[TopQuark]

" It postulates that the great bubonic plagues which killed over 25 million people in Byzantium alone, so loosened Constantinople's grip on its territory that European states developed from the Franks, The Allemani, The Rus etc."

Thanks for the reference; I should read the book.

But the argument appears to be strained. The Rus have never even bordered the Empire, and did not even exist as such at the time of the "loss of grip." The Hun invasion that displaced the Visigoths was probably no less of a force than the plague. To attribute the loss of power to a single factor is probably erroneous.

P.S. Is there a single factor for the loss of Constantinople? Probably not. The Christendom, much like in our own time, simply lost its common identity that allowed the vacuum to be filled by the outside force.

[SunkenCiv]

Single factor... lack of growth. Constantinople's mighty walls lasted until the Turks obtained cannon; meanwhile, for nearly one thousand years the city tottered along inside Constantine's original layout for the most part. They built at some point a hundreds-of-miles-long aqueduct to bring water to the city, and built a barrel-vault reservoir under (if memory serves) the circus (chariot track and stadium) to store water for the dryer parts of the year.

Justinian was a great builder, and he devoted himself to the reconquest of the whole old Roman Empire (wound up with between one half and one third) and the construction of the first version of what is now the Hagia Sophia. He also was a great taxer, which figures, considering how expensive (and economically dubious) reconquering the old empire must have been.

The other great famous ruler in Constantinople's history was Boris "the Bulgar Slayer", but he didn't do all that much beyond slaying Bulgars and battling would-be usurpers.

There were ups and downs, but the city lost its empire piece by piece to the Mohammedans and was in continual retreat for centuries. It's remarkable that it held on until the 15th century. But of course, during the 8th-11th centuries (and maybe a little more) the Scandinavian Varangians were employed as mercenaries by the Byzantines; it was Harald Hardraada (everybody's favorite Viking, I think) who helped drive the Muzzies out of Sicily, and a two-generation Viking kingdom wound up established there.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Well when the book says "Rus" it means Kievan Rus or Ukrainians today. The river Dneiper is a natural highway that runs down from Belarus top the Black sea.

The book postulates that due to the plague(s) all of the area reconquered by Justinian was only held tenuously and individual tribes on the edge or under imperial sway began to develop into nation states.

To my mind the two greatest events that eventually caused the loss of Constantinople were the plagues, and the sack of the city bythe Crusaders lead by the Venetians.

After thatitwas only a matter of time.