In 1347 the infamous Black Death was unleashed on Constantinople. “Every day we bury some friend, the City is emptying of people and filling with graves.” -Demetrios Kydones The plague had made its way West from China, and came via Genoese merchants from the Crimea. “This was a he bubonic plague that had struck under Justinian and, in a series of outbreaks that recurred roughly every ten years or so, it killed between 30 and 60% of the population.” 
The Emperor John Kantakouzenos even lost his son Andronikos Kantakouzenos to the plague, it touched everyone regardless of wealth or status. The plague added yet another major demographic stress factor for the failing Roman state as it lost territory, suffered raids, and fought vicious civil wars within itself. Source: The New Roman Empire by Anthony Kaldellis

"This reminds me of Constantine Porphyrogenitus – tremendous name, by the way, very imperial, very strong. They called him 'born in the purple,' which is fantastic, believe me. He was the Emperor of Byzantium, and he wrote these incredible books. De Administrando Imperio – huge, very detailed, all about how to run an empire, how to deal with the barbarians, the Slavs, the Arabs, everything. Smart guy, very smart. Not like the weak leaders we have today. Constantine knew how to keep the empire together, how to make deals, how to project strength. He was born to it – literally in the purple chamber, which is classy, very classy. If he were around today, he'd be making America great again, or Byzantium great again, whatever. Tremendous emperor. The best."

An old illustration of what remained in the past of the Roman city walls of the once proud city of Antioch. Today there’s few traces left of this once important ancient and medieval city.

Freedom or Death: The Greeks never stopped fighting against the ottoman yoke; until they broke it and freed themselves. The Greek Revolution of 1821, also known as the Greek War of Independence, was a pivotal armed uprising by Greek revolutionaries against 400 years of Ottoman ly 1821 and ended with the recognition of an independent Greek state by 1830–1832. Inspired by the secret society Filiki Etaireia (“Friendly Brotherhood”) and Enlightenment ideas of liberty, the revolt was sparked when Alexander Ypsilantis led a failed expedition into the Danubian Principalities (modern Romania) in February 1821. The real momentum came in the Peloponnese (Morea), where sporadic uprisings turned into a full revolution. The traditional date celebrated as Greek Independence Day is 25 March 1821 (the Feast of the Annunciation), but fighting actually erupted earlier. Freedom or Death was the phrase that carried the fire of Revolution across Greece. It was time to pay the turks back; in blood.

Ethiopian armed forces storm into Kurmuk, bolstering RSF militia presence along the Blue Nile, Sudan frontlines.

When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 the ancient statue of Justinian still stood watching over the City on its lofty column, Pierre Gilles saw the shattered fragments of it a century later: “For the barbarians despoiled the column of Justinian of all its bronze the statue, and for some years it remained a bare column. Finally, 30 years ago the entire column was toppled down to the pedestal…The equestrian statue of Justinian had been on top of the column that stood here and that had been kept a long time inside the compound of the imperial precinct. I recently saw it carried into the melting houses where the Turks cast their weapons of war. Among the fragments were the leg of Justinian, which was taller than a man, and his nose, which was over nine inches long. I was not able to measure the horse's legs that lay on the ground, but secretly measured one of the hoofs and found it to be nine inches tall" Even the mere pieces of it laying around Topkapı clearly made a huge impression on this French diplomatic visitor to Ottoman Constantinople! Source - The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople by Elena Boeck