f the commercial
republics as they had been, in a preceding age, distinctions of the
barons in feudal monarchies. All the nations who then traded with
Constantinople furnished contingents to defend its walls. A short time
before the siege commenced, John Justiniani arrived with two Genoese
galleys and three hundred chosen troops, and the Emperor valued his
services so highly that he was appointed general of the guard. The
resident bailo of the Venetians furnished three large galeases and a body
of troops for the defence of the port. The consul of Catalans, with his
countrymen and the Aragonese, undertook the defence of the great palace
of Bukoleon and the port of Kontoskalion. Cardinal Isidore, with the
papal troops, defended the Kynegesion, and the angle of the city at the
head of the port down to St. Demetrius. The importance of the aid which
was afforded by the Latins is proved by the fact that of twelve military
divisions, into which Constantine divided the fortifications, the
commands of only two were intrusted to the exclusive direction of Greek
officers. In the others, Greeks shared the command with foreigners, or
aliens alone conducted the defence.

When all Constantine's preparations for defence were completed, he found
himself obliged to man a line of wall on the land side of about five
miles in length, every point of which was exposed to a direct attack. The
remainder of the wall toward the port and the Propontis exceeded nine
miles in extent, and his whole garrison hardly amounted to nine thousand
men. His fleet consisted of only twenty galleys and three Venetian
galeases, but the entry of the port was closed by a chain, the end of
which, on the side of Galata, was secured in a strong fort of which the
Greeks kept possession. During the winter the Emperor sent out his fleet
to ravage the coast of the Propontis as far as Cyzicus, and the spirit of
the Greeks was roused by the booty they made in these expeditions.

Mahomet II spent the winter at Adrianople, preparing everything necessary
for commencing the siege with vigor. His whole mind was absorbed by
the glory of conquering the Roman Empire and gaining possession of
Constantinople, which for more than eleven hundred fifty years had been
the capital of the East. While the fever of ambition inflamed his soul,
his cooler judgment also warned him that the Ottoman power rested on a
perilous basis as long as Constantinople, the true capital of his
empire, remai