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What if: 1453 Constantinople sent back in time to Peloponnesian War

Soverihn

Soverihn

Location
Cibao Wilayet, Caliphate of Quisqueya
Bit on an idea I've been mulling around for quite some time. The city of Constantinople, right during the beginning phases of its final siege, is given some divine intervention. The city, inhabitants, and allied soldiers/ships are sent back to the time of the Peloponnesian War (Specifically during the outbreak of war in 431 BC).

What happens next? What faction does Romania support in the crisis, if any? How does she rebuild and adapt to this frightening new world? And what are the long term consequences?

Oh, and to make things interesting, lets handwave the inevitable pathogen problems so there's no plague outbreak to ruin the World's demographics.
 
Stargrave said:
Constantinople in 1453 AD has a population something like six or seven times smaller than Athens in 431 BC and no allies to rely on. They're not conquering anything in a hurry.
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If you count the slaves, who represent a pretty substantial part of the population, yeah.

In any case, I'm not saying that they would conquer everything as soon as they are warped in 431 BC. I'm saying that they would be capable of eventually managing it.

Constantinople is located in an advantageous geographical position, and was a pretty tough fortress to breach in its time. They'd survive, and barring exceptionally awful luck, thrive.
 
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Cetashwayo said:
Attica did.
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Yeah, I doubt that Athens had that population, considering you can fit the entire city, the long wall, and it's Port city almost Entirely inside the area protected by the Theodosian Walls.

Athens had nowhere near that much grain importation at the time.

Attica I can buy. That's a region several times bigger than the area inside the walls.
 
Athens had about half the population of Attica at 150,000- a 50% urbanization rate which isn't that uncommon for Greek cities in this period.

Now Constantinople occupies an intensely complicated and powerful position- it controls the grain coming through the Bosporus. This is especially so because the vessels of the Byzantines are going to be on an entirely different level of construction from the Greek Trireme of this period, which had a very low construction and tended to be very light. Heavier vessels came later.

Where is Constantinople going to get her food? There are probably farmers of Bystantion in the countryside but they won't be able to support a city of her size. She'll have to start jacking grain shipments meant for Athens- which is going to cause conflict to say the least.
 
Cetashwayo said:
Now Constantinople occupies an intensely complicated and powerful position- it controls the grain coming through the Bosporus. This is especially so because the vessels of the Byzantines are going to be on an entirely different level of construction from the Greek Trireme of this period, which had a very low construction and tended to be very light. Heavier vessels came later.

Where is Constantinople going to get her food? There are probably farmers of Bystantion in the countryside but they won't be able to support a city of her size. She'll have to start jacking grain shipments meant for Athens- which is going to cause conflict to say the least.
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I approve of a Rhomaoi-Spartan Axis.
 
Cloak&Dagger said:
Constantinople has guns and cannons.

The Roman Empire will be restored!
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"OOOOOH, YEAAAAAH!" *Byzantines busting into Greece* "Was'sup, bitches? We're here to deliver your scheduled conquering a few hundred years early! Now bend over and take it, 'cause shit's about to get real for you!"

"Auuuugh!" *Running and screaming because of cannons and guns.*
 
I didn't even think about that.

How does that even work? How...?! How can Christianity be real if Christ isn't real?
 
Cetashwayo said:
I didn't even think about that.

How does that even work? How...?! How can Christianity be real if Christ isn't real?
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Obviously the inequity and faithlessness of man of their time period forced God's hand as the last, great city on a hill is taken to a new paradise in reverse Sodom and Gomorrah :V

Besides, would even the heavily literate Byzantines be able to recognize real life Classical Greece through the words of Homor, Herodotus, and Plutarch? Aren't the place names (both currently inhabited and biblical), calendars, and even some geography be completely different? The Byzantines could conclude that they've been moved to a land of pygmies.
 
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bookwyrm said:
Obviously the inequity and faithlessness of man of their time period forced God's hand as the last, great city on a hill is taken to a new paradise in reverse Sodom and Gomorrah :V

Besides, would even the heavily literate Byzantines be able to recognize real life Classical Greece through the words of Homor, Herodotus, and Plutarch? Aren't the place names (both currently inhabited and biblical), calendars, and even some geography be completely different? The Byzantines could conclude that they've been moved to a land of pygmies.
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Calenders are different, but why would the geography be? The dardanelles is still there. Some river valleys have yet to silt up like Miletus, but there is really no reason why the Byzantines wouldn't be able to figure their way around the area. The place names aren't that different.

@100thlurker might be able to weigh in since this is a genuinely interesting ISOT.
 
No one's mentioned the differences in technology and how that'd influence things? We've got crossbows, windmills, heavy plows, stirrups, 3 field systems, flamethrowers, grenades, paper making, spinning wheels, compasses, horseshoes, cranes, eyeglasses, and liquor being invented during the Middle Ages.

Only a matter of time until these things spread out and get adopted by the locals.
 
Soverihn said:
No one's mentioned the differences in technology and how that'd influence things? We've got crossbows, windmills, heavy plows, stirrups, 3 field systems, flamethrowers, grenades, paper making, spinning wheels, compasses, horseshoes, cranes, eyeglasses, and liquor being invented during the Middle Ages.

Only a matter of time until these things spread out and get adopted by the locals.
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There isn't much expertise as there would be otherwise for a lot of the farming technologies. You didn't bring the hinterland over; just the city. The rest of it isn't going to be spreading that quickly; Constantinople in 1453 isn't exactly a vigorous city. She'll be able to keep a lot of it close to the chest; the main question are the Genoan and Venetian merchants as well as shipbuilding technology, but it's not as if the Greeks can just look at how the Venetians build ships and say "boy this makes sense"; there's an absurd institutional gap.
 
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Cetashwayo said:
I didn't even think about that.

How does that even work? How...?! How can Christianity be real if Christ isn't real?
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The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a man was crucified on Golgotha. The crucifixtion was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
 
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