Building the Walls of Constantinople

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:44 The Rhegium Gate
1:37 The design of the walls
2:48 The Golden Gate
3:51 Defying invaders
4:45 The Ottoman threat
5:36 The Mesoteichon vs. Mehmed's guns
6:58 The Kaligaria Gate
7:22 The final assault
8:16 The Kerkoporta
8:41 The Turks take the walls
9:44 The Charisius Gate
Transcript
· Introduction
0:08 · The walls of Constantinople shaped the Middle Ages. Without them, the Byzantine Empire could
0:15 · have collapsed in late antiquity, the Arab invasions might have swept over the Balkans
0:20 · and beyond, and the whole course of European history would have been dramatically different.
0:26 · The famous walls were begun early in, or possibly just before, the reign of Theodosius II,
0:31 · and were completed by the year 413. They consisted of a double ring of walls about
0:38 · 6 km long, extending the full width of the peninsula on which Constantinople was built.
· The Rhegium Gate
0:44 · This is the Rhegion or Mevlana Gate. It has survived almost unchanged since the mid-fifth
0:50 · century. It has several inscriptions. The most intriguing of these, on the left of the doorway,
0:56 · bears witness to the most extensive reconstruction of the Theodisan Walls.
1:01 · In 447, only a generation after their completion, a massive earthquake destroyed many towers.
1:07 · Since Attila the Hun was then ravaging the Balkans, the timing was quite poor – so a
1:12 · massive reconstruction effort was set in motion. It was spearheaded by the prefect Constantine,
1:18 · who left this fun little record of his efforts here, in Latin. It says:
1:24 · "On the orders of Theodosius, Constantine rebuilt these mighty walls in less than two months.
1:31 · Athena herself could scarcely have built so mighty a fortress so quickly."
· The design of the walls
1:38 · Both walls were faced with brick-banded limestone over a core of mortared rubble.
1:43 · The inner wall, 11 m high and up to 6 m thick, was fortified with 96 towers, each up to 20 m tall.
1:53 · The outer wall, set at a lower elevation, was about 9 m high and 2 m thick,
1:58 · with towers positioned midway between those of the inner wall.
2:03 · Let's take a closer look at the walls. I'm standing on what was the rampart of the lower
2:08 · wall. To my left is the inner wall, and the parateichon – the raised terrace between them.
2:16 · As I pan, you can see how the walls were built, with bands of brick and rubble.
2:22 · To our left, where there is now a park, is where the moat was.
2:27 · Beyond the outer wall was a moat more than 20 m wide and up to 10 m deep.
2:33 · Since the terrain sloped, the moat was divided by lateral walls that functioned as dams,
2:38 · allowing each section to be filled to a different height.
2:42 · The moat and walls were pierced by nine principal gates and a disputed number of posterns.
· The Golden Gate
2:49 · Here we have a fine view of the south end of the Theodosian Walls. But the real highlight
2:54 · is just behind us – and that is the Porta Aurea, the Golden Gate, the most impressive of all the
3:01 · gates in the Theodosian Wall. As you can see, it's a monumental, marble-plated structure – so
3:08 · monumental, in fact, that it's sometimes thought it might have been built before
3:11 · the rest of the walls, by Theodosius I. Whoever built it, the sense of grandeur is indisputable,
3:17 · even though it has lost the elephant quadriga that once crowned it. The grand central portal
3:23 · was used by the emperors after their triumphs. So it was here that Heraclius came back to
3:29 · Constantinople after the great Persian campaign, and here too – much later – that Michael VIII
3:35 · returned after the Latin occupation. The side gates were used by everyday traffic.
3:41 · Behind this gate, as you can probably just make out, is a small castle – the so-called Yedikule,
3:46 · the Seven Towers – which was built in the late Byzantine period.
· Defying invaders
3:52 · The walls proved their worth almost as soon as they were built, deflecting Attila the Hun
3:56 · toward the Western Roman Empire. They saved the Byzantines during the Avar-Persian siege of 626,
4:03 · and preserved the empire again during the massive Arab sieges of 674-8 and 717-18.
4:11 · Over the following centuries, the walls defied the Bulgars,
4:14 · Kievan Rus, and every other invader drawn to the richest city in the Mediterranean world.
4:21 · The walls continued to be developed. Here, in the angle facing the Golden Horn,
4:27 · they were supplemented by this line of defenses, which enclosed the suburb of Blachernae.
4:33 · This section was built by Manuel Comnenus in the twelfth century.
4:37 · Though only a single wall, as opposed to the double Theodosian Wall,
4:41 · it is higher and thicker than the inner line of the Theodosian defenses.
· The Ottoman threat
4:46 · For the last century of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was an impoverished
4:50 · fragment of its former self, encircled by the rising power of the Ottoman sultans.
4:56 · After establishing their capital at Edirne, a few days' march from Constantinople,
5:00 · the Ottomans repeatedly tried and failed to take the city. But in the spring of 1453, the dynamic
5:08 · young sultan Mehmed II marched with an Ottoman army of unprecedented size on the imperial city.
5:15 · Mehmed had between 80-100,000 men, and the latest in gunpowder technology.
5:22 · Constantinople had fewer than 7,000 defenders, led by Emperor Constantine XI.
5:29 · Mehmed focused his attack on the Mesoteichon,
5:32 · the section of the Theodosian Walls in the valley of the Lycus River.
· The Mesoteichon vs. Mehmed's guns
5:37 · This is the Mesoteichon, the weakest point in the Theodosian Walls.
5:41 · The busy road at the bottom of the hill more or less follows the course
5:44 · of the Lycus River. The Lycus was never a major stream, but its valley was deep.
5:50 · This allowed any attacker with guns to fire straight down on the walls at this point.
5:56 · Because the elevation of the walls was lowest here, Mehmed's cannons could fire
6:01 · straight down on them. The largest gun, cast by a Hungarian engineer named Urban, could hurl a
6:07 · 1,200-pound stone ball more than a mile; it was so heavy that 30 oxen were needed to draw it,
6:13 · and so temperamental that it could only be fired seven times a day. But each of its
6:19 · shots caused tremendous destruction, and about 70 smaller cannons kept up a continuous bombardment
6:26 · The bombardment went on for almost two months. Although long sections of the outer
6:31 · wall were soon reduced to rubble, the defenders repaired every breach and repelled each assault.
6:37 · Even after Mehmed dragged part of his fleet overland into the Golden Horn,
6:42 · forcing the Byzantines to stretch their resources even further, resistance remained stubborn.
6:47 · Mehmed's grand vizier advised retreat; but the sultan was determined to take the city,
6:52 · and ordered a final assault prepared for Tuesday, May 29.
· The Kaligaria Gate
6:58 · By May 28, it was clear that the final assault was imminent.
7:03 · After returning from a service at Haghia Sophia, the emperor rode here,
7:07 · to the Caligaria Gate – the Turkish Egri Kapi – near Blachernae Palace.
7:13 · He climbed this tower, and surveyed the Ottoman camp a final time. The next day would be his last.
· The final assault
7:22 · The final assault began well before dawn.
7:25 · Thousands of irregular troops charged the outer wall, focusing their attacks on the Mesoteichon.
7:32 · After two hours of continuous fighting, they were hurled back. Then, as Mehmed's
7:37 · cannons pounded the walls at almost point-blank range, the Anatolian regulars charged forward.
7:44 · A colossal ball from Urban's cannon smashed into the Byzantine stockade, leaving a wide breach. But
7:51 · the emperor stationed himself in the gap, and the Turks were repulsed again. Finally, as the first
7:57 · light of dawn washed over the Bosporus, Mehmed sent in the Janissaries, his finest soldiers.
8:04 · For an hour, amid savage hand-to-hand combat, wave after wave crashed into the Byzantine stockade.
8:11 · At this critical moment, disaster struck.
· The Kerkoporta
8:16 · According to the Byzantine historian Doukas, just as fighting between the
8:20 · Byzantines and the Janissaries reached its height,
8:22 · a small group of Turks noticed that a postern known as the Kerkoporta had been left open,
8:28 · and seized possession of the Blachernae Walls. This may be the Kerkoporta Gate – but since no
8:35 · historian besides Doukas mentions the incident, we should take all this with a grain of salt.
8:39 · At the height of the struggle with the Janissaries, Giovanni Giustiniani,
· The Turks take the walls
8:45 · the commander of the Genoese troops aiding the Byzantines, was mortally wounded and carried away.
8:52 · His men streamed after him. As they did, Mehmed – noticing the confusion – ordered another charge.
9:00 · This is the Pempton Gate. The Turkish name is Hucum Kapisi, "Assault Gate," because it was near
9:07 · here that Mehmed's Janissaries took the walls. The first man over the top was a giant named Hassan.
9:13 · He was cut down, but his companions followed, and quickly overran the Byzantine stockade.
9:20 · The Janissaries took the stockade, forcing the defenders back through the inner wall.
9:26 · As they broke through, they may have been joined by another band that had entered
9:30 · through the Kerkoporta Gate. Emperor Constantine, sensing that all was lost,
9:36 · cast aside his imperial insignia and charged the advancing Janissaries. His body was never found.
· The Charisius Gate
9:44 · This is the Charisius, or Edirne, Gate. On the afternoon of May 29, 1453,
9:52 · Mehmed entered the city by this gate,
9:55 · and was acclaimed by the title he would bear the rest of his life: Fatih – conqueror.
10:02 · That afternoon, Mehmed II entered Constantinople. He prayed in Hagia Sophia,
10:08 · which he ordered converted into a mosque. Then, passing through the Augusteion,
10:13 · with its colossal statue of Justinian, the Sultan entered the half-ruined Great Palace. As he
10:21 · walked through rubble-strewn courts and roofless halls, he is said to have quoted a Persian poet:
10:27 · "Spiders weave the curtains in the palace of the Caesars."
10:32 · It was a fitting epitaph for the Roman Empire.
10:38 · I have a new book: Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities,
10:42 · and Earthquake Machines: more frequently asked questions about the ancient Greeks and Romans.
10:48 · It's a sequel to Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants;
10:53 · and it's available for pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through your local bookstore.
11:00 · If you're interested in more toldinstone content (including my podcast),
11:04 · check out my channel Toldinstone Footnotes. I also have a channel called Scenic Routes
11:11 · to the Past, which is dedicated to historically-themed travel. You'll
11:15 · find both channels linked in the description. Last but not least, please consider joining other
11:22 · viewers in supporting toldinstone on Patreon. Thanks for watching.

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Transcript
	·	Introduction
0:08	·	The walls of Constantinople shaped the Middle Ages. Without them, the Byzantine Empire could
0:15	·	have collapsed in late antiquity, the Arab invasions might have swept over the Balkans
0:20	·	and beyond, and the whole course of European history would have been dramatically different.
0:26	·	The famous walls were begun early in, or possibly just before, the reign of Theodosius II,
0:31	·	and were completed by the year 413. They consisted of a double ring of walls about
0:38	·	6 km long, extending the full width of the peninsula on which Constantinople was built.
	·	The Rhegium Gate
0:44	·	This is the Rhegion or Mevlana Gate. It has survived almost unchanged since the mid-fifth
0:50	·	century. It has several inscriptions. The most intriguing of these, on the left of the doorway,
0:56	·	bears witness to the most extensive reconstruction of the Theodisan Walls.
1:01	·	In 447, only a generation after their completion, a massive earthquake destroyed many towers.
1:07	·	Since Attila the Hun was then ravaging the Balkans, the timing was quite poor – so a
1:12	·	massive reconstruction effort was set in motion. It was spearheaded by the prefect Constantine,
1:18	·	who left this fun little record of his efforts here, in Latin. It says:
1:24	·	"On the orders of Theodosius, Constantine rebuilt these mighty walls in less than two months.
1:31	·	Athena herself could scarcely have built so mighty a fortress so quickly."
	·	The design of the walls
1:38	·	Both walls were faced with brick-banded limestone over a core of mortared rubble.
1:43	·	The inner wall, 11 m high and up to 6 m thick, was fortified with 96 towers, each up to 20 m tall.
1:53	·	The outer wall, set at a lower elevation, was about 9 m high and 2 m thick,
1:58	·	with towers positioned midway between those of the inner wall.
2:03	·	Let's take a closer look at the walls. I'm standing on what was the rampart of the lower
2:08	·	wall. To my left is the inner wall, and the parateichon – the raised terrace between them.
2:16	·	As I pan, you can see how the walls were built, with bands of brick and rubble.
2:22	·	To our left, where there is now a park, is where the moat was.
2:27	·	Beyond the outer wall was a moat more than 20 m wide and up to 10 m deep.
2:33	·	Since the terrain sloped, the moat was divided by lateral walls that functioned as dams,
2:38	·	allowing each section to be filled to a different height.
2:42	·	The moat and walls were pierced by nine principal gates and a disputed number of posterns.
	·	The Golden Gate
2:49	·	Here we have a fine view of the south end of the Theodosian Walls. But the real highlight
2:54	·	is just behind us – and that is the Porta Aurea, the Golden Gate, the most impressive of all the
3:01	·	gates in the Theodosian Wall. As you can see, it's a monumental, marble-plated structure – so
3:08	·	monumental, in fact, that it's sometimes thought it might have been built before
3:11	·	the rest of the walls, by Theodosius I. Whoever built it, the sense of grandeur is indisputable,
3:17	·	even though it has lost the elephant quadriga that once crowned it. The grand central portal
3:23	·	was used by the emperors after their triumphs. So it was here that Heraclius came back to
3:29	·	Constantinople after the great Persian campaign, and here too – much later – that Michael VIII
3:35	·	returned after the Latin occupation. The side gates were used by everyday traffic.
3:41	·	Behind this gate, as you can probably just make out, is a small castle – the so-called Yedikule,
3:46	·	the Seven Towers – which was built in the late Byzantine period.
	·	Defying invaders
3:52	·	The walls proved their worth almost as soon as they were built, deflecting Attila the Hun
3:56	·	toward the Western Roman Empire. They saved the Byzantines during the Avar-Persian siege of 626,
4:03	·	and preserved the empire again during the massive Arab sieges of 674-8 and 717-18.
4:11	·	Over the following centuries, the walls defied the Bulgars,
4:14	·	Kievan Rus, and every other invader drawn to the richest city in the Mediterranean world.
4:21	·	The walls continued to be developed. Here, in the angle facing the Golden Horn,
4:27	·	they were supplemented by this line of defenses, which enclosed the suburb of Blachernae.
4:33	·	This section was built by Manuel Comnenus in the twelfth century.
4:37	·	Though only a single wall, as opposed to the double Theodosian Wall,
4:41	·	it is higher and thicker than the inner line of the Theodosian defenses.
	·	The Ottoman threat
4:46	·	For the last century of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was an impoverished
4:50	·	fragment of its former self, encircled by the rising power of the Ottoman sultans.
4:56	·	After establishing their capital at Edirne, a few days' march from Constantinople,
5:00	·	the Ottomans repeatedly tried and failed to take the city. But in the spring of 1453, the dynamic
5:08	·	young sultan Mehmed II marched with an Ottoman army of unprecedented size on the imperial city.
5:15	·	Mehmed had between 80-100,000 men, and the latest in gunpowder technology.
5:22	·	Constantinople had fewer than 7,000 defenders, led by Emperor Constantine XI.
5:29	·	Mehmed focused his attack on the Mesoteichon,
5:32	·	the section of the Theodosian Walls in the valley of the Lycus River.
	·	The Mesoteichon vs. Mehmed's guns
5:37	·	This is the Mesoteichon, the weakest point in the Theodosian Walls.
5:41	·	The busy road at the bottom of the hill more or less follows the course
5:44	·	of the Lycus River. The Lycus was never a major stream, but its valley was deep.
5:50	·	This allowed any attacker with guns to fire straight down on the walls at this point.
5:56	·	Because the elevation of the walls was lowest here, Mehmed's cannons could fire
6:01	·	straight down on them. The largest gun, cast by a Hungarian engineer named Urban, could hurl a
6:07	·	1,200-pound stone ball more than a mile; it was so heavy that 30 oxen were needed to draw it,
6:13	·	and so temperamental that it could only be fired seven times a day. But each of its
6:19	·	shots caused tremendous destruction, and about 70 smaller cannons kept up a continuous bombardment
6:26	·	The bombardment went on for almost two months. Although long sections of the outer
6:31	·	wall were soon reduced to rubble, the defenders repaired every breach and repelled each assault.
6:37	·	Even after Mehmed dragged part of his fleet overland into the Golden Horn,
6:42	·	forcing the Byzantines to stretch their resources even further, resistance remained stubborn.
6:47	·	Mehmed's grand vizier advised retreat; but the sultan was determined to take the city,
6:52	·	and ordered a final assault prepared for Tuesday, May 29.
	·	The Kaligaria Gate
6:58	·	By May 28, it was clear that the final assault was imminent.
7:03	·	After returning from a service at Haghia Sophia, the emperor rode here,
7:07	·	to the Caligaria Gate – the Turkish Egri Kapi – near Blachernae Palace.
7:13	·	He climbed this tower, and surveyed the Ottoman camp a final time. The next day would be his last.
	·	The final assault
7:22	·	The final assault began well before dawn.
7:25	·	Thousands of irregular troops charged the outer wall, focusing their attacks on the Mesoteichon.
7:32	·	After two hours of continuous fighting, they were hurled back. Then, as Mehmed's
7:37	·	cannons pounded the walls at almost point-blank range, the Anatolian regulars charged forward.
7:44	·	A colossal ball from Urban's cannon smashed into the Byzantine stockade, leaving a wide breach. But
7:51	·	the emperor stationed himself in the gap, and the Turks were repulsed again. Finally, as the first
7:57	·	light of dawn washed over the Bosporus, Mehmed sent in the Janissaries, his finest soldiers.
8:04	·	For an hour, amid savage hand-to-hand combat, wave after wave crashed into the Byzantine stockade.
8:11	·	At this critical moment, disaster struck.
	·	The Kerkoporta
8:16	·	According to the Byzantine historian Doukas, just as fighting between the
8:20	·	Byzantines and the Janissaries reached its height,
8:22	·	a small group of Turks noticed that a postern known as the Kerkoporta had been left open,
8:28	·	and seized possession of the Blachernae Walls. This may be the Kerkoporta Gate – but since no
8:35	·	historian besides Doukas mentions the incident, we should take all this with a grain of salt.
8:39	·	At the height of the struggle with the Janissaries, Giovanni Giustiniani,
	·	The Turks take the walls
8:45	·	the commander of the Genoese troops aiding the Byzantines, was mortally wounded and carried away.
8:52	·	His men streamed after him. As they did, Mehmed – noticing the confusion – ordered another charge.
9:00	·	This is the Pempton Gate. The Turkish name is Hucum Kapisi, "Assault Gate," because it was near
9:07	·	here that Mehmed's Janissaries took the walls. The first man over the top was a giant named Hassan.
9:13	·	He was cut down, but his companions followed, and quickly overran the Byzantine stockade.
9:20	·	The Janissaries took the stockade, forcing the defenders back through the inner wall.
9:26	·	As they broke through, they may have been joined by another band that had entered
9:30	·	through the Kerkoporta Gate. Emperor Constantine, sensing that all was lost,
9:36	·	cast aside his imperial insignia and charged the advancing Janissaries. His body was never found.
	·	The Charisius Gate
9:44	·	This is the Charisius, or Edirne, Gate. On the afternoon of May 29, 1453,
9:52	·	Mehmed entered the city by this gate,
9:55	·	and was acclaimed by the title he would bear the rest of his life: Fatih – conqueror.
10:02	·	That afternoon, Mehmed II entered Constantinople. He prayed in Hagia Sophia,
10:08	·	which he ordered converted into a mosque. Then, passing through the Augusteion,
10:13	·	with its colossal statue of Justinian, the Sultan entered the half-ruined Great Palace. As he
10:21	·	walked through rubble-strewn courts and roofless halls, he is said to have quoted a Persian poet:
10:27	·	"Spiders weave the curtains in the palace of the Caesars."
10:32	·	It was a fitting epitaph for the Roman Empire.
10:38	·	I have a new book: Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities,
10:42	·	and Earthquake Machines: more frequently asked questions about the ancient Greeks and Romans.
10:48	·	It's a sequel to Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants;
10:53	·	and it's available for pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through your local bookstore.
11:00	·	If you're interested in more toldinstone content (including my podcast),
11:04	·	check out my channel Toldinstone Footnotes. I also have a channel called Scenic Routes
11:11	·	to the Past, which is dedicated to historically-themed travel. You'll
11:15	·	find both channels linked in the description. Last but not least, please consider joining other
11:22	·	viewers in supporting toldinstone on Patreon. Thanks for watching.