[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.
[459] Barbaro, p. 56.
[460] Crit. lvi.