The destruction of the Oikoumeni: historical introduction

During its 1129 years of existence, the city of Constantinople, capital of Byzantium, had known its share of violence, both from outside and from within. It had been besieged many times, but the walls proved too big an obstacle. In the end, the city would be taken by force only twice. The final assault, on 29 May 1453, proved the undoing of the Eastern Roman Empire, descendent of the famous Romans of antiquity. But the road to extinction began centuries before, when the city fell for the first time.