OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

187

the Greeks in spirit as in rank,” had determined chap.to unsheath the sword, and to resist the approach LXvm -

and establishment of the Turks on the Bospho- .*

ms. He was disarmed by the advice ofhis civiland ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended asystem less generous, and even less prudent, thanhis own, to approve their patience and long-suf-fering, to brand the Ottoman with the name andguilt of an aggressor, and to depend on chanceand time for their own safety, and the destruc-tion of a fort, which could not long be maintain-ed in the neighbourhood of a great and populouscity. Amidst hope and fear, the fears of thewise and the hopes of the credulous, the winterrolled away; the proper business of each man,and each hour, was postponed; and the Greeksshut their eyes against the impending danger,till the arrival of the spring and the sultan de-cided the assurance of their ruin.

Of a master who never forgives, the orders are He buildsseldom disobeyed. On the twenty-sixth of March, “/the***the appointed spot of Asomaton was covered withan active swarm of Turkish artificers; and the March,materials by sea and land were diligently trans-ported from Europe and Asia . p The lime hadbeen burnt in Cataphrygia ; the timber was cut

0 Phranza does justice to his master’s sense and courage. Callidita-tem hominis non ignores imperator prior anna movere constituit, andstigmatises the folly of the cnm sacri turn profani proceres, which hehad heard, amentes spe vans pasci. Ducas was not a privy-coun-sellor.

p Instead of this clear and consistent account, the Turkish Annals(Cantemir, p. 97) revived the foolish tale of the ox’s hide, and Dido’sstratagem in the foundation of Carthage . These annals (unless we areswayed by an antichristian prejudice) are far less valuable than theGreek historians.