LIFE AND LETTERS IN THE BYZANTINE CHURCH
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organs themselves. This shows that the purpose of the cruel punishment was not mere torture or the savage revenge of mutilation for its own sake. "Perhaps we should say that the precise purpose of this common expedient of blinding was not so much to incapacitate the victim physically, as to render it improbable that people should wish to restore him to a position of power, that is to say, to incapacitate him in the eyes of the public."[1] It is true that the blind Dandolo was the leader of the Latin expedition against Constantinople; but he was a man of known ability and trusted integrity, loyal to Venice, with none of the self-seeking that actuated most of the barons.
- ↑ A suggestion made by Prof. Gwatkin in conversation with the present writer.
