunt, dum Phoebi praecedit Lucifer ortum, Illalla, Illalla in martem conclamans, conglobatus in gyrum consurgit exercitus.’

418 Παραπόρτιον ἓν πρὸ πολλῶν χρόνων ἀσφαλῶς πεφραγμένον, ὑπόγαιον, πρὸς τὸ κάτωθεν μέρος τοῦ παλατίου.

419 Its complete name was Porta Xylokerkou, because it led to a wooden circus outside the city. See the subject fully discussed by Professor van Millingen, Byzantine Constantinople, pp. 89–94.

420 I am not satisfied that the Kerkoporta was the one indicated by Professor van Millingen. On the map published by the Greek Syllogos, as well as in Canon Curtis’s Broken Bits of Byzantium, a small postern is shown in the wall immediately south of the tower adjoining Tekfour Serai, and my own recollection is that I saw this walled-up postern with Dr. Paspates in 1875. The wall itself was pulled down on the outbreak of the last Turko-Russian war and replaced by a slighter one. Whichever view be correct, the statement in the text is not affected.

Professor van Millingen contends that the Kerkoporta strictly so called was the small gate in the corner between Tekfour Serai and the adjoining tower on the south. But he maintains also that the postern to which Ducas refers was in the transverse wall, giving access from the city to the Inner Enclosure. He remarks that if the Turks entered by the Kerkoporta they could have mounted the great Inner Wall from the city. As to the latter objection, it must be remembered that the fighters were within the Enclosure defending the Outer Wall, and if the Turks entered through the postern in the transverse wall they would take the fighters in the rear. It would have been a better position for attack than on the Inner Wall.

421 Phrantzes, p. 285.

423 Sad-ud-din gives an interesting variant of the story of Ducas. He states that while ‘the blind-hearted emperor’ was busy resisting the besiegers of the city at his palace to the north of the Adrianople Gate,’ ‘suddenly he became aware that the upraisers of the most glorious standard of “The Word of God” had found a path to within the walls’ (Sad-ud-din, p. 30). The statement that the emperor was present at Tekfour Serai agrees with that of Ducas; but the latter’s account of the events immediately following the entry by the Kerkoporta varies so much from that given by others that I suspect some sentences have dropped out of his narrative.

427 It is difficult to identify the gate described as having been opened on to the stockade. Critobulus gives no further indication of its position than that here mentioned (ch. lx.). Paspates thinks it was a temporary postern, walled up after the siege when the Inner Wall was repaired to prevent smuggling, but would place it not far from Top Capou, a position which cannot be accepted if the stockade were, as I have placed it, near the Military Gate of St. Romanus. The Podestà of Pera, however, says that Justiniani went ‘per ipsam portam per quam Teucri intraverunt’ (p. 648), which would indicate St. Romanus. Andrea Cambini, the Florentine already quoted, in his Libro della Origine de Turchi, published by the sons of the writer, says that Justiniani, who had behaved so well that the salvation of the city was largely attributed to him, was seriously wounded, and, seeing that the blood flowed ‘in great quantity’ and being unwilling that they should fetch a doctor, withdrew secretly from the fight ... all the gates which led from the Antimuro [i.e. the Outer Wall] being closed, because thus the fighters had to conquer or die (p. 25).

428 His monument still exists in the church of S. Domenico at Chios with an epitaph which contains the phrase ‘lethale vulnere ictus interiit.’ Phrantzes says that Justiniani was wounded in the right foot by an arrow; Leonard, by an arrow in the armpit; Chalcondylas, in the hand, by a ball; Critobulus, by a ball in the chest or throat which pierced through his breastplate. The latter statement would be consistent with Tetaldi’s which speaks of the wound inflicted by a culverin. Riccherio says Justiniani was wounded by one of his own men. Barbaro (who, it must always be remembered where he is speaking of the Genoese, was a Venetian and incapable of doing justice to a citizen of the rival republic) does not mention any wound, but states roundly that Justiniani decided to abandon his post and hasten to his ship, which was stationed at the boom.

430 Philip the Armenian, who was probably present in the city, states that Justiniani and his men deserted their stations and that thus the city was lost (pp. 675–6). Riccherio, while speaking of the wound as severe, declares that Justiniani promised to return, and attributes the departure of many of his followers to the fact that the postern gate, which he had required to be opened for his departure, suggested the idea of flight to his men. In other words it created a panic (p. 960). The contemporaries who excuse Justiniani are Cardinal Isidore (Lamentatio, p. 677: ‘Ne caeteros deterreret, remedium quaerens clam sese pugnae subduxit’) and Leonard, who both state that he went away secretly so as not to discourage his followers. Tetaldi further declares that he left his command to two Genoese. Leonard and the Podestà wrote while the impression of the fall and the sack of the city were too recent to enable them to give a cool judgment on Justiniani’s conduct: the latter dating his letter June 23, and the archbishop August 16.

431 Crit. lx.; also Leonard, 99.

435 Phrantzes, p. 285.

436 ‘La prima sbara di barbacan,’ p. 54.

437 Phrantzes, p. 285.

438 Montaldo, xxiii.: ‘insigniis positis.’

439 Montaldo (ch. xxiii.) incidentally confirms the version of Ducas. He states that the emperor determined on death only after he had learned that the enemy had entered the city and had occupied the palace and other places.

440 Leonard, p. 99. In Dethier’s edition a note states that one of the MSS. reads eighty Latins ‘sine Graecis,’ p. 608.

441 Leonard, 99, says that they formed a cuneus or phalanx.

442 Crit. lxi.; Chalc. p. 164. Ahmed Muktar Pasha’s Conquest of Constantinople.

443 Crit. lxi.; Tetaldi, p. 23, speaks of ‘deux banniers.’

444 Crit. lxi.; Tetaldi, p. 29, ‘à l’aube du jour;’ Barbaro (p. 55) at sunrise. Phrantzes says that possession of the city was obtained at half past two, which by the then and present prevalent mode in the East of reckoning time would correspond to about ten. Possession of the city would probably be about three or four hours after the entry through the landward walls. Leonard says: ‘Necdum Phoebus orbis perlustrat hemisphaerium et tota urbs a paganis in praedam occupatur.’

445 P. 647; ‘on the 29th of last month,’ ‘Qua die expectabamus cum desiderio quia videbatur nobis habere certam victoriam.’

446 Crit. ch. lxx. Pusculus gives a somewhat different account (iv. 1025):

Auxilium Deus ipse negavit;
In Tenedi portu nam tempestatibus actae
Stabant bis denae naves, quas Gnosia tellus,
Quae Venetum imperium Rhadamanti legibus audit
Omissis, plenas frumento et frugibus, inde
Bis quinas Veneti mittebant Marte triremes
Instructas, urbi auxilio Danaisque; sed omnes
Mensem unum adverso tenuerunt sidere portum;
Nec prius inde datum est se de statione movere
Quam Teucri capiant urbem regemque trucident.

447 Phrantzes, p. 327.

451 Leonard, p. 99; Polish Janissary, 332; Montaldo notes one report, that he was trampled down in the throng, and another, that his head was cut off. Philelphus (book ii. v. 990) says, ‘Enseque perstricto nunc hos, nunc enecat illos, Donec vita suo dispersa est alma cruore.’

452 See also ch. xxvii. of Montaldo, who adds that the head was sent to the pasha of Babylon accompanied by forty youths and forty virgins, a procession intended to make known the sultan’s great victory.

453 The Turks show a place in the bema of St. Sophia which they pretend to be the tomb of Constantine.

454 Sad-ud-din also makes a Turkish soldier strike off the emperor’s head (p. 31).

455 Phrantzes, p. 291.

456 Until about ten years ago a tomb was shown by local guides to travellers at Vefa Meidan as the burial-place of Constantine. It bore no inscription. M. Mijatovich is mistaken in stating (in Constantine, last Emperor of the Greeks, p. 229), on the authority of the elder Dr. Mordtman, that the Turkish government provides oil for the lamp over his grave. Alongside the alleged grave of Constantine is that of some one else, probably a dervish, and a lamp was burnt there some years ago. Similar lamps are burnt nightly in many other places in Constantinople. It is now entirely neglected. Dr. Paspates suggests, and probably with truth, that the whole story grew out of the desire for custom by the owner of a neighbouring coffee-house.

457 ὡς καλὸν ἐντάφιον ἡ βασιλεία ἐστί. The conclusion of Theodora’s speech as recorded by Procopius.

458 My authority for this statement is on p. 228 of a remarkable book in Turkish, published only in September 1902, describing the ‘Conquest of Constantinople and the establishment of the Turks in Europe.’ Its author is Achmed Muktar Pasha. It is especially valuable as containing many quotations from Turkish authors who are inaccessible to Europeans.

462 The Horaia Gate occupied the site of the present Stamboul Custom House. The Validé Mosque, at the end of the present outer bridge, is built on part of the Jewish quarter. See the subject fully discussed by Professor van Millingen, p. 221 and elsewhere.

463 Leonard, 99; Phrantzes, 287.

464 Barbaro, pp. 55, 56.

465 The Moscovite, xxv. The whole chapter is full of improbable statements.

468 Thyselii Expugnatio, ch. xxvi.

469 Phrantzes, p. 291.

471 The Capture of Constantinople, from the Taj-ut-Tavarikh by Khodja Sad-ud-din. Translated by E. J. W. Gibb, p. 29.

472 Phrantzes, 287. Professor van Millingen (p. 189) believes that these towers were a little to the south of the present Seraglio Lighthouse. One of them had an interesting inscription, stating that it was built by the emperor Basil in 1024.

473 Another version of Tetaldi’s Informacion calls the galleys in question Venetian (Dethier, p. 905).

474 Crit. ch. lxiii.

476 οὗ ἔσωθεν τῶν ἀδύτων καὶ ἄνωθεν τῶν θυσιαστηρίων καὶ τραπέζων ἤσθιον καὶ ἔπινον καὶ τὰς ἀσελγεῖς γνώμας καὶ ὀρέξεις αὐτῶν μετὰ γυναικῶν καὶ παρθένων καὶ παίδων ἐπάνωθεν ἐποίουν καὶ ἔπραττον. Phrantzes, p. 290.

478 Ducas, xlii.: βιβλία ὑπὲρ ἀριθμόν.

479 P. 31. Khodja Sad-ud-din, translated by E. J. W. Gibb.

480 Report of Superior of Franciscans. He was present at the siege and arrived at Bologna July 4, 1453.

481 Crit. lxvii. The Superior of the Franciscans reported that three thousand men were killed on both sides on May 29. Probably we shall not be far wrong in saying that between three and four thousand were killed on May 29 on the Christian side and fifty thousand made prisoners.

482 Barbaro and Ducas.

483 Barbaro pretends, indeed, that they were the victims of a trick on the part of the Genoese, who wished to secure their own safety by seizing their ships and delivering them to Mahomet. His story, like everything else he says about the Genoese, may well be doubted.

484 A portion of the chain which formed part of the boom is now in the narthex of St. Irene. Its links average about eighteen inches long.

485 Tetaldi states that the Turks captured a Genoese ship and from thirteen to sixteen others.

486 Ducas says five.

489 About three fourths of the sea-walls were taken down. The remaining fourth was spared, and a portion of them near Azap Capou still remains.

490 Angeli Johannis Zachariae Potestatis Perae Epistola. Leonard, p. 100. Ducas says that Mahomet had an inventory made of the property of those who had fled, and gave the owners three months within which to return, failing which, it would be confiscated.

491 Zorzo Dolfin, p. 1040. See also Sauli’s Colonia dei Genovesi in Galata, vol. ii. p. 172, and Von Hammer, vol. ii., where the treaty is given in full in the appendix. Usually Dolfin’s narrative is taken from Leonard, but the paragraphs relating to the capitulations are an exception. Dolfin uses the word Privilegio. The capitulations are called at different times by different names: grants, concessions, privileges, capitulations, or treaties. I have already pointed out, in the Fall of Constantinople, that the system of ex-territoriality, under which, in virtue of capitulations, foreigners resident in Turkey are always under the protection of their own laws, is the survival of the system once general in the Roman empire. Of course it is ridiculous to speak of the capitulations as having been wrongfully wrung from the Turks by Western nations, and equally absurd to claim that their grant shows the far-reaching policy of the Turks in their desire to attract foreign trade. The Turks found the system of ex-territoriality in full force and maintained it, being unwilling, as they still are, to allow Christians, whether their own subjects or foreigners, to rank on an equality with Moslems.

492 Ducas makes the entry to Hagia Sophia on the 30th. Phrantzes and Chalcondylas, on the 29th.

493 Cantemir, vol. ii. p. 45 (ed. Paris, 1743). He gives the Persian text.

494 Report of podestà; Philip the Armenian, p. 680; also Leonard, 101.

495 Riccherio (p. 967), whose narrative is singularly clear and readable. See also the report of the Superior of the Franciscans.

497 Ibid. p. 383: ἐν ᾧ δὴ χρόνῳ καὶ μηνὶ ἀνεῖλεν αὐτοχειρίᾳ τὸν φίλτατόν μου υἱὸν Ἰωάννην ὁ ἀσεβέστατος καὶ ἀπηνέστατος ἀμηρᾶς, ὃς δῆθεν ἐβούλετο τὴν ἀθέμιτον σοδομίαν πρᾶξαι κατὰ τοῦ παιδός.

500 Ducas, p. 137: ἐμφάνισας αὐτὰς τῷ αἱμοβόρῳ θηρίῳ.

502 Pusculus also is violently hostile to Notaras, and probably for the same reason: because he would not accept the Union.

504 Crit. (lxiii.) gives a different version. He states that he tried to pass as a Turk, in which his knowledge of the Turkish language aided him: but that he was recognised and flung himself from the walls. His head was cut off and carried to the sultan, who had offered a great reward for his capture dead or alive.

505 Crit. lxiii and lxvii.

507 Report, p. 940. The houses were empty and bore the marks of the reckless ravages of a savage horde.

510 Crit. bk. ii. ch. i.

511 Von Hammer states that the walls were completely repaired in 1477, but gives no authority (Histoire de l’empire ottoman, iii. 209). A valuable hint is obtained from Knolles, who, writing his history of the Turks in 1610, says that ‘the two utter walls with the whole space between them are now but slenderly maintained by the Turks, lying full of earth and other rubbish’ (Knolles’s History, p. 341, 3rd ed. 1621). The lowest of the three walls has almost entirely disappeared except as to the lower portion, which forms one of the sides of the foss. In the Lycus valley, and even throughout the whole length of the landward walls, I think it is manifest to an observer that only the Inner Wall has been repaired.

516 Crit. bk. ii. ch. i.

517 Crit. bk. ii. ch. ii.

518 Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs after the Conquest, by Athanasius Comnenos Hypsilantes, pp. 1, 2. The version of Phrantzes agrees with that given above. He gives a full account of the usual procedure on the appointment of a patriarch and confirms the statement that the Church of the Apostles was assigned to Gennadius as an official residence. Subsequently it was taken from the Greeks, was destroyed and replaced by a mosque built in honour of the conqueror and known as the Mahmoudieh. The former patriarch, says Phrantzes, was dead.

519 Crit. bk. iii. ch. v.

520 Commentari di Theo. Spandugino Cantacusino.

521 All these illustrations are from book ii. of Critobulus.

522 Fallmerayer’s Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt. Not only is this work the great authority for the history of Trebizond, but Fallmerayer himself brought to light the most valuable materials for its history. He was the discoverer in Venice of the chronicles of Panaretos in the library of Cardinal Bessarion. Since Fallmerayer wrote, the MS. of Critobulus has been discovered. In book iv. a full account is given of the capture of Trebizond and the treatment of its emperors. Finlay’s History of Trebizond is very good, but he wrote without seeing the account of Critobulus.