List of sieges of Constantinople

For the final siege of Constantinople, see Fall of Constantinople.

Constantinople (today part of Istanbul, Turkey) was built on the land that links Europe to Asia through Bosporus and connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. As a transcontinental city within the Silk Road, Constantinople had a strategic value for many empires and kingdoms who tried to conquer it throughout history.

Topographical map of Constantinople during the Byzantine period, corresponding to the modern-day Fatih district of Istanbul. The city was known as Byzantium under Roman Empire.

Originally known as Byzantium in classical antiquity, the first recorded siege of the city occurred in 510 BC by the Achaemenid Empire under the command of Otanes. Following this successful siege, the city fell under the rule of Persians until it won its independence again, and around 70 BC it became part of the Roman Republic, which was succeeded by the Roman Empire. Despite being part of Rome, it was a free city until it came under siege by Septimius Severus between 193–196 and was partially sacked during the civil war. After it was captured by Constantine the Great in 324, it became the capital of the Roman Empire, under the name of New Rome. It later became known as Constantinople, and in the years that followed it came under attack by both Byzantine pretenders fighting for the throne and also by foreign powers for a total of 22 times. The city remained under Byzantine rule until the Ottoman Empire took over as a result of the siege in 1453, known as the Fall of Constantinople, after which no other sieges took place.

Constantinople was besieged 36 times throughout its history. Out of the ten sieges that occurred during its time as a city-state and while it was under Roman rule, six were successful, three were repelled and one was lifted as a result of the agreement between the parties. Three of these sieges were carried out by the Romans who claimed the throne during civil war. Of all the sieges that took place from its founding by Constantine the Great till 1453, only three were successful, 21 were unsuccessful, and three were lifted by reaching mutual agreements. Four of these sieges took place during civil wars. The Sack of Constantinople that took place in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade caused the city to fall and to be established as the capital of the Latin Empire. It also sent the Byzantine imperial dynasty to exile, who founded the Empire of Nicaea. Constantinople came under Byzantine rule again in 1261 who ruled for nearly two centuries. The city was taken by the Ottomans with the siege in 1453, and as a result the Byzantine Empire came to an end. The city has been under the rule of Turks since the last siege, except for the period of Allied occupation from 1920 to 1923.

List of sieges

Date	Attackers	Defenders	Forces used	Result[a]	Reference(s)
510 BC	Achaemenid Empire	Byzantium	Naval and land	Successful	[1][2][3][4]
478 BC	Delian League	Achaemenid Empire	Naval	Successful	[5][6][7][8][9]
408 BC	Athens	Byzantium, Megara, Boeotia	Naval and land	Successful	[10][11][12][13][14]
340–339 BC	Macedonia	Byzantium, Athens	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[15][16][17][18][19]
278–277 BC	Galatians	Byzantium	Land	Lifted[b]	[20][21][22][23]
251 BC	Seleucid Empire	Byzantium, Heraclea Pontica, Ptolemaic Kingdom	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[24][25][26]
73–72 BC	Pontus	Byzantium	Naval and land	Unsuccessful[c]	[29][30][31][32][28]
193–194	Septimius Severus	Pescennius Niger	Naval and land	Successful	[33][34][35][36][37]
313	Maximinus II	Licinius	Land	Successful	[38][39][40][41][42]
324	Constantine the Great	Licinius	Naval and land	Successful	[43][44][45][46]
378	Goths	Roman Empire	Land	Unsuccessful	[47][48][49]
626	Pannonian Avars, Sasanian Empire	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[50][51][52]
654	Rashidun Caliphate	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[53][54]
669	Umayyads	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[55][56][57][58]
674–678	Umayyads	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[59][60][61][62]
715	Theodosius III, Byzantine Empire	Anastasios II, Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Successful	[63][64][65]
717–718	Umayyads	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[66][67][68]
813	First Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful	[69][70][71][72]
821–822	Thomas the Slav	Michael II	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[73][74][75]
860[d]	Rus' Khaganate	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[76][77][78]
907	Kievan Rus'	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[79][80][81]
913	First Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful	[citation needed]
921	First Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful	[82]
923	First Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful	[citation needed]
941	Kievan Rus'	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[83][84][85]
1047	Leo Tornikios	Constantine IX Monomachos	Land	Unsuccessful	[86][87][88]
1203	Crusaders	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Lifted	[89][90][91][92]
1204	Crusaders	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Successful	[93][94][95][96]
1235–1236	Empire of Nicaea, Second Bulgarian Empire	Latin Empire, Duchy of the Archipelago	Naval and land	Unsuccessful	[97][98][99]
1260-1261	Empire of Nicaea	Latin Empire	Naval and land	Successful	[100][98][101][102]
1376	Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Genoa	John V Palaiologos	Land	Successful	[103][104][105]
1391	Ottoman Empire	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful[e]	[106][107][108][109]
1394–1402[f]	Ottoman Empire	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Unsuccessful[g]	[111][110][112][113]
1411	Musa Çelebi	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful[h]	[114][115][116][117]
1422	Ottoman Empire	Byzantine Empire	Land	Unsuccessful[i]	[118][119][120][121]
1453	Ottoman Empire	Byzantine Empire	Naval and land	Successful	[122][123][124][125]

Footnotes

1. The "Result" column is relative to the side that carries out the siege.
2. As a result of the agreement reached with the mediator of Bithynia, the siege was lifted.
3. While some sources have used Cicero and Tacitus's writings as a reference to argue that the city was in fact under a siege until it "repelled the enemies", other ancient writings found mention that a siege was planned through the sea but did not take place because of stormy weather conditions.^[27][28]
4. Byzantine sources give 860 and Russian sources give 866 as the year in which this siege occurred, although it is accepted that the latter is wrong.
5. The besieging army retreated after Byzantine allies,the Hungarians attacked the Ottoman lands.
6. The year in which the siege started is controversial. Fahameddin Başar, Halil İnalcık and Konstantin Josef Jireček gave it as 1394, while Feridun Emecen and Haldun Eroğlu believed that it was 1396. In addition, some sources mention that the siege started in 1391 and ended in 1396, and that between these years, there was only one siege, the severity of which increased and decreased from time to time.^[106][110]
7. The siege was lifted after Timur attacked the Ottoman lands.
8. The siege was lifted after Mehmed Çelebi's move to Rumeli territory to fight against Musa Çelebi.
9. The siege was lifted after Mustafa Çelebi's move to Anatolian lands to fight against Murad II.

Notes

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2. Vasilev, Miroslav Ivanov (2015). The Policy of Darius and Xerxes towards Thrace and Macedonia. Lahey: Brill. p. 86. doi:10.1163/9789004282155. ISBN 978-90-04-28214-8.
3. Kuban, Doğan (1993). "Bizantion". Dünden Bugüne İstanbul Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 2. İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yayınları. pp. 258–260.
4. Yavuz 2014, p. 169.
5. Arslan & Kaçar 2017, p. 1.
6. Arslan 2010, p. 78.
7. Harris, Jonathan (2017). Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (2 ed.). Londra: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 26. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.2009.00246_52.x. ISBN 978-1-4742-5465-6. S2CID 144417364.
8. Hughes 2017, p. 538.
9. Yavuz 2014, p. 191.
10. Arslan & Kaçar 2017, p. 39.
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