On the outskirts of modern Istanbul, a line of ancient walls lies crumbling into the earth... In this episode, we look at one of history’s most incredible stories of survival - the thousand-year epic of the Byzantine Empire. Find out how this civilization suffered the loss of its Western half, and continued the unbroken legacy of Rome right through the middle ages. Hear about how it formed a bridge between two continents, and two ages, and learn how the impregnable walls of Constantinople were finally brought crashing to the ground. This episode we're joined by members of the St Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral Choir in London, and a number of musicians playing traditional Byzantine instruments. ** Fall of Civilizations the book is now available to pre-order: linktr.ee/fallofcivilizations ** All original music for this episode available to download to Patreon subscribers: https://www.patreon.com/posts/39308482 PART 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC83SpIS49g SUPPORT THE SHOW HERE: http://patreon.com/fallofcivilizations_podcast SOURCES: https://www.patreon.com/posts/39311564 Credits: Sound engineering by Thomas Ntinas Voice Actors: Nicolas Rixon Annie Kelly Cleo Madeleine Peter Walters Lachlan Lucas 3D reconstructions of Constantinople by Evren Öztürk: https://www.artstation.com/evrenever LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evren-%C3%B6zt%C3%BCrk-297683ba/ 3D reconstructions of the Theodosian Walls by Tarik Tamyurek: https://www.artstation.com/ttamyurek LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ttamyurek/ Timelapses of Istanbul kindly provided by Cüneyt Karaahmetoğlu under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license Original Music by: Pavlos Kapralos (https://youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1A) [Also heard Petros Peloponnesios' "Nihavend Pesrev" and the ecclesiastical hymn "Agne Parthene Despina"] Musicians: Monooka (Monica Lucia Madas): Vocals Alexandros Koustas: Lyra (kemence) Konstantinos Glynos: Qanun Theofilos Lais: Cretan lyra Dario Papavassiliou: Santouri (greek santur) Pavlos Kapralos: Oud Chanters from the St Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral: Michael Georgiou Alexandros Gikas Matthew Tomko Stephanos Thomaides Pavlos Kapralos Other music by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: incompetech.com/ Title theme: Home At Last by John Bartmann. https://johnbartmann.com/