In ancient, Roman Byzantium
The King of the moon came looking for me
With blood dripping from his mouth
& a wide toothy smile, as wide as the Bosphorous.

Aristomenos the daughter of Ancient Man.
Will do everything she can to remain Byzantine
But the Ottomans raped  and laughed and smoked hashish.
She asked herself what the Greeks said about murder
And refrained. Uttering such-and-such platitudes

She reassured her bridgroom and submitted.
Most of the Greeks trusted this, and their fathers' words,
& they converted. They no longer exalted the Orthodox mysteries of belief.
They are worse than the Janissaries,
Christian youths from the Balkan provinces
Who were forcibly converted on being drafted into Ottoman service..

This is how a civilization crumbles.