The Defenses of Constantinople

A look at the many factors that made the city of Constantinople so impenetrable during the Byzantine era.
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Music: Xena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwic (c) copyright 2018
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[@justinian-the-great]

Nice video, although it should have been added that there existed another set of walls some 60 km from Constantinople, the so called Anastasian walls, a 56km long walls that protected the entire peninsulla on which Constantinople was situated.

[@Byztory]

That’s a good point, I maybe should have squeezed the Anastasian Walls into the video as well.

[@JonathanMatteboPersson]

@@Byztory You rock!

[@fatherlouiswilliamssugaada5023]

My Basileus! Such an honour to meet you

[@ekdavey]

This video is so high quality
Truly, a hidden gem of a channel.

[@justinian536]

Correction: Theodosius himself did not order the building of the walls as he was only an infant at the time, instead it was a prefect named Anthemius.

[@Xinn75]

great video, keep up the good work

[@murataubakir8437]

super underrated channel great video!

[@mongke8745]

Amazing Video!

[@asongofhistoryandfantasy2784]

Great Video! Immediatly subscribed :)
Love the eastern roman empire and Constantinople especially. Was always impressed of this defense

[@resatsabuncu3094]

Nice

[@muniremahmatli9805]

Great work

[@apersonontheinternet595]

Can you please do a video on harbor chains and how they work? Like, did they destroy the masts of the ships or scrape the bottom of the ships.

[@Byztory]

In this case, the chain was at water level and had a little slack to it which made it very difficult to break through. The chain was very thick, too.
The currents in the area are difficult to navigate and it would have been extremely difficult to get enough speed to force your way through the chain. Plus the city's defenders would have been in towers on the shore, firing arrows at enemies on board any ship trying to break the chain.
I know that there were other examples of chains blocking harbors in other cities at various times in history, but I'm not super familiar with them. I am going to look into this, though, because it might make for an interesting video. I'm going to have to do some research and see what I can find!

[@apersonontheinternet595]

@@Byztory I think it would be a great video! I do not understand the physics of it for example. Like, how come a ship can't just get through it. I imagine it would be like a knife puncturing through paper. If you do a video on how it works you can just use Constantinople as an example.
Also, ever thought of doing a video on the history of Eastern Rome's barbarian mercenaries? From employing huns to whatever foreign contingents they attached to their army throughout the Millennia.

[@eromalandersson5716]

When at this time were ships NOT made of would?

[@matrioushka4710]

Great video, but I hate my parents

[@sodinc]

cool, but why such nickname?

[@jazzjj7665]

I want to die

[@matts7125]

I don’t hate the Ottomans for conquering Constantinople, I hate that there are no more “Romans“ anymore😂

[@billyjesus5442]

Respect to the Turks for doing the impossible.

[@Sengrath2986]

They only achieved it through numbers.

[@ApersonIguess-rb6fu]

@@Sengrath2986 I mean that's kinda how sieges work, the attacker can only capture the place if he has more soldiers than the defender. Though I get what you mean, during the fall of Constantinople the Byzantine Empire at that point was in a very weakened state no longer being the superpower it once was. Infact from what I read up they didn't even have enough soldiers to effectively defend the wall and no relief army ever came to their aid against the Ottomans. However the wall and the defenders still put up a really good fight despite the conditions they were in and lasted a good while

[@Sengrath2986]

@@ApersonIguess-rb6fu but you need some strategy ottomans had 100k plus troops and lost half of them against a defending army of 10k, 200 of which were archers. And took them 53 days. As far as arab ingenuity goes, they weren't so bright.

[@ApersonIguess-rb6fu]

@@Sengrath2986 Respect for the Byzantines though they held up a really good last stand even though it was clear that their fall was inevitable with no hope of obtaining outside help but still gave fierce resistance against the Ottomans

[@davidantoniocamposbarros7528]

Ah yes,conquering the crippled capital of a crippled empire is impossible

[@TonyFontaine1988]

Knock off of historian civilis. Even the text font and shapes