Note 427 — Chapter XVI

It is difficult to identify the gate described as having been opened on to the stockade. Critobulus gives no further indication of its position than that here mentioned (ch. lx.). Paspates thinks it was a temporary postern, walled up after the siege when the Inner Wall was repaired to prevent smuggling, but would place it not far from Top Capou, a position which cannot be accepted if the stockade were, as I have placed it, near the Military Gate of St. Romanus. The Podestà of Pera, however, says that Justiniani went ‘per ipsam portam per quam Teucri intraverunt’ (p. 648), which would indicate St. Romanus. Andrea Cambini, the Florentine already quoted, in his Libro della Origine de Turchi, published by the sons of the writer, says that Justiniani, who had behaved so well that the salvation of the city was largely attributed to him, was seriously wounded, and, seeing that the blood flowed ‘in great quantity’ and being unwilling that they should fetch a doctor, withdrew secretly from the fight ... all the gates which led from the Antimuro [i.e. the Outer Wall] being closed, because thus the fighters had to conquer or die (p. 25).