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.

Top 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Verified Quotes

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.

• Narrative of the siege, April-May 1453

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