When Worlds Collided: The Fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Order
The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks brought the final curtain down on the Roman epoch, of which the Byzantine Empire was the final, glorious manifestation. When Constantine the Great established the city of Constantinople in 330 A.D., he re-constituted the old Roman order along a new East/West axis. Henceforth, the beleaguered empire would be administered from two capitals, but few could foresee that this arrangement would create a religious and political schism that would make rivals of the two great cities. Gradually, the Byzantines eclipsed Rome by virtue of Constantinople’s mighty walls and the city’s ...
