A paraphrasing of Psalm 78/79, chanted in Greek by Capella Romana.
On 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. Austenasia today commemorates this event - the end of the Roman Empire - and the sacrifice and bravery of its emperor and people.
Constantinople (today known by many as "Istanbul") was founded by Emperor Constantine I as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. While the Western Roman Empire had collapsed by the 480s, the Eastern Roman Empire continued on. The citizens of the empire called themselves Romans, and the empire was known as the Empire of the Romans by its neighbours and contemporaries, with its emperors being in a direct line of succession from Augustus and Constantine. However, modern historians often refer to it as the "Byzantine Empire", ultimately as a result of the religio-cultural rivalry which grew up between the Latin West and the Greek East, in which the former attempted to deny the Roman heritage of the latter.
The Eastern Roman Empire lasted almost a thousand years after the fall of the West, but it constantly fought against numerous enemies. The conquering armies of Islam occupied much Roman territory from the 600s onwards, and a western crusading army sent to help fight them ended up attacking and taking Constantinople itself in 1204, dealing a huge blow to the Roman Empire. Despite Constantinople being retaken 55 years later, the empire entered a terminal decline, with a new and powerful enemy - the Turkish Ottoman Empire - emerging in 1299.
The Ottomans quickly became the new archnemesis of the Romans, conquering much of their remaining territory. By 1400, the once mighty Roman Empire consisted only of the Peloponnese, a few small Greek islands, and Constantinople itself with the surrounding few square miles. The Ottomans were distracted for a while by a Mongol invasion in 1402 and a crusade in 1444, but by 1452 the new Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, began preparations for the conquest of Constantinople.
Constantinople was severely depopulated by this point, with no more than 50,000 citizens in contrast to roughly 800,000 during its heyday. The emperor, Constantine XI, conducted a levy to find that only 5,000 were able to fight in defence of their city, with what little remained of the Roman army having been all but wiped out in the previous conflicts with the Ottomans. 2,000 foreign Christian volunteers, 700 led by the Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani, also helped to defend the city, but the defending Roman force of 7,000 was up against an attacking Ottoman force of roughly 80,000.
The siege began on 6 April 1453. The vastly outnumbered Romans held out bravely for many weeks, but were both greatly outnumbered and greatly outgunned. The Ottomans used the most technologically advanced cannon of the time, blasting gaping holes in the thousand-year old city walls. Shortly after midnight on 29 May, the final assault began. Giustiniani was wounded, causing his Genoese followers to panic and retreat. With the defences opening up, the Ottomans breached the walls. Constantine XI threw off his purple regalia and led the remains of the Roman army in a final charge. The last Roman Emperor died heroically with his men in a last stand in defence of his capital; his body was never found.
Mehmed II took Constantinople, making it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. The fall of the city marks the final end of the Roman Empire, and is used by many historians to mark the end of the Middle Ages.
