ABSTRACT
In the highly fluid situation which characterized the history of the Middle East the contribution of the public official can hardly be over-rated, although his personal story has been poorly perpetuated. Constantinople was beseiged by the Turks under Mohammed II. On 29th May 1453 he wrested the city from Constantine XI, last of the Roman Emperors of the East, who died heroically in defence of his capital. For home defence Venice depended upon ships, and as leading naval power achieved mastery of the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean, until the Turk, having consolidated his hold on Eastern Europe, took to the sea with considerable effect. Many small states and islands of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean rushed to the protection of St. Mark and became tributaries of the great Republic. The Ottoman Turks also took on the mantle of East Rome, deriving both from the conquered Byzantium whose chief city became their capital, and from the Seljuks of Rum.
