Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of

Eastern Empire.—Part II.

Among the implements of destruction, he studied with peculiar
care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his
artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A
founder of cannon, a Dane 231 or Hungarian, who had been almost
starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was
liberally entertained by the Turkish sultan. Mahomet was
satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly
pressed on the artist. “Am I able to cast a cannon capable of
throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls
of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength; but were
they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine
of superior power: the position and management of that engine
must be left to your engineers.” On this assurance, a foundry was
established at Adrianople: the metal was prepared; and at the end
of three months, Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of
stupendous, and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve
palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above
six hundred pounds. 24 241 A vacant place before the new palace
was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden
and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation
was issued, that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day.
The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred
furlongs: the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven above a
mile; and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom
deep in the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive
engine, a frame or carriage of thirty wagons was linked together
and drawn along by a team of sixty oxen: two hundred men on both
sides were stationed, to poise and support the rolling weight;
two hundred and fifty workmen marched before to smooth the way
and repair the bridges; and near two months were employed in a
laborious journey of one hundred and fifty miles. A lively
philosopher 25 derides on this occasion the credulity of the
Greeks, and observes, with much reason, that we should always
distrust the exaggerations of a vanquished people. He calculates,
that a ball, even of two hundred pounds, would require a charge
of one hundred and fifty pounds of powder; and that the stroke
would be feeble and impotent, since not a fifteenth part of the
mass could be inflamed at the same moment. A stranger as I am to
the art of destruction, I can discern that the modern
improvements of artillery prefer the number of pieces to the
weight of metal; the quickness of the fire to the sound, or even
the consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I dare not reject the
positive and unanimous evidence of contemporary writers; nor can
it seem improbable, that the first artists, in their rude and
ambitious efforts, should have transgressed the standard of
moderation. A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that of Mahomet,
still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles; and if the use be
inconvenient, it has been found on a late trial that the effect
was far from contemptible. A stone bullet of _eleven_ hundred
pounds’ weight was once discharged with three hundred and thirty
pounds of powder: at the distance of six hundred yards it
shivered into three rocky fragments; traversed the strait; and
leaving the waters in a foam, again rose and bounded against the
opposite hill. 26

231 (return) [ Gibbon has written Dane by mistake for Dace, or
Dacian. Lax ti kinoV?. Chalcondyles, Von Hammer, p. 510.—M.]

24 (return) [ The Attic talent weighed about sixty minæ, or
avoirdupois pounds (see Hooper on Ancient Weights, Measures,
&c.;) but among the modern Greeks, that classic appellation was
extended to a weight of one hundred, or one hundred and
twenty-five pounds, (Ducange, talanton.) Leonardus Chiensis
measured the ball or stone of the _second_ cannon Lapidem, qui
palmis undecim ex meis ambibat in gyro.]

241 (return) [ 1200, according to Leonardus Chiensis. Von Hammer
states that he had himself seen the great cannon of the
Dardanelles, in which a tailor who had run away from his
creditors, had concealed himself several days Von Hammer had
measured balls twelve spans round. Note. p. 666.—M.]

25 (return) [ See Voltaire, (Hist. Générale, c. xci. p. 294,
295.) He was ambitious of universal monarchy; and the poet
frequently aspires to the name and style of an astronomer, a
chemist, &c.]

26 (return) [ The Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 85—89,) who
fortified the Dardanelles against the Russians, describes in a
lively, and even comic, strain his own prowess, and the
consternation of the Turks. But that adventurous traveller does
not possess the art of gaining our confidence.]

While Mahomet threatened the capital of the East, the Greek
emperor implored with fervent prayers the assistance of earth and
heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications;
and Christendom beheld with indifference the fall of
Constantinople, while she derived at least some promise of supply
from the jealous and temporal policy of the sultan of Egypt. Some
states were too weak, and others too remote; by some the danger
was considered as imaginary by others as inevitable: the Western
princes were involved in their endless and domestic quarrels; and
the Roman pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy
of the Greeks. Instead of employing in their favor the arms and
treasures of Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their
approaching ruin; and his honor was engaged in the accomplishment
of his prophecy. 261 Perhaps he was softened by the last
extremity of their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his
efforts were faint and unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen,
before the squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their
harbors. 27 Even the princes of the Morea and of the Greek
islands affected a cold neutrality: the Genoese colony of Galata
negotiated a private treaty; and the sultan indulged them in the
delusive hope, that by his clemency they might survive the ruin
of the empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles basely
withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the
rich denied the emperor, and reserved for the Turks, the secret
treasures which might have raised in their defence whole armies
of mercenaries. 28 The indigent and solitary prince prepared,
however, to sustain his formidable adversary; but if his courage
were equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate to the
contest. In the beginning of the spring, the Turkish vanguard
swept the towns and villages as far as the gates of
Constantinople: submission was spared and protected; whatever
presumed to resist was exterminated with fire and sword. The
Greek places on the Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon,
surrendered on the first summons; Selybria alone deserved the
honors of a siege or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while
they were invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the
opposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public
market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was silent and
prostrate: he first halted at the distance of five miles; and
from thence advancing in battle array, planted before the gates
of St. Romanus the Imperial standard; and on the sixth day of
April formed the memorable siege of Constantinople.

261 (return) [ See the curious Christian and Mahometan
predictions of the fall of Constantinople, Von Hammer, p.
518.—M.]

27 (return) [ Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest
Antoninus; but as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and
ashamed, we find the more courtly expression of Platina, in animo
fuisse pontifici juvare Græcos, and the positive assertion of
Æneas Sylvius, structam classem &c. (Spond. A.D. 1453, No. 3.)]

28 (return) [ Antonin. in Proem.—Epist. Cardinal. Isidor. apud
Spondanum and Dr. Johnson, in the tragedy of Irene, has happily
seized this characteristic circumstance:—

The groaning Greeks dig up the golden caverns. The
accumulated wealth of hoarding ages; That wealth which,
granted to their weeping prince, Had ranged embattled
nations at their gates.

]
]
]
]
]
The troops of Asia and Europe extended on the right and left from
the Propontis to the harbor; the Janizaries in the front were
stationed before the sultan’s tent; the Ottoman line was covered
by a deep intrenchment; and a subordinate army enclosed the
suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese.
The inquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece about thirty
years before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish forces
of any name or value could not exceed the number of sixty
thousand horse and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraids the
pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to a handful
of Barbarians. Such indeed might be the regular establishment of
the _Capiculi_, 29 the troops of the Porte who marched with the
prince, and were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws,
in their respective governments, maintained or levied a
provincial militia; many lands were held by a military tenure;
many volunteers were attracted by the hope of spoil and the sound
of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless
fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the terrors,
and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the Christians. The
whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas,
Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount of three or
four hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a less remote and more
accurate judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and
fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the measure of experience
and probability. 30 The navy of the besiegers was less
formidable: the Propontis was overspread with three hundred and
twenty sail; but of these no more than eighteen could be rated as
galleys of war; and the far greater part must be degraded to the
condition of store-ships and transports, which poured into the
camp fresh supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions. In her
last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than a
hundred thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in the
accounts, not of war, but of captivity; and they mostly consisted
of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoid of that
spirit which even women have sometimes exerted for the common
safety. I can suppose, I could almost excuse, the reluctance of
subjects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will of a tyrant;
but the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his
children and his property, has lost in society the first and most
active energies of nature. By the emperor’s command, a particular
inquiry had been made through the streets and houses, how many of
the citizens, or even of the monks, were able and willing to bear
arms for their country. The lists were intrusted to Phranza; 31
and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, with
grief and surprise, that the national defence was reduced to four
thousand nine hundred and seventy _Romans_. Between Constantine
and his faithful minister this comfortless secret was preserved;
and a sufficient proportion of shields, cross-bows, and muskets,
were distributed from the arsenal to the city bands. They derived
some accession from a body of two thousand strangers, under the
command of John Justiniani, a noble Genoese; a liberal donative
was advanced to these auxiliaries; and a princely recompense, the
Isle of Lemnos, was promised to the valor and victory of their
chief. A strong chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbor:
it was supported by some Greek and Italian vessels of war and
merchandise; and the ships of every Christian nation, that
successively arrived from Candia and the Black Sea, were detained
for the public service. Against the powers of the Ottoman empire,
a city of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen, miles was
defended by a scanty garrison of seven or eight thousand
soldiers. Europe and Asia were open to the besiegers; but the
strength and provisions of the Greeks must sustain a daily
decrease; nor could they indulge the expectation of any foreign
succor or supply.

29 (return) [ The palatine troops are styled _Capiculi_, the
provincials, _Seratculi_; and most of the names and institutions
of the Turkish militia existed before the _Canon Nameh_ of
Soliman II, from which, and his own experience, Count Marsigli
has composed his military state of the Ottoman empire.]

30 (return) [ The observation of Philelphus is approved by
Cuspinian in the year 1508, (de Cæsaribus, in Epilog. de Militiâ
Turcicâ, p. 697.) Marsigli proves, that the effective armies of
the Turks are much less numerous than they appear. In the army
that besieged Constantinople Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more
than 15,000 Janizaries.]

31 (return) [ Ego, eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non absque
dolore et mstitia, mansitque apud nos duos aliis occultus
numerus, (Phranza, l. iii. c. 8.) With some indulgence for
national prejudices, we cannot desire a more authentic witness,
not only of public facts, but of private counsels.]

The primitive Romans would have drawn their swords in the
resolution of death or conquest. The primitive Christians might
have embraced each other, and awaited in patience and charity the
stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were
animated only by the spirit of religion, and that spirit was
productive only of animosity and discord. Before his death, the
emperor John Palæologus had renounced the unpopular measure of a
union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived, till the
distress of his brother Constantine imposed a last trial of
flattery and dissimulation. 32 With the demand of temporal aid,
his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assurance of
spiritual obedience: his neglect of the church was excused by the
urgent cares of the state; and his orthodox wishes solicited the
presence of a Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often
deluded; yet the signs of repentance could not decently be
overlooked; a legate was more easily granted than an army; and
about six months before the final destruction, the cardinal
Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue of
priests and soldiers. The emperor saluted him as a friend and
father; respectfully listened to his public and private sermons;
and with the most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed
the act of union, as it had been ratified in the council of
Florence. On the twelfth of December, the two nations, in the
church of St. Sophia, joined in the communion of sacrifice and
prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were solemnly
commemorated; the names of Nicholas the Fifth, the vicar of
Christ, and of the patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into
exile by a rebellious people.

32 (return) [ In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not
only partial, but imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642,
and the history of Ducas, which represents these scenes (c. 36,
37) with such truth and spirit, was not printed till the year
1649.]

But the dress and language of the Latin priest who officiated at
the altar were an object of scandal; and it was observed with
horror, that he consecrated a cake or wafer of _unleavened_
bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the sacrament. A
national historian acknowledges with a blush, that none of his
countrymen, not the emperor himself, were sincere in this
occasional conformity. 33 Their hasty and unconditional
submission was palliated by a promise of future revisal; but the
best, or the worst, of their excuses was the confession of their
own perjury. When they were pressed by the reproaches of their
honest brethren, “Have patience,” they whispered, “have patience
till God shall have delivered the city from the great dragon who
seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are truly
reconciled with the Azymites.” But patience is not the attribute
of zeal; nor can the arts of a court be adapted to the freedom
and violence of popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia
the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rushed in
crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius, 34 to consult the
oracle of the church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as
it should seem, in deep meditation, or divine rapture: but he had
exposed on the door of his cell a speaking tablet; and they
successively withdrew, after reading those tremendous words: “O
miserable Romans, why will ye abandon the truth? and why, instead
of confiding in God, will ye put your trust in the Italians? In
losing your faith you will lose your city. Have mercy on me, O
Lord! I protest in thy presence that I am innocent of the crime.
O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and repent. At the same
moment that you renounce the religion of your fathers, by
embracing impiety, you submit to a foreign servitude.” According
to the advice of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure as
angels, and as proud as dæmons, rejected the act of union, and
abjured all communion with the present and future associates of
the Latins; and their example was applauded and imitated by the
greatest part of the clergy and people. From the monastery, the
devout Greeks dispersed themselves in the taverns; drank
confusion to the slaves of the pope; emptied their glasses in
honor of the image of the holy Virgin; and besought her to defend
against Mahomet the city which she had formerly saved from
Chosroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication of zeal and
wine, they valiantly exclaimed, “What occasion have we for
succor, or union, or Latins? Far from us be the worship of the
Azymites!” During the winter that preceded the Turkish conquest,
the nation was distracted by this epidemical frenzy; and the
season of Lent, the approach of Easter, instead of breathing
charity and love, served only to fortify the obstinacy and
influence of the zealots. The confessors scrutinized and alarmed
the conscience of their votaries, and a rigorous penance was
imposed on those who had received the communion from a priest who
had given an express or tacit consent to the union. His service
at the altar propagated the infection to the mute and simple
spectators of the ceremony: they forfeited, by the impure
spectacle, the virtue of the sacerdotal character; nor was it
lawful, even in danger of sudden death, to invoke the assistance
of their prayers or absolution. No sooner had the church of St.
Sophia been polluted by the Latin sacrifice, than it was deserted
as a Jewish synagogue, or a heathen temple, by the clergy and
people; and a vast and gloomy silence prevailed in that venerable
dome, which had so often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed
with innumerable lights, and resounded with the voice of prayer
and thanksgiving. The Latins were the most odious of heretics and
infidels; and the first minister of the empire, the great duke,
was heard to declare, that he had rather behold in Constantinople
the turban of Mahomet, than the pope’s tiara or a cardinal’s hat.
35 A sentiment so unworthy of Christians and patriots was
familiar and fatal to the Greeks: the emperor was deprived of the
affection and support of his subjects; and their native cowardice
was sanctified by resignation to the divine decree, or the
visionary hope of a miraculous deliverance.

33 (return) [ Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges
that the measure was adopted only propter spem auxilii; he
affirms with pleasure, that those who refused to perform their
devotions in St. Sophia, extra culpam et in pace essent, (l. iii.
c. 20.)]

34 (return) [ His primitive and secular name was George
Scholarius, which he changed for that of Gennadius, either when
he became a monk or a patriarch. His defence, at Florence, of the
same union, which he so furiously attacked at Constantinople, has
tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib. de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot.
Græc. tom. x. p. 760—786) to divide him into two men; but
Renaudot (p. 343—383) has restored the identity of his person and
the duplicity of his character.]

35 (return) [ Fakiolion, kaluptra, may be fairly translated a
cardinal’s hat. The difference of the Greek and Latin habits
imbittered the schism.]

Of the triangle which composes the figure of Constantinople, the
two sides along the sea were made inaccessible to an enemy; the
Propontis by nature, and the harbor by art. Between the two
waters, the basis of the triangle, the land side was protected by
a double wall, and a deep ditch of the depth of one hundred feet.
Against this line of fortification, which Phranza, an
eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of six miles, 36 the
Ottomans directed their principal attack; and the emperor, after
distributing the service and command of the most perilous
stations, undertook the defence of the external wall. In the
first days of the siege the Greek soldiers descended into the
ditch, or sallied into the field; but they soon discovered, that,
in the proportion of their numbers, one Christian was of more
value than twenty Turks: and, after these bold preludes, they
were prudently content to maintain the rampart with their missile
weapons. Nor should this prudence be accused of pusillanimity.
The nation was indeed pusillanimous and base; but the last
Constantine deserves the name of a hero: his noble band of
volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue; and the foreign
auxiliaries supported the honor of the Western chivalry. The
incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the
smoke, the sound, and the fire, of their musketry and cannon.
Their small arms discharged at the same time either five, or even
ten, balls of lead, of the size of a walnut; and, according to
the closeness of the ranks and the force of the powder, several
breastplates and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But
the Turkish approaches were soon sunk in trenches, or covered
with ruins. Each day added to the science of the Christians; but
their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operations
of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful, either in size or
number; and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to
plant them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken
and overthrown by the explosion. 37 The same destructive secret
had been revealed to the Moslems; by whom it was employed with
the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great
cannon of Mahomet has been separately noticed; an important and
visible object in the history of the times: but that enormous
engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude: 38
the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the
walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most
accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously
expressed, that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns,
or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets. Yet in the
power and activity of the sultan, we may discern the infancy of
the new science. Under a master who counted the moments, the
great cannon could be loaded and fired no more than seven times
in one day. 39 The heated metal unfortunately burst; several
workmen were destroyed; and the skill of an artist 391 was
admired who bethought himself of preventing the danger and the
accident, by pouring oil, after each explosion, into the mouth of
the cannon.

36 (return) [ We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the
smallest measure which is preserved in the wersts of Russia, of
547 French _toises_, and of 104 2/5 to a degree. The six miles of
Phranza do not exceed four English miles, (D’Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 61, 123, &c.)]

37 (return) [ At indies doctiores nostri facti paravere contra
hostes machinamenta, quæ tamen avare dabantur. Pulvis erat nitri
modica exigua; tela modica; bombardæ, si aderant incommoditate
loci primum hostes offendere, maceriebus alveisque tectos, non
poterant. Nam si quæ magnæ erant, ne murus concuteretur noster,
quiescebant. This passage of Leonardus Chiensis is curious and
important.]

38 (return) [ According to Chalcondyles and Phranza, the great
cannon burst; an incident which, according to Ducas, was
prevented by the artist’s skill. It is evident that they do not
speak of the same gun. * Note: They speak, one of a Byzantine,
one of a Turkish, gun. Von Hammer note, p. 669.]

39 (return) [ Near a hundred years after the siege of
Constantinople, the French and English fleets in the Channel were
proud of firing 300 shot in an engagement of two hours, (Mémoires
de Martin du Bellay, l. x., in the Collection Générale, tom. xxi.
p. 239.)]

391 (return) [ The founder of the gun. Von Hammer, p. 526.]

The first random shots were productive of more sound than effect;
and it was by the advice of a Christian, that the engineers were
taught to level their aim against the two opposite sides of the
salient angles of a bastion. However imperfect, the weight and
repetition of the fire made some impression on the walls; and the
Turks, pushing their approaches to the edge of the ditch,
attempted to fill the enormous chasm, and to build a road to the
assault. 40 Innumerable fascines, and hogsheads, and trunks of
trees, were heaped on each other; and such was the impetuosity of
the throng, that the foremost and the weakest were pushed
headlong down the precipice, and instantly buried under the
accumulated mass. To fill the ditch was the toil of the
besiegers; to clear away the rubbish was the safety of the
besieged; and after a long and bloody conflict, the web that had
been woven in the day was still unravelled in the night. The next
resource of Mahomet was the practice of mines; but the soil was
rocky; in every attempt he was stopped and undermined by the
Christian engineers; nor had the art been yet invented of
replenishing those subterraneous passages with gunpowder, and
blowing whole towers and cities into the air. 41 A circumstance
that distinguishes the siege of Constantinople is the reunion of
the ancient and modern artillery. The cannon were intermingled
with the mechanical engines for casting stones and darts; the
bullet and the battering-ram 411 were directed against the same
walls: nor had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of
the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A wooden turret of the
largest size was advanced on rollers; this portable magazine of
ammunition and fascines was protected by a threefold covering of
bulls’ hides: incessant volleys were securely discharged from the
loop-holes; in the front, three doors were contrived for the
alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers and workmen. They
ascended by a staircase to the upper platform, and, as high as
the level of that platform, a scaling-ladder could be raised by
pulleys to form a bridge, and grapple with the adverse rampart.
By these various arts of annoyance, some as new as they were
pernicious to the Greeks, the tower of St. Romanus was at length
overturned: after a severe struggle, the Turks were repulsed from
the breach, and interrupted by darkness; but they trusted that
with the return of light they should renew the attack with fresh
vigor and decisive success. Of this pause of action, this
interval of hope, each moment was improved, by the activity of
the emperor and Justiniani, who passed the night on the spot, and
urged the labors which involved the safety of the church and
city. At the dawn of day, the impatient sultan perceived, with
astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret had been reduced
to ashes: the ditch was cleared and restored; and the tower of
St. Romanus was again strong and entire. He deplored the failure
of his design; and uttered a profane exclamation, that the word
of the thirty-seven thousand prophets should not have compelled
him to believe that such a work, in so short a time, could have
been accomplished by the infidels.

40 (return) [ I have selected some curious facts, without
striving to emulate the bloody and obstinate eloquence of the
abbé de Vertot, in his prolix descriptions of the sieges of
Rhodes, Malta, &c. But that agreeable historian had a turn for
romance; and as he wrote to please the order he had adopted the
same spirit of enthusiasm and chivalry.]

41 (return) [ The first theory of mines with gunpowder appears in
1480 in a MS. of George of Sienna, (Tiraboschi, tom. vi. P. i. p.
324.) They were first practised by Sarzanella, in 1487; but the
honor and improvement in 1503 is ascribed to Peter of Navarre,
who used them with success in the wars of Italy, (Hist. de la
Ligue de Cambray, tom. ii. p. 93—97.)]

411 (return) [ The battering-ram according to Von Hammer, (p.
670,) was not used.—M.]