Episode 332 - Not with a Whimper but a Bang
Added 2025-07-13 19:10:31 +0000 UTCMehmed II becomes Sultan in 1451 and immediately makes plans to conquer Constantinople.
Period: 1448-53
Comments
Thanks so much
Robin Pierson
2026-01-02 18:46:17 +0000 UTCIts ridiculous how its taken me 5 months to listen to this episode in full. Could never bring myself to finish it and finally hear the end of Rome. This series has been truly masterful from start to finish
Nathan Lawson
2025-12-29 18:18:25 +0000 UTCP.S. I am still only 43 minutes into the episode. Don't tell me who wins!
The Children of Jack Acid
2025-11-14 09:45:55 +0000 UTCI know everybody here is using this opportunity to thank you for the entire series over the last 13 years. But I just want to say that this SPECIFIC episode is RIVETING. I've watched multiple videos recreating the fall of Constantinople in 1453, but I think hearing your version is the most captivating yet, by a Roman mile! It kind of reminds me of your bonus content episode from years back, when you made a fictionalized version of what it must have been like to be just a regular Anatolian guy, enlisted in the military and stationed to guard eastern Asia Minor against Islamic raiders, a couple hundred years after the Muslim conquest of the Levant. Or, at least it has that sense of edge-of-my-seat suspense. Despite the fact that this time (like when James Cameron followed up True Lies with Titanic) we basically already know how THIS one is going to end, I keep hoping beyond hope that each new step of Mehmed II's holistic strategy will be thwarted. And I love how you energize what otherwise could have been just a bare list, of which soldiers from which places fought for which side, by putting us in Constantine XI's shoes. We feel his desperation, fighting against his own clergy's stupidity as the pleads with the Pope and the entire Christian world for more help and more soldiers, at a time where even losing two Venetian boats full of able-bodied refugees likely seemed catastrophic. OMG, when you told us the depressing news that Genoa wanted to stay out of the fight, only to then reveal that Giovanni Giustiniani decided to fight anyway, and even brought 400 Genoese soldier and 300 mercenaries to help, it was like when all those elves came to help Rohan in Peter Jackson's The Two Towers! Actually, wait... did I just steal an analogy from one of YOUR older episodes?!? I think so. But after thirteen whole years, even YOU may not remember which one!
The Children of Jack Acid
2025-11-14 09:29:56 +0000 UTCYou're very kind
Robin Pierson
2025-09-05 22:28:14 +0000 UTCThank you so much for this podcast, I’ve listened to it every day for the past year, and there’s now just this gap in my morning that lacks thoroughly researched, well written, well voiced, and very entertaining narrative history. Super looking forward to what you do next.
Wibba
2025-09-05 22:16:29 +0000 UTC😭😭😭
Jack Merrill (Me)
2025-08-10 18:17:32 +0000 UTCThank you, very kind
Robin Pierson
2025-08-02 22:04:03 +0000 UTCRobin an amazing 13 years and 332 years!! This dramatic end to the Roman story was enthralling!
Conrad Benedetto
2025-08-01 22:02:51 +0000 UTCCan’t believe it’s over but what an accomplishment Robyn. Looking forward to connecting in a few months time in Constantinople looking at the landwalls pondering what might have been!
Steven Marshall
2025-07-28 18:36:28 +0000 UTCGoing out with the old garage band track was awesome. Got me tearing up as I’m trying to make oatmeal for a screaming toddler. What an amazing end to an incredible journey - excited to see where you take things next. Thank you for bringing us this far
Scott
2025-07-22 14:35:25 +0000 UTCWhat a masterpiece in history podcasts. Incredible writing. Thank you so much for all your work over the years Robin ♥️
Brooks Crawford
2025-07-21 02:11:00 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your diligence and stamina while making the eastern empire come to life during all these years. I’m sitting in silence after the fantastic last episode, feeling a disproportionate amount of melancholy for this long bygone empire and that the story is at its narrative end. Albeit also great joy and appreciation for all the hours of entertainment, education, and companionship you have given so many of us. You have filled in so many blanks on the map of history for someone not at all well versed before. God bless you Robin and congratulations
Sebastian Holmlund
2025-07-20 20:00:57 +0000 UTCThank you Robin for a fantastic recount of the last days of Constantinople. How much of a tech breakthrough were the canons used in terms of size and power? Seems to me the defenders had somewhat underestimated the effectiveness of the canons used by Mehmet's forces? Given that canons were already used at that time in other wars, were Orban's canons a technological breakthrough that caught the defenders unprepared?
Ilias Biris
2025-07-20 18:21:34 +0000 UTC
