Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/480

 434 DESTRUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE side. This same discrepancy of level did not exist — if, indeed, any- existed — at Top Capou. Hence when the small gate was opened from the city by Justiniani to give easier access to the stockade, men had to ascend to it. This is what Critobulus implies they had to do. The gate was opened to lead i-n-l to aravptD^a (lx. 2). Critobulus states that Mahomet drew up his camp ' before the Gates of Eomanus.' 1 The argument Dethier draws from the plural, ' gates,' is not perhaps worth much, but it is remarkable that in speaking of other gates Critobulus usually employs the singular : as, for example, in ch. xxvii. 3, ' The Wood-Gate, as far as the gate called Chariseus.' Gregoras also employs the plural : napa ra<s 7ruAas rov 'Ptajaavov (Book ix. ch. vi.). The Turkish writers throw very valuable light on the question and show clearly that the assault was not at Top Capou, but rather nearer the Adrianople Gate. The imaum Zade Essad-Effendi says that in the final assault Hassan mounted the broken wall where the Franks were defending it, ' which wall was to the south of Edirne Capou ' — that is, of the Adrianople Gate. The Turkish writer Sad-ud-din, who died in 1599, gives similar testimony. He states that Constantine ' entrusted to the Frank soldiers the defence of those breaches which were on the south side of the Adrianople Gate.' And again : ' The Turks in the final assault did not rush to the gates but to the breaches that were made in the broken wall between Top Capou and the Adrianople Gate, and, after the capture, went round and opened the gates from the inside, the first to be opened being the Adrianople Gate.' 2 If the Venetian and Genoese soldiers had been near Top Capou the writer would not have described their position as he does. Probably he was ignorant of any name for the gate in the valley where the assault occurred, and there- fore describes the breaches with sufficient accuracy as south of the Adrianople or Edirne Gate. Lastly, Dr. Mordtmann calls attention to the fact that on old Turkish maps the Pempton is marked as Hedjoum Capou or Gate of the Assault. 3 If it were the Gate of the Assault, as I also believe, it was the gate spoken of by contemporaries as Saint Eomanus, and all difficulties as to the place of the general assault, the position of the stockade defended by Justiniani, and the station of the great guns vanish. Thereupon the description of Critobulus makes the arrange- 1 Ch. xxiii. : irpbs rats KaXov^.4vais irvXais rov 'Pw/navov. 2 Ahmed Muktar Pasha's Siege of Constantinople (1902). 3 Esquisse Topographique, pp. 12, 21.