The little Republic of Genoa had constant relations with Constantinople in her trade and, unlike Venice, her policy was always a friendly one to the Empire. Just across the Golden Horn, at Galata, was a colony of Genoese merchants,[1] so for their sakes too the Republic had an interest in the defence of Constantinople. Genoa then alone, besides the Holy See, sent help—a fleet of five ships and seven hundred men, under the valiant sea-captain John Giustiniani. This little fleet arrives at the gate of the Golden Horn on April 21, 1453, and finds it blockaded by 150 Ottoman galleys. With his five ships Giustiniani fights his way through them and sails into Constantinople, bringing a force that was not strong enough to save the city, but that, at any rate, could share the glory of the heroic defence, and leave to the "proud" Republic a memory of which it really had a right to be proud. Constantine XII had also tried everything to make terms with the enemy. Knowing that resistance was now quite hopeless, he sent to Mohammed to offer him any sum of money, if only he would be content with what he had already conquered and would spare the city. But Mohammed would not hear of this. To the Moslems the most glorious day of their history was approaching; ever since the time of the original Mohammed, the Prophet of God, the dream of every True Believer had been that some day they would conquer "Rum," that is New Rome, and set up the throne of the Khalifah on the ruins of the Christian Empire. But Mohammed II was quite ready to be kind to the Emperor, to give him a palace and a pension if he would give up the city quietly. But Constantine could not do that. As long as he lived the Roman Emperor must defend the Roman world, even if that world were shut up within the walls of one city. So he answers Mohammed in words that at the end of this long Byzantine period at last are really worthy of the Roman Cæsar: "Since neither oaths, nor treaties, nor any offer can bring us peace," he says, "go on then with the war. I trust in God; if he will soften your heart, I shall indeed rejoice, if he lets you take my
- ↑ These merchants at Galata formed the original nucleus of the "Latin nation," afterwards and still officially recognized by the Porte.
