The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the TurksPears, Edwin
History
The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks
Pears, Edwin
Byzantine Empire -- History -- 1081-1453; Istanbul (Turkey) -- History -- Siege, 1453
The emperor, with Justiniani, completed the arrangements for the
defence of the city. Justiniani with the seven hundred men he had
brought with him to Constantinople, consisting of his crew and four
hundred men in armour,[266] was at first placed in charge of the walls
between the Blachern Palace and the Adrianople Gate, but was soon
transferred with his men and some of the bravest Greeks to the Lycus
valley as the position of greatest importance, honour, and danger. The
emperor himself fixed his headquarters in the same position. In this
valley the choicest troops of the city and those of the sultan were
thus face to face. Between the Adrianople Gate and Tekfour Serai was a
contingent of Italians under three brothers, Paul, Antony, and Troilus
Bocchiardo. They were stationed, says Phrantzes, at the Myriandrion,
because there the city was in great jeopardy;[267] Leonard says, ‘in
loco arduo Myriandri;’ Dolfin, speaking of the same place under a
somewhat different name, says ‘in loco arduo Miliadro, dove pareva
la cita piu debole.’[268] This contingent had been provided by the
Bocchiardi at their own cost. The men were furnished with spingards
and balistas for hurling stones at the enemy. The Caligaria--that is,
the gate of that name, now called Egri Capou or Crooked Gate--and the
walls thence as far as Tekfour Serai were defended by Caristo, an old
Venetian, and by a German named John Grant, who had taken service with
the emperor. Over the imperial palace at Blachern waved the flag of the
Lion of St. Mark side by side with the banner of the emperor, to denote
that Minotto, the Venetian bailey, was in command in that district.
Archbishop Leonard and other Genoese, together with Hieronymus, were
with him to assist in defending the walls as far as the Xyloporta on
the edge of the Golden Horn.
On the emperor’s left the walls were guarded by Cataneo and Theophilus
Palaeologus at the Silivria Gate, while Contarini, the most renowned
member of the Venetian colony, and Andronicus Cantacuzenus defended the
walls around the Golden Gate and to the sea.[269] Under these leaders,
along the whole length of the landward wall, Genoese, Venetians, and
Greeks fought side by side.
Between a tower in the current off Seraglio Point and the Imperial
Gate--that is, at the Acropolis, and thus guarding the entrance to
the harbour[270]--Gabriel Trevisano, already mentioned as the Venetian
noble who was serving ‘per honor de Dio et per honor di tuta la
Christianitade’ was in command.[271] There, says Leonard, he did his
duty as a shepherd and not as a hireling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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