The Fall of Constantinople, 1453

Summary

The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 is Steven Runciman's narrative of the siege and capture of the Byzantine capital by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, published by Cambridge University Press in 1965 to mark more than five centuries since the event. In about 250 pages it sets the background, narrates the siege of spring 1453 day by day, and follows the consequences for the Greeks, the Turks and Europe. Runciman opens with the long decline of the empire after the Fourth Crusade of 1204, when Latin crusaders sacked the city and divided its lands. By the fifteenth century the empire was reduced to Constantinople, a few towns and the Morea in Greece, and its emperors were tributaries of the Ottomans, whose power had spread across Anatolia and the Balkans. He describes the shrunken, half-empty city within its ancient walls, the quarrel over union with the Roman Church agreed at the Council of Florence in 1439 and bitterly resisted by many Orthodox, and the hopes placed in Western help. Two rulers face each other. Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor, is portrayed as a brave and dignified man with almost no resources. Mehmed II, young, learned and determined, builds the fortress of Rumeli Hisari on the Bosphorus in 1452, hires the Hungarian founder Urban to cast great cannon, and gathers a large army and fleet. The siege begins in early April 1453. Runciman follows the bombardment of the land walls, the defence led by the Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani Longo with Venetian and Genoese volunteers, the chain across the Golden Horn, the success of a few Christian ships in breaking through to the city, Mehmed's hauling of ships overland into the Golden Horn, the mining and counter-mining, and the failing hopes of relief. He records the portents that troubled the defenders, the last service of Christians and unionists together in Hagia Sophia on the evening of 28 May, and the final assault before dawn on 29 May, in which Giustiniani is wounded and withdraws, the Turks break in, and the emperor dies fighting. The sack of the city, Mehmed's entry and his conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque follow. Later chapters describe Mehmed's repopulation of the city as his capital, the appointment of Gennadios Scholarios as patriarch to head the Orthodox under Ottoman rule, the fate of the Venetians and Genoese, and the shocked but ineffective response of Western Europe. Runciman draws on the main eyewitness and near-contemporary writers, Greek, Latin, Slavonic and Turkish, and discusses their reliability in notes and an appendix. The book is known for its elegiac sympathy for Byzantium, joined to respect for the sultan's abilities.

Plot or Argument

• The dying empire

  Runciman surveys Byzantium's decline after 1204, the rise of the Ottomans and their advance into Europe, and the condition of Constantinople and its people on the eve of the siege.

• Emperor, sultan and the question of union

  Constantine XI and Mehmed II are introduced; the union of the Churches proclaimed in 1452, the opposition to it, and the appeals to the West shape the city's preparations, while Mehmed builds Rumeli Hisari and assembles cannon, army and fleet.

• The siege

  From early April to late May 1453, bombardment, assaults on the land walls, naval fighting, the transport of ships overland into the Golden Horn, mining and diplomacy are narrated in detail from the surviving accounts.

• The last days and the fall

  Portents, councils of war and the final liturgy in Hagia Sophia lead to the assault of 29 May, the wounding of Giustiniani, the breaking of the defence, the death of Constantine and the sack of the city.

• Aftermath

  Mehmed makes Constantinople his capital, repopulates it and establishes the Orthodox patriarchate under Gennadios; Runciman follows the survivors, the Italian colonies and the reaction in Western Europe.

• Sources

  An appendix and notes assess the Greek, Italian, Slavonic and Turkish narratives on which the reconstruction depends.

Characters

• Constantine XI Palaiologos, last Byzantine emperor

  Defender of the city, killed in the final assault.

• Mehmed II, Ottoman sultan

  Young, able and ambitious ruler who plans and directs the conquest.

• Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, Genoese commander

  Leads the defence of the land walls until wounded on the last day.

• Loukas Notaras, Byzantine grand duke

  Leading official associated with opposition to Latin influence.

• Gennadios Scholarios, monk and later patriarch

  Opponent of union with Rome whom Mehmed makes patriarch after the conquest.

• Cardinal Isidore, papal legate

  Former metropolitan of Kiev who proclaims the union in Hagia Sophia in 1452.

• Urban, cannon founder

  Hungarian engineer whose great guns serve the sultan.

• George Sphrantzes, Byzantine courtier and historian

  Friend of the emperor whose memoir is one of the key sources.

Lessons

• Courage without hope of victory

  Runciman presents Constantine XI and the defenders as fighting on although relief never came and the odds were overwhelming. The book asks readers to consider what duty means when defeat seems certain.

  • Why did Constantine refuse to leave the city?
  • What kept Venetian and Genoese volunteers fighting for a city not their own?
  • Is there honour in a cause that cannot win?

• Division weakens a people

  The quarrel over union with Rome divided the Byzantines, and rivalry between Venice and Genoa and the indifference of Western rulers limited help. Runciman shows how disunity among Christians shaped the city's fate, while also noting that the last liturgy in Hagia Sophia gathered both parties.

  • Why did many Orthodox oppose the union proclaimed in 1452?
  • How did Western powers respond to appeals for help?
  • What does the final service in Hagia Sophia show about the city on its last night?

• A conqueror's skill

  Runciman takes Mehmed seriously as a planner, engineer and statesman: the fortress on the Bosphorus, the cannon, the ships carried overland and his rebuilding of the city as an imperial capital. A fair history gives both sides their due.

  • Which of Mehmed's decisions proved most important to the outcome?
  • How did Mehmed treat the Orthodox Church after the conquest, and why?
  • Why does a historian sympathetic to Byzantium still praise the sultan?

Context

The Byzantine Empire, the continuation of the eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople from 330. Weakened by the Fourth Crusade (1204) and by civil wars, it had lost nearly all its territory to the Ottoman Turks by 1400. Mehmed II's capture of the city on 29 May 1453 ended the empire and made Constantinople, later Istanbul, the Ottoman capital until the twentieth century.

Composition

Runciman wrote the book after his History of the Crusades (1951-1954) and drew on his long study of Byzantine and Ottoman sources and his familiarity with Istanbul, where he had taught. It was published by Cambridge University Press in 1965 (xiv + 256 pages, with plates and maps) and reissued in paperback, including the Canto series in 1990.

Reception

Reviewers in historical journals received it as a lucid and authoritative narrative, and it became the standard English account of the siege for general readers, never out of print. Later historians have refined details of the siege and of Ottoman sources, and some find Runciman's view of Byzantium romantic, but the book remains widely read.

Comparisons

• fall-of-constantinople-1453-eyewitness-accounts

  The eyewitness narratives, such as those of the Venetian ship's surgeon Nicolo Barbaro and other defenders, are the raw material from which Runciman built his day-by-day reconstruction.

• villehardouin-conquest-of-constantinople

  Villehardouin's account of the Fourth Crusade's capture of the city in 1204 tells of the earlier blow that Runciman treats as the beginning of the end for Byzantium.

• gibbon-decline-and-fall-selections

  Gibbon's closing chapters on the siege of 1453 are the great eighteenth-century treatment of the same event, written with less sympathy for Byzantium than Runciman shows.

• herrin-byzantium

  Judith Herrin's thematic portrait of Byzantine civilization supplies the thousand years of culture whose end Runciman narrates.

• kaldellis-the-new-roman-empire

  Kaldellis's history of the eastern Roman state treats the Byzantines as Romans to the end, a framework that sharpens Runciman's account of the last emperor.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening picture of a shrunken Constantinople, its population and its walls, before the siege begins.
• The paired portraits of Constantine XI and Mehmed II and how Runciman balances sympathy and respect.
• The dispute over union with Rome and its effect on morale, and the final liturgy in Hagia Sophia on 28 May.
• Turning points of the siege: the Christian ships breaking through, the ships hauled overland, and Giustiniani's wound on 29 May.
• The aftermath: Mehmed's treatment of the city and the appointment of Gennadios as patriarch.

Key terms and names

Theodosian Walls

The fifth-century triple land walls of Constantinople, which had resisted sieges for a thousand years and were finally breached by Mehmed's artillery and assault.

Golden Horn

The inlet forming the city's northern harbour, closed by a boom chain until Mehmed carried ships overland into it.

Rumeli Hisari

The fortress Mehmed built on the European shore of the Bosphorus in 1452 to control shipping and cut off the city.

Union of Florence

The agreement of 1439 between the Roman and Orthodox Churches, proclaimed in Constantinople in December 1452 and opposed by many Greeks.

Janissaries

The sultan's elite infantry, recruited from Christian boys, who led the final assault.

Hagia Sophia

The Great Church built by Justinian, scene of the last Christian liturgy and converted to a mosque by Mehmed.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What steps did Mehmed take before 1453 to prepare for the siege?
2. Comprehension Who defended the city, and roughly how did their numbers compare with the Ottoman army?
3. Comprehension What happened on the night of 28 May and the morning of 29 May 1453?
4. Interpretation How does Runciman make the reader sympathize with the defenders while still showing respect for Mehmed?
5. Interpretation Why does Runciman give so much attention to the quarrel over Church union? What role does it play in his explanation of the fall?
6. Interpretation How much of the outcome does Runciman attribute to chance, such as Giustiniani's wound, and how much to deeper causes?
7. Big Question Christians on both sides of the union dispute prayed together on the city's last night. What does the scene suggest about the place of worship when earthly hopes fail?
8. Big Question Should a historian write with sympathy for the side he admires, or does sympathy endanger fairness?

Faith Connections

• Psalm 46 (Scripture)

  God is a refuge and strength even though the earth be moved; the psalm speaks to the defenders' turning to prayer and to the last liturgy in Hagia Sophia.

• John 17:20-23 (Scripture)

  Christ prays that his followers may be one; the division between Orthodox and Latin Christians that Runciman traces gives this prayer a sharp historical setting.

• Hebrews 13:14 (Scripture)

  Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come; the fall of the city that had called itself the new Rome for over a thousand years illustrates the verse.

• Augustine, City of God, Book I, preface (Church Fathers)

  Augustine wrote after the sack of the old Rome in 410 to distinguish the earthly city from the city of God; his work offers a lens for the end of the new Rome in 1453.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Byzantium in 1453 was a remnant, without territory, money or a united Church, facing a young sultan with vast resources and modern artillery; Western help was too little and too late; therefore the fall was nearly inevitable, and the defenders' resistance deserves admiration precisely because it was hopeless.

Rhetorical device: Pathos through narrative pacing. Runciman slows the narrative to a day-by-day and then hour-by-hour account in the last days of May, culminating in the final service in Hagia Sophia before the assault.

Debate: Resolved: The divisions among Christians, not the strength of the Ottoman army, were the decisive cause of the fall of Constantinople.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Write an essay on how Runciman portrays Constantine XI and Mehmed II, and what each portrait contributes to his explanation of the city's fall.

Comparison with Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople: Compare the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, as Villehardouin tells it, with the Ottoman capture of 1453 as Runciman tells it. How did the first conquest prepare the way for the second?

Medical Lens

The book is military and political history. Points of medical interest are incidental: the wounds caused by early gunpowder artillery and hand-to-hand fighting at the walls, and the wounding of Giustiniani on the final morning, whose withdrawal for treatment helped break the defence and who died of the wound soon after. One of the principal sources Runciman uses, the diary of Nicolo Barbaro, was written by a Venetian ship's surgeon.

• Narrative of 29 May 1453

  Giustiniani is badly wounded on the walls and is carried to a ship; his departure disheartens the defenders.

  WAR Wounds Death Dying
• Narrative of the siege, April-May 1453

  Bombardment by the great cannon and the repair of the walls each night under fire.

  WAR Wounds

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write the evening of 28 May 1453 from the viewpoint of a Greek who has refused to attend Hagia Sophia since the union, and who goes there for the last service.

• Dialogue

  Imagine a council in Mehmed's camp after the Christian ships break through in April, with advisers urging him to lift the siege and Mehmed explaining why he will not.

• Classroom

  Draw a map of the city and the siege lines, marking the land walls, the Golden Horn and its chain, the route of the ships hauled overland and the gate where the Turks broke in.

• Essay

  How much did the divisions among Christians, Orthodox and Latin, Venetian and Genoese, contribute to the fall of the city, according to Runciman's narrative?

Further Reading

• Diary of the Siege of Constantinople, 1453, Nicolo Barbaro (trans. J. R. Jones)

• Constantinople 1453: The End of Byzantium, Roger Crowley

  Published in the US as 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West.

• A History of the Crusades, Steven Runciman

• The Great Church in Captivity, Steven Runciman

  Runciman's study of the Orthodox Church under Ottoman rule after 1453.

• Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, Franz Babinger