The last Cæsars of Byzantium

Author's Preface

I OFFER to the public a volume which may derive interest from the present attitude of Russia and Turkey in regard to each other, and from the great Russian-Turkish question which now claims the attention of every European Government. It contains a simple narrative of the events which agitated the Byzantine empire, from the accession of the Palzologi to the conquest of Greece by the Ottomans. I have endeavored to trace, together with the rapid progress of the Turks, the decline of the Greeks, whilst province after province is subjugated, and one by one cities are snatched from their grasp, until at last the fall of the capital dealt the fatal blow to that power which had ruled for so many centuries.

For the proper treatment of a subject so vast in its details, I have been obliged to consult various authors and examine numerous documents. I have not narrated any important fact without referring to the authority whence it was derived. Justice requires me to mention the names of some historians from whose works I have drawn so largely, that I may name them my fellow-laborers. Such are John Cantacuzenus, who shared the throne with John V. Palzologus, and who was an esteemed writer, author of a History of the Empire of the East from 1320

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v1 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII. PAGE

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE— CONSTERNATION OF THE GREEKS ....-+..+ +. 1977

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

Table Of Contents

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