Episode Transcript
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per month. Slows. Hello
1:10
everyone and welcome to the history
1:12
of Byzantium Episode Two Hundred and
1:15
Eighty Nine. Carlo.
1:17
Yeah, I'm Tsar of Bulgaria.
1:22
Across the last few episodes we've
1:24
seen several men fail to fill
1:26
the role of Emperor of Constantinople.
1:29
The to Byzantine still carrying that title
1:31
couldn't find a way to counter the
1:33
Latins. While. The two leading
1:35
crusaders were both lost in battle against
1:37
Bulgarian forces who knew the land much
1:40
better than they did. Before
1:43
it's sack, Constantinople had been
1:45
like the sun. Everyone.
1:47
In the Balkans, west, in Anatolia
1:50
and the Aegean were in it's
1:52
orbit. The. Fourth Crusade
1:54
had blurted it out, destabilizing
1:56
the gravitational pull which the
1:58
city had exerted. Over the region.
2:02
Now there was a vacuum. He
2:04
the someone could fill that space and
2:07
restart the dead star. All.
2:09
The lands of the empire would
2:11
fragments and different power centers would
2:13
begin seizing control for themselves. This.
2:19
Sounded like good news to
2:21
the Bulgarians. With Constantinople power
2:23
gone, the greatest threat to
2:25
their existence had been eliminated.
2:28
There. Was nothing to stop them developing
2:30
their home base into a prosperous and
2:32
peaceful land. But.
2:35
Then again the Bulgarian state was
2:37
not like by sent him a
2:39
wasn't a bureaucratic institution designed to
2:41
protect a Bulgarian homeland. It
2:44
was closer to a tribal organization.
2:46
were leading families competed with each
2:48
other for prominence, one which relied
2:51
on a strong man to hold
2:53
everything together. If
2:55
such a figure happened to be riding high.
2:58
When. Constantinople foul. Then.
3:00
It's possible. He. Could dream
3:02
the impossible dream. Rather
3:05
than reinforce his regional power base,
3:07
he could seize the dead saw
3:09
for himself. Reignited.
3:12
And. Become the first ever Emperor of
3:14
the Romans. And
3:16
Bulgarians. The
3:19
city has former. Followers
3:22
desire of Bulgaria received the
3:24
news of Constantinople. Small mixed
3:26
emotions. The humiliation of
3:29
his states great rival was a definite
3:31
boon to his cause. But
3:33
Kalyan had many concerns on
3:35
his mind. His fledgling kingdom
3:38
remained vulnerable despite the collapse
3:40
of Byzantine power. And
3:42
he wasn't at all sure if I'm Latin
3:45
empire based on the Bosphorus was going to
3:47
be a positive development for his people. Kelly.
3:52
And was born around Eleven seventy
3:54
two, a family of flack chiefs
3:56
who were operating reasonably happily within
3:59
the Roman. The old of matter will
4:01
com de nos. As
4:03
best we can tell his baptismal
4:05
name was Ivan, but since his
4:08
older brother had the same name,
4:10
he was known to most of
4:12
his kin as Joe an Easter
4:14
Little Ivan. In Greek
4:16
his name was understood as John and
4:18
in his positive press he was known
4:21
as John the Handsome. Carlos.
4:23
Your anus, As in Taliban
4:25
and since that's what I call him
4:27
before I researched all of this will
4:29
stick with it. As
4:32
his press in Roman circles got
4:34
worse, he was rebranded as Sky
4:36
Low He oh how nice. John
4:38
the Dog. Around
4:42
the time he was fifteen, his
4:44
older brother Peter and Awesome launched
4:46
their rebellion against the Romans. Laying.
4:49
Claim to the historic heritage of
4:51
the Bulgarian state. The
4:53
forces of Isaac and Gloss responded,
4:55
and in Eleven Eighty Eight, they
4:57
captured our son's wife. In
5:00
order to secure her release, Kalyan
5:03
was dispatched to Constantinople as a
5:05
hostage. He seems to have
5:07
escaped or been released at some point in
5:09
the next few years. When
5:12
he's older brother our son was
5:14
murdered at Turnover in Eleven Ninety
5:17
Six, Peter quickly had Kalyan elevated
5:19
to rule with him. A smart
5:21
move since Peter died shortly afterwards.
5:24
Kalyan. Was able to see have
5:26
a serious usurpation attempt and secure his
5:29
position as are by the end of
5:31
Eleven Ninety Seven. The
5:35
next few years were incredibly busy.
5:37
Kalyan continued to war with the
5:39
Romans until Alexi as angle of
5:42
Communists agreed to peace and the
5:44
recognition of his realm. He also
5:46
let his forces westward towards Belgrade,
5:49
both to reward his followers and
5:51
secure his border with Hungary and
5:53
Serbia. this proved
5:55
tough as the hungarians were opposed to
5:58
the establishment of a new kingdom along
6:00
the Danube. They had
6:02
spilled a lot of blood in their wars with
6:04
Manuil Cominoss, and after his death they had grabbed
6:06
the fortresses along the southern bank of the Great
6:09
River. To see
6:11
an expansionist Bulgarian state on their
6:13
doorstep was not what they wanted,
6:16
and so the King of Hungary sent troops
6:18
to oppose them, allied with
6:20
the Serbian state, which was also trying
6:23
to establish itself further south. Caloyan
6:27
also had to manage his Cuman
6:29
allies with care. The
6:31
steppe riders were the key to his military
6:33
success. The Vlak cavalry
6:35
and Bulgarian foot soldiers were
6:37
perfectly competent and could go
6:39
toe to toe with their Balkan rivals, but
6:42
the nomads gave them a cutting edge
6:44
they otherwise lacked. The
6:49
Cuman's, like all steppe confederations, were not
6:51
easy to control. They had
6:53
raided Bulgarian lands on a couple of occasions,
6:56
and so Caloyan had to ride
6:58
this particular tiger very carefully. He
7:01
married a Cuman bride as evidence
7:03
of his commitment to keeping them
7:05
onside. Amidst
7:09
all this conflict, Caloyan entered lengthy
7:11
negotiations with the Papacy. Not
7:14
only had he used this as a
7:16
bargaining chip in simultaneous negotiations with the
7:18
Byzantines, but Caloyan had watched
7:20
the passage of the Third Crusade through the
7:23
Balkans. He knew that it was
7:25
the Latins who were the coming power in Europe, and
7:28
it was important to be on their side. Legitimacy
7:32
granted by the Pope was vital.
7:35
It would protect him from attack and make
7:37
it harder for the Catholic Hungarians to
7:40
remain bellicose. Caloyan
7:43
emerged from these challenges with
7:45
his reputation greatly enhanced. Since
7:48
becoming a teenager, his life had been
7:50
on fast forward. He'd
7:52
been forced to learn quickly how to be
7:55
a soldier, leader and diplomat all at once.
7:58
He was juggling domestic and international concerns
8:00
all while wearing a massive target
8:02
on his back. It
8:05
was now that news arrived that the
8:07
Fourth Crusade was camped outside the walls
8:10
of Constantinople. The
8:12
Czar sent an embassy to ask the Latins
8:14
if they would grant him the recognition he
8:16
desired. He knew they
8:18
were on a papally sanctioned mission and so
8:20
might have the authority to confirm him in
8:23
his rights as monarch. In
8:25
exchange he was more than happy to
8:27
send troops to aid them in their
8:29
siege. But
8:32
as I mentioned two episodes ago
8:34
the Latins were taking their cue
8:36
from their Byzantine allies like Alexios
8:38
Angelos. The Romans
8:40
spoke dismissively of the Bulgarians as
8:42
cattle rustlers and rebels and the
8:45
Latins concurred. The
8:47
response Kaloyan received was that he
8:49
should leave imperial territory or
8:51
he would be forced to. This
8:54
was not what he wanted to hear at all. A
8:57
few months after Constantinople fell Kaloyan finally
8:59
got what he wanted a crown
9:02
from the Pope. A papal
9:05
legate entered Tronovo and crowned him
9:07
as king of the Bulgarians and
9:09
Vlax. The pontiff
9:12
refused to acknowledge the title Czar
9:14
since that meant Emperor and
9:16
there were only meant to be two of those. However
9:20
the Latins at Constantinople don't seem
9:22
to have heard, understood or cared
9:24
that the Bulgarians were now under
9:26
the pontiff's spiritual authority and
9:28
to be fair nothing had
9:30
yet changed in Bulgaria itself. Its
9:33
clergy continued to use the Orthodox
9:36
right and would never fully align
9:38
themselves with Catholic practice. So
9:42
it was that the new Emperor
9:44
Baldwin remained belligerent, that
9:46
Kaloyan made an alliance with Byzantine
9:48
officials in Thrace and that the
9:51
two sides clashed in April 1205
9:53
outside Adrianople. The
9:55
victory which Kaloyan won could not have
9:57
been more crushing. Baldwin was
9:59
in chains, most of his knights were
10:02
dead, and the Latins were fleeing with
10:04
haste back to Constantinople. The
10:07
question now was how
10:09
to follow up this magnificent victory? As
10:12
Latin resistance melted before him, he
10:14
must have had an idle thought
10:16
or two about whether a direct
10:18
assault on Constantinople might succeed. But
10:22
such dreams were easily brushed aside. Without
10:25
naval support, such an attack would have
10:27
been fruitless, the land walls
10:29
remained formidable, and the Venetian fleet
10:31
dominated the Golden Horn. But
10:35
what about Thessaloniki? The
10:37
empire's second city was now wide
10:39
open, and capturing it
10:41
would be the greatest victory in
10:43
Bulgarian history. The
10:46
Tsar allowed most of his human allies to
10:49
roam free across Thrace in the aftermath of
10:51
the battle. Some made
10:53
it to the vicinity of Constantinople, pursuing
10:56
fleeing Latins, looting and pillaging
10:58
as they went. Calleon
11:00
led the rest of his army west
11:02
towards the city of St. Demetrius. As
11:06
his route became clear, messengers raced
11:08
south into Greece, desperate to find
11:11
King Boniface, who was off besieging
11:13
Naplion. As we
11:15
talked about last week, there was
11:17
panic inside Thessaloniki, and some Slav
11:20
rabble-rousers actually chased the authorities into
11:22
the citadel. Was the
11:24
city about to be sacked again by a
11:26
foreign army? Fortunately
11:29
for Boniface and the Roman population,
11:31
the fortress of Ceres bought them some
11:34
time. Ceres guarded
11:36
one of the approaches to Thessalonica,
11:38
and Boniface's men held it against
11:40
Calleon's attack. It took
11:42
several days for the defenders and the
11:45
local Byzantines trapped inside to run out
11:47
of food and surrender. The
11:49
terms of the deal meant that if those inside
11:51
opened the gates voluntarily, they would be
11:54
allowed to leave unharmed. We
11:56
don't know exactly what happened next, but when they
11:58
emerged from the stronghold, Calleon appears
12:00
to have broken his word, enslaved
12:02
most of them, and had
12:04
them deported north. As
12:08
I say, we don't know
12:10
exactly what happened, but many Romans concluded
12:12
that the Czar couldn't be trusted and
12:14
would never be welcome as their new
12:16
overlord. Remember
12:18
that some Byzantine officials and soldiers were
12:21
now marching with the Czar, which
12:23
was a complication in the normal
12:25
Bulgarian operating procedure. In
12:28
order to keep his Vlax, Bulgarians, and
12:30
Cumans happy, Calleon usually allowed them
12:33
to take whatever they wanted from Roman lands,
12:35
but now he had to consider the feelings of
12:38
those who'd switched sides. It
12:40
was another difficult balancing act. The
12:44
army moved on to Veria, to the
12:46
west of Thessalonica, and a similar scene
12:48
played out. Calleon was
12:50
capturing the forts he needed to isolate
12:52
the city, but he
12:54
was also taking Roman captives and dragging
12:56
them away. Boniface
12:59
managed to race back from Greece and
13:01
reoccupy his city, which for the time
13:03
being warded Calleon off. The
13:05
Czar didn't want to risk all he'd gained by pushing
13:07
his men too far. The
13:10
summer was slowly passing, and so he turned
13:12
away from Thessaloniki and began to make his
13:14
way north. He
13:16
wasn't going home without another prize, though,
13:19
and so he headed towards Philopopolis, one
13:22
of the major Byzantine towns of Thrace. The
13:26
citizens of this region had been terrorised by
13:28
the Bulgarians for two decades now, so had
13:30
no incentive to join his side. The
13:33
Latin commander abandoned the city as
13:35
the Czar approached, recognising
13:37
that resistance was futile, but
13:40
a Byzantine general named Alexios
13:42
Aspietes stood firm and tried
13:44
to rally the population to defend their city.
13:48
This seems to have angered Calleon, who presumably
13:50
felt that he was doing the Romans a
13:52
favour by driving the Latins out. Various
13:55
stories are told about the siege, one
13:58
blames the city's Bogomil population. a
14:00
heretical Christian sect for betraying the gates
14:03
to the Bulgarians. But
14:05
whatever really happened, Kalyan captured the
14:07
city, executed the local leadership and
14:09
enslaved many of its inhabitants. Kalyan's
14:13
strategy was becoming clearer. He
14:16
would eliminate any Latin garrisons he found
14:18
and depopulate Thrace in favor of his
14:20
own territory north of the Hymnus Mountains.
14:24
Romans and their animals would be settled
14:26
there to boost his own economy, while
14:29
Thrace would become a wasteland which would
14:31
be unable to resist his incursions or
14:33
to provide the base necessary to support
14:35
a Latin empire. He
14:38
had one eye on Dassaloniki, but he
14:40
needed conditions to be truly in his
14:42
favor. Those
14:45
who bore the brunt of these actions
14:47
were, of course, ordinary Romans. It
14:50
was they who would suffer the depredations of
14:52
his army's marches. Many
14:55
of those who defected to Kalyan's
14:57
banner began to have serious reservations.
15:00
The Bulgarians were freeing them of Latin rule,
15:02
but at what price? Perhaps
15:05
they would be better off with the Westerners
15:07
after all. It
15:11
seems like Kalyan didn't go home that winter.
15:14
Presumably, he stayed at Philippopolis. He
15:17
was determined to make the most of
15:19
this extraordinary opportunity. As
15:21
1206 dawned, he led his men through
15:23
the January weather to the southern coast
15:26
of Thrace. There he
15:28
began attacking the forts which the Latin still held.
15:31
It's hard to know what to believe about the
15:33
extent of this campaign. The Latin
15:36
historians name about half a dozen towns
15:38
he either broke into or terrorized from
15:40
the outside, while the Byzantine
15:42
sources name a dozen or more. At
15:45
some, the Latin garrison was massacred, at
15:47
others the Roman population were enslaved and
15:50
deported. The raiding continued
15:52
up to about 30 kilometers from
15:54
Constantinople itself, a
15:56
demonstration of Bulgarian power. Was
16:00
there a possibility that the Latins would give
16:02
up and sail away? Not
16:05
really. It would be too
16:07
humiliating and it would betray the sacrifice of
16:09
all the crusaders who died for this cause.
16:13
The Latins accepted that Baldwin was
16:15
now dead and elected his brother
16:17
Henry, or Henri, to replace him.
16:20
The new emperor gathered the forces he
16:22
could muster and prepared to fight a
16:24
guerrilla campaign against Callahan's men. As
16:28
you can imagine, the roads of Thrace were
16:31
choked with refugees. People were running in terror
16:33
from the Bulgarian army and trying to find
16:35
a safe haven. Many
16:37
flocked to Adrianople, whose sturdy walls
16:39
seemed their best hope for survival.
16:42
The city had been the epicenter of the
16:44
original revolt in favor of Callahan, but the
16:47
mood had now turned against him. If
16:50
this was the alternative to Latin rule, then
16:52
it was definitely the greater of two evils.
16:55
This was when Callahan became John the Dog
16:58
in the eyes of the Romans. Interestingly,
17:01
in Bulgarian circles, his amazing success
17:03
led to the creation of a
17:05
different nickname, the
17:07
Romanslayer, a
17:09
deliberate riposte to Basil II,
17:11
whose campaigns he seemed to
17:13
be reversing. The
17:18
men in charge of Adrianople agreed
17:21
to switch sides and seek Latin
17:23
help. The new emperor
17:25
Henry had been having similar thoughts. If
17:27
his empire was going to survive, he
17:29
had to incorporate the Byzantines into his
17:31
command structure. He found
17:34
the ideal first responder in the
17:36
figure of Theodore Vranas. You
17:39
may remember his father, Alexius Vranas,
17:41
who rebelled against Isaac Angelos from
17:43
his base at Adrianople. Vranas
17:45
was one of the few rebels of that era
17:47
who actually did march on the capital and try
17:49
to seize the throne, where
17:51
he was defeated in battle by
17:54
Conrad of Montferrat, Boniface's older brother.
17:57
Stay with me. Theodore had
17:59
married married Agnes, the daughter of the
18:01
King of France, last seen as a
18:04
child bride being married to filthy old
18:06
Andronicus. Agnes had
18:08
stayed in Constantinople, gone native, and
18:10
hooked up with Ranas. This
18:13
gave Theodore a huge advantage over his
18:16
contemporaries. His wife had a
18:18
natural position within the Latin's feudal
18:20
network, so they understood exactly where
18:22
Ranas fit in their pecking order.
18:26
When the two sides made contact, Henry was
18:28
more than happy to forgive the people of
18:30
Adrianople for their betrayal and send them Ranas
18:32
to act as their new governor. The
18:36
tide of battle finally turned that summer. In
18:39
June 1206, Callaghan tried to
18:41
sack the city of Didymotechion on
18:43
the road towards Adrianople. Despite
18:46
battering the walls with siege engines and
18:48
diverting a river to cut off the
18:50
water supply, the defenders held out. Hopeful
18:53
that reinforcements were on the way. And
18:56
indeed they were. The Emperor Henry
18:58
was advancing cautiously towards their position.
19:01
Despite his numerical advantage, Callaghan did not
19:03
want to get trapped between the city
19:05
and the oncoming Latin army, and so
19:07
he abandoned his siege and moved north.
19:10
As he passed Adrianople, he was angry
19:13
to discover that the city had turned
19:15
against him. This lengthened
19:17
his supply lines and made his wagon
19:19
train filled with booty and slaves more
19:22
vulnerable. His cumin troops
19:24
had already departed and he was
19:26
feeling vulnerable. Slowly
19:28
Henry closed the gap on him as the
19:30
Hymas Mountains came into view. Callaghan
19:33
made it safely home, but his lieutenants
19:35
were left to deal with the baggage
19:37
train and were attacked by Henry's advancing
19:39
army. Panic spread, the
19:41
Bulgarians fled, and thousands of
19:44
Roman captives broke free from
19:46
their chains. As
19:49
they headed home, Henry continued to
19:51
press north and sacked several
19:53
Bulgarian fortresses along the coast.
19:56
His message was clear. The Latin
19:58
Empire was here to stay. day. Frustrated
20:03
by these developments, Calian made plans
20:06
for another assault on Roman Thrace.
20:09
The following spring, 1207, he rushed
20:11
to Adrianople to try and capture the
20:13
city before the Latins could respond. Apparently
20:16
he brought 33 large counterweight
20:19
trebuchets to batter the walls, but
20:22
Theodore Vranas led a resolute defense.
20:24
His people worked through the night to
20:27
repair the destruction inflicted on different sections
20:29
of the wall, and after
20:31
a month Calian called off the siege and
20:33
his cumin allies disappeared north of the
20:35
Danube now that the easy pickings were
20:38
gone. Henry
20:40
was also active. Taking a
20:42
leaf from the book of Nyciferous Focus,
20:45
he ignored Calian's army and attacked the
20:47
Bulgarian forts south of the Hymas Mountains,
20:49
trying to draw the Czar away from
20:52
Latin strongholds. Then with
20:54
autumn approaching, the Emperor met up with
20:56
King Boniface to exchange oaths of allegiance.
21:00
This brings us to the events that closed
21:02
last week's episode. On
21:04
his way home to Thessalonica, Boniface was
21:06
killed in an ambush by Calian's men.
21:10
When he received the king's head, Calian
21:12
knew his chance had come. He
21:15
marched his army of 10,000, straight
21:17
for Thessaloniki. With
21:20
Boniface dead, the city would be vulnerable.
21:23
He had waited for an opportunity like
21:25
this. He could either sack the city
21:27
and take the rich harvest home, or
21:29
occupy it, and attempt to force the
21:31
Romans to acknowledge him as their new
21:33
master. The precedent had been
21:35
set by the Norman Fack 20 years
21:37
earlier. The city could be taken.
21:40
It was that event, after all,
21:42
which had provided the spiritual justification
21:44
for the Bulgarian revolt, that
21:47
Saint Demetrios had abandoned the
21:49
Romans and had relocated to
21:51
Tranova, Calian's capital.
21:56
The Bulgarians bypassed the city's surrounding forts
21:58
and went straight for the jugular.
22:01
Inside the city, faction fighting again threatened
22:03
to leave the people defenseless. They
22:06
were Romans and Slavs, intriguing against
22:08
the Latins and infighting amongst the
22:11
Westerners themselves. But
22:13
Margaret, Boniface's widow, remained
22:16
nominally in charge, and
22:19
the one thing everyone could agree on was that
22:21
they did not want to surrender to Callegan. The
22:24
Czar focused his attack on the north of the
22:26
city. The plan was to fill
22:28
in the moat with wood and other debris, and
22:30
then attempt to scale the wall with ladders. The
22:33
northern moat was quickly filled up, as
22:35
trebuchets pounded the walls above. It
22:38
was autumn, and the attack had to be
22:40
pressed before supplies began to run out. Then
22:44
suddenly, in the middle of the night, a
22:47
cry went up from the Czar's camp. Callegan
22:51
was dead. The
22:53
siege was immediately called off, and
22:56
the Bulgarians returned home. Predictably,
23:01
in the aftermath of this shocking turn
23:03
of events, the Bulgarian realm
23:05
fell into conspiracy and civil war. Their
23:08
opportunity to become masters of the Balkans
23:11
had passed. The
23:14
Latins and Romans strengthened their
23:16
alliance, and the Emperor
23:18
Henry held onto his throne. The
23:21
great strength and great weakness of
23:24
states like Bulgaria is
23:26
their dependence on the competence,
23:28
charisma, and longevity of
23:30
one man. Callegan
23:33
was about 37 years old, and
23:36
seemed a healthy specimen. Later
23:38
on, a Roman historian said
23:41
that he died of pleurisy. And
23:43
as ever in the medieval world, ill health
23:45
is always a safe bet in cases of
23:47
sudden death. But
23:49
the rumor at the time was that the Czar
23:52
had been killed. Perhaps
23:54
by one of his boyars, his
23:56
nobleman, who had already stirred up
23:58
some trouble in Tranovo. the
24:00
previous year. Or
24:03
was it one of the Romans still
24:06
serving the Czar but now determined to
24:08
prevent him from capturing Thessalonica? Or
24:12
maybe it was Saint Demetrius
24:14
who had turned his back on the
24:17
Bulgarians and returned his favor to the
24:19
city on the Aegean. The
24:22
latter was widely reported and believed at the
24:24
time, and not just in
24:26
Roman circles. One scholar
24:28
argues that had Calian died of natural
24:30
causes, the stories of murder would not
24:33
have spread so quickly. Who
24:35
can say? But the legend
24:38
that Demetrius had visited the Czar's tent that
24:40
night and delivered a fatal blow is
24:43
a tale which gripped the Balkan imagination.
24:46
The image of the Saint eliminating
24:49
Calian can be seen in
24:51
at least five Balkan churches and
24:53
on many icons. It's
24:57
a backhanded tribute to the impressive
24:59
figure that Calian cut. When
25:02
he was growing up, the idea of
25:04
reviving the Bulgarian Empire was just a
25:07
fantasy. By the
25:09
time he died, the thought that
25:11
a Bulgarian Czar might annex the Roman
25:13
Empire was not so far-fetched.
25:17
The thought that his rapid rise to power was
25:19
one laced with sin and that
25:22
God had delivered his judgment at the
25:24
gates of Thessaloniki was
25:26
one which gained wide currency. For
25:30
now then, the Balkan theater of war had
25:33
reached stalemate. The
25:35
Latins had clung on to their new possessions
25:37
in Thrace and Greece. The
25:40
Bulgarians were off to kill one another until
25:42
a new strongman emerges and
25:44
the Romans breathed a sigh of relief that
25:47
they weren't going to be slaughtered next spring.
25:51
It wasn't clear to anyone in the Balkans what
25:53
the future had in store. No
25:55
one seemed strong enough to step
25:58
into Manuil Komninos' long-winded life. vacated
26:00
shoes. But
26:03
of course the Roman world was not just in
26:05
Europe. Across the
26:07
waters in Anatolia a new
26:09
power was emerging, one
26:11
that could conceivably dominate the entire
26:13
west coast. If
26:15
that was to happen, then Constantinople would
26:17
be but a short boat ride away.
26:21
Next time we go back once more to the
26:23
fall of New Rome and follow
26:25
a different vantage point.
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