Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/266

232 DESTEUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE continually increasing power of guns. The casting was completed at Adrianople. 1 In January it was started on its journey to the capital. Sixty oxen were employed to drag it, while two hundred men marched alongside the wagon on which it was placed to keep it in position. Two hundred labourers preceded it to level the roads and to strengthen the bridges. By the end of March 2 it was brought within five miles of the city. But, though the fame of this monster gun has overshadowed all the rest, we shall see that it was only one amongst many. 3 Above all, says Critobulus, Mahomet had given special attention to his fleet, ' because he considered that for the siege the fleet would be of more use than even his army.' 4 He built many new triremes and repaired his old ones. A number of long boats, some of them decked over, and swift vessels propelled by from twenty to fifty oarsmen were also ready. No expense had been spared. The crews of his fleet were gathered from all the shores of Asia Minor and the Archipelago. He selected with great care the pilots, the men who should give the time to the oarsmen and the captains. At the beginning of April, his fleet was ready to leave 1 Dethier suggests that the casting of the largest gun was done at Rhegium, the present Chemejie, about twelve miles from Constantinople, and that the transport spoken of by Ducas was either of smaller ones or of the brass required for the large one (p. 991 ; Dethier's notes on Z. Dolfin). 2 Phrantzes, p. 237, gives the arrival on April 2. 3 Critobulus, xxix., gives the description of the construction of a cannon the barrel of which was forty spans or twenty-six feet eight inches long. The bronze of which it was cast was eight inches in thickness in the barrel. Throughout half the length its bore was of a diameter of thirty inches. Throughout the other half, which contained powder, the bore was only one third of that width. The (rmOa/j.^ or palmus or span was in the Middle Ages, says Du Cange, eight inches long. Two stone balls still existing at Top- Hana (that is, the Cannon Khan) are forty-six inches in diameter. These would answer the description of Tetaldi, that the ball reached to his waist. A great Turkish cannon which is now in the Artillery Museum at Woolwich weighs about nineteen tons. It was cast fifteen years after the siege of Constantinople and is an excellent specimen of the great cannon of the period (Artillery ; its Progress and Present Stage, by Commander Lloyd and A. G. Hadcock, R.E., p. 19). 4 Crit. xxi.