Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City Read Free Page B

Constantinople itself. But Byzantium held off the Arab advance and prevented them from gaining a foothold in eastern Europe, just as they were finally stopped at about the same time in the West by Charles Martel. In the ninth and tenth centuries the Byzantine Empire was invaded by the Bulgars, who gained control of large areas of the Balkans and twice laid siege to Constantinople. But on both occasions they were defeated by the great Theodosian land-walls, which continued to shelter Byzantium from its enemies across the centuries.
    Despite these numerous wars Byzantium was still strong and basically sound as late as the middle of the eleventh century, controlling an empire which stretched from western Persia through Asia Minor and the Balkans to southern Italy. But then in the year 1071 the Byzantine army, led by Romanus IV, suffered a catastrophic defeat by the Selçuk Turks at the battle of Manzikert and much of eastern Asia Minor was permanently lost to the Empire. In the same year the Normans captured Bari, thus bringing to an end Byzantine rule in Italy. The forces were now gathering which would eventually destroy the Empire.
    A decade after these defeats Alexius Comnenus ascended the throne of Byzantium. For the next century he and his successors, the illustrious dynasty of the Comneni, successfully defended the Empire against the attacks of its numerous enemies. During that period the Empire was being subjected to increasing pressure by the Latins of western Europe, whose armies first passed through Asia Minor in the year 1097 during the First Crusade. As time went on it became increasingly apparent that the Latins were less interested in freeing the Holy Land from the Saracens than they were in seizing land and wealth for themselves. And the prize which attracted them most was the rich and magnificent city of Constantinople. By the time the Comneni dynasty came to an end in the year 1185, the Normans had already captured Thessalonica and were advancing towards the capital. Two decades later, in the year 1203, the Latin armies of the Fourth Crusade made their first assault upon Constantinople. Although they were not able to take the city at that time they did so in a second attack the following year. On 13 April 1204 the Crusaders breached the sea-walls along the Golden Horn and took the city by storm. They then proceeded to ruin and sack Constantinople, stripping it of its wealth, its art treasures and its sacred relics, most of which were shipped off to western Europe. As wrote the French knight Villehardouin, describing the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders: “Of holy relics I need only say that it contained more than all Christendom combined; there is no estimating the quantity of gold silver, rich stuffs and other valuable things – the production of all the climates of the world. It is the belief of me, Geoffrey de Villehardouin, marechal of Champagne, that the plunder of this city exceeded all that had been witnessed since the creation of the world.” And as the Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates wrote in his lament: “Oh city, city, eye of all cities, subject of narratives all over the world, supporter of churches, leader of faith and guider of orthodoxy, protector of education, abode of all good. Thou hast drunk to the dregs the cup of the anger of the Lord, and hast been visited with fire fiercer than that which in days of yore descended upon the Pentapolis.”
    The Latin Kings ruled in Constantinople from 1204 till 1261, at which time Michael Palaeologus succeeded in recapturing the city and restoring the Byzantine Empire. But the Empire was now only a fragment of what it had been in former days, comprising parts of Thrace, Macedonia and the Peloponnesus, with most of its former possessions in Asia Minor occupied by the Ottoman Turks, and much of its land in Europe lost to the rapacious Latins. Within the next century even these dominions were lost, as the Turks crossed over into Europe and