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By coincidence I happen to be reading Steven Runciman's "The Fall of Constantinople 1453" (Cambridge University Press, 1965). A fascinating book, much more readable than I had imagined. Runciman writes (p 189): "The date of 29 May 1453 marks a turning-point in history. It marks the end of an old story, the story of Byzantine civilization".
Runciman writes about the beginning of the siege of Constantinople, Easter 1453 (p. 86):
"...there was little joy in the hearts of the people of Constantinople on Easter Sunday, 1453. It fell upon 1 April. After a stormy winter spring was coming to the Bosphorus. In the orchards throughout the city the fruit-trees were bursting into flower. The nightingales were returning to sing in the copses and the storks to build their nests on the roof-tops. The sky was streaked with long lines of migratory birds flying to their summer homes away in the north. But Thrace was rumbling with the sounds of a great army on the move, of men and horses and of oxen pulling their creaking wagons."
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.