…Near the middle of the city a large promontory juts out into the water, called the Castron or fortress, crowded with habitations of Turks and Jews, for no Christian is permitted to reside there: it contains also the old seraglio an immense pile of building, with two very fine mosques.
This castron was the site of the primitive town, and its figure is not unaptly compared to the double head of a spread – eagle, whose wings are represented by the outstretched habitations of the city. Opposite this fortress is a picturesque island in the lake. Its fortifications, and the deep ditch by which it is now isolated, were greatly improved by Ali about the time when the French armies gained possession of the Dalmatian provinces. In constructing them he forced all the people of the city to work at free cost, and gave them only a band of music to cheer their toil. He spared not even the primates, archons and priests of the Greeks, any more than the beys and agas of the Turks; nay, he forced the archbishop and his own son Mouchtar to labour. Signore Nicolo’s back seemed to ache afresh when he recounted to us the fatigues which he used to undergo in carrying stones, working with the pick – axe.
...At the same time also he threw up lines round the city. This forced labour is styled an αγγαρία or αγγάρευμα. It is a curious circumstance that the capital of Rome seems to have been fortified in a similar manner.
