[Footnote 19: The nonsense of Gunther and the modern Greeks
concerning this columna fatidica, is unworthy of notice; but
it is singular enough, that fifty years before the Latin
conquest, the poet Tzetzes, (Chiliad, ix. 277) relates the
dream of a matron, who saw an army in the forum, and a man
sitting on the column, clapping his hands, and uttering a
loud exclamation. Note: We read in the "Chronicle of the
Conquest of Constantinople, and of the Establishment of the
French in the Morea," translated by J A Buchon, Paris, 1825,
p. 64 that Leo VI., called the Philosopher, had prophesied
that a perfidious emperor should be precipitated from the
top of this column. The crusaders considered themselves
under an obligation to fulfil this prophecy. Brosset, note
on Le Beau, vol. xvii. p. 180. M Brosset announces that a
complete edition of this work, of which the original Greek
of the first book only has been published by M. Buchon in
preparation, to form part of the new series of the Byzantine
historian - M.]