For ianus: great post

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Dec 19, 2006 at 06:48

Hi Ianus,

The fall of Constantinople is a great topic. I must admit that I only read Runciman as this is not the area of history that I study. If he would write this book now I suspect that it would not be published without some major changes.

One example here is his lack of understanding of the historical topos of 40, 400, 4000 etc...He claims and I stand corrected here that 4000 citizens of the city were killed and in some other place that the number of attackes was 400,000. I'm sure you know that the number 40, 400, 4000 etc... in Greek, Syriac, Coptic and Arabic literature means: many and very many. So 4000 does not really mean that 4000 were killed, it only means that plenty were killed.

So my question is: How many citizens of the city were killed? : It is clear to me that the number 4000 in Runciman is only a topos (the topos of plenty) Could you also provide me with references? And yes my Greek is good. Thank you.

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