The Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire
The name Byzantine Empire was only attributed to the Eastern Roman Empire after it collapsed. It was founded in May 330 A.D. when the Roman Empire's Constantine the Great proclaimed that the important port city on the Bosporus, known to the ancient Greeks as Byzantian, was the "new Rome". He called it Constantinople in his honour. Today, Constantinople is Istanbul in Turkey.
The Christian Eastern Orthodox faith prevailed there and it retained a strong Greek influence. Constantinople was perceived as impenetrable to invaders; several enemies tried and failed over time to breach the legendary inner and outer city walls, named the Theodosian Walls, that had a moat between them.
The empire expanded and contracted as military victories, losses and politics played out across the empire and through the centuries. The eastern empire survived its western counterpart by almost one thousand years; the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D. The eastern empire ceased to exist on the 29th May 1453 despite Constantine XI Palaiologos's refusal to surrender Constantinople to the Muslim Sultan Mehmed II and the Ottoman Turks.
The Eastern Roman Empire, now called the Latin Empire, in 1204. Image: Wikipedia. LatinEmpire CC3.0.
What Went Wrong?
By the Middle Ages the laws, regulations, prejudices and internal arguments of the once united and notably diverse empire proved insurmountable obstacles.
Parts of the empire were claimed by military rivals and civil wars eroded the sense of wealth and power. The empire fell under the Pope's rule after the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Byzantine rule was restored in 1261 but the empire was smaller than in its early stages and prone to internal tensions. The Byzantines lost control of the lucrative trade routes. Additionally, the Black Death killed half of Constantinople's population between 1346-9.
The Fall of the Byzantine Empire
As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives.
Constantine XI Palaiologos.
The fall of the Byzantine Empire occurred during the rule of Constantine XI Palaiologos when the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Constantinople. Outnumbered by the enemy, initial attempts by the defenders to halt the Ottoman progress over sea failed. The Great Chain of the Golden Horn, literally a metal chain that blocked the entrance to the city, wasn't enough of a deterrent. Sultan Mehmed, his army and mercenaries hauled his ships overland and attacked the Theodosian Walls.
The slaughtered emperor's head was presented to the jubilant sultan; it was then nailed to a column.
The Eastern Roman Empire ceased to exist except for in a few small and easily conquerable pockets. The residents of Constantinople that resisted the new regime were reportedly slain or enslaved; women, including nuns, were raped. The city's riches were plundered. The sacred Eastern Orthodox Christian church, the Hagia Sophia, was turned into a mosque.
A Solar Eclipse Foretold The Fall Of The Empire?
Some Byzantines' believed that a partial solar eclipse on the 22nd May 1453 was an omen of the fall of Constantinople.
Legend has it that two Christian priests disappeared into the Theodosian Walls during the final days of the empire and that they will reappear when/if Christian ownership of Constantinople/Istanbul occurs.
A dense fog settled over the city in the days that followed Sultan Mehmet's victory and a strange light was seen in the dome of the Hagia Sophia. Both were interpreted as signs that the Holy Spirit was leaving the city to its ungodly fate.
A volcanic eruption and the resulting sulphur clouds offered a more scientific explanation for the fog but almost 600 years later the light anomaly remains a mystery.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/place/Byzantine-Empire
https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/byzantium-ca-330-1453
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