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. Support Fall of Civilizations on Patreon: http://patreon.com/fallofcivilizations_podcast Credits: Sound engineering by Thomas Ntinas Voice Actors: Nicolas Rixon Joey L Annie Kelly Cleo Madeleine Original Compositions and music supervision: Pavlos Kapralos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1A Chanters of The St Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral: Michael Georgiou Alexandros Gikas Matthew Tomko Stephanos Thomaides Pavlos Kapralos Traditional Musicians: Monooka (Monica Lucia Madas), vocals Alexandros Koustas, Lyra (other names: Byzantine Lyra/ Lyra of Istanbul/ Kemence) Konstantinos Glynos, Kanonaki (other names: qanun; in Byzantine Greek: psaleterion) Theofilos Lais, Cretan Lyra Dario Papavassiliou, Santouri (other name: Greek Santur) Pavlos Kapralos, Oud 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/