On the fateful day of April 13, 1204 AD the knights of the Fourth Crusade took Constantinople.

On the fateful day of April 13, 1204 AD the knights of the Fourth Crusade took Constantinople. During the massive looting they reached the Rotunda of the Apostoleion, the place where many of the bodies of the emperors and empresses rested. The Crusaders began to open the sarcophagi. They tore the imperial crown from the head of Emperor Heraclius (considered by Westerners the first crusader in history). Many of the graves were opened and destroyed. And when they opened the Sarcophagus of Emperor Justinianus I (527-565 AD) they were astonished, for the body of the emperor 639 years after his death was uncorrupted. The historian Nicetas Choniates, an eyewitness to the capture and sack of Constantinople in 1204, wrote the following:

 "Exhibiting from the very outset, as they say, their innate love of gold, the plunderers of the queen of cities conceived a novel way to enrich themselves while escaping everyone's notice. They broke open the sepulchers of the emperors which were located within the Heroon erected next to the great temple of the Disciples of Christ (Holy Apostles) and plundered them all in the night, taking with utter lawlessness whatever gold ornaments, or round pearls, or radiant, precious, and incorruptible gems that were still preserved within. Finding the corpse of Emperor Justinian had not decomposed through the long centuries, they looked upon the spectacle as a miracle, but this in no way prevented them from keeping their hands off the tomb's valuables. In other words, the Western nations spared neither the living nor the dead, but beginning with God and his servants, they displayed complete indifference and irreverence to all".