The Walls of Constantinople:
2.1 Background/Purpose:
After the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, part of the former empire was salvaged and the capital moved to Constantinople, where the surviving tidbits of western civilization still survived. Eventually, the centrality of Constantinople in addition to carrying on the Roman Empire in the form of the Byzantine Empire made the city thrive, making it one of the most, if not the most, magnificent cities in the world at the time. Constantinople became a great hub of trading, because of its geographic location serving as a checkpoint from Europe to the Middle East and Asia or Africa, and because had large bodies of water on both sides of it which allowed ports for ship trading to develop.
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This was the time when those in the city, and also those in the fleet, began to be afraid, since we feared that they intended to make a general attack on that very day; it was generally believed that Turkish turbans would soon be seen inside the city… Now that such a great part of the wall was destroyed by the bombardment, everyone considered himself lost, seeing that in a few days they had broken down such a fine stretch of wall; in fact, I tell you, that if on this day the Turks had been willing to make an attack on the walls with only ten thousand men, without any doubt they would have succeeded in getting into the city, and would have taken it, and we would have lost it very cheaply…and the Venetians set about making good and strong repairs where they were needed at the broken walls. These repairs were made with barrels filled with stones and earth, and behind them there was made a very wide ditch with a dam at the end of it, which was covered with strips of vine and other layers of branches drenched with water to make them solid, so that it was as strong as the wall had been. There was no need to be afraid of the Turks any longer in that place.
But still these evil Turks did not cease at any hour of the day or the night bombarding the gate called San Romano, where the repairs had been made, with all their force: their whole strength was concentrated on this gate, with shots from their great cannon, which had a circumference of fifteen palme, from their other cannon, and also from great numbers of guns, countless bows and many hand guns which continually fired at those who were making the
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