194 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. number of relics was exaggerated by Latin travellers who vis- ited Constantinople in consequence of the great store of wealth which thej saw in the churches. But, however this may be, it can hardly be doubted that not even in Rome itself has there ever been amassed so great a number of articles of ven- eration as existed in Constantinople at the opening of the thirteenth century. The treasure of sacred relics in the city was immense, says one writer.^ Tiiere were as many relics in the city, says Yillehardouin, as in all the rest of the world put together." We may despise the veneration of relics be- cause we doubt the authenticity of the objects. But we are dealing with the Ages of Faith, and the Crusaders fully be- lieved both in their genuineness and usefulness. " For my part," says La Brocquiere,' " I believe that God has spared the city more for the holy relics it contains than for anything else." The city which guarded so much wealth and such valuable The city trcasurcs was encircled with strong walls and tow- waiis. gj,g^ which gave it a strength such as no other city in the world possessed. On the side bordered by the Sea of Marmora and that by the Golden Horn, access to the walls could only be made by an enemy who had command of the sea. On the landward side there were two walls with strong towers at short intervals, and along more than three fourths of the length a third wall and a ditch. These walls termi- nated at the Marmora end in a fortress, now occupied by the famous Seven Towers, and at the Golden Horn end by an- other near the imperial palace of Blachern. The walls were loft}^, the inner one sixty feet high, and the ditch between them thirty-five feet broad and twenty-five feet deep. Even in their present condition they give a good idea of the resist-
- "Lectiones S. Petri Insulensis," "Exuv. Sac." ii. 9.
' Villehardouin, p. 192. Many similar statements might be quoted: e. g., Matthew Amalphitanus, "Exuv. Sac." p. 171: "Erat enim Con- stantinopolitana civitas plurimorum sanctorum consccrata reliquiis et munita corporibus, quorum presidio primatum glorise meruit inter om- nia rcgna." — " Ilistoirc de la Saincte Larme," "Exuv. Sac." i. 189. ' Bohu's translation, p. 341.
