kyuneli

I'm familiar with Ani, and Van. However, I don't know where Sebastia is, or what it is called today. I definately feel sad for any place that has lost it's splendor, and it's inhabitants suffered due to actions of men. Kamil

Gamavor, originally I searched for this article to post at another forum to show that some Christians could act as barbaric as any other ethnic group. However, reading this and many other articles about Constantinople, made me really feel sorry for the Byzantinum Empire. They collected these treasures for centuries, made it possible for all Christians, Moslems and other religions to view and enjoy these treasures. As a reward for their good will, they got looted. They never fully recovered from the devastation of the first conquest. Then 250 years later Ottomans came along and Kingdom got conquered again. Just made me think how splendid Constantinople could have been without these conquests. Kamil

This crime against humanity happened 800 years ago and Pope Innocent at that time condemned these actions, however took no action to stop looting of Constantinople, or made any effort to return any of the loot to their rightfull ownners. Well it was then, and now whoever possesses these articles is a receiver of, stolen goods. Moreover, they are a receiver of stolen goods obtained by murder, rape, and desecration--not an enviable position in which to be, especially if such a holder happens to be a Christian church. Repentance is nice and does not cost anything. How about as a goodwill returning at least some of the loot to the Eastern Ortodox Churches located in Greece, Russia, Armenia, etc. Kamil

Following is an excerpt from Nicholas A. Cook's article on Fourth Crusaders-1207AD. ---------- After receiving absolution, the Crusaders attacked. Constantinople fell after three days of the final, furious attack by land and by sea. Once inside the walls, the Crusaders began an orgy of carnage, brutality and vandalism not seen in Europe since the barbarians invaded seven centuries earlier. No one was spared: not bishop, priest, nun, man, woman or child. Few women escaped being violated, whether at home, in the street, or in the convent. Fires were started throughout the city. The butchery ended only when the Crusaders were so tired that they no longer could lift their swords. Then began looting and profanation on a scale unparalleled in history. A mob rushed into Santa Sophia. With the Image of the Pantacrator looking down upon them from the great dome, they broke up the altar for its gold content, smashed the icons, threw the Holy Gifts to the floor, seized the church vessels for their Jewels, and tore mosaics and tapestries from the walls. Horses and mules were brought into the church the better to carry off the sacred vessels, gold, silver, and whatever else they could gather. Drunken soldiers drank from chalices and ate from patens while riding asses draped with priestly vestments. A mocking prostitute was placed on the Patriarch's chair to dance and sing obscene songs. This pattern of pilferage and desecration was repeated in churches, monasteries and palaces throughout the city. The tombs of the emperors were rifled, and all of the classical statues and monuments which had survived from ancient Greece and imperial Rome were destroyed. One writer wrote that never in history had so much beauty, so much superb craftsmanship been so wantonly destroyed in so short a space of time. What was not carried off was burned, smashed, melted down for its precious metal content, or stripped for its jewels. After the killing, after the city had been subdued, there began a slow and steady removal of treasures out of the Orthodox temples and into the cathedrals, churches, monasteries, convents, cities and towns of Latin Europe. Some of these items had been venerated, cherished, and protected for centuries, others for a millennium. Now they were being carted away from over a hundred and fifty churches: altars, altar screens, tabernacles, antimins, icons, icon frames, processional, pectoral and altar crosses, gold and silver chains, panagias, mitres, croziers, chalices, patens, star covers and spears, Gospels, Epistle books, ladles, church plate, censers, votive lights, relics, candelabra, epitaphia, fans, reliquaries, vestments, banners, manuscripts, miniatures, ivories, carvings, mosaics, thrones, tapestries, furniture and architectural items. Cartloads of gold and silver from Santa Sophia found their way into the Vatican treasury. Constantinople had become the gold mine which supplied Latin Christendom. The wealth was so great that the looting continued for sixty years. A century earlier, after the First Crusade, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa were similarly stripped for a period of forty years. Now it was happening to the imperial city. A scandalous traffic in relics was started. The head of St. John the Baptist was carried off to Amiens. Amalfi, Italy took the head of St. Andrew the First-Called from the Church of the Holy Apostles, along with a set of heavy bronze doors. The bishop of Soissons shipped home the head of St. Stephen and a relic of St. John. The remains of St. Clement, pillaged from the Church of St. Theodosia, were taken to Cluny. St. Albans received the relics of St. Marina. Halbstadt claimed the relics of St. James. The True Cross was divided up among the barons, with a portion sent to the pope, and another fragment taken to Paris. A priceless gold and enamel reliquary encrusted with jewels, containing a fragment of the Wood wound up in a nunnery in Steuben. King Louis IX of France paid 10,000 silver marks for the "true" Crown of Thorns, for which he built St. Chapells in Paris. Please check the following URL to read full article: http://aggreen.net/church_history/1204_sack.html ---------- My comments: Some of these loot is still being displayed at Vatican. I was wondering as a good will gesture, shouldn't Vatican donate some of these art pieces to Ortodox Churches in Greece, Russia, Armenia, etc. Kamil

To Chinese Scholar, Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. The vassal states under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls to protect them against neighboring Chinese Clans. After the state of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is the origin of the name Of the "10,000-li Great Wall". and it did not keep out Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (1215-1294), Mongol military leader, founder and first emperor (1279-1294) of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China, grandson of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan and his best-known successor. Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China that was begun by his grandfather. From 1252 to 1259 he aided his brother Mangu Khan in the conquest of southern China, penetrating successfully as far as Tibet and Tonkin. Upon the death of Mangu in 1259 he became the khan, or ruler. Between 1260 and 1279 he succeeded in driving the Kin Tatars out of northern China and in subduing rebellious factions among the Mongols. In 1264 he founded his capital on the site now occupied by Beijing; it was called Khanbalik, which is romanized as Cambaluc or Cambalu. He relinquished all claims to the parts of the Mongol Empire outside China, consolidated his hold on China, and in 1279 established the Yuan dynasty as the successor to the Southern Song dynasty. He undertook foreign wars in attempts to enforce tribute claims on neighboring states, conquering Burma (now known as Myanmar) and Korea. His military expeditions to Java and Japan, however, met with disaster. His name was known all over Asia and also in Europe. The court at Cambaluc attracted an international group of adventurous men, including the famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo. Kublai Khan did much to encourage the advancement of literature and the arts. He was a devout Buddhist and made Buddhism the state religion, but during his reign other religions were also tolerated. Kamil