It may not be generally known that there is a small town in France which
no one can enter without interest, from the consideration that Demetrius
Commene once lived there, a man boasting a pedigree that traced him from
the line of the Roman emperor Trajan. He was living in the time of
Voltaire, and was a captain in the French army. His pedigree was the
noblest of any man then living, or that has since lived, for he had
twenty-six kings for his ancestors, and eighteen emperors. Of these, six
were emperors of Constantinople, ten of Trebizond, and two of Heracleus
Pontus; eighteen kings of Colchi, and eight of Lazi.