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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 6 page paper discusses Steven Runciman's book about the fall of Constantinople, an event that shocked the Western world. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVRuncim.rtf
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a world traveler and his memoirs tell of a "steamer voyage to China in 1925, and a piano duet with Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor; 1938 travels in Indochina,
and a ballet performance at Angkor Wat in Cambodia; and caviar sandwiches with Queen Marie of Romania" (Sir Steven Runciman dies, 2000). This paper discusses his book, The Fall of
Constantinople 1453. Discussion The Fall of Constantinople is a very well-regarded book but a well-respected author. Its relatively short (less than 200 pages not counting the appendices) but packs a
great deal of information into those pages. Runciman follows a simple narrative to explain the fall of the city, beginning with the arrival in England in 1400 of Manuel II
Palaeologus, Emperor of the Greeks, who was there to ask for help in saving the Byzantine Empire (Runciman, 1965, p. 1). Adam of Usk, a lawyer, was working at King
Henrys court and was saddened to see the Emperor there: "I reflected ... how grievous it was that this great Christian prince should be driven by the Saracens from the
furthest East to these furthest Western islands to seek aid against them ... what dost thou now, ancient glory of Rome" (Runciman, 1965, p. 1). In giving readers a
portrait of the Byzantine Empire, Runciman shows us a civilization caught in the middle of a number of forces: the Turks invaded from the East while the Normans came in
from the West; thus Byzantium was fighting a war on two fronts at the same time "it was passing through constitutional and dynastic difficulties" (Runciman, 1965, p. 2). While the
Byzantines drove out the Normans, they lost to the Turks; it was especially painful because they lost the territory "that had supplied most of their soldiers and most of their
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