Greek, Russian, Moldavian,
and Italian. The work to which Hugo refers was a history of the
aggrandizement and decadence of the Ottoman Empire. Written in Latin,
and translated subsequently into English, French, and German, it was
long the standard work on the subject.

It does not seem probable that Hugo had any particular Sultan in mind
when he delineated Sultan Mourad. Indeed the geography of the poem
suggests that he is depicting an idealized Oriental tyrant.

The nearest approximation to the monster to be found in the pages
of Cantemir is Ammath IV (r. 1623-40), of whose cruelty and
bloodthirstiness the historian gives a vivid account. His principal
exploit was the taking of Bagdad from the Persians, on which occasion he
slaughtered 1,000 of the citizens in cold blood.

For Hugo's conception of the power and influence of the Turkish Empire
when at its zenith, see _Le Rhin: Conclusion_, II, III.

_Liban_ is Lebanon.

_rampantes_. The word is used with the heraldic sense.

I. 19. The so-called Temple of Theseus (its real dedication is doubtful)
stands on a low hill just outside Athens. It is in a state of almost
perfect preservation. The nails which crowded its woodwork were
doubtless those on which the heads of slaughtered Greeks were fastened.
Of course in the Greek temple there was no woodwork, except possibly in
the roof.

_cangiar_, a short Turkish sword, with an almost straight blade, having
a single edge.

_Naxos_ is an island in the South Aegean Sea; _Ancyra_, a town in Asia
Minor.

_epiques_. A curious use of the word. It appears to mean `worthy of
epic poetry,' i.e. the spectres were those of great heroic men. In _Les
Chants du Crepuscule_ Hugo has 'des grenadiers epiques' (_Napoleon II_).

Elea, Megara, are towns in Greece, Famagusta is in Cyprus.

Agrigentum was a well-known Greek colony in Sicily; Fiume, at the head
of the Adriatic Sea, is now an Austrian port.

_Modon_, a maritime town in the Peloponnesus.

_Alep_, Aleppo. _Brousse_, a town in Anatolia.

_Damas_, Damascus.

_Tarvis_ (English Treviso) is a town in the province of Venice.

_boyard_. The boyards were the feudal nobles of Roumania and other
Balkan countries.

_Rhamseion_, a sepulchral monument built by Ramses III, king of Egypt,
in the fourteenth century B.C.

_Generalife_, the palace of the Moorish kings at Granada in Spain. It is
scarcely necessary to say that no Turkish Sultan ever held any part of
Spain.

_echou