29th May 1453: Constantinople falls

Truly a sad day for Roman history lovers.

@rjpeters70:

Absolutely sad.  I was shocked at how much the Ottomans destroyed the murals and frescos inside the Hagia Sophia when I visited.Â

Unfortunately, they were hardly unique in this kind of behaviour.  Vandalism and looting by conquerors happens a lot in warfare.  The word vandalism itself originated in the sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455 AD.

That reminds me of when I toured the Acropolis in Athens.  The Parthenon was used as a military garrison site by the Ottomans and was fairly well destroyed during a battle with the Venetians in 1687.  There is a lot of reconstruction going on there, but it was sad to see that the Parthenon was there for almost 2000 years before it was partly destroyed by war.

This could make for an interesting poll: if you could go back in time and save one thing that was destroyed in war, what would it be?

Ohh, ye guys talking about Istanbul… 8-)

good ol’ Byzantine… :-D

@CWO:

This could make for an interesting poll: if you could go back in time and save one thing that was destroyed in war, what would it be?

The Great Library of Alexandria.  Poll closed.  Nothing else is close.  (At least in my opinion, and if what they say about it is at least half true).

@BJCard:

@CWO:

This could make for an interesting poll: if you could go back in time and save one thing that was destroyed in war, what would it be?Â

The Great Library of Alexandria.  Poll closed.  Nothing else is close.  (At least in my opinion, and if what they say about it is at least half true).

I agree that its loss was catastrophic…but was it lost in a war?  I thought it had been burned down by a Christian mob at the instigation of someone who was later canonized as a saint.

@rjpeters70:

My understanding was that Caesar’s men burned it down on accident when Paraoh’s men were trying to seize Alexandria from Caesar and Cleopatra, before Ptolemy was killed.  Â

Ah.  Okay, thanks for the info.

Had Constantinople not held back the Ottomans as long as did, the reach of the Turks could have been vast.