De destructione civitatis Achonensis.
The Fall of Acre
In 1290 the city of Acre fell to the sultan, and countless Christians were captured and slain.
In the year of the Lord 1290, on the feast of the virgin Potentiana — that is, the twelfth of the Kalends of June — the city of Acre was destroyed by the sultan, and countless Christians were captured and slain.1
Source Citations
A series of abbreviated manuscript and source references supporting the account of Acre's fall.
Heraclius and the True Cross
The emperor Heraclius defeated Chosroes, recovered a piece of the True Cross, and restored the churches of the Holy Land.
Note that around the year of the Lord 600, at the time when Muhammad was dying, the emperor Heraclius, advancing in war against Chosroes, king of the Persians, defeated him, and brought back a piece of the wood of the Lord — which Chosroes had carried off from the temple of the Lord — and restored the churches of God and the holy land, which he had destroyed.67
Read the original Latin
Anno domini mccxc in die Potenciane virginis scilicet xini kalendas Junii civitas Achonensis a soldano destructa est captis et occisis Cristianis infinitis. (Mart. p. 421. Ptol,.) Nota, quod circa annum domini dc eo tempore, quo Machometus moriebatur, Eraclius imperator in bello procedens contra Cosdroem regem Persarum devicit, et partem ligni dominici, quam de templo domini tulerat, reportavit, ecclesias dei et terram sanctam, quam destruxerat, reparavit.
Notes
- 1 ↩The numeral 'xini' (12) is uncertain; the date corresponds to May 21. 'Potenciane' is a proper name of uncertain form, here rendered as Potentiana.
- 2 ↩Abbreviation 'Mart.' — expansion uncertain; possibly a marginal source citation (e.g., 'Martialis' or a manuscript siglum). Left unexpanded pending review.
- 3 ↩Abbreviation for 'page' or 'pagina' in a marginal source reference.
- 4 ↩Page number in a marginal source citation.
- 5 ↩Abbreviation 'Ptol.' — likely Ptolemy, a source citation. Trailing comma and closing parenthesis suggest a corrupted or truncated marginal note. Left as-is pending review.
- 6 ↩The 'wood of the Lord' (lignum dominici) refers to a relic of the True Cross, carried off by the Persians and recovered by Heraclius — a well-known episode in Byzantine historiography.
- 7 ↩The numeral 'dc' (600) is the reading of the normalized text; the traditional date for Heraclius's recovery of the Cross is 628–629, suggesting a possible scribal error or variant chronology.
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