The Galley Slave

Looking at him now, you would never know the galley slave toiling at the oar and under the whip was once a proud Byzantine nobleman, Alexios Tifernas and friend of the last Roman Emperor, Constantine X1 Palaeologus. 

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Alexios was taken prisoner and unlike so many other noblemen who were beheaded by the victorious Ottoman Sultan Mehmet, his life was spared. He didn't know the reason why he'd not been killed but he thanked all the saints of his Orthodox church for sparing him.

However, his relief was short lived; instead of a quick death, he was condemned to the lingering and brutal existence of a galley slave aboard an Ottoman warship waging war against the Western infidels of Rome. 

No longer does Alexios wear the rich garments of a Byzantine nobleman. Now he is stark naked and he wears both the heavy shackles that chain him to an oar and the stripes of the Moslem whip upon his back and shoulders. 

Between voyages, Alexios together with all his fellow slaves, have their scalps shaved - once he'd proudly boasted long, blond curls - and their bodies are stripped of all hair to deny a haven for disease carrying vermin. 

Here we see the once proud aristocrat sweating and straining at the oar as his back is constantly lashed by an impatient slave-driver urging him to keep the beat of the hortator's drum.

One wonders if Alexios still thanks his Orthodox saints for sparing him for such a fate or does he now envy those noblemen so cruelly put to death by the victorious Ottomans.  

Source of picture unknown and taken from the internet; the text is mine.