Publisher's Synopsis
A comprehensive and sweeping history of the last 250 years of the Eastern Roman Empire, from the time of the disastrous Fourth Crusade to the dramatic and bloody seizure of the ancient capital city of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks.
Drawing upon a rich array of original texts written by eyewitnesses and classical historians, this richly-researched work pulls no punches in highlighting the litany of inter-European squabbles--including those between the Roman and Eastern Catholic churches, and national and city divisions--which steadily weakened the great eastern capital city of Constantinople.
At the same time, hordes of central Asians--accurately racially described in this book--were forming to seize the lands of the once-great Eastern Roman Empire in the Middle East and Asia Minor. The Asiatic advance--under several tribal names but always subservient to the flag of Islam--finally conquered all of the present-day Middle East and Turkey, seizing those lands from the Christian West. The city of Constantinople, depleted and weakened behind its 1,000-year-walls, was cut off, an island in a sea of Mohammedans.
The inevitable siege and fall of that city, and the final chapter of the Roman Empire was written in blood, with the very last emperor cut down in the final defense against the invading Ottoman Turks.
In addition, this work highlights the fact that the Ottoman Turks could not have achieved their victory without the aid of thousands of white renegades--from the Janissary elite troops to the Hungarian master armorer Urban, who built the great guns which knocked down Constantinople's walls.
This work ends with the aftereffects of the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, which included a revival in Greek learning in the West, and a realization that a united front was needed to halt the Turkish advance--a front which only became a reality over 200 years later when the Muslim invasion was finally halted at the gates of Vienna.
Originally published as "The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks," this new edition has been completely reset, and contains all the original maps and images. Indexed. Cover image: the double-headed eagle, symbol of the house of the last ruling house of the Eastern Roman Empire.
