The Last Roman Emperor and the Fall of Constantinople

The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History · Sep 5, 2026 · 7m · transcript

While previous episodes have explored the grandeur of ancient Rome, the Colosseum, and the Renaissance power brokers like the Medici and Borgia families, this episode shifts focus to the empire’s final, desperate chapter. We trace the life of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, who ruled from a city that had shrunk to a fraction of its former self. The narrative centers on the spring of 1453, when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Constantinople with an army numbering in the tens of thousands and massive cannons capable of breaching the Theodosian…