OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Phranza was a less remote and more accurate chap.judge; and his precise definition of two hundred LXVIir

and fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the *..

measure of experience and probability. 8 Thenavy of the besiegers was less formidable; thePropontis was overspread with three hundredand twenty sail; but of these no more than eigh-teensail could be rated as gallies of war; andthe greater part must be degraded to the con-dition ofstoreships and transports, which pouredinto the camp fresh supplies of men, ammuni-tion, and provisions. In her last decay, Con- 0 f thestantinople was still peopled with more than an Greek *hundred thousand inhabitants; but these num-bers are found in the accounts, not of war, butof captivity; and they mostly consisted of me-chanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoidof that spirit which even women have sometimesexerted for the common safety. I can suppose,

I could almost excuse, the reluctance of sub-jects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will ofa tyrant; but the man who dares not expose hislife in the defence of his children and his pro-perty has lost in society the first and most activeenergies of nature. By the emperor’s command,a particular inquiry had been made through thestreets and houses, how many of the citizens, oreven of the monks, were able and willing to beararms for their country. The lists were intrusted

s The observation of Philelphus is approved by Cuspinian in theyear 150b (de Caesaribus, in Epilog* de Militid- TurcicA, p. 697). Mar-ligii proves that the effective armies of the Turks are much less nu-merous than they appear. In the army that besieged Constantinople ,

Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more than 15,000 janizaries