Mehmed II was a very intelligent, ambitious sovereign who could focus on his objectives with great energy, as well as a man of profound thoughts. Mehmed II pursued the ideal of universal rulership by proclaiming himself Caesar of the Roman Empire following his conquest of Constantinople, orchestrating clever propaganda campaigns, playing with different artistic styles in order to convey nuanced messages both to the East and the West, and sitting to have his portrait painted and his medallions struck by leading Italian artists even as he carefully followed the latest military technology while scheming and preparing to invade Italy and march on Rome. He was a supreme warlord who took a personal hand with building fortifications, casting great bombards, or amassing the necessary funds and supplies. He was a polymath who avidly built himself a multi-lingual library, and a patron of the arts playing with greater resources than many of his Western contemporaries.
