11. Byzantium - Last of the Romans

“To bring down the walls, Mehmed hired a Hungarian engineer named Urban. Urban had offered his services to the Byzantines first, but the cash-strapped Empire refused to give him money. So he went to the Sultan. Give me the bronze and the gold, he told the Sultan, and I will build you a cannon such as the world has never seen. Urban gave this reply: I can cast a cannon with the capacity of the stone you want. I can shatter to dust not only these walls but the very walls of Babylon itself.”— Urban

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DUR_ENDURING

Byzantines refused funds; Sultan paid; cannon ended 1000 years

“In the year 551, two Byzantine monks made their way to China and observed the intricate methods used in the raising of silkworms and the production of silk. They hurried back to Constantinople and sought an urgent audience with Emperor Justinian. He offered them a great fortune if they were able to smuggle some of these worms back. The monks set out once again and convinced others to smuggle the silkworms out.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Monks smuggled silkworms; 2-year mission; broke China monopoly; built Byzantine economy

“The fall of Byzantium disrupted long-established trade routes that joined Europe to Asia along the Silk Road. This seismic shift forced European traders to find new routes across the continent to the markets of India and China. Only 35 years after the fall of Constantinople, in 1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southernmost Cape of Africa and opened up the sea route to India. Only 4 years after that, Christopher Columbus would land in the Bahamas.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Fall disrupted trade; forced new routes; triggered exploration

“In the year 447, the ground shook with a terrifying force. Earthquakes brought down a whole section of the great Theodosian Walls. Constantinus went to the Hippodrome and announced: these sports teams were to help rebuild the walls. Each would be given a section to complete. The declaration of a competition was clear and irresistible. In this way, more than 16,000 workers were gathered. In only 2 months the walls of the city were rebuilt and even reinforced.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Competition mobilized 16K workers; rebuilt walls in 2 months

“Constantine decided to construct a new capital in the East. He considered various options, but ultimately settled on a small Greek trading city in the far east of the Mediterranean, a city known to Greeks as Byzantion. This was a city that sat at the point right where Europe and Asia met. The advantages were indeed formidable. It sat at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, controlling all land-based trade between continents and all shipping traffic between the Black Sea and Mediterranean.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Constantine chose geography: trade control, defense, Europe-Asia nexus

“The Byzantine system of succession, cobbled together haphazardly and involving much bribery, deceit, and coup plotting, had worked mostly fine during times of plenty. But under times of stress, it fractured. The toppling of this emperor led to a 30-year period of unrest, civil war, and palace coups that did far more to damage the Byzantine state than 1,000 battles of Manzikert ever could have.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Civil war reduced army from 40K to 4K; worse than battle

“The Byzantines had discovered how costly wars could be, and now preferred, where possible, not to fight. The kings of Byzantium were happy to let the majesty of their capital city speak for itself. They allowed foreign princes and kings to compete for the hands of Byzantine princesses and gave them titles of the empire as a form of honor. The Byzantines hosted young princes of foreign powers, educating them in the capital and raising them among the sophisticated aristocracy of the empire.”

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Four soft power tactics: display wealth, offer marriages, educate rivals' children, create ceremonies

“Byzantium was founded on a defensible position with a large natural harbour. It sat right at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus Strait, controlling all land-based trade between continents and all shipping traffic between the Black Sea and Mediterranean. The swift currents made it difficult for any army to attack by sea. Any attackers could approach from only a single direction, and it was a perfect spot to build a fortress that would be virtually unassailable.”

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Geography as moat: control trade, force single approach

“To deal with these challenges, Byzantine emperors used a number of different tactics. Emperors did not rule through their family. Any brothers or uncles that might pose a challenge were swiftly shipped off to the provinces. It was also imperial policy that no general was allowed to command troops in his home province, a rule designed to prevent any general from building up too large a base of support.”

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Three tactics: exile family, ban home commands, empower ineligibles

“The refugee Callinicus demonstrated his Greek fire to the Byzantine Emperor. It was a flaming substance, possibly based on petroleum, that seemed to set even the surface of the sea ablaze. Water could not douse its flames. Whatever its exact composition, we know the effect that this weapon had. This defeat on sea was coupled with a Byzantine victory on land, and the Arab forces withdrew.”

Technology & Engineering · Strategy & Decision Making

DUR_ENDURING

Refugee brought secret weapon; broke two sieges

“The goal of the Fourth Crusade was to recapture Jerusalem. But when they arrived in Venice, they found they did not have enough money to pay their transport. The Venetians asked the Crusaders to march to Zara and burn it to the ground. Then one man, Alexios IV Angelos, approached the Crusader leaders and offered them a deal: take Constantinople and put me on its throne, and I will open the treasuries of Byzantium, pay off your debts, and fund your crusade to Jerusalem.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Promised treasury to mercenaries; could not pay; city sacked

“The Theodosian Walls stretched for 6.5 kilometers and massively increased the enclosed area of the city. This was a ring of 3 walls arranged one after the other, each taller than the last, with a wide moat in front of them. This moat could be immediately flooded on demand using an ingenious system of pipes. The final tallest wall was almost 5 meters thick and 12 meters high, including 96 towers, each at a height of 20 meters.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Three walls, floodable moat; unbreached for 1000 years

“The Emperor Alexios I Komnenos feared for his future. His Asian lands had fallen to the Turks, and the Byzantines had neither the resources nor the manpower to do anything. So Alexios sent out requests for help to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. In response, Alexios had probably expected a few regiments of knights. But he would get much more. Pope Urban II called together the Council of Clermont and urged all to take up arms under the sign of the cross. The response was enormous.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Asked for knights; got crusade; deal with devil

“Rome succeeded because it excelled at organization, mass production, and military expansion. As more peoples were conquered, they provided the economic base for even further expansion. In 167 BC, the Romans captured the Macedonian treasury, and as a result, they were able to virtually abolish taxes in Rome. When they conquered Pergamon in 130 AD, their state budget doubled, and it nearly doubled again after the conquest of Syria.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Conquests funded more conquests; budget doubled twice; flywheel

“The Byzantines constructed several hundred enormous underground cisterns to store water, meaning they would never run out during even the longest sieges. The largest of these, the Basilica Cistern, has 366 columns supporting its immense underground vaults. But just as impressive are three great open-air cisterns built near the Theodosian Walls. To give you a sense of their size, one of them today houses a football stadium.”

Operations & Execution · Strategy & Decision Making

DUR_ENDURING

Hundreds of cisterns; football stadium-sized; iron chain across port

“The substance known as Greek fire was different. It was a flaming substance, possibly based on petroleum, that seemed to set even the surface of the sea ablaze. Water could not douse its flames, and by some accounts even made them more intense. Its use was accompanied with smoke and the sounds of thunder. When Constantine learned of the movement of God's enemies against Constantinople, he prepared huge two-storied warships equipped with Greek fire. Both sides were thrusting and counterthrusting.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Secret weapon broke sieges; water made it worse

“In the year 946, one delegation from Silesia were greeted in the reception hall of the imperial palace, decked out with silk hangings, laurel wreaths and flowers, and slung with silver chains, the floors all decorated with Persian carpets, and the whole vast room sprinkled with rosewater. The entire court stood there in ceremonial regalia of red, gold, and purple, thousands of people chanting along with the music of organs.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Mechanical throne, roaring silver lions; theater intimidates

“The Byzantine Empire had inherited an imperial treasury of 29 million gold coins from Justinian, but his wars had all but emptied it. In the east, Byzantium was now under pressure from the powerful Sassanid Empire. Wars with the Sassanids dragged on for decades, weakening both empires and usually resulting in a bitter and costly stalemate. By the year 630, the Empire had lost most of Italy and North Africa once more and held only a foothold in the island of Sicily.”

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DUR_ENDURING

29M gold emptied by wars; gains reversed within decades

“After the fall of Constantinople, wherever Byzantine refugees went, they brought with them the ancient learnings of the Greeks. While Aristotle had been known in Western Europe for centuries, now the Latins were introduced to Demosthenes, Xenophon, Plato, Aeschylus, and the Iliad. The historian Edward Gibbon summarizes: The restoration of Greek letters in Italy was prosecuted by a series of emigrants who were destitute of fortune and endowed with learning.”— Edward Gibbon

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Refugees brought Greek texts; sparked Renaissance in Italy

“As the plague reached its height, Rome's political world fell apart. The violent Emperor Commodus was crowned, and the long history of Rome's decline began. Soon, rival generals fought viciously over who would rule, burning cities and expending the Empire's energy in pointless, self-destructive wars. By the end of the 3rd century, the vast Mediterranean Empire could no longer be ruled from the declining city that had given birth to it.”

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DUR_ENDURING

Plague triggered civil war; generals burned cities; decline began