How to Survive in Byzantine Constantinople? : Life in the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Daily Life

the year is 1303 and you like many others have arrived in constantinople 100 years ago the crusaders had captured the city and ransacked it but now the greeks are back in control thanks to michael the eighth paleologos now the emperors are actually trying to bring back the glory of this plundered city but they still also have to contend with nature as earthquakes continue to add further damage in fact there was a powerful earthquake earlier this year and the decade before and even the decade before that yet you've still arrived in possibly the most famous city in the world the capital of the roman empire but don't expect us to meet greeks here you see the paleologos dynasty is determined to reclaim lost possessions and has employed mercenaries from around the world so you'll see catalonian knights alongside turkic horsemen plus an army of 30 thousand mongols on mustering ready to reconquer that land from the ottomans there's also serbians georgians armenians and albanian heavy cavalrymen some bulgarian horse archers and the russians have always sent some troops as a sign of friendship to their fellow orthodox nation plus 10 000 allens have arrived from the north a couple years ago and they'll join the established number of phoenicians franks genoese germans and even former crusaders filling in the ranks either as knights on ships or using the latest crossbows now there is a long history of the city employing mercenaries like the famous viking varangian gods these vikings actually had their own settlement about 20 kilometers west of here in bathunia but ever since the normans invaded england their ranks were primarily made up of anglo-saxons who fled so by now they're actually called anglo-varangians but they still wield a great axe and act as the emperor's bodyguard in fact they deserve the emperor so well that they were granted land on the black sea and they created a colony called new england but these are the most loyal of the mercenaries as for the others like the catalan company for instance they would soon pillage greek settlements in anatolia forcing the emperor to send the allens to fight against them however this is far from the only problem within the city the empire has essentially handed away the control of trade over to the genoese and venetians as well as giving them their own quarters and you're arriving just at the end of a war with venice which began when genoese attacked the venetian quarter and massacred the inhabitants the venetians responded by sailing to the prince's island and flogging the population right in front of the citizens of constantinople the population on prince's island by the way would have also included many refugees who had fled from the ottomans so it's safe to say that you're arriving at a volatile time and there's all sorts of stereotypes about these foreigners like the latins and francs are british the turks ignore their own women and grab any greek or italian they could find and the armenians are vile when they live in obscurity and most vile in all ways when they become rich even other greeks are also insulted like those from northern anatolia are apparently the hairiest of all people and the smell of garlic coming from a cypriot could make somebody dizzy so when you make it into the city choosing where to live could be tricky italians live in the north many jews and muslims in the south so it's probably a good idea just to listen out for some familiar tongues and settle down there but finding a place can be quite easy after all this city used to have hundreds of thousands of people in but when the crusaders captured it in the fourth crusade the population fell to less than fifty thousand it is growing again now but really it's just a shell of what it used to be and ibn batuta would later describe the city as more of a collection of villages however first you'll need to find a job and to understand the currency the gold coin is a hyper peerer which is usually worth around 24 carats but soon the coins will become debased and prices will soar so don't try to save up your money however for now at least for one hypoperia you'll be able to get 12 silver basilica 384 copper trachea and below that 768 copper asaria which were named after the old roman coins but just to keep this all simple like many travellers do we'll stick to 16 copper trachea in a carrot and 24 carats and a hypopeera knowing this you could become a domestic servant and make around a type of hero a year or that's the equivalent of around eight copper trachea a day this may not sound like a great deal but you may get room and food included however if you're a woman expect to only get half of that salary this sort of gender pay gap would also be true for people working in a taverna or the inns but if you're a married woman usually they won't be employed at all in this sort of work so you may have to lie but not all jobs for women are poorly paid like you could become a milk maid and get 15 hype appear yeah and by milkmaid i mean people who feed other people's children so you'll only be employed for as long as you can feed that child at least otherwise some women are doubling up jobs so they'll work in a taverna while looking after other people's children for sometimes as much as 18 hyper period a year or if you have a bit of an education you could become a clerk for around 18 hyper period a year as well a translator as well will always be needed and some people are being paid around four and a quarter hype appear per month so 54 a year providing you find employers you could also even set up your own shop called an ergusterion rent here would change a great deal obviously but you can find shops for as low as three hyper peria a year however most shops like blacksmiths are candlestick makers tend to be grouped together which makes competition pretty stiff however if you are interested in exploiting the city's location and becoming an international merchant well hiring a small ship to do the short journey to bursa can cost up to two hype appeared paying people to load up supplies maybe around one and then there's port taxes and the likes in total it would probably be around five hyperpera to take cargo from constantinople to bursa just over 150 kilometers away so you'll definitely need to have money to make money here on the flip side though a porter is always a constant opportunity for you the city has ships arriving all the time so just go to the ports and you could earn a copper coin in helping unload them then do a few ships a day and you have a pretty decent salary if you're young though find yourself a trade like elsewhere you'll need to become an apprentice sometimes for as long as four or even eight years you'll be fed and housed plus in the future the salaries of certain skilled professionals are going to become incredibly high some blacksmiths can earn from 15 all the way up to 50 hyper beera and sometimes even more and as this is a port city a corker is always in high demand as well but regulations are high in these fields as the government often measures the quality of goods and you'll also be expected to swear oath to uphold them but if you'd like a simple life go work on the form of some rich landowner you can pay one or two hype appear a year to have enough land to work on and then go and sell your produce or you can just agree to give one-third of your produce if you'd prefer no risks and as the city is becoming more rural there are opportunities within the walls but this is the beginning of proto-capitalism and if you're a little savvy you could really make some cash let's say you become a shepherd well you can offer to look after 50 sheep for two years during this time you could be entitled to a share of the profits from the sale of their products and at the end of the contract around 24 gold coins or look after 140 sheep for three years and you'll get 16 gold coins per year plus the share of the profits if you have kids even better you could offer their services and in return get a chunk of gold coins and maybe even an animal or two like after five years you'd be given a cow these are very expensive and always a good way to make a little bit of side income as you could sell them milk or you could get at least one hyperpira for its hide when it dies now these arrangements are even better if you have a slave now remember you'll be entering into a job market against slaves but really many people even some in the lower incomes tend to have them as a general rule of thumb children aged between five and eight tend to be sold for around seven gold coins then anyone over twelve will go for around twenty hyper period and up but sometimes race will play a factor in this like a turkish slave can be bought for 21 or an abkhazi woman 28. many of the slaves are actually being brought in by the genoese from their colony in the black sea where they obviously buy them for a lot cheaper there mainly circassians have been sold for around 14 or 15 but all sorts of races and ethnicities were being sold like some hungarian men go for as low as eight or a bulgarian woman and her two children sold for 37.5 within the city though a shoemaker named pagano sold his eight-year-old russian slave for 16 hyper pira so again even poor shopkeepers will have them and if you're so inclined you can get some adults for as low as 10. obviously you'll need to feed them but you can maybe hire out his services on a farm along with your kids generate a profit and repeat so if you don't have many morals maybe this is something to do in the future otherwise the clergy is always an option as well you could get a starting salary of around 12 hypopira but rise up in the ranks and soon you'll get 28 a year also along with this salary you'll also be given land which you could sublet but within the church there is as there always has been disputes over pretty much everything the most famous of which was the period of iconoclasm this is when people went around smashing statues and destroying the paintings of saints or more recently there is hesi chasm a mystical tradition which focuses on retreating into yourself to find god rather than in the churches and the likes well there will be a religious dispute over whether or not this is a heresy so just be careful who you listen to plus you'd also need to learn a lot of the rules of the church and this is not as straightforward as you might think as leaders often put out contradictory teachings for instance you can take divorce this is allowed even for women but she may need to prove that her husband is mad a criminal or impotent for over three years however in this domain infidelity is a bit of a gray area as sometimes it only applies if a husband goes for a married woman then you have the problem that many people are just bored in your services as many priests will complain about in the past apparently the people would know more about the races in the hippodrome than the apostles in the bible so rather than going through all of the schooling maybe you could just become a fool for christ these people go around pretending to be mad maybe by dragging around a dead dog or claiming to discover relics that they had in fact buried after this they'd then be given a great deal of money and you could probably charge people to touch some relic or become a faith healer of sorts so there's always the possibility of making a chunk of money through some little trick or if you are a true believer you could always become a hermit the empire has always had different levels of them like grazers people who lived and dined with the beasts in the field or the stylites who live for years on top of columns obviously these are not the most well paid jobs in this life but you'll have your rewards in the next if none of these jobs are for you well you may think that the army is always an option but most of the money has been spent on the mercenaries mentioned before emperor andrew nikos ii has actually reduced the size of the regular army to just a few thousand now if you joined the army a few decades ago well then you'd have been given some sort of revenue from land in return for your services after all the emperor was wanting people to return to constantinople in the surrounding area and this was a great way to do it the prenoya system in return their descendants were expected to continue serving in the forces but really this is a complicated system and sometimes they just didn't even bother but by dishing out land to fighters the emperor is at least putting an army together yet areas of asia minor in particular are being handed out to allens and all sorts of foreigners your best chance to join the army in this decade however is to maybe wait for the following campaign offer your services and collect a salary perhaps you may be offered some land as well but really i wouldn't recommend this option many soldiers have returned from the field unpaid and at the battle of baphias many of the local troops just turned around and left angry that the foreigners were being paid more and even taking their weapons from them otherwise skilled troops like crossbowmen and cavalry are becoming more important in the field so you'll just be left as a second thought and as for these mercenaries that the emperor's spending so much on the allens for instance are on the lower end of the pay scale as they got around three hyper pira per month while those catalan mercenaries while their infantry got 8.5 a month and their cavalry over 34 gold coins a month so an insane amount of money then even at sea there's not much chance of employment when the byzantines retook the city they employed the gas malloy to serve in the navy these were the children of latins and greeks and largely distrusted by both but in the last couple of decades the navy has just been disbanded and the genoese are taking on the responsibility of defending the seas so maybe you could sell your services if you're skilled enough and make a couple of gold coins a month or join in campaigns when desperate but often the sense of duty and the promise of loot is enough for most to join in it's really very unlikely you'll get a career here but if it's loot that you're after you could always join the ottomans as many are doing but now let's say you've taken a job in a tavern or as a servant you've got around eight copper trachea a day to spend but now you'll need to find a place to stay luckily some houses are being sold for a pretty reasonable price even in the commercial genoese center of paira houses are being sold for just 12 gold coins so a year and a half salary some have even gone for less at about six gold coins but obviously you get what you pay for as a house with a garden in the same area will set you back 32 so to rent basic property i think even half a gold coin a year could get you something in a pretty decent location as for the houses a lot of the old roman buildings have just been rebuilt or their bricks reused time and time again so some of the old multi-storey roman buildings called insuli remain but many now feature wooden beams and there are more and more houses being built completely out of wood but try to avoid these older multi-storey buildings as there are reports of people bringing their animals into their homes with them like one priest who lived above a poet named tiazidz lived with his many kids and a group of pigs so the urine waste produced was just dumped out of the window but given the amount of wooden repairs needed and the grand rebuilding you'll see hundreds of carpenters around the city they go door-to-door offering to make repairs or produce furniture so you too will need to furnish your new property most don't have beds as such the house you're renting will probably come with some sort of permanent bench which can be folded away and it doubles up as a seating area during meals as well but sometimes it can be made out of the stone wall so a good quality quilt is essential this will range from around two to four hype appeared if you are interested in a bed however a feather one will cost around 20 hype appeared so way out of your price range otherwise a chest for all of your possessions will cost around two gold coins and again this will serve some other function so you could use it as a serving space for instance and for a little bit of decoration get yourself an icon these are sort of produced on mass and most homes will have one so they're pretty cheap add around one or two gold coins for a very basic one as for kitchen utensils a good copper pot will cost one hyperperi a kettle is about the same and a kitchen knife around six carats or one quarter of a hyper peerer however given the limited space and the room is filled with wood i'd recommend not cooking indoors plus as you won't need kitchen utensils you can save yourself a lot of money and instead like many people do just eat outside to clean yourself soap can cost around 10 copper trachea per kilogram plus you'll also need to clean your teeth as dental hygiene is becoming very important lilac chest tree leaves mixed with a little wine is a good whitener and for pastes you will need to bake seashells with a little bit of squid to make your breath smell nice if you can afford it you'll just need to use things like arabian gum or mer but of course this will make food taste pretty bad or you can do what many people are doing and just chew on a flower like christmas rose now when it comes to sleeping be sure to record your dreams as they will tell you what's to come this practice is called on a romancey and whole dream books have been published to make sure you know the meanings so dreaming of a shattered bowl will mean disaster is on the horizon dreaming of fruit means fertility and erotic dreams well they could be sent by demons to test pious men and women so many people may have some form of amulet to protect them from being led astray in the dream world however back to your home you'll probably need to get some animals to help boost your income they can live indoors or you can even buy your own plot for just a few hyperpira a pig costs four or five carats as sheep as 18 while a goat is only eight carats a donkey is pretty cheap at about two or three hypopira but a mule is closer to 15 and a horse well that can be anywhere between 15 and 90. also a cow may cost around the same at 50 in hyper period on the cheaper end however again this is sort of a good time to be a businessman as across the city loans are being handed out for essentially free giovanni scandalorius for instance just three years ago borrowed 20 hypopira which needed to be paid back in three years he also managed to borrow some land and he used his money to buy his cow and then just a couple days later loaned a further 13 hype appeared to be paid back in a year and he would take out one more loan to buy in tools like a plow costing one hype appeared so you too could do this and sort of set yourself up on a rival otherwise an olive tree a decent one at least could cost around half a hyperpirate or a chicken costs around 30 copper trachea so you can get a steady supply of eggs and many in the empire have also taken to beekeeping as well meanwhile within the home while the husband and wife dynamic is sort of up to you maybe you could follow the teachings of kekauminos who believed that women should wear veils and be segregated within the home from visiting men this actually does happen at least in the homes of some wealthy people and in fact the empress has her own section of the palace for women but nowadays this is largely just for show or you could become like the poet prodramus over a century ago he complained i have a nagging wife whose tongue wags on and on but his wife complains about him saying he's just too lazy around the house and in the end she actually takes the children away from him so when going around the city expect to see some women with very restrictive clothes like a face veil or maybe some women working in tavernas or you could see some women take children away from their fathers or others segregated off from visitors just like with divorce or icons the city has inherited 1 000 years of conflicting views like going back to the dawn of christianity here john chrysostom spoke against beating your wife while tertullian said every woman should be veiled even the unmarried ones and later some writers will find it strange that in england the man and woman may kiss when greeting even if they're not husband and wife so what sort of relationship you want is up to you so you've got your house sorted but before you hit the streets it's time to get dressed the most basic item of clothing you'll need is kaftan which costs around 20 carats so pretty reasonable as for shoes you have an option between sandals for two carats and a pair of shoes for 17. now keep in mind winters here get cold so maybe fork out extra for shoes and in the very cold winters you'll need a jacket as well the prices here depend on the furs you like so a wolf skin jacket will set you back around 4.5 hypoperia while a lambskin is only 1.5 then a basic belt is needed but often this is used to show off wealth so maybe pay a little extra and get one for at least one hype appeared but some people spend fortunes on them as they're decorated with gold and silver sometimes depicting the lives of saints but most people in the city wear at least a little bit of jewelry even if they're just made out of copper so spend anywhere between a few copper coins and dozens of hypopeera to get a necklace and some earrings in general though you may notice that fashions are a little extravagant fashions from persia arabia and the west have been mixing here for a while and this has produced some of the weirdest hat choices for the elites doctors will wear a turban for instance and so too will many people in the court some like the official theodor mitochitis seem to go a little overboard with their turbans and make them huge otherwise there is the pointed almost triangular scadion hats which are also popular among the elites and then there's even a sort of mix between pointed and turbine with broad stripes donating ranks in the court but when leaving your house you don't really need to bring a weapon with you in the west they do but here it's not the case otherwise in the west many people would bring a weapon with them but here this isn't really the case many people just are not armed and this could be why the latins and franks will call you effeminate so now you're clothed you can head out to the tavernas to eat and drink here you can spend a copper trachea to get maybe a bowl of soup one copper trachea will also get you one pound of bread to go with that as well a popular soup is called agiazumi which is an onion soup and is essential for fast days otherwise fish is also pretty cheap like for one copper coin you can get 12 fresh mackerel or eight small tuna fish plus caviar has long been brought into the city by the khazars of the north and their successors wealth for pure caviar one hypopeera will get you 5 kilograms but for a lesser quality 3 coppertrachea could also get you a kilo you can also find a large selection of salads as well something that the latins will actually be puzzled by these again will cost around 1 track here or probably even half a trackier other foods may be more expensive like a hair cost 56 track here a part which is 32 and a duck is 48. if you do have a bit of money though you can find some odd foods around the city like a swan which costs 128 for a whole one but weirdly this is actually cheaper than a goose which will cost 150 yet the church has banned a great number of foods something your countrymen take pride in as they mock the latins for eating all sorts of wild beasts and for even letting their dogs lick the plates but you're also in the capital at a pretty revolutionary time for food as the fork has made it here some however criticized the fork for almost going against god as he gave you fingers to act as forks but this new invention although only really for the rich at the minute will in fact change the faces of the people in the city and not too long as your descendants will have an overbite whereas you will not but when making your food choices you've got to make sure that you balance the humors to make sure that you're fit and healthy this also applies to when you eat food so theodorus pedromas recommends hair and partridges in december but you should avoid the melancholy cabbage lentils should be avoided in november along with capers and green olives in brine instead eat black olives deer beef male goat gazelle and all game birds as for drinks well wine is very popular incredibly popular in fact but of course the price will change based on the region it comes from on average a liter of local wine will cost around two copper track year but you can pay a little more let's say around three to four copper trachea per liter and get wine from crete however as the people are drinking more and more the government has begun to restrict the hours that the tavernas can be open especially on sundays after eating heading out onto the streets you may see a number of fortune tellers some of these actually wander the streets with bears and sell clips of the animal's hair as amulets but the authorities are beginning to clamp down on them as well plus there may be a number of roma people performing circus acts like walking on a tightrope or standing on a moving horse there's also snake charmers and dancing animals are another popular sight on the streets particularly bears monkeys and dogs you may even catch a glimpse of some magicians and illusionists plus many people will come to the streets to gawk at giants dwarfs and even conjoined twins but really the most popular street performers are mimes you see the church hasn't been too keen on theater or morality plays like in western europe and mimes have sort of filled in this gap plus given the many languages spoken you can see why they are in fact popular some mimes have also apparently stood on the city walls and mocked any would-be invaders yet even though theater may not be booming many novels are becoming popular like the story of belthandross and quesanca in the story our heroic prince fights turkish bandits and makes it to tarsus there he hosts a beauty pageant and gives a one to the most beautiful woman the princess of antioch but as soon as he does all the women disappear and he needs to continue on his quest to actually find him these books however are incredibly expensive like even a small copy of the gospels with no artwork could maybe cost around 5 hype appeared so over half a year's salary for you otherwise in terms of entertainment on your day off you could also learn the new sport that is coming from the east which is very similar to polo and played on fields across the city but gambling is one of the most favored pastime and very popular in tavernas here games like backgammon or an early version of it will be played on every table while even adults including emperors enjoy playing knuckle bones as for holidays before we even begin you need to understand the calendar for starters the year isn't actually 1303 a.d anymore it's 6811 as year 0 is actually the year of creation not the birth of christ and new year is celebrated on the 1st of september so be careful when making plans and contracts as december 6 812 may just be a couple of months away not over one year on holidays well you will actually see a lot of guilds in certain professions actually organize their own like the clerical students and teachers will wear masks and parade through the streets on october 25th to celebrate the feast of the holy notaries and on march 12th the women in the textile industry celebrate the feast of agatha taking part in street processions singing and even a weaving competition there's actually probably close to 100 festivals in total on the many saint days you could be expected to fast or maybe there'll be a market so do some revision on market days you will see things like archery wrestling and dances and one of the best is actually over in thessalonica in late october which attracts people from across the world french spaniards egyptians all come there to trade some of the major holidays are easter or pasha when people will paint caustic soda onto their walls and cover floors and different types of leaves people will also have egg jewels where you'll just try to smash your opponent's egg with your own egg however around this time many criminals who committed lesser crimes are released so just be careful of thieves then although theophania or epiphany in january is a more important festival to many christogena on the 25th of december has some nice traditions the emperor will wear a wreath just like they did back in roman times and children will walk the street dressed as camels or donkeys asking for money at the same time many adults will sing hymns door-to-door plus if you have a little extra money invite 12 poor people to your feast on this day as many people do or you can just spend your day off enjoying the city now if you found a house in the center you're surrounded by landmarks like if you head to the east you'll come to the palace while in fact the complexes of mankind this was built in the 11th century and is quite the marvel it has huge gardens fountains and the likes but also a public hospital this wasn't the only hospital to care for the poor and sick others tended to be based in monasteries like lips or panter crater but in all of them doctors give help for free and receive a poor wage like someone who applies leeches just gets five hypoperia annually but many doctors may work out of a sense of duty or maybe just for half a year allowing them to get money elsewhere for the remaining months but thanks to the empress and many rich citizens you can go get some form of treatment in days gone by it was said that anna komnine actually ran a hospital that would treat up to 10 000 people or empress theodora the wife of michael made sure that the lips monastery would always have a women's ward so these public hospitals have been brought back to life and many even have a pharmacy attached and maybe even some outpatient visits however not all of the treatments are the best for instance andreanicus the first communist used nile crocodiles as an aphrodisiac and prayer and relics still play an important role there are of course private hospitals as well and doctors can get 40 hypoperia a year there plus a number of extras like a private doctor will get five hypoperia a glass vas and a coat to perform an abortion a general checkup may cost two thirds of a hypopeera and bleeding costs 2.5 plus if all that fails dying as well becomes incredibly expensive burials can cost 10 gold coins for a nice spot and some wills can cost over 30. but that's largely just for the rich to care about as for you you can use these hospitals and in fact many institutions in quite a decent welfare system monasteries will have a xeno dokion which is a place for pilgrims and strangers to stay and maybe at tocotropheon which is a home for the poor where they could be trained up in a skill sometimes then there's always homes for the elderly and orphans and although these aren't as developed as before they still function however one institution that hasn't really recovered is schooling well schooling was never formalized as most just found themselves a tutor at this time in fact you could actually get yourself a pretty well-known scholar as a tutor like maximus planities if you do schooling is sort of based off the old roman style teaching writing and arithmetic in the early years then rhetoric and the likes later on but there had been a long debate over which literature to include as the clergy spoke against many of the classics eventually though the secularists went out and students will study ancient tragedies like the phoenician women then a couple centuries ago they founded the patriarchal school as a form of higher education but this is pretty much gone now and schooling is back to being completely informal however going back to the palace complexes inside they have the relics of the passion including some of christ's beard the spear that stabbed him the sponge and a lot more and going around the city you'll be hard-pressed not to stumble upon some relic even though the latins had stolen as many as they could find many pilgrims from as far away as russia actually produce guides on how best to visit them all so move on from the palaces and head north here you'll see the great chain well it'll actually be underwater now but when invaders try to take the city they're lifted out of the water and ships will crash into it from this point you can actually see the foreign settlement of pera and the hill it's situated on it is this hill that the ottomans will later drag their ships over in order to bypass this chain but i'd say go south past hagia irene and maybe call into the hadagan monastery this is home to an icon painting of mary that saint luke himself painted also would have said this icon is actually paraded before the people on certain occasions and is housed in a case surrounded by precious stones but these churches pale in comparison to the hagia sophia which will tower above everything when the latins ransacked the city it is said that they invited prostitutes into this holy place and again stole many treasures but restoration work has been done and many still struggle to describe its beauty pilgrims from around the world still come to visit and really it just needs to be seen to be believed after saying your prayers go behind the hagia sophia where you can see the column of justinian this according to some is over 70 meters high and can be seen from the sea in fact when restoring the hat on top of the emperor acrobats needed to be used and they swung across from the hagia sofia also in this area there is the largest of all underground systems storing fresh water the basilica system despite its useful function they included artwork inside with the heads of medusa from pagan myth across the road as the baths of zuccifus but don't expect to get a bath yet in fact public baths really became seen as a luxury during the crises of the 8th century so most the baths closed down and were turned into all sorts of things these baths for instance for a couple centuries at least became part prison and part silk workshop yet in between the column and the baths there is the chalk gate the imperial gate that leads to another palace complex it is said that this palace complex once tower's mechanical birds that sang with the touch of a lever and a statue of a lion that roared this again was a whole complex containing churches and even a barracks from the outside these buildings are impressive but within they're empty the latin stole the rod of moses along with parts of the holy cross and the emperors couldn't restore these palaces so they've moved them to the other end of the city so head out and there you'll see the hippodrome this used to be home of chariot races that divided the city into different factions some of these factions had their own hooligans who would riot and even challenge the throne but in recent years this was home to some animal battles lions against bulls dogs against foxes and that sort of thing but today on special occasions at least you can still attend events like jousting which has been imported from the west and along with the jousts there will be jugglers circus performances and even a mass brawl as two teams of soldiers would just fight each other however in general the hippodrome is in ruins compared to before and people are even growing grapes around it from the hippodrome you can go south and see another palace boca leon but i'd say go west along the main street called the meza this is still a commercial hub as you can find a number of shops within the colonnades and under a roof expect to see farmers from outside herding their livestock into the city for sale at different markets and be careful with these animals as sometimes they're known to go a bit wild one bull even made his way into hagia sophia after being probed too much as you continue down you'll see a number of shops but the shops here actually come in sort of order as traders of perfume and jewels will come closer to the center and then lesser trades are further away on the way they'll also be street performers peddlers and cats the city has loved cats for centuries and they're very well looked after some people are even buried with them and many monasteries will give food out to them and be grateful that they are here as the black death will soon arrive carrying along this road you'll come to a couple of forums like constantine's and theodosius's inside both they have huge columns but neither have a statue on top anymore as earthquakes winds and latins have toppled them one of these five meter high statues actually washed ashore in italy probably from a sunken ship but people do not know which emperor it actually is when the latins did take the city they did in fact place an emperor on top of one of these columns the problem was it was the living emperor alexius v who was placed on the column of theodosius and thrown off into the forum below and the latins did actually successfully transport other statues back home like the four horses outside the hippodrome which will remain in venice for centuries the venetians also looted the philadelphia the next public area you'll come to were the mezza forks from here they took the portrait of the four tetrox so like elsewhere it may be best to just keep moving on through these ransacked areas the same spots where the emperors used to travel in on their triumphs turning off from the meza a lot of the main streets are in a bit of a grid so take a left and head south to the harbour of theodosius you can look to see and see hundreds if not thousands of ships surrounding the city some large galleys others just small fishing vessels waiting for a shoulder fish to pass you'll now be in an area called flanger and here is where the armenians jews and even muslims live the jews here have actually been given the particularly smelly job of tanning and in this area along the sea wall you can see the jewish gate where jews from within the ghetto sail out although life inside this ghetto is far from ideal across europe like in england and france they've actually been are about to be banned from those countries so the byzantine empire is a little bit more welcoming as for the muslims they've been allowed to construct their own mosques many of these come from turkic bailix friendly with the emperor or sometimes even further afield like in damascus they've brought with them many scientific advances but some aren't so successful like in previous years one muslim actually tried to fly off the great wall but just fell to his death heading back to the meza you'll come to the form of the ox which along with the hippodrome is the site of public executions and mob justice there is in fact a legend behind the name of this forum it is said that this is where people were burned alive inside the statue of a brazen bull but legends in this city are sometimes a little hard to believe during the iconoclastic period saint theodosia a defender of icons was executed here by having a ram's horn driven through her neck and in general punishments in the city often can be a little creative vloggings are common so too is having something removed from your body like nose or maybe a hand you could be branded on the face with your crime or even tattoos for instance two brothers were tattooed with bad poetry on their face and molten lead has been poured down people's mouths before in the navy christian defectors have been boiled and pitched and skinned alive in centuries gone by and along the mesa you'll still see many limbs of criminals as a warning to you as for police forces well there's all sorts of guards serving different functions like the vardariotai which were originally magyars from hungary but now their identity well it's a mystery but they're probably turkic these will go around on festival days especially in their red uniforms carrying a whip to keep the crowds in check and if you are arrested when it comes to trial you can still expect to have a trial by ordeal like emperor michael beforeus emperor had to go through a trial by fire holding a red hot metal rod he was able to do so and thus proved that he was loyal to his own emperor so if accused you better work out a way to hold a burning hot metal rod or you'll be executed or even blinded these blindings could be done through gouging a hot poker or even boiling hot vinegar into your eyes and this was a favorite punishment for challenges to the throne plus one punishment you may face is possibly a life in the minds after all the empire needs metals and this is a brutal job that nobody really wants but carry on down the mesa pass another forum and now you'll notice it's becoming far less populated around here there's still a number of churches you can visit though like saint andrew salas and saint diameters of jerusalem where again you can find some relics and even the bodies of some saints but i'd say just keep heading west and there you'll see the golden gate from here the byzantine emperors had fought off a number of assaults around 40 years ago michael the eighth paleologus retook the city through this gate and led a triumphant procession but today this gate has actually been turned into a citadel a sort of city within a city capable of withstanding a siege for months and in the future it will be said that the final byzantine emperor actually turned to marble and lives under the gate as a statue ready to reclaim his capital city but although this gate has been repaired many are just being closed off because they're unable to garrison them or repair them head through this gate and the people who actually live inside it and you'll come to the church of saint mary of the spring this is a life-giving spring capable of bringing you back from the point of death just like it will to anger nikos iii during the civil wars of the 1320s so it is definitely worth a visit however you're now outside of the city walls and carrying along this journey you've got a seven kilometer walk to the furthest away gate so again this is a reminder that this city is huge outside the gates keep your eyes open for the emperor on his hunts in philippoteon this is a huge imperial game reserve with a palace inside it if you are able to capture glimpse you may be surprised to see the animals he's with there's obviously birds of prey but also cheetahs which are becoming more and more popular as a hunting animal the deer and gazelle in these parks provide further exotic meat into the city to go along with imported camels and even the occasional donkey however there are other predatory animals out in these woods animals which began killing the emperor's game so roma people were hired to deal with this problem which they did so by using poisoned meat but if you think seeing cheetahs out here is strange well keep your eyes out for leopards and maybe if you spot the emperor you might be able to spot him with his pet lions these lions and leopards were actually used in battle as well like at the beginning of the 12th century some peasant crusaders were ransacking the countryside so the emperor opened the gates and let his lions and leopards attack them but a couple of them died in the process these lines were set loose from the gate of placarnay and it is here where you should re-enter the city in the new center of power again this is another complex containing a few palaces and churches like that of porphyrogenitis it's worth coming here when a new heir is born as the emperor will hold him over the balcony and declare them emperor of the world otherwise this is where the english varangians will guard their high-ranking prisoners and torture some but just a few years ago one guard named harry actually helped michael conninos escape you might also be able to see diplomats that have arrived from around the world like the ethiopians who have traveled to meet their fellow orthodox for centuries or even maybe the odd mongolian as there are discussions over a possible alliance in the works in fact there's a new church called saint mary of the mongols this was named in honor of the princess who married abigail khan of the ill khanate and this albeit small church will be the only one not destroyed or converted into a mosque in later centuries but really the church here that you should visit is chora here you can see new and restored mosaics a real example of the paleologan renaissance and come back in a few years as theodore mitochites the man in the large hat will really help bring this place back to life the same cannot be said though for constantinople's second most important church which you can find if you go back onto the measure and head east after a while you come to the church of the holy apostles outside of this building there is the newly constructed statue of the archangel michael commemorating the recapture of the city but inside the ruins are once again on display this was once home to the tombs of great emperors like basil and justinian but the crusaders had opened them up and stole whatever gold they could find the skulls of saints like andrew luke and timothy have also vanished and in a couple of decades the whole thing will just fall into ruin once more but there is maybe one more church you should visit to get there you will need to turn north and head under the aqueduct of valence this is still functioning but not maintained once through you'll come to the panda crater this is the same building that once housed a public hospital and it also housed the most famous of icons when the venetians turned it into their headquarters plus it's also the burial spot for many royals and nobles however i'd say come back here as night as a stone told from a nearby monastery is said to come to life and clean the streets well at least it did when leo was emperor centuries ago but now you've seen too many churches and relics so head north into the bustling foreign quarters here the venetians and other italians buy and sell their wares unload their produce and set sail again in days gone by you would have seen a number of silk weavers working around here but now the silk industry is bigger in italy all among the turks who employed or imprisoned many byzantine silk workers the fact the city even had silk in the first place is a great tale as going right the way back to the 6th century a couple of monks traveled to china and stole silkworm eggs and smuggled them back in a couple of bamboo canes maybe you can still spot some people plying their trade but you won't hear the large bangs and crashes of silk weaving like before you can also pay a copper coin to cross over to the other side pera which is owned by the genoese out of the two italian cities the emperor has maintained closer relations with genoa but today this is really coming at a cost these foreigners can essentially trade for free in the empire and dominate sea travel meaning the city is entirely dependent on them it is in this area that the genoese will build the famous galata tower but that won't be for a while this tower will actually go against the treaty that was signed this year as the genoese were not allowed to fortify this colony but this colony will later grow and be surrounded by walls yet as the government needs genoese ships there's really nothing that can be done about it however genoese people will stay to defend the city when the ottomans make their final assault on it so while here explore the wares that come in from across the world these italians still dominate trade with the levant egypt and sometimes they've even been popping up in india and beyond so expect to find many goods way out of your price range here you can also expect to find another jewish community who have come in with the venetians and genoese but will now be getting dark so pop back on a boat head through the streets and head home go to sleep but remember to record your dreams as they will tell you what the future will be

Channel: Jabzy

Views: 108,145

Keywords: Life in the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Daily Life, Hagia Sophia, palaiologos dynasty, komnenos dynasty, Byzantine Army, 4th Crusade, Sack of Constantinople, History of the Byzantine Empire, byzantine empire, byzantine history, history of the byzantine empire, byzantine history map

Id: ORHSSEyDFLI

Length: 47min 8sec (2828 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 19 2022