January 6

On This Day In Roman History, January 6th:

Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos, which is often recorded in its Latinized form as Palaeologus, is crowned Emperor January 6, 1449. He reigned as a member of the Palaiologos dynasty until his death. This occurred after a 53-day siege, in which he led a final charge in the defense of Constantinople. This marked the end of The Byzantine Empire which spanned from 330 CE until 1453.

Did you know? 

Ottoman sultan Mehmed II had a 27 foot long super cannon constructed for the siege of Constantinople and destruction of the Theodosian Walls. This cannon could reportedly "hurl a 600 lb (272kg) stone ball over a mile (1.6 km)."

Pictured Left: A popular depiction of Constantine XI
By Unknown Ελληνικά: Άγνωστος καλλιτέχνης [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

His death, summarized and quoted via Wikipedia and sourced at bottom:
"Constantine led the defence of the city and took an active part in the fighting alongside his troops in the land walls. At the same time, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genoese, Venetian, and Greek troops. Constantine died the day the city fell, 29 May 1453. There were no known surviving eyewitnesses to the death of the Emperor and none of his entourage survived to offer any credible account of his death. According to Michael Critobulus (writing later in Mehmed's service) he remarked, "The city is fallen and I am still alive."Then he tore off his imperial ornaments so as to let nothing distinguish him from any other soldier and led his remaining soldiers into a last charge where he was killed."

Opinion

Welcome to my daily opinion. Today I'd like to bring up the fact I see often online - people are confused by titles like "Byzantine Empire" or "Eastern Roman Empire". The thing is, a lot of these generalizations are simply ways for historians to lump time together in cohesive ways. Some people consider Roman history to end during the fall of The Western Roman Empire, but arguments could be made for many different dates and causes. These could range from the sack of Rome in 410 ACE by the Visigoths, to the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Senate House in 357 and again in 382, all the way to the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. This is a strange time in history when one wouldn't expect for important congruent historical events to occur, such as Machu Picchu's estimated construction date, or Joan of Arc's death just two decades earlier.

That being said, I find it important to discuss at least a brief historical understanding of why so many historians and non-historians alike consider the "fall of The Roman Empire" to finally happen in 1453. It is also one of the few instances I will probably ever get to mention a cannon during Roman history.

I also found it somewhat fitting to begin the blog with this event for January 6th, seeing as this is generally the last event anyone will consider to be Roman history. So here we are, first post and last event. Cheers to the new year!

Sources

   Davis, P. K. (2001). 100 decisive battles: from ancient times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press.

   Heather, P. J. (2006). The fall of the Roman Empire: a new history of Rome and the Barbarians. New York: Oxford University Press.

   Kazhdan, A. P., Talbot, A. M., Cutler, A., Gregory, T. E., & Ševčenko, N. P. (1991). The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press.

   Nicolle, D., Haldon, J. F., Turnbull, S. R., Haldon, J. F., Turnbull, S. R., & Nicolle, D. (2007). The fall of Constantinople: the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium. Oxford, U.K.: Osprey Pub.

Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orban
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_of_Victory