Note 52 — BOOK X.

Several historians say that Dandolo was blind, and that the emperor Manuel Comnenus had deprived him of sight during an abode he made at Constantinople. One of his descendants, André Dandolo, says merely in his history that his ancestor was short-sighted (visu debilis). The part of the story connected with Manuel Comnenus appears to be a fable. Historians differ as to the age of Dandolo: Ducange, at the period of the crusade, gives him ninety-four years. Gibbon does not doubt of his blindness, though he has no faith in its having been caused by Manuel; but he certainly assigns to him actions that could scarcely be performed by a blind man. He does not believe the accounts of his very advanced age, saying,—“It is scarcely possible that the powers of mind and body should support themselves at such an age.”—Trans.