On the night of 2 March 1354 the coast of Thrace to the west of Constantinople was devastated by an earthquake. Some places disappeared into the ground. Some were completely destroyed and depopulated. Others were left defenceless by the collapse of their walls. The survivors fled from their shattered homes looking for refuge in the towns that had been spared. The earthquake was followed by blizzards and torrents of rain. Many of the refugees, especially the women and children, died of exposure. Many more were taken captive by the Ottoman Turkish soldiers who descended on the ruins at break of day. Gallipoli, the largest town in the district, was laid low, though its people managed to get away by sea. The Turks were familiar with the area. For some years they had been employed as mercenaries in the conflicts that raged over the throne or the trade of the Byzantine Empire. They could easily be summoned across the Hellespont from Asia Minor, which they already controlled; and they could usually be relied upon to go home with their pay and their booty at the end of each campaign. The Byzantine Emperor John VI Cantacuzene believed that he enjoyed a special relationship with their leader Orhan, the son of Osman, the founder of the Osmanli or Ottoman people. In 1348 he had given his daughter as wife to Orhan, as though to demonstrate that symbiosis between Turks and Greeks was possible and that the world could be shared between a Muslim Asia and a Christian Europe.