out of the plunder, a proposal which left it open to themselves to estimate the cost of this freight at their own price. This danger was averted by the concession that the Venetians should receive three-quarters of the plunder and the Latins the rest.
An immense quantity of the booty was of course stolen and withheld by soldiers, knights, and clergy. An incalculable amount of wealth had been wrecked in the conflagrations, and stores of precious things whose value was unknown to these rude warriors—manuscripts, statues, works of art—had been ruthlessly destroyed by the conquerors.
Gibbon borrows from Nicetas a list of the principal statues which were overthrown and destroyed. Many of these were of bronze or brass, and were melted down, not for the sake of wanton mischief, but for the value of the metal.
Still there remained a goodly pile of precious things. The value of the booty was estimated at 300,000 marks of silver, each mark being equal to a pound weight. The Crusaders paid up their debt to the Venetians, and were able, dividing the remainder of their portion into shares represented in the proportion of 1:2:4, to give to foot-soldiers, horsemen, and knights, respectively the sum of three, six, and twelve marks. If, as was roughly calculated above, the purchasing power of each mark was equal to that of £18 of our own money, it will be seen that the capture of Constantinople was a fairly good day's work; but of course nothing to what under more economical management and without three fires it ought
