Behold, we [are] servants this day, and [for] the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we [are] servants in it:
Ver. 36. Behold, we are servants this day] This is twice here bewailed, as a singular unhappiness. They that live under the Turkish slavery feel it so. Poor Greece, that was once Sol et sal gentium, terrarum flos, et fons literarum, the sun and salt of the nations, the flower of countries, and the font of literature, is now -- vel Priamo miseranda manus even [is become] the wretched hand to Priam.
Princess of nations, queen of provinces
She was, that now thus tributary is, Lamentations 1:1 .
Out of Greece and other countries that had sometime received the faith of Christ, the Turkish tyrants draw with them to the wars great multitudes of wretched people, whom they call Asape. These carry all the baggage; these carry wood and water for other soldiers of better account; these serve instead of pioneers to cast up trenches, and raise bulwarks; and when battle is to be given, if it be in a plain field, these have then weapons put into their hands, and are thrust into the forefront of the battle, to blunt the enemy's swords: but if a city is to be besieged, these serve as fit matter to fill the ditches with their dead bodies, or to make bridges for other soldiers to pass over upon. And if they shrink to attempt anything they are commanded, then are they more cruelly used by their commanders than by their enemies. And this the Ottoman kings count good policy.