De destructione civitatis Memele et plurium castrorum.
The Storming of Memel
Samethia's forces stormed Memel, killed a priest and many others, captured survivors into perpetual captivity, and burned the city and surrounding fortresses to ashes, leaving only the Teutonic brothers' own fortress standing.
Samethia, with his own army, stormed the city of Memel and killed one priest, a brother of the Teutonic House order. They also captured seventy men there, some of whom were killed, while the rest were shut away into perpetual captivity.1 They burned the city itself, along with three surrounding fortresses of the neophytes, the cottages, other ships, and whatever else could be consumed by fire, to ashes — except only the single fortress in which the brothers were dwelling.2345
Read the original Latin
Samethia cum exercitu suo expugnaverunt civitatem Memelam, et unum sacerdotem fratrem ordinis domus Theutonice occiderunt. lxx quoque homines in ea ceperunt, quorum quidam interfecti sunt, alii in captivitatem perpetuam cleducti. Ipsam civitatem et tria circumjacencia castra neophitorum, cogas et naves alias, et quicquid igne consumi potuita preter solum castrum, in quo fratres habitabant, in cinerem redegerunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩The form cleducti is uncertain; rendered as 'shut away / led off' based on likely derivation from claudo or a compound meaning 'enclosed, confined.' The sense is clearly that of being forced into captivity.
- 2 ↩circumjacencia: lemma and form uncertain; rendered as 'surrounding' based on circumjacens.
- 3 ↩cogas: form and lemma uncertain; tentatively rendered as 'cottages' or small structures.
- 4 ↩potuita: form highly uncertain; likely a corruption of potuit ('could be'). Rendered accordingly.
- 5 ↩neophitorum: reference uncertain; possibly converts or newly established settlements.
Chronicon Terrae Prussiae (Chronicle of the Prussian Land) companion
Keep reading the sources for yourself
The full 428-chapter chronicle — and 78+ other historic works — readable daily in the free Chosen Portion iOS app
The knights kept fixed daily hours of prayer alongside their campaigns; Chosen Portion keeps the fixed daily reading and drops the campaigning.
- The complete chronicle in modern English, in portions under 5 minutes
- Pericope headings that let you navigate 428 chapters by theme
- A daily reading habit that outlasts the 5-week course