The fortifications were not found to be in a good state of repair.
Two monks who had been intrusted with a large sum for the purpose of
repairing them had executed their duty in an insufficient and it was
generally said in a fraudulent manner. The extreme dishonesty that
prevailed among the Greek officials explains the selection of monks as
treasurers for military objects; and it must lessen our surprise at
finding men of their religious professions sharing in the general
avarice, or tolerating the habitual peculations of others.

Cannon were beginning to be used in sieges, but stone balls were used in
the larger pieces of artillery; and the larger the gun, the greater was
the effect it was expected to produce. Even in Constantinople there was
some artillery too large to be of much use, as the land wall had not been
constructed to admit of their recoil, and the ramparts were so weak as
to be shaken by their concussion. Constantine had also only a moderate
supply of gunpowder. The machines of a past epoch in military science,
but to the use of which the Greeks adhered with their conservative
prejudices, were brought from the storehouses, and planted on the walls
beside the modern artillery. Johann Grant, a German officer, was the most
experienced artilleryman and military engineer in the place.

A considerable number of Italians hastened to Constantinople as soon as
they heard of its danger, eager to defend so important a depot of Eastern
commerce. The spirit of enterprise and the love of military renown had
become as much a characteristic of the merchant nobles of the commercial
republics as they had been, in a preceding age, distinctions of the
barons in feudal monarchies. All the nations who then traded with
Constantinople furnished contingents to defend its walls. A short time
before the siege commenced, John Justiniani arrived with two Genoese
galleys and three hundred chosen troops, and the Emperor valued his