[17] The traveller here seems to be describing some confused recollection of the column of Arcadius.
[18] Having a regard to the value of money at that period, there can be no doubt that this account is exaggerated.
[19] Speaking of the Peloponnesus, a province, or theme, of the Byzantine monarchy, Gibbon says that the embroidery there produced was raised either in silk or gold; and the more simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers. The vestments that were fashioned for the palace or the altar often glittered with precious stones, and the figures were delineated in strings of Oriental pearls. Until the twelfth century, Greece alone, of all the countries of Christendom, possessed the silkworm.—Decline and Fall, chap. liii.
[20] Now called At-Meidan, or horse market.
[21] It is possible that Benjamin was a witness of the festivals celebrated at Constantinople on the marriage of the Emperor Manuel with Mary, daughter of the Prince of Antioch, on Christmas Day, 1161.
[22] The ceremony of the "adoption of honour," as it was styled, was a curious custom of the time.
[23] The nature of the chemical preparation known as "Greek fire" has not been ascertained with certainty, but it is probable that naphtha was one of the principal ingredients.
[24] Eadmer.
[25] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
[26] Ibid.