A last stand is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are defending a tactically crucial point; to buy time to enable a trapped army, person, or group of people to escape; due to fear of execution if captured; or to protect their ruler or leader. Last stands loom large in history, as the heroism and sacrifice of the defenders exert a large pull on the public's imagination. Some last stands have become a celebrated part of a fighting force's or a country's history, especially if the defenders accomplished their goals (or, in rare cases, defeated their attackers).
182-559: Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus ( Greek : Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος , Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos ; 8 February 1404 – 29 May 1453) was the last Roman/Byzantine emperor , reigning from 1449 until his death in battle at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Constantine's death marked the definitive end of the Eastern Roman Empire , which traced its origin to Constantine
364-876: A stroke and was left paralyzed in one side of his body. He lived for another three years, but the empire's government was effectively in the hands of Constantine's brother John. Thessaloniki was also under siege by the Ottomans; to prevent it from falling into their hands, John gave the city to the Republic of Venice . As Manuel II had once hoped years ago, John hoped to rally support from Western Europe, and he left Constantinople in November 1423 to travel to Venice and Hungary. By this time, Manuel had abandoned his hope of western aid and had even attempted to dissuade John from pursuing it. Manuel believed that an eventual church union, which would become John's goal, would only antagonize
546-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
728-496: A campaign into Central Greece and Thessaly in 1444–1446, attempting to extend Byzantine rule into Greece once more. In October 1448, John VIII died without children, and as his favored successor, Constantine was proclaimed emperor on 6 January 1449. During his brief reign, Constantine would have to deal with three main issues. First, there was the issue of an heir, as Constantine was also childless. Despite attempts by Constantine's friend and confidant George Sphrantzes to find him
910-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
1092-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
1274-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
1456-438: A frenzy. On 13 September 1452, a month before Isidore and Leonard arrived, the lawyer and anti-unionist Theodore Agallianos had written a short chronicle of contemporary events, concluding with the following words: This was written in the third year of the reign of Constantine Palaiologos, who remains uncrowned because the church has no leader and is indeed in disarray as the result of the turmoil and confusion brought upon it by
1638-434: A last stand situation, recognising that trapped men will fight harder. Sun Tzu wrote: "To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape" . Similarly, they have sometimes suggested deliberately putting their own forces in such a situation, for example by burning boats or bridges that could tempt them to retreat. The historian Bryan Perrett suggests that although the majority of last stands throughout history have seen
1820-641: A last stand to protect their ruler or leader or commander. In the Battle of Hastings in 1066, King Harold II battled the Norman William the Conqueror , who invaded with 7,000 men. After most of the English were killed in the battle, "Harold and his housecarl bodyguard...fought on until an arrow struck the king in the eye." After Harold died, the housecarl bodyguard made a last stand and "...fought to
2002-584: A letter to Pope Nicholas V , which contained a statement from the anti-unionist synaxis at Constantinople. Constantine hoped that the Pope would read the letter and understand Constantine's difficulties with making the Union of the Churches a reality in the east. The letter contained the synaxis 's proposal that a new council be held at Constantinople, with an equal number of representatives from both churches (since
SECTION 10
#17327763742352184-498: A life of celibacy and chastity for the rest of her life once released from the Ottomans. Sphrantzes then decided that a Georgian bride would suit the emperor best and returned to Constantinople in September 1451, bringing a Georgian ambassador with him. Constantine thanked Sphrantzes for his efforts and they agreed that Sphrantzes was to return to Georgia in the spring of 1452 and forge a marriage alliance. Due to mounting tensions with
2366-691: A mercenary army of Catalans . Unfortunately for Malatesta, the Catalans had little interest in helping him recover Patras, and they attacked and seized Glarentza instead, which Constantine had to buy back from them for 6,000 Venetian ducats , and began plundering the Moreot coastline. To prevent Glarentza from being seized by pirates, Constantine eventually ordered it to be destroyed. During this perilous time, Constantine suffered another loss: Theodora died in November 1429. The grief-stricken Constantine first had her buried at Glarentza, but then moved to Mystras. Once
2548-401: A message to the sultan complaining that the payment was not sufficient and hinted that unless more money was paid, Orhan might be released, possibly sparking an Ottoman civil war. The strategy of attempting to use hostage Ottoman princes had been used before by Constantine's father Manuel II, but it was a risky one. Mehmed's grand vizier, Çandarlı Halil Pasha , received the message at Bursa and
2730-458: A rearguard last stand. It took place on July 13, 1660, at a mountain pass in the vicinity of fort Vishalgad, near the city of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India between the Maratha warrior Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Siddi Masud of Adil Shahi dynasty . 300 Marathas in a rearguard action, held off an attacking force of 10,000 Bijapuris, allowing their king Shivaji to escape to a nearby fort. Ultimately
2912-598: A seal currently located in Vienna (of unknown provenance, probably from an imperial chrysobull ), a few coins, and his portrait among the other Byzantine emperors in the Biblioteca Estense copy of the history of Zonaras . In the latter he is shown with a rounded beard, in noted contrast to his forked-bearded relatives, but it is unclear whether that reflects his actual appearance. After an unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1422 , Manuel II suffered
3094-478: A second attempt to retake Patras by himself; if he failed, he would return to his old appanage by the Black Sea . Constantine and Sphrantzes, confident that the city's many Greek inhabitants would support their takeover, marched towards Patras on 1 March 1429, and they besieged the city on 20 March. The siege developed into a long and drawn-out engagement, with occasional skirmishes. At one point, Constantine's horse
3276-570: A soldier. This does not mean that Constantine was not also a skilled administrator: he was trusted and favored to such an extent by his older brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos , that he was designated as regent twice during John VIII's journeys away from Constantinople in 1423–1424 and 1437–1440. In 1427–1428, Constantine and John fended off an attack on the Morea (the Peloponnese ) by Carlo I Tocco , ruler of Epirus , and in 1428 Constantine
3458-401: A western crusading campaign. Another pressing concern was the continuation of the imperial family as neither Constantine nor his brothers had male children at the time. In February 1449, Constantine had sent Manuel Dishypatos as an envoy to Italy to speak with Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples in order to secure military aid against the Ottomans and forge a marriage alliance. The intended match
3640-616: A wife, Constantine ultimately died unmarried. The second concern was religious conflict within what little remained of his empire. Emperor Constantine and his predecessor John VIII both believed in the reunion between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches proclaimed at the Council of Florence . They accordingly sought to secure military aid from Catholic Europe , but much of the Byzantine populace, led by Mark of Ephesus , opposed
3822-448: Is a last resort tactic, and is chosen because the defending force realizes or believes the benefits of fighting outweigh the benefits of retreat or surrender. This usually arises from strategic or moral considerations, such as staying and fighting to buy time for wounded soldiers or civilians to get to a safe place, leading defenders to conclude that their sacrifice is essential to the greater success of their campaign or cause, as happened at
SECTION 20
#17327763742354004-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
4186-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
4368-538: Is known of Constantine's early life. From an early age, he was admired by George Sphrantzes (later a famed Byzantine historian), who would later enter his service, and later encomiasts often wrote that Constantine had always been courageous, adventurous, and skilled in martial arts, horsemanship, and hunting. Many accounts of Constantine's life, both before and after he became emperor, are heavily skewed and eulogize his reign, as most of them lack contemporary sources and were composed after his death. Based on his actions and
4550-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,
4732-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
4914-813: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Last stand A "last stand"
5096-708: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
5278-618: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from
5460-471: The Battle of Thermopylae , the vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians for seven days (including three of battle) before the rear-guard was annihilated in one of history's most famous last stands. During two full days of battle, the small force led by Leonidas blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass. When Leonidas became aware that his force was being outflanked, he dismissed
5642-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are
Constantine XI Palaiologos - Misplaced Pages Continue
5824-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of
6006-720: The Council of Ferrara in an effort to unite the Eastern and Western churches. Although many in the Byzantine Empire opposed a union of the Churches, as it would mean religious submission under the Papacy , John viewed a union as necessary. The papacy did not view the situation of the Christians in the East as something positive, but it would not call for any aid to the disintegrating empire if it did not acknowledge obedience to
6188-811: The Doge of Venice , Francesco Foscari , in October 1450, the Venetians were unconvinced and signed a formal treaty with Mehmed II in 1451. To annoy the Venetians, Constantine attempted to seal a deal with the Republic of Ragusa in 1451, offering them a place to trade in Constantinople with limited tax concessions, though the Ragusans could offer little military aid to the empire. Most of the kingdoms in Western Europe were occupied with their own wars at
6370-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
6552-633: The Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting a call from God to be restored to life and reconquer both the city and the old empire. Constantine Dragases Palaiologos was born on 8 February 1404 as the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos ( r. 1391–1425), the eighth emperor of the Palaiologos dynasty. Manuel's mother, Helena (1333–1396), came from the House of Kantakouzenos . Constantine's mother (from whom he took his second last name)
6734-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
6916-471: The Latin Archbishop of Mytilene , Leonard of Chios . With them, they brought a small force of 200 Neapolitan archers. Though they made little difference in coming battle, the reinforcements were probably more appreciated by Constantinople's citizens than the actual purpose of Isidore's and Leonard's visit: cementing the Union of the Churches. Their arrival in the city spurred the anti-unionists into
7098-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of
7280-578: The Principality of Achaea by marrying Catherine Zaccaria , daughter and heir of the final prince, Centurione II Zaccaria . When Centurione died in 1432, Thomas took control of all his remaining territories by right of marriage. The only lands in the Peloponnese remaining under foreign rule were the few port towns and cities still held by the Republic of Venice. Sultan Murad II felt uneasy about
7462-536: The Seljuk Turks in Anatolia in the 11th century. Though some emperors, such as Alexios I and Manuel I , had successfully recovered portions of Anatolia through help from western crusaders, their gains were only temporary. Anatolia was the empire's most fertile, populated, and wealthy region, and after its loss, Byzantium more or less experienced constant decline. Although most of it was eventually reconquered,
Constantine XI Palaiologos - Misplaced Pages Continue
7644-705: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , by the end of 1942, the Jews trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto learned that the deportations were part of an extermination process , as the deportees were sent to death camps . Many of the remaining Jews decided to revolt. The first armed resistance in the ghetto occurred in January 1943. On 19 April 1943, Passover eve, the Nazis entered the ghetto. The remaining Jews knew that
7826-563: The angels and archangels that he would live in peace with the Byzantines and their emperor for the rest of his life. Constantine was unconvinced and suspected that Mehmed's mood could abruptly change in the future. In order to prepare for the future possibility of Ottoman attack, Constantine needed to secure alliances and the most powerful realms that might be inclined to aid him were in the West. The nearest and most concerned potential ally
8008-494: The godfather to two of Sphrantzes' children. During John's absence from Constantinople, the Ottomans abided by the previously established peace. Trouble appeared to have brewed only once: in early 1439, Constantine wrote to his brother in Italy to remind the Pope that the Byzantines had been promised two warships by the end of spring. Constantine hoped that the ships would leave Italy within fifteen days, as he believed that Murad II
8190-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
8372-524: The traditional coronation ceremony in Constantinople once they reached the capital. In Constantine's case, no such ceremony was ever performed. Both Constantine and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory III Mammas, were supporters of the Union of the Churches: a ceremony in which Gregory crowned Constantine emperor might have led the anti-unionists in the capital to rebel. Constantine's rise to emperor
8554-711: The 1795 battle of Krtsanisi , where the Persian army led by Agha Muhammad Khan defeated the Georgians , the Three Hundred Aragvians – a detachment of the highlanders from the Aragvi valley – loyally fought and died in order to enable the escape of King Heraclius II , for which they are remembered as national heroes and were canonized by the Georgian Church. The Battle of Pavan Khind involved
8736-451: The 20th century, " no quarter was given " if a besieged garrison had refused any offered terms of surrender prior to the attackers breaching the defences, so a last stand was part of the end of many sieges, such as the Battle of the Alamo . However, since the 1907 IV Hague Convention it is unlawful for an attacking force to kill a garrison if they attempt to surrender, even if it is during
8918-811: The Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great : Persians, led by Ariobarzanes of Persis , tried desperately to stop the Macedon offensive towards the capital city Persepolis , blocking the Persian Gates pass. A similar action to Thermopylae occurred in April 1951 at the Battle of Kapyong when strategic Hill 677 was held by the 700 men of the Canadian 2 PPCLI against two attacking Chinese PVA divisions, encircled and outnumbered by more than 10 to 1 in
9100-429: The Archbishop's castle surrendered to Constantine in July 1430, the city was fully restored to Byzantine rule after 225 years of foreign occupation. In November, Sphrantzes was rewarded by being proclaimed as the city's governor. By the early 1430s, the efforts of Constantine and his younger brother Thomas had ensured that nearly all of the Peloponnese was under Byzantine rule again since the Fourth Crusade . Thomas ended
9282-406: The Black Sea appanage and Demetrios being granted Constantine's holdings in the Morea. Constantine sent Sphrantzes to propose the idea to both Demetrios and Murad II, who by this point had to be consulted about any appointments. By 1442, Demetrios had no desire for new appointments and was eyeing the imperial throne. He had just made a deal with Murad himself and raised an army, portraying himself as
SECTION 50
#17327763742359464-428: The British Indian contingent consisting of 21 Sikh soldiers of the 36th Sikhs , when faced with insurmountable opposition of 10,000 Afghans, decided to make a last stand in accordance with their traditional and religious belief that duty is above all convictions. All 21 Sikhs were killed, together with approximately 600 Afghans. During the Battle of Okinawa , the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato sailed from
9646-508: The Byzantine Empire was crippled by the 1204 Fourth Crusade and the loss of Constantinople to the Latin Empire , formed by the crusaders. The Byzantine Empire, under the founder of the Palaiologos dynasty, Michael VIII , retook Constantinople in 1261. Over the course of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks had conquered vast swaths of territories and by 1405, they ruled much of Anatolia , Bulgaria, central Greece, Macedonia , Serbia and Thessaly . The Byzantine Empire, once extending throughout
9828-458: The Catholic Church and renounce what Catholics perceived as errors. John brought a large delegation to Italy, including Joseph II, the Patriarch of Constantinople; representatives of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem; large numbers of bishops, monks, and priests; and his younger brother Demetrios. Demetrios showed opposition against a church union, but John decided not to leave him in the East since Demetrios had shown rebellious tendencies and
10010-416: The Good of Burgundy, who had sent him 300 soldiers. With the Burgundian soldiers and his own men, Constantine raided central Greece as far north as the Pindus mountains in Thessaly , where the locals happily welcomed him as their new lord. As Constantine's campaign progressed, one of his governors, Constantine Kantakouzenos , also made his way north, attacked Thessaly, and seized the town of Lidoriki from
10192-453: The Great 's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire 's new capital in 330. Constantine was the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš , the daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović . Little is known of his early life, but from the 1420s onward, he is repeatedly demonstrated to have been a skilled general. Based on his career and surviving contemporary sources, Constantine appears to have been primarily
10374-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
10556-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
10738-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
10920-446: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
11102-437: The Guru to escape the fort and live another day. During the second Persian invasion of Greece the Greeks hoped to use the narrow pass of Thermopylae to prevent the vastly large army of the Persians from outflanking them. A Greek force of 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the middle of 480 BC. The Persian army, ranging between about 100,000 and 150,000, arrived at the pass in late August or early September. During
SECTION 60
#173277637423511284-417: The Hexamilion wall, which the Ottomans reached on 27 November. Constantine and Thomas were determined to hold the wall and had brought all their available forces, amounting to perhaps as many as 20,000 men, to defend it. Although the wall might have held against the great Ottoman army under normal circumstances, Murad had brought cannons with him and by 10 December, the wall had been reduced to rubble and most of
11466-433: The Hexamilion wall, which was destroyed by the Turks in 1431. Together, they completely restored the wall by March 1444. The project impressed many of their subjects and contemporaries, including the Venetian lords in the Peloponnese, who had politely declined to help with its funding. The restoration had cost much in both money and manpower; many of the Moreot landowners had momentarily fled to Venetian lands to avoid financing
11648-461: The Hungarians across the Danube, let them come. If you want to recover the places which you lost long since, try it. But know this: you will make no headway in any of these things. All that you will achieve is to lose what little you still have. Constantine and his advisors had catastrophically misjudged the determination of the new sultan. Throughout his brief reign, Constantine and his advisors had been unable to form an effective foreign policy towards
11830-429: The Japanese home islands to join the fight , in which she would have been hopelessly outgunned. As a last ditch effort she would have beached herself on the shore, her crew joining the troops on the island and using her as a stationary gun battery. Yamato was sunk on her approach with the loss of some 3,055 crew of her complement of 3,332 after coming under attack from a large strike force of carrier borne aircraft. Given
12012-485: The Latin Duchy of Athens , his direct northern neighbor and an Ottoman vassal. Through Sphrantzes, Constantine was in contact with Cardinal Julian Cesarini , who along with Władysław III of Poland and Hungary was one of the leaders of the crusade. Cesarini was made aware of Constantine's intentions and that he was ready to aid the crusade in striking at the Ottomans from the south. Constantine swiftly captured Athens and Thebes , which forced Duke Nerio II Acciaioli to pay
12194-404: The Morea into a safe and nearly self-sufficient principality. The philosopher Gemistus Pletho , employed in Constantine's service, said that while Constantinople had once been the New Rome, Mystras and the Morea could become the "New Sparta ", a centralized and strong Hellenic kingdom in its own right. One of the projects of the brothers' plan to strengthen the despotate was the reconstruction of
12376-411: The Morea to John during the latter's visit in 1423, John soon recalled Constantine from Mesembria and designated him as Theodore's successor. Theodore eventually changed his mind, but John would eventually assign Constantine to the Morea as a despot in 1427 after a campaign there. Though Theodore was content to rule in the Morea, historian Donald Nicol believes that the support was helpful, as the peninsula
12558-547: The Morea's government structure. Since his brother Theodore refused to step down as despot, the despotate became governed by two members of the imperial family for the first time since its creation in 1349. Soon thereafter, the younger Thomas (aged 19) was also appointed as a third Despot of the Morea, which meant that the nominally undivided despotate had effectively disintegrated into three smaller principalities. Theodore did not share control over Mystras with Constantine or Thomas; instead, Theodore granted Constantine lands throughout
12740-541: The Morea, including the northern harbor town of Aigio , fortresses and towns in Laconia (in the south), and Kalamata and Messenia in the west. Constantine made Glarentza, which he was entitled to by marriage, his capital. Meanwhile, Thomas was given lands in the north and based himself in the castle of Kalavryta . During his tenure as despot, Constantine was brave and energetic, but generally cautious. Shortly after being appointed as despots, Constantine and Thomas, together with Theodore, joined forces in an attempt to seize
12922-425: The Morea. In 1427, John VIII personally set out to deal with Tocco, bringing Constantine and Sphrantzes with him. On 26 December 1427, the two brothers reached Mystras , the capital of the Morea, and made their way to the town of Glarentza , which was captured by the Epirotes. In the Battle of the Echinades , a naval skirmish off the coast of Glarentza, Tocco was defeated and he agreed to relinquish his conquests in
13104-520: The Morea. Upon his return to the Morea, Constantine observed that Theodore and Thomas had ruled well without him. He believed that he could serve the empire's needs better if he was closer to the capital. His younger brother Demetrios governed Constantine's former appanage around Mesembria in Thrace, and Constantine pondered the possibility that he and Demetrios could switch places, with Constantine regaining
13286-417: The Morea. Although many favored Demetrios for his anti-unionist sentiment, Helena reserved her right to act as regent until her eldest son, Constantine arrived, and stalled Demetrios' attempt at seizing the throne. Thomas accepted Constantine's appointment and Demetrios was overruled, though he later proclaimed Constantine as his new emperor. Soon thereafter, Sphrantzes informed Sultan Murad II, who also accepted
13468-467: The Morea. In order to seal the peace, Tocco offered his niece, Creusa Tocco (whose name was later changed to the Greek Theodora ), in marriage to Constantine, her dowry being Glarentza and the other Moreot territories. Glarentza was given to the Byzantines on 1 May 1428 and on 1 July, Constantine married Theodora. The transfer of Tocco's conquered Moreot territories to Constantine complicated
13650-661: The Nazis would murder them all and they decided to resist the Nazis to the last, rather than surrender. Another example of a famous last stand was during the First Battle of Mogadishu , where two US 1st SFOD-D snipers, MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart , protected the crash site of helicopter "Super 6-4" and injured pilot Mike Durant , whom they feared would be executed by a crowd of deadly rioters. The two snipers killed 25 and wounded dozens more before they ran out of ammunition and were killed. Their defense, however, allowed Mike Durant to survive long enough for one of
13832-485: The Orthodox had been heavily outnumbered at the previous council). On 27 September, Nicholas V replied to Constantine after he heard that the unionist Patriarch Gregory III had resigned following the opposition against him. Nicholas V merely wrote that Constantine had to try harder to convince his people and clergy and that the price of further military aid from the west was full acceptance of the union achieved at Florence;
14014-572: The Ottoman Empire. Constantine mainly continued the policy of his predecessors, doing what he could to brace Constantinople for attack, but also alternated between supplicating and confronting the Ottomans. Constantine's advisors had little knowledge and expertise on the Ottoman court and disagreed in how to deal with the Ottoman threat and as Constantine wavered between the opinions of his different councillors, his policy towards Murad and Mehmed
14196-496: The Ottoman attack had already been repelled. Demetrios' punishment was a brief imprisonment. In March 1443, Sphrantzes was made governor of Selymbria in Constantine's name. From Selymbria, Sphrantzes and Constantine were able to keep a watchful eye on Demetrios' activities. In November, Constantine relinquished control of Selymbria to Theodore, who had abandoned his position as Despot of the Morea, which made Constantine and Thomas
14378-563: The Ottomans began their attack and in July, Constantine left the Morea to relieve his brother in the capital. On the way, Constantine met his wife at Lesbos and together they sailed to Lemnos , where they were stopped by an Ottoman blockade and were trapped for months. Although Venice sent ships to assist them, Caterina fell ill and died in August; she was buried at Myrina on Lemnos. Constantine did not reach Constantinople until November and by then,
14560-551: The Ottomans, Sphrantzes ultimately did not return to Georgia. On 23 March 1450, Helena Dragaš died. She was highly respected among the Byzantines and was mourned deeply. Gemistus Pletho, the Moreot philosopher previously at Constantine's court in the Morea, and Gennadios Scholarios , future Patriarch of Constantinople, both wrote funeral orations praising her. Pletho praised Helena's fortitude and intellect, and compared her to legendary Greek heroine Penelope on account of her prudence. Constantine's other advisors were often at odds with
14742-523: The Ottomans. The townspeople were so excited at their liberation that they renamed the town to Kantakouzinopolis in his honor. Tiring of Constantine's successes, Murad II, accompanied by Duke Nerio II of Athens, marched on the Morea in 1446, with an army possibly numbering as many as 60,000 men. Despite the overwhelming number of Ottoman troops, Constantine refused to surrender his gains in Greece and instead prepared for battle. The Ottomans quickly restored control over Thessaly; Constantine and Thomas rallied at
14924-650: The Turks and the empire's populace, which could have started a civil war. John was impressed by his brother's actions during the 1422 Ottoman siege, and trusted him more than his other brothers. Constantine was given the title of despot and was left to rule Constantinople as regent. With the aid of his bedridden father Manuel, Constantine drew up a new peace treaty with the Ottoman sultan Murad II , who momentarily spared Constantinople from further Turkish attacks. John returned from his journey in November 1424 after failing to procure help. On 21 July 1425, Manuel died and John became
15106-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
15288-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
15470-478: The anti-unionists in the capital, who had organized themselves as a synaxis to oppose Patriarch Gregory III's authority, on account of him being a unionist. Constantine was not a fanatical unionist and merely viewed the Union of the Churches as necessary for the empire's survival. The unionists found this argument to be baseless and materialistic, believing that help would be more likely to come through trust in God than
15652-424: The anti-unionists more. Once the people of Constantinople realized that no further immediate aid in addition to the 200 soldiers was coming from the papacy, they rioted in the streets. Leonard of Chios confided in the emperor that he believed him to be far too lenient with the anti-unionists, urging him to arrest their leaders and try harder to push back the opposition to the Union of the Churches. Constantine opposed
15834-468: The appointment on 6 December 1448. With the issue of succession peacefully resolved, Helena sent two envoys, Manuel Palaiologos Iagros and Alexios Philanthropenos Laskaris , to the Morea to proclaim Constantine as emperor and bring him to the capital. Thomas also accompanied them. In a small civil ceremony at Mystras, possibly in one of the churches or in the Despot's Palace, on 6 January 1449, Constantine
16016-635: The battle ended with the destruction of the rearguard Maratha forces, and a tactical victory for the Adil Shahi Sultanate, but failed to achieve its strategic objective of capturing the Maratha king Shivaji. The Battle of Chamkaur occurred in 1704 when the tenth Sikh Guru , Guru Gobind Singh , and a small force of 40 Sikhs , was attacked by a much larger force of Mughal soldiers at his fort for his refusal to convert to Islam . The forty Sikhs fought to their death, allowing enough time for
16198-466: The bulk of the Greek army and remained to guard their retreat with 300 Spartans , 700 Thespians , 400 Thebans , fighting to the death. Although the Greeks lost the battle, it did check the advance of the Persian army and the delay helped the Greeks prepare a successful defence and ultimately win the war. An analogous battle , with reversed roles, would be fought 150 years later, during the invasion of
16380-448: The capital and its vicinity, Constantine had made Demetrios his replacement as Despot of the Morea to rule the despotate alongside Thomas. Demetrios was granted Constantine's former capital, Mystras, and given authority over the southern and eastern parts of the despotate, while Thomas ruled the northwest and Corinthia alternating between Patras and Leontari as his place of residence. Constantine tried to hold numerous discussions with
16562-676: The capital for the rest of 1440. He may have stayed in order to find a suitable wife, wishing to remarry since it had been more than ten years since Theodora's death. He decided on Caterina Gattilusio , daughter of Dorino I Gattilusio , the Genoese lord of the island Lesbos . Sphrantzes was sent to Lesbos in December 1440 to propose and arrange the marriage. In late 1441, Constantine sailed to Lesbos with Sphrantzes and Loukas Notaras, and in August he married Caterina. In September, he left Lesbos, leaving Caterina with her father on Lesbos, to travel to
16744-448: The capture of several Italian ships and the execution of their crews during Mehmed's eventual siege of Constantinople, Constantine reluctantly ordered the execution of all Turks within the city walls. Constantine began to prepare for what was at best a blockade, and at worst a siege, gathering provisions and working to repair Constantinople's walls. Manuel Palaiologos Iagros, one of the envoys who had invested Constantine as emperor in 1449,
16926-560: The ceremony). Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of
17108-540: The champion of the Turk-supported cause that opposed the union of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches and declared war on John. When Sphrantzes reached Demetrios to forward Constantine's offer, Demetrios was already preparing to march on Constantinople. The danger he posed to the city was so great that Constantine was summoned from the Morea by John to oversee the city's defenses. In April 1442, Demetrios and
17290-546: The city's defenders may have numbered less than a tenth of the sultan's army, Constantine considered the idea of abandoning Constantinople unthinkable. The emperor stayed to defend the city, which fell on 29 May 1453. On the night before Constantinople fell, the Emperor received Communion from Byzantine Catholic Cardinal Isidore of Kiev . Constantine died in battle on the following day. Although no reliable eyewitness accounts of his death survived, most historical accounts agree that
17472-529: The city's destiny, just as Old Rome had been founded by a Romulus and lost under another, Romulus Augustulus . He became known in later Greek folklore as the Marble Emperor ( Greek : Μαρμαρωμένος Βασιλεύς , romanized : Marmaromenos Vasilias , lit. 'Emperor/King turned into Marble'), reflecting a popular legend that Constantine had not actually died, but had been rescued by an angel and turned into marble, hidden beneath
17654-495: The city. One of Constantine's most pressing concerns was the Ottomans. One of his first acts as emperor, just two weeks after arriving in the capital, was to attempt to secure the empire by arranging a truce with Murad II. He sent an ambassador, Andronikos Iagaris , to the sultan. Iagaris was successful, and the agreed-upon truce also included Constantine's brothers in the Morea to secure the province from further Ottoman attacks. In order to remove his rebellious brother Demetrios from
17836-574: The constitutional rights of the one true emperor. In his earliest known imperial document, a chrysobull from February 1449, he refers to himself as "Constantine Palaiologos in Christ true Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans". Constantine arrived at Constantinople on 12 March 1449, having been provided means of travel by a Catalan ship. Constantine was well prepared for his accession to the throne after serving as regent twice and ruling numerous fiefs throughout
18018-502: The crumbling empire. By Constantine's time, Constantinople was a shadow of its former glory; the city never truly recovered from the 1204 sack by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. Instead of the grand imperial capital it once was, 15th century Constantinople was an almost rural network of population centers, with many of the city's churches and palaces, including the former imperial palace, abandoned and in disrepair. Instead of
18200-487: The death around the body of their dead king." When Rome was attacked in 1527 by the army of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Charles V , over 20,000 troops stormed the city. The 189 Swiss Guards made a last stand against the massive army by forming a square around St. Peter's Basilica to give Pope Clement VII time to escape through secret tunnels , and held the doors until Clement could escape. At
18382-421: The defenders were either killed or captured; Constantine and Thomas barely escaped the catastrophic defeat. Turahan was sent south to take Mystras and devastate Constantine's lands while Murad II led his forces in the north of the Peloponnese. Although Turahan failed to take Mystras, this was of little consequence as Murad only wanted to instill terror and did not wish to conquer the Morea at the time. The Turks left
18564-403: The defending force overwhelmed, on rare occasions the outnumbered defenders succeed in their desperate endeavours and live to fight another day, and he lists the Battle of Agincourt and the Battle of Rorke's Drift as such engagements. Troops may fight a last stand if they believe that they will be executed if they surrender. In Custer's last stand , at the end of the battle, the extent of
18746-537: The eastern Mediterranean , was reduced to the imperial capital of Constantinople , the Peloponnese , and a handful of islands in the Aegean Sea , and was also forced to pay tribute to the Ottomans. As the empire dwindled, the emperors concluded that the only way to ensure that their remaining territory was kept intact was to grant some of their holdings to their sons, who received the title of despot , as appanages to defend and govern. Manuel's oldest son, John ,
18928-465: The emperor and each other. Her death left Constantine unsure of which advisor to rely on the most. Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos , the megas domestikos (or commander-in-chief), disagreed with the emperor on a number of matters, including the decision to marry a Georgian princess instead of an imperial princess from Trebizond. The most powerful figure at the court was Loukas Notaras, an experienced statesman and megas doux (commander-in-chief of
19110-492: The emperor tore off his Imperial insignia, led a last charge against the Ottomans, and died fighting. Constantine was the last Christian ruler of Constantinople, which alongside his bravery at the city's fall cemented him as a near-legendary figure in later histories and Greek folklore . Some saw the foundation of Constantinople (the New Rome) under Constantine the Great and its loss under another Constantine as fulfillment of
19292-499: The emperor, Constantine was likely influenced by his hopes and ideas. Sphrantzes was promoted to "First Lord of the Imperial Wardrobe": his office gave him near unhindered access to the imperial residence and a position to influence the emperor. Sphrantzes was even more cautious towards the Ottomans than Notaras, and believed the megas doux risked antagonizing the new sultan. Although Sphrantzes also approved of appealing to
19474-465: The end of the Battle of Saragarhi . The situation can arise in several ways. One situation is that retreat by the defending force would lead to immediate defeat, usually due to the surrounding geography or shortage of supplies or support, as happened to the Royalist infantry on Wadborough Hill after the Battle of Naseby . Some military thinkers have cautioned against putting an opposing force into
19656-518: The end of the month, Patras would surrender. Constantine agreed to this and withdrew his army. On 1 June, Constantine returned to the city and, since the Archbishop had not returned, met with the city's leaders in the city's Cathedral of St. Andrew on 4 June and they accepted him as their new lord. The Archbishop's castle, located on a nearby hill, held out against Constantine for another 12 months before surrendering. Constantine's capture of Patras
19838-483: The fall of Srinagar to tribal lashkars. A last stand may also be the last pitched battle of a war where the position of the defending force is hopeless but the defending force considers it their duty not to surrender until forced to do so, as happened to the last Royalist field army of the First English Civil War at the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold in 1646. At the Battle of Saragarhi in 1897,
20020-419: The falsely named union which his brother and predecessor John Palaiologos engineered... This union was evil and displeasing to God and has instead split the church and scattered its children and destroyed us utterly. Truth to tell, this is the source of all our other misfortunes. Constantine and his brother John VIII before him had badly misjudged the level of opposition against the church union. Loukas Notaras
20202-546: The final assault on a fortified position. It is also forbidden to declare that "no quarter will be given". Last stands loom large in history due to the pull on popular imagination. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick argues: Long before Custer died at the Little Bighorn, the myth of the Last Stand already had a strong pull on human emotions, and on the way we like to remember history. The variations are endless — from
20384-470: The flourishing and strategically important port of Patras in the northwest of the Morea, which was ruled by its Catholic Archbishop, Pandolphe de Malatesta [ fr ] (Theodore's brother-in-law). The campaign ended in failure, possibly due to Theodore's reluctant participation and Thomas' inexperience. Constantine confided with Sphrantzes and John at a secret meeting in Mystras that he would make
20566-572: The former imperial palace, the Palaiologoi emperors used the Palace of Blachernae , located considerably closer to the city's walls, as their main residence. The city's population had declined significantly due to the Latin occupation , the 14th century civil wars, and outbreaks of the Black Death in 1347, 1409 and 1410. By the time Constantine became emperor, only about 50,000 people lived in
20748-464: The hands of a pursuing victorious army, a rearguard will be tasked by the commander of the defeated army with hindering the advance of the victorious army. Even if the rearguard is destroyed in a last stand, its sacrifice may buy their commander time to disengage without losing the majority of his army as happened during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778), Battle of Tirad Pass (1899), the Battle of Badgam (1947) which proved to be critical to preventing
20930-511: The idea when he received Sphrantzes' report in May 1451 and sent envoys to Serbia, where Mara had returned to after Murad II's death. Many of Constantine's courtiers opposed the idea due to a distrust of the Serbians, causing Constantine to question the viability of the match. Ultimately, the opposition of the courtiers to the marriage proved pointless: Mara had no wish to remarry, as she vowed to live
21112-432: The idea, perhaps under the assumption that arresting the leaders would turn them into martyrs for their cause. Instead, Constantine summoned the leaders of the synaxis to the imperial palace on 15 November 1452, and once again asked them to write a document with their objections to the union achieved at Florence, which they were eager to do. On 25 November, the Ottomans sank another Venetian trading ship with cannon fire from
21294-418: The immediate battle area, and by about 30 to 1 on the larger battlefield. The PPCLI were exhausted of ammunition and supplies, but the commander Lt. Col. James Riley Stone ordered "no retreat, no surrender", and called in artillery fire on his own positions when they were overrun. The PVA divisions eventually withdrew with about 5,000 dead and a large number wounded. Sometimes, rather than face annihilation at
21476-419: The immediate danger, there would be time later to think more clearly in a calmer atmosphere. George Sphrantzes suggested to Constantine that he name Isidore as the new Patriarch of Constantinople as Gregory III had not been seen for some time and was unlikely to return. Although such an appointment might have gratified the pope and led to further aid being sent, Constantine realized that it would only stir up
21658-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
21840-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
22022-463: The latter the island of Lemnos if he brought help. The Hungarian warrior John Hunyadi was invited to help and was promised Selymbria or Mesembria if he came with aid. The Genoese on the island Chios were also sent a plea, being promised payment in return for military assistance. Constantine received little practical response to his pleas. Above all, Constantine sent many appeals for aid to Pope Nicholas V . Although sympathetic, Nicholas V believed that
22204-469: The local Greek populace. The Ottomans had sent some animals to graze on Byzantine farmland on the shores of the Sea of Marmara , which also angered the locals. Outraged, Constantine formally declared war on Mehmed II, closing the gates of Constantinople and arresting all Turks within the city walls. Seeing the futility in this move, Constantine renounced his actions three days later and set the prisoners free. After
22386-753: The local warlords to take him prisoner. The US was ultimately able to arrange for his release and he was returned home. For their actions, MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor . People may fight to the death due to the belief that if they surrender they will be tortured or enslaved. At the Siege of Numantia , the inhabitants refused to surrender to the Romans because they were unwilling to become slaves. Japanese soldiers in World War II were told by their superiors that they would be tortured if captured. In some cases, troops will make
22568-524: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
22750-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
22932-460: The name of the Pope had to be commemorated in the churches in Greece and Gregory III had to be reinstated as patriarch. The ultimatum was a setback for Constantine, who had done his best to enforce the union without inciting riots in Constantinople. The Pope appeared to have completely ignored the sentiment of the anti-unionist synaxis . Nicholas V sent a papal legate , Cardinal Isidore of Kiev , to Constantinople to attempt to help Constantine enforce
23114-418: The navy). Although Sphrantzes disliked Notaras, he was a close friend of Constantine. As the Byzantine Empire no longer had a navy, Notaras' position was more of an informal prime minister-type role than a position of military command. Notaras believed that Constantinople's massive defenses would stall any attack on the city and allow western Christians to aid them in time. Due to his influence and friendship with
23296-513: The new Rumelihisarı castle, an event which captured the minds of the Byzantines and united them in fear and panic. As a result, the anti-unionist cause gradually died down. On 12 December, a Catholic liturgy commemorating the names of the Pope and Patriarch Gregory III was held in the Hagia Sophia by Isidore. Constantine and his court were present, as was a large number of the city's citizens (Isidore stated that all of its inhabitants attended
23478-604: The news of the unification stirred a wave of resentment and bitterness among the general populace, who felt that John had betrayed their faith and their world view. Many feared the union would arouse suspicion among the Ottomans. Constantine's agreed with his brother's views on the union: if a sacrifice of the independence of their church resulted in the Westerners organizing a crusade and saving Constantinople, it would not have been in vain. Despite having been relieved of his duties as regent upon John's return, Constantine stayed in
23660-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
23842-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
24024-486: The papacy could not go to the rescue of the Byzantines unless they fully accepted the Union of the Churches and his spiritual authority. Furthermore, he knew that the papacy alone could not do much against the formidable Ottoman Turks, a similar response to one given by Venice, which promised military assistance only if others in Western Europe also came to Constantinople's defense. On 26 October 1452, Nicholas V's legate, Isidore of Kiev , arrived at Constantinople together with
24206-520: The peninsula devastated and depopulated. Constantine and Thomas were in no position to ask for a truce and were forced to accept Murad as their lord, pay him tribute, and promise to never again restore the Hexamilion wall. Theodore, once Despot of the Morea, died in June 1448 and on 31 October that same year, John VIII Palaiologos died in Constantinople. Compared to his other living brothers, Constantine
24388-481: The permission of Emperor Manuel II before constructing the eastern castle and reminded the sultan of their existing truce. Based on his actions in the Morea, especially during at the time of the Crusade of Varna, Constantine was clearly anti-Turkish and he preferred himself to take aggressive action against the Ottoman Empire; his attempts to appeal to Mehmed were simply a stalling tactic. Mehmed's response to Constantine
24570-541: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation
24752-606: The recent string of Byzantine successes in the Morea. In 1431, Turahan sent his troops south on Murad's orders to demolish the Hexamilion wall in an effort to remind the despots that they were the Sultan's vassals. In March 1432, Constantine, possibly desiring to be closer to Mystras, made a new territorial agreement (presumably approved by Theodore and John VIII) with Thomas. Thomas agreed to cede his fortress Kalavryta to Constantine, who made it his new capital, in exchange for Elis , which Thomas made his new capital. Relationships between
24934-617: The senior emperor, John VIII Palaiologos. Constantine was granted a strip of land to the north of Constantinople that extended from the town of Mesembria in the north to Derkos in the south. It also included the port of Selymbria as his appanage in 1425. Although this strip of land was small, it was close to Constantinople and strategically important, which demonstrated that Constantine was trusted by both Manuel II and John. After Constantine's successful tenure as regent, John deemed his brother loyal and capable. Because their brother Theodore expressed his discontent over his position as Despot of
25116-453: The soldiers' resistance to the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors indicated they had few doubts about their prospects for survival if they surrendered. In the end, the hilltop where George Armstrong Custer 's remaining troops made their last stand made it impossible for Custer's men to secure a defensive position. Nevertheless, the soldiers put up their most dogged defence, and died fighting. During
25298-492: The sole Despots of the Morea and gave Constantine Mystras, the despotate's prosperous capital. With Theodore and Demetrios gone, Constantine and Thomas hoped to strengthen the Morea. By this time, the Morea was the cultural center of the Byzantine world and provided a more hopeful atmosphere than Constantinople. Patrons of art and science had settled there at Theodore's invitation and churches, monasteries, and mansions continued to be built. The two Palaiologos brothers hoped to make
25480-636: The spring of 1452, work had begun on the Rumelihisarı castle, constructed on the western side of the Bosporus strait, opposite to the already existing Anadoluhisarı castle on the eastern side. With the two castles, Mehmed could control sea traffic in the Bosporus and could blockade Constantinople both by land and sea. Constantine, horrified by the implications of the construction project, protested that Mehmed's grandfather Mehmed I had respectfully asked
25662-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
25844-494: The surviving commentary from some of his advisors and contemporaries, Constantine appeared to have been more comfortable with military matters than with matters of state or diplomacy, though he was also a competent administrator—as illustrated by his tenures as regent—and tended to heed his councilors' advice on important matters of state. Aside from stylized and smudged depictions on seals and coins, no contemporary depictions of Constantine survive. Notable images of Constantine include
26026-513: The tactical situation, one battleship accompanied by several smaller vessels with no air support against a fleet of aircraft carriers, the outcome was predictable to military leaders, and ultimately one born out of shame at being questioned by the Emperor over their lack of contribution to the ongoing defensive war effort when the Japanese Army was slowly being annihilated and while air crews were performing suicidal kamikaze missions. Before
26208-436: The three despots eventually soured. John VIII had no sons to succeed him and it was thus assumed that his successor would be one of his four surviving brothers (Andronikos having died some time before). John VIII's preferred successor was known to be Constantine and though this choice was accepted by Thomas, who had a good relationship with his older brother, it was resented by Constantine's older brother Theodore. When Constantine
26390-496: The three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae to Davy Crockett at the Alamo—but they all tell the story of a brave and intractable hero leading his tiny band against a numberless foe. Even though the odds are overwhelming, the hero and his followers fight on nobly to the end and are slaughtered to a man. In defeat the hero of the Last Stand achieves the greatest of victories, since he will be remembered for all time. During World War I ,
26572-544: The time and the crushing defeat at the Battle of Varna had quelled most of the crusading spirit. The news that Murad II had died and been succeeded by his young son also lulled the western Europeans into a false sense of security. To the papacy, the Union of the Churches was a far more pressing concern than the threat of Ottoman attack. In August 1451, Constantine's ambassador Andronikos Bryennios Leontaris arrived in Rome to deliver
26754-477: The time. When the Ottomans sank a Venetian trading ship in the Bosporus in November 1452 and executed the ship's survivors on account of the ship refusing to pay a new toll instituted by Mehmed, the Venetian attitude changed as they now also found themselves at war with the Ottomans. Desperate for aid, Constantine sent pleas for reinforcements to his brothers in the Morea and Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples, promising
26936-715: The transformation of the Greek Orthodox Church into the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church ; one of the Eastern Catholic Churches . Finally, the most important concern was the growing Ottoman Empire , which by 1449 completely surrounded Constantinople. In April 1453, the Sultan Mehmed II of the House of Osman laid siege to Constantinople with an army perhaps numbering as many as 80,000 men. Even though
27118-485: The tribute to him instead of the Ottomans. The recapture of Athens was seen as a particularly glorious feat. One of Constantine's counsellors compared the despot to the legendary ancient Athenian general Themistocles . Although the crusading army was destroyed by the Ottoman army led by Murad II at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444, Constantine was not deterred. His initial campaign had been remarkably successful and he had also received foreign support from Duke Philip
27300-468: The union, but Isidore did not arrive until October 1452, when the city faced more pressing concerns. A great-grandson of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I , Orhan Çelebi , lived as a hostage in Constantinople. Other than Mehmed II, Orhan was the only known living male member of the Ottoman dynasty, and thus was a potential rival claimant to the sultanate. Mehmed had previously agreed to pay annually for Orhan being kept at Constantinople, but in 1451, Constantine sent
27482-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
27664-436: The venture while others had rebelled before being compelled through military means. Constantine attempted to attract the loyalty of the Moreot landowners by granting them both further lands and various privileges. He also staged local athletic games, where young Moreots could run races for prizes. In the summer of 1444, perhaps encouraged by news from the west that a crusade had set out from Hungary in 1443, Constantine invaded
27846-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between
28028-529: The west for aid, he believed that any appeals had to be highly discreet in order to avoid Ottoman attention. Shortly after Murad II's death, Constantine was quick to send envoys to the new Sultan Mehmed II in an attempt to arrange a new truce. Mehmed supposedly received Constantine's envoys with great respect and put their minds to rest through swearing by Allah , the Prophet Muhammad , the Quran , and
28210-459: Was Helena Dragaš , member of the powerful House of Dragaš and daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović . Constantine is frequently described as Porphyrogénnētos ("born in the purple"), a distinction granted to sons born to a reigning emperor in the imperial palace. Manuel ruled a disintegrating and dwindling Byzantine Empire . The catalyst of Byzantium's fall had been the arrival of
28392-522: Was Venice, which operated a large commercial colony in their quarter of Constantinople. However, the Venetians were not to be trusted. During the first few months of his rule as emperor, Constantine had raised the taxes on the goods the Venetians imported to Constantinople since the imperial treasury was nearly empty and funds had to be raised through some means. In August 1450, the Venetians had threatened to transfer their trade to another port, perhaps one under Ottoman control, and despite Constantine writing to
28574-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
28756-527: Was a lenient and conscientious friend to you. The present sultan is not of the same mind. If Constantine eludes his bold and impetuous grasp, it will only be because God continues to overlook your cunning and wicked schemes. You are fools to think you can frighten us with your fantasies, and that when the ink on our recent treaty is barely dry. We are not children without strength or reason. If you think you can start something, then do so. If you want to proclaim Orhan as Sultan in Thrace, go ahead. If you want to bring
28938-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
29120-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
29302-503: Was appalled at the threat, considering the Byzantine to be inept. Halil had long been relied upon by the Byzantines, through bribes and friendship, to maintain peaceful relations with the Ottomans, but his influence over Mehmed was limited and he was ultimately loyal to the Ottomans, not the Byzantines. Because of the blatant provocation to the sultan, he lost his temper with the Byzantine messengers, supposedly shouting: You stupid Greeks, I have had enough of your devious ways. The late sultan
29484-415: Was controversial: although he was accepted on account of his lineage with few alternative candidates, his lack of a full coronation and support for the Union of the Churches damaged public perception of the new emperor. Careful not to anger the anti-unionists through being crowned by Gregory III, Constantine believed that his proclamation at Mystras had sufficed as an imperial coronation and had given him all
29666-440: Was essential to the survival of the Ottoman state: by taking the city, he would prevent any potential crusade from using it as a base and prevent it falling into the hands of a rival more dangerous than the Byzantines. Furthermore, Mehmed had an intense interest in ancient Greco-Roman and medieval Byzantine history, his childhood heroes being figures like Achilles and Alexander the Great . Mehmed began preparations immediately. In
29848-443: Was made aware that Murad II had died. Though John IV saw this as positive news, Sphrantzes was more anxious: the old sultan had grown tired and had given up all hope of conquering Constantinople. His young son and successor, Mehmed II , was ambitious, young and energetic. Sphrantzes had the idea that the sultan could be dissuaded from invading Constantinople if Constantine married Murad II's widow, Mara Branković . Constantine supported
30030-406: Was not coherent and resulted in disaster. Mehmed II considered Constantine to have broken the terms of their 1449 truce and quickly revoked the small concessions he had given to the Byzantines. The threat of releasing Orhan gave Mehmed a pretext for concentrating all of his efforts on seizing Constantinople, his true goal since he had become sultan. Mehmed believed that the conquest of Constantinople
30212-562: Was planning a strong offensive against Constantinople. Although the ships were not sent, Constantinople was not in danger as Murad's campaign focused on taking Smederevo in Serbia. In June 1439, the council in Florence , Italy, declared that the churches had been reunited. John returned to Constantinople on 1 February 1440. Although he was received with a grand ceremony organized by Constantine and Demetrios (who had returned sometime earlier),
30394-509: Was proclaimed Despot of the Morea and ruled the province together with his older brother Theodore and his younger brother Thomas . Together, they extended Roman rule to cover almost the entire Peloponnese for the first time since the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years before and rebuilt the ancient Hexamilion wall , which defended the peninsula from outside attacks. Although ultimately unsuccessful, Constantine personally led
30576-681: Was proclaimed Emperor of the Romans. He was not given a crown; instead, Constantine may have put on another type of imperial headgear, a pilos , on his head with his own hands. Although emperors were traditionally crowned in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, there was historical precedent for smaller and local ceremonies: centuries ago, Manuel I Komnenos had been given the title of emperor by his dying father, John II Komnenos , in Cilicia ; Constantine's great-grandfather, John VI Kantakouzenos , had been proclaimed emperor at Didymoteicho in Thrace. Both Manuel I and John VI had been careful to perform
30758-632: Was put in charge of the restoration of the formidable walls, a project which was completed late in 1452. He sent more urgent requests for aid to the west. Near the end of 1451, he had sent a message to Venice stating that unless they sent reinforcements to him at once, Constantinople would fall to the Ottomans. Although the Venetians were sympathetic to the Byzantine cause, they explained in their reply in February 1452 that although they could ship armor and gunpowder to him, they had no troops to spare as they were fighting against neighboring city-states in Italy at
30940-533: Was raised to co-emperor and designated to succeed his father. The second son, Theodore , was designated as the Despot of the Morea (the prosperous province constituting the Peloponnese) and the third son, Andronikos , was proclaimed as Despot of Thessaloniki in 1408. The younger sons; Constantine, Demetrios and Thomas , were kept in Constantinople as there was not sufficient land left to grant them. Little
31122-529: Was repeatedly threatened by external forces throughout the 1420s. In 1423, the Ottomans broke through the ancient Hexamilion wall —which guarded the Peloponnese—and devastated the Morea. The Morea was also constantly threatened by Carlo I Tocco , the Italian ruler of Epirus , who campaigned against Theodore shortly before the Ottoman invasion and again in 1426, occupying territory in the northwestern parts of
31304-401: Was seen as an affront by the Pope, the Venetians, and the Ottomans. In order to pacify any threats, Constantine sent ambassadors to all three, with Sphrantzes being sent to talk with Turahan , the Ottoman governor of Thessaly . Although Sphrantzes was successful in removing the threat of Turkish reprisal, the threat from the west was realized as the dispossessed Archbishop arrived at the head of
31486-450: Was shot and killed under him and the despot nearly died, being saved by Sphrantzes at the cost of Sphrantzes being captured by the defenders of Patras (though he would be released, albeit in a state of near-death, on 23 April). After almost two months, the defenders opened up to the possibility of negotiation in May. Malatesta journeyed to Italy in an attempt to recruit reinforcements and the defenders agreed that if he did not return to them by
31668-422: Was successful in calming down the situation in Constantinople somewhat, explaining to an assembly of nobles that the Catholic visit was made with good intentions and that the soldiers who had accompanied Isidore and Leonard might just be an advance guard; more military aid might have been on its way. Many nobles were convinced that a spiritual price could be paid for material rewards and that if they were rescued from
31850-402: Was summoned to the capital in 1435, Theodore falsely believed it was to appoint Constantine as co-emperor and designated heir, and he travelled to Constantinople to raise his objections. The quarrel between Constantine and Theodore was not resolved until the end of 1436, when the future Patriarch Gregory Mammas was sent to reconcile them and prevent civil war. The brothers agreed that Constantine
32032-518: Was that the area he built the fortress on had been uninhabited and that Constantine owned nothing outside of Constantinople's walls. As panic ensued in Constantinople, the Rumelihisarı was completed in August 1452, intended not only to serve as a means to blockade Constantinople but also as the base from which Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople was to be directed. To clear the site of the new castle, some local churches were demolished, which angered
32214-628: Was the daughter of Alfonso's nephew , Beatrice of Coimbra , but the alliance failed. In October 1449, Constantine sent Sphrantzes to the east to visit the Empire of Trebizond and the Kingdom of Georgia and see if there were any suitable brides there. Sphrantzes, accompanied by a large retinue of priests, nobles, musicians and soldiers, left the capital for nearly two years. While at the court of Emperor John IV Megas Komnenos in Trebizond, Sphrantzes
32396-431: Was the most popular of the Palaiologoi, both in the Morea and in the capital. It was well known that John's favored successor was Constantine and ultimately, the will of Helena Dragaš (who also preferred Constantine), prevailed in the matter. Both Thomas, who appeared to have had no intention of claiming the throne, and Demetrios, who most certainly did, hurried to Constantinople and reached the capital before Constantine left
32578-598: Was thought to try to take the throne with Ottoman support. Constantine was not left without supporting courtiers in Constantinople: Constantine's and John's cousin Demetrios Palaiologos Kantakouzenos and the experienced statesman Loukas Notaras were left in the city. Helena and Sphrantzes were also there to advise Constantine. In 1438, Constantine served as the best man at Sphrantzes' wedding, and would later become
32760-460: Was to return to Constantinople, while Theodore and Thomas would remain in the Morea. John needed Constantine in Constantinople as he was departing for Italy soon. On 24 September 1437, Constantine reached Constantinople. Although he was not proclaimed as co-emperor, his appointment as regent for a second time, suggested to John by their mother Helena, indicated that he was to be regarded as John's intended heir. John left for Italy in November to attend
32942-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
33124-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
#234765