Note 103
I shall conclude this chapter with the notice
of a modern history, which illustrates the taking of
Constantinople by the Latins; but which has fallen somewhat
late into my hands. Paolo Ramusio, the son of the compiler
of Voyages, was directed by the senate of Venice to write
the history of the conquest: and this order, which he
received in his youth, he executed in a mature age, by an
elegant Latin work, de Bello Constantinopolitano et
Imperatoribus Comnenis per Gallos et Venetos restitutis,
(Venet. 1635, in folio.) Ramusio, or Rhamnusus, transcribes
and translates, sequitur ad unguem, a Ms. of Villehardouin,
which he possessed; but he enriches his narrative with Greek
and Latin materials, and we are indebted to him for a
correct state of the fleet, the names of the fifty Venetian
nobles who commanded the galleys of the republic, and the
patriot opposition of Pantaleon Barbus to the choice of the
doge for emperor.]
The History Of The Decline And
Fall Of The Roman Empire
—Fall In The East
—Chapter 60