Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-06

Constantinople, the center of political
interest since the conquest by Con-
stantine I in 1896. has
The Citv of continued to be the
c center OF the most
ooustsAtiAe. absorbing events of
human history down to the present
moment.
constantine I, the Great removed the
capital from Rome to Byzance. Recent
iy Gustave Schlumberger has nxed
with precision certain unpublished
facts of the fall of Constantinople in a
volume entitled: THE Capture of Con-
sfantfnople by the Turks in 1853" No
authentic account of the long siege of
byzance has been written except, per
haps. that of Sir Edwin Pears in 1903,
which Is not complete. The French
author does not conceal his sympathies
for the conquered Christians, but he
does not hide the weakness and errors
which conspired TO the fall Of Byzance
The ramparts of Constantinople merit
place apart in this history of human
civilization. The successive waves of
northern and southern barbarism had
broken over Byzance: the Avars, or
peoples of the Oural-A1tai. in 625, who
were destroyed by Charlemagne in the
eighth century; the Arabs in 654. 6S1
and ZIG; the Bulgars in 1914, and
others.
The ramparts. erected by Theodosius
IL (409-440) to replace the Enclosure
made by Constantine ], which had be-
come too contracted, were magnificent
specimens of the military architecture
or the middle ages; they constituted for
an army unprovided with firearms a
formidable barrier OF defense. The
assaflant found himself confronted by
a ditch twenty-five yards deep and fill
ed with water. aid this preceded by an
exterior wall ten feet high. Beyond
the ditch, placed one above the other,
were three successive ramparts-the
first. the least in height. sloped over
the ditch; the second. loopholed, was
nine yards high, dominated by towers
or seventeen and a half yards; the
third, the interior wall. was twenty
four yards in height From the Mar
mora to the Golden Horn there were
twenty-seven towers.
A space of six yards separated the in
terror walls from the middle Enclosure;
historians Of that period
Formidable called it the interior
n.f.,,. BASIN; there che de-
ASeS' tenders stood and there
were placed the arms, machines and the
two weak cannons possessed by the By
zantines. Between the exterior and the
middle. walls stretched another basin call
ed the exterior basin,'' which consti-
tuted the first line of defense.
Above the towers and the interior
ramparts were placed the archers.
From the ramparts the soldiers could
not descend into the city except by
narrow passageways. which during
the fight were closed; thus there was
M rlfr fnr he Infn
conquer or die. During the assault
one could fight only on the wall and
in the basins. and in such a contracted
space the number was less important
than the individual value of the SOL
dferS. Constantinople would have re-
sisted a long time if the sultan had not
brought to bear against it the most
formidable artillery which had yet ap-
peared in history.
Hungarian by the name of Orban,
past master in the art Of founding can
non. had placed his talents at the serv-
ice of Basileus: but Constantine was
poor and. more than that, badly served
by wretched functionaries who appro-
priated the pay which should have
been allotted to the Hungarian en-
gineer. also money due him for the
repair of the walls: Orban, displeased
at this treatment, went over to Mahom-
ct II, who gave him all the gold he
desired in exchange for good guns.
Orban constructed at Adrianople
cannon in bronze of colossal caliber,
three feet in diameter; it took
two months, a hundred oxen and an
army OF laborers to mount the gun in
front of the weakest point of the ram
parts; "the gun could be fired only
seven times a day and once at night;
after each shot the gunners covered
the gun with heavy pieces of wool
and poured in the chamber streams of
oil: it threw balls of black marble
weighing 1000 pounds. The gun finally
burst and killed its constructor. The
gun. however, was replaced by an
other"