[114] Busbecq is in error here, for Solyman was encamped at Eregli, in Karamania, about 250 miles from Amasia. Von Hammer takes our author to task for laying the scene at Amasia; but Busbecq nowhere commits himself to this statement.
[115] Ghemlik, on the Sea of Marmora, called Prusias by Busbecq. It was originally called Kios, and about B.C. 200, Prusias, King of Bithynia, gave it his own name. See Strabo, 563-4.
[116] The legend of Orpheus being torn to pieces by the women of Thrace was a favourite with the ancients. See Virgil, Georgic IV., &c.
[117] See Tacitus, Annals, xii. 63. Herodotus, iv. 144.
[118] The bronze serpents, which are still on the same site, are three, and not two in number. See Gibbon, chap. xvii., where he describes these serpents, and proves that they form the serpent pillar mentioned by Herodotus, ix. 81; on it was placed the golden tripod, made of part of the spoil taken at the battle of Platæa B.C. 479, and dedicated to Apollo. It was removed from Delphi to Constantinople by order of Constantine.
[119] ‘The centre of the Forum was occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilated fragment is now degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar. This column was erected on a pedestal of white marble 20 feet high, and was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about 10 feet in height and about 33 in circumference. On the summit of the pillar, above 120 feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze, and had been transported either from Athens or a town in Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the Emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head.’ Gibbon, chap. xvii.
[120] A similar story is told of the obelisk in front of St. Peter’s at Rome.
[121] The battle of Tschaldiran, August 23, A.D. 1514. See Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, chap. viii.; Von Hammer, book xxii.
[122] Busbecq is alluding to the then recent conquests of Mexico and Peru. When he penned these lines only thirty-four years had elapsed since Cortez conquered Mexico, and twenty-four since Pizarro made himself master of the kingdom of the Incas; the tide of adventurers was still pouring into those unhappy lands.
[123] Busbecq is evidently referring to the exploits of his countrymen in the days of the Crusades. ‘At the same time’ (A.D. 1200), says Gibbon (chap. lx.), ‘Baldwin, Count of Flanders, assumed the Cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province.’ See also page [105].