Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries were spared. Wounded women and children lay dying in the streets. This pair of fortresses ensured complete control of sea traffic on the Bosphorus[26]:373 and defended against attack by the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast to the north. The Walls of Constantinople, especially the Theodosian Walls, were some of the most advanced defensive systems in the world at the time. They were modified continuously over time but the major constructions were done by Constantine the Great in the 4th century, and Theodosius II in the 5th century. Georgacas, Demetrius John (1947). Lastly, he guaranteed the safety of the population that might choose to remain in the city. Its city walls were much imitated (for example, see Caernarfon Castle) and its urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping alive the art, skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The Walls of Constantinople ( Greek: ) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. [37]:81 [63] John II built the monastery of the Pantocrator (Almighty) with a hospital for the poor of 50 beds. After conquering the city, Mehmed II made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital, replacing Adrianople. [37]:92, To the left of the emperor, further south, were the commanders Cataneo, who led Genoese troops, and Theophilus Palaeologus, who guarded the Pegae Gate with Greek soldiers. [53], In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at Kiev by Askold and Dir, two Varangian chiefs: Two hundred small vessels passed through the Bosporus and plundered the monasteries and other properties on the suburban Princes' Islands. The Bashi-bazouks were spread out behind the front lines. He came out with the Patriarch to the Golden Milestone before the Great Palace and addressed the Varangian Guard. Simultaneously, the Persian Sassanids overwhelmed the Prefecture of the East and penetrated deep into Anatolia. [40]:380 This strategy was used because in 1204, the armies of the Fourth Crusade successfully circumvented Constantinople's land defences by breaching the Golden Horn Wall, which faces the Horn. A. Pope Pius II strongly advocated for another Crusade, while the German Nicholas of Cusa supported engaging in a dialogue with the Ottomans. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek-speaking empire for over a thousand years. The wealth of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia flowed into Constantinople. It retained the glory of the former capital of Rome while implementing new wonders. Sultanahmet Square ( Turkish: Sultanahmet Meydan) or the Hippodrome of Constantinople ( Greek: , romanized : Hippdromos ts Knstantinouples; Latin: Circus Maximus Constantinopolitanus; Turkish: Hipodrom) is a square in Istanbul, Turkey. https://thecollector.com/who-built-the-theodosian-walls-of-constantinople/ via @romanhistory1 [26]:376, Despite some probing attacks, the Ottoman fleet under Baltoghlu could not enter the Golden Horn due to the chain across the entrance. In Justinian's age the Mese street running across the city from east to west was a daily market. Klein, Konstantin M.: Wienand, Johannes (2022) (eds. When the fog lifted that evening, a strange light was seen playing about the dome of the Hagia Sophia, which some interpreted as the Holy Spirit departing from the city. [17][18] The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. But the Frenchmen and Flemings were filled with a lust for destruction. photo source: Wikimedia Commons. Women were raped, virgins deflowered and youths forced to take part in shameful obscenities. [26]:378 Prayer and resting was then granted to the soldiers on 28 May before the final assault would be launched. [64], With the restoration of firm central government, the empire became fabulously wealthy. a narrow strip of the Thracian shore at the mouth of the Pontos, In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinopoli(s) (/) or simply just "the City" ( ). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The bulk of the Ottoman army was encamped south of the Golden Horn. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor, and also where they openly criticized the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. The nuns left behind, even those who were obviously such, were disgraced with foul debaucheries.[77]. of those involved). Persian rule lasted until 478BC when as part of the Greek counterattack to the Second Persian invasion of Greece, a Greek army led by the Spartan general Pausanias captured the city which remained an independent, yet subordinate, city under the Athenians, and later to the Spartans after 411BC. [] When [] order was restored, [] citizens were tortured to make them reveal the goods that they had contrived to hide. For some time Greek scholars had gone to Italian city-states, a cultural exchange begun in 1396 by Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence, who had invited Manuel Chrysoloras, to lecture at the University of Florence. After that, as part of the 1920s Turkification movement, Turkey started to urge other countries to use Turkish names for Turkish cities, instead of other transliterations to Latin script that had been used in Ottoman times. They fought as allies against the Latin establishments, but also fought among themselves for the Byzantine throne. Although one of the fleet's main tasks was to prevent any foreign ships from entering the Golden Horn, on 20 April, a small flotilla of four Christian ships managed to get in after some heavy fighting, an event which strengthened the morale of the defenders and caused embarrassment to the Sultan. [97], The city acted as a defence for the eastern provinces of the old Roman Empire against the barbarian invasions of the 5th century. "Fall of the Empire", Byzantium and Putin's Russia", World History Encyclopedia 1453: The Fall of Constantinople, Spain (Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Constantinople&oldid=1165730045, Massacres committed by the Ottoman Empire, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Articles with Latin-language sources (la), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing translation from French Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from May 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from June 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2017, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2023, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from June 2023, Articles lacking reliable references from November 2016, Articles containing Ottoman Turkish (1500-1928)-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0. The reigning emperor Alexios III Angelos had made no preparation. In Egypt good tidings were proclaimed, and Cairo decorated to celebrate this greatest of conquests. The Sharif of Mecca wrote to Mehmed, calling the Sultan the one who has aided Islam and the Muslims, the Sultan of all kings and sultans,. "It is for the Faith! the Ghazi said. Bronze and lead were removed from the roofs of abandoned buildings and melted down and sold to provide money to the chronically under-funded Empire for defense and to support the court; Deno John Geanokoplos writes that "it may well be that a division is suggested here: Latin laymen stripped secular buildings, ecclesiastics, the churches. Location: modern-day Istanbul, Turkey. When Michael assumed power in 856, he became known for excessive drunkenness, appeared in the hippodrome as a charioteer and burlesqued the religious processions of the clergy. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence . [46], Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles and Hagia Irene built by Constantine with new churches under the same dedication. [99][100][101] The Chinese histories even related how the city had been besieged in the 7th century by Muawiyah I and how he exacted tribute in a peace settlement.[100][102]. We have never lost a city or a place comparable to Constantinople, The Morean (Peloponnesian) fortress of Mystras, where Constantine's brothers Thomas and Demetrius ruled, constantly in conflict with each other and knowing that Mehmed would eventually invade them as well, held out until 1460. Sometimes known as the Theodosian Long Walls, they built upon and extended earlier fortifications so that the city became impregnable to enemy sieges for 800 years. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th-century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Original text: ' ' . The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora, who restored the icons. [40][pageneeded][37]:85 Further undermining Byzantine morale, seven Italian ships with around 700 men, despite having sworn to defend Constantinople, slipped out of the capital the moment Giustiniani arrived. [40]:388 The Greek houses nearest to the walls were the first to suffer from the Ottomans. The fortress of Therapia on the Bosphorus and a smaller castle at the village of Studius near the Sea of Marmara were taken within a few days. [107] After the conquest many Greeks, such as John Argyropoulos and Constantine Lascaris, fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, bringing with them knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition to Italy and other regions that further propelled the Renaissance. [51], In the 730s Leo III carried out extensive repairs of the Theodosian walls, which had been damaged by frequent and violent attacks; this work was financed by a special tax on all the subjects of the Empire. The loss of the city was a crippling blow to Christendom, and it exposed the Christian West to a vigorous and aggressive foe in the East. [78]:37. Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI swiftly understood Mehmed's true intentions and turned to Western Europe for help; but now the price of centuries of war and enmity between the eastern and western churches had to be paid. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to the citizens. [26]:374 His 27 feet (8.2m) long cannon was named "Basilica" and was able to hurl a 600lb (270kg) stone ball over a mile (1.6km). [37]:8384 As a specialist in defending walled cities, Giustiniani was immediately given the overall command of the defence of the land walls by the Emperor. Mehmed then tasked the Hungarian gunsmith Urban with both arming Rumelihisar and building cannon powerful enough to bring down the walls of Constantinople. After the victory, in 534, the Temple treasure of Jerusalem, looted by the Romans in AD70 and taken to Carthage by the Vandals after their sack of Rome in 455, was brought to Constantinople and deposited for a time, perhaps in the Church of St Polyeuctus, before being returned to Jerusalem in either the Church of the Resurrection or the New Church.[42]. [56], Mehmed built a fleet (crewed partially by Spanish sailors from Gallipoli) to besiege the city from the sea. [85] George Sphrantzes says that people of both genders were raped inside Hagia Sophia. [17][19][81][18][82], They made the people of the city slaves and killed their emperor, and the gazis embraced their pretty girls", confirm Ottoman Chroniclers. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, aqueducts, or other public works. The land fortifications consisted of a 60ft (18m) wide moat fronting inner and outer crenellated walls studded with towers every 4555 metres.[47]. With the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II had acquired the future capital of his kingdom, albeit one in decline due to years of war. "[35]:59, For others, there was still a distant hope that the lights were the campfires of the troops of John Hunyadi who had come to relieve the city. [61] Orban initially tried to sell his services to the Byzantines, but they were unable to secure the funds needed to hire him. These were the three Genoese ships sent by the Pope, joined by a large Imperial transport ship which had been sent on a foraging mission to Sicily previous to the siege and was on its way back to Constantinople. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; 3301204 and 12611453), the Latin Empire (12041261), and the Ottoman Empire (14531922). The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha, became Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and Sancak Beg (Governor) of the Province of Gallipoli. The attacking Ottoman Army, which significantly outnumbered Constantinople's defenders, was commanded by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (later nicknamed "the Conqueror"), while the Byzantine army was led by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. Founded by Emperor Constantine the Great in the fourth century CE, Constantinople soon became a thriving metropolis and one of the largest cities in the world, reaching over half million inhabitants by the sixth century. [26]:373 But Mehmed's mild words were not matched by his actions. Year Built: 4th - 5th century CE. Our men shot at them with guns and crossbows, aiming at the Turk who was carrying away his dead countryman, and both of them would fall to the ground dead, and then there came other Turks and took them away, none fearing death, but being willing to let ten of themselves be killed rather than suffer the shame of leaving a single Turkish corpse by the walls. [22] However, these fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder, specifically from Ottoman cannons and bombards, heralding a change in siege warfare. Fifty carpenters and 200 artisans also strengthened the roads where necessary. When Turkish flags were seen flying above the Kerkoporta, a small postern gate that was left open, panic ensued and the defence collapsed. [37]:94 Although the Byzantines also had cannons, the weapons were much smaller than those of the Ottomans, and the recoil tended to damage their own walls. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. Constantinople's great city walls were breached only twice in 1600 years. The "fire" seen may have been an optical illusion due to the reflection of intensely red twilight glow by clouds of volcanic ash high in the atmosphere.[115]. Around this time, Mehmed had a final council with his senior officers. Uldin, a prince of the Huns, appeared on the Danube about this time and advanced into Thrace, but he was deserted by many of his followers, who joined with the Romans in driving their king back north of the river. This contributed to cultural and theological differences between Eastern and Western Christianity eventually leading to the Great Schism that divided Western Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy from 1054 onwards. The citizens lost their right to free grain in 618 when Heraclius realized that the city could no longer be supplied from Egypt as a result of the Persian wars: the population fell substantially as a result. It is said that Constantine, throwing aside his purple imperial regalia, led the final charge against the incoming Ottomans, perishing in the ensuing battle in the streets alongside his soldiers. An attack by the Crusaders on 6 April failed, but a second from the Golden Horn on 12 April succeeded, and the invaders poured in. The short lived Crusade immediately came to an end and as Western Europe entered the 16th century, the age of Crusading began to come to an end. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos had also recently negotiated union with Pope Eugene IV, with the Council of Florence of 1439 proclaiming a Bull of Union. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He promised he would allow the Emperor and any other inhabitants to leave with their possessions. The Byzantines knew him by the Latin spelling of his name, "John Justinian", named after the famous 6th century Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great. According to some Ottoman sources Constantine was killed in an accidental encounter with Turkish marines a little further to the south, presumably while making his way to the Sea of Marmara in order to escape by sea. Built to host chariot races, the Hippodrome was said to seat more than 80,000 . [citation needed] Ottoman casualties are unknown but they are believed by most historians to be severe due to several unsuccessful Ottoman attacks made during the siege and final assault. [35], Constantinople was built over six years, and consecrated on 11 May 330. In many instances, temples and buildings throughout the empire were uprooted piece by piece and taken to the new capital! Possibly from the largest city in the world with 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,00070,000: The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, Penguin Books Ltd. 2009. Finally, the sea walls at the southern shore of the Golden Horn were defended by Venetian and Genoese sailors under Gabriele Trevisano. On 2 June, the Sultan found the city largely deserted and half in ruins; churches had been desecrated and stripped, houses were no longer habitable, and stores and shops were emptied. They protected the city of Constantinople, the capital . Ultimately, his fate remains unknown. [18] As the city became the sole remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew, the city also came to have a multitude of nicknames. The garrison used a few small-calibre artillery pieces, which in the end proved ineffective. [105]:446, Constantine XI had died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother, who were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. With the advent of the Ottoman Empire in 1299, the Byzantine Empire began to lose territories and the city began to lose population. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror. [50], While the city withstood a siege by the Sassanids and Avars in 626, Heraclius campaigned deep into Persian territory and briefly restored the status quo in 628, when the Persians surrendered all their conquests. [82] Mehmed II intended to complete his fathers mission and conquer Constantinople for the Ottomans. Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch.[95]. In retaliation, the defenders brought their Ottoman prisoners, 260 in all, to the walls, where they were executed, one by one, before the eyes of the Ottomans. After the initial assault, the Ottoman army fanned out along the main thoroughfare of the city, the Mese, past the great forums and the Church of the Holy Apostles, which Mehmed II wanted to provide as a seat for his newly appointed patriarch to better control his Christian subjects. [30] The city was further depopulated by the general economic and territorial decline of the empire, and by 1453, it consisted of a series of walled villages separated by vast fields encircled by the fifth-century Theodosian Walls. [15] The site, according to the founding myth of the city, was abandoned by the time Greek settlers from the city-state of Megara founded Byzantium (Ancient Greek: , Byzntion) in around 657BC,[16] across from the town of Chalcedon on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. Walls of Constantinople. [19] In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rmiyyat al-Kubra (Great City of the Romans) and in Persian as Takht-e Rum (Throne of the Romans). They were known for their ferocity, honour, and loyalty. Fall of Constantinople, (May 29, 1453), conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire.The dwindling Byzantine Empire came to an end when the Ottomans breached Constantinople's ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. Mehmed ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn and dragged his ships over the hill, directly into the Golden Horn on 22 April, bypassing the chain barrier. Finally, the last wave consisting of elite Janissaries, attacked the city walls. According to Russian 14th-century traveler Stephen of Novgorod: "As for Hagia Sophia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it. The regular troops from Anatolia under Ishak Pasha were stationed south of the Lycus down to the Sea of Marmara. According to Zaruhi Galemkearian's autobiography, she was told to write about women's place in the family and home after she published two volumes of poetry in the 1890s. On 25 July 1197, Constantinople was struck by a severe fire which burned the Latin Quarter and the area around the Gate of the Droungarios (Turkish: Odun Kaps) on the Golden Horn. The Venetians had factories on the north side of the Golden Horn, and large numbers of westerners were present in the city throughout the 12th century. [124], Media related to Fall of Constantinople (1453) at Wikimedia Commons. [citation needed] The Venetian Barbaro observed that blood flowed in the city "like rainwater in the gutters after a sudden storm" and that bodies of Turks and Christians floated in the sea "like melons along a canal". It had no praetors, tribunes, or quaestors. [61] Following the death of her husband Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Recent studies and Ottoman archival data state that there were some 50,00080,000 Ottoman soldiers, including between 5,000 and 10,000 Janissaries,[7][pageneeded] 70 cannons,[49]:139140[48][pageneeded][50][pageneeded] and an elite infantry corps, and thousands of Christian troops, notably 1,500 Serbian cavalry that ura Brankovi was forced to supply as part of his obligation to the Ottoman sultan[1][2] just a few months before, Brankovi had supplied the money for the reconstruction of the walls of Constantinople. For some of the oldest of you were sharers in many of the exploits carried through by themthose at least of you who are of maturer yearsand the younger of you have heard of these deeds from your fathers. Now, at this happy and joyful moment of time, we have the riches of the Greeks, we have won their empire, and their religion is completely extinguished. On 21 May, Mehmed sent an ambassador to Constantinople and offered to lift the siege if they gave him the city. According to the legend, the priests will appear again on the day that Constantinople returns to Christian hands. The answer is simple yet brutal: Constantine the Great tasked 40.000 prisoners of war, whom he'd captured during the wars against the Goths, with building the wall. The resulting strip design can be seen in many buildings of the Late Empire and on the walls of Constantinople. The Emperor Romanus Diogenes was captured. Mehmed II had sent an advance guard to protect these key buildings.The Catalans that maintained their position on the section of the wall that the emperor had assigned them, had the honor of being the last troops to fall. The fall of Constantinople led competing factions to lay claim to being the inheritors of the Imperial mantle. It is also the largest city in Europe. Moreover, the massive walls of ancient Constantinople, built by the Emperor Theodosius II over 1500 years ago, are in many places still standing. The Ottoman army had made several frontal assaults on the land wall of Constantinople, but they were costly failures. The corporations in which the tradesmen of Constantinople were organised were supervised by the Eparch, who regulated such matters as production, prices, import, and export. In April, having quickly seized Byzantine coastal settlements along the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, Ottoman regiments in Rumelia and Anatolia assembled outside the Byzantine capital. His army encamped outside the city on 2 April 1453, the Monday after Easter. [95]:283 On the third day of the conquest, Mehmed II ordered all looting to stop and issued a proclamation that all Christians who had avoided capture or who had been ransomed could return to their homes without further molestation, although many had no homes to return to, and many more had been taken captive and not ransomed. By the next day the Doge and the leading Franks were installed in the Great Palace, and the city was given over to pillage for three days. Who Built the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople? [76] Nicaea and Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople. [86], Everywhere there was misfortune, everyone was touched by pain when Mehmed entered the city. Byzantium took on the name of Constantinople (Greek: , romanized: Knstantinoupolis; "city of Constantine") after its refoundation under Roman emperor Constantine I, who transferred the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium in 330 and designated his new capital officially as Nova Roma ( ) 'New Rome'. "The Names of Constantinople". Other troops under Zagan Pasha were employed north of the Golden Horn. 10. [30] A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. [121][122][123], For the fall of Constantinople, Marios Philippides and Walter Hanak list 15 eyewitness accounts (13 Christian and 2 Turkish) and 20 contemporary non-eyewitness accounts (13 Italian). [26]:374 The Ottomans deployed a number of cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62 cannons. [48]:32 [note 5] Turkish commander Dorgano, who was in Constantinople working for the Emperor, was also guarding one of the quarters of the city on the seaward side with the Turks in his pay. Australian Association of Byzantine Studies, 1986 vol 4. Apr 28, 2018 William Mclaughlin, Guest Author By Bigdaddy1204 - GFDL The great city of Constantinople was one of the most impressive and impregnable cities in the world for over 1,000 years. You all know very well that our forefathers secured this kingdom that we now hold at the cost of many struggles and very great dangers and that, having passed it along in succession from their fathers, from father to son, they handed it down to me. The wall was a engineering and architecture feat that signified the growth of Constantinople. A few civilians managed to escape. [105]:446 Thomas escaped to Rome when the Ottomans invaded Morea while Demetrius expected to rule a puppet state, but instead was imprisoned and remained there for the rest of his life. According to the Encyclopdia Britannica: "Many modern scholars also agree that the exodus of Greeks to Italy as a result of this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance". The Venetians [] seized treasures and carried them off to adorn [] their town. "Twenty Years in the Ottoman capital: the memoirs of Dr. Hristo Tanev Stambolski of Kazanlik (18431932) from an Ottoman point of view."