54901 - The first cycle

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias

How deep can people’s memory be, when they are alone or when together?
Alone, minimal.
Together, unbounded.
But why are you asking, since you are aware of the first circle, meaning, the circle of Antiocheia, as well as the circle of Jerusalem, even regarding the knight with the swan.
It may be, that Richard the pilgrim be unknown to you, but it was him who began writing at the time of the siege, when the liberation of the Holy Land began.
It was then, that you had to see the reaction of the Turks who had banned access to Christians since 1078.
Because it was then, that the Seljuk Turkis had expelled the Arabs from Jerusalem, destroyed the holy city and slaughtered all of its population.
But who remembered this act of barbarism?
That however was not enough for them.
They placed under their yoke other Christian populations as well, which they abused and enslaved in order to impose their ruling power upon them.
No pilgrim could thereon go to Jerusalem.
And they cut down their path through land.
Asia Minor at this point constituted an obstacle.
The entire region had changed.
In fact, they believed that this was a final situation.
They were however in error.
And they realized this in 1096, when the counterattack began.