Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/62

 4:4: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. this, employed his strategy principally in endeavoring to avoid a pitched battle. The emperor, John Comnenos, died in 1143, and was suc- ceeded by Manuel, a prince of great ability. To add to the new emperor's difficulties, the preparation for a second cru- sade, which was to pass through the whole extent of his do- minions, divided his attention and required all his efforts lest the very deluge of men which was to pass through his terri- tory should utterly overwhelm it. In 1147 the German division, under King Conrad, was the first to enter the empire. 900,000' men are said to pade; attacks havc crosscd the Danube. Another division of Cru- saders, under Eoger of Sicily, was pillaging Thebes and Corinth, in the south of the peninsula, while the King of France and 70,000 horsemen had entered and were devouring the produce of a wide track from the Danube towards Adri- anople. While the attention of the emperor was directed tow- ards the task of lessening the mischief done to his territory by the passage of Christian armies, the Turks were pouring into the fertile province of Lydia, occupying the country on both sides of the Meander, and making their way to the shores of the ^gean, where the inhabitants then, as now, were al- most exclusively Greek in race. Before the year 1147 was over, Conrad had encountered and defeated them on the Me- ander. The battle was a severe one. The Turks refused to allow the Germans to cross, and they were in sufficient force to justify them in making a stand ; but they were unable to resist the attack of the Crusaders, and were utterly defeated. The battle-field was covered with the dead. Kicetas says that one might judge of the extent of the slaughter by the great hills of bones which were there, and which he himself had seen and marvelled at.' The battle, however, had been so se- ' Here and elsewhere I give the numbers as they are recorded in the chronicles. I have very little doubt that they are always largely exag- gerated, but no means exist of checking them. ^ " Recucil," Nicetas, p. 2G4. The notes of the learned editor in vol. ii. of the same, p. 277, throw doubt on the assertion that the battle was so severe as Nicetas thought.