What if the Byzantines built a wall something like the Great Wall or the Hadrian Wall?

[poiuytrewq0987]

Had they built a wall of such magnitude meant for defense against invaders from the east. Somewhere on the very edge of Anatolia from Trapezus to Antioch. Would have such wall been helpful in defending the Empire from invaders or would have it been useless?

[Äike]

Had they built a wall of such magnitude meant for defense against invaders from the east. Somewhere on the very edge of Anatolia from Trapezus to Antioch. Would have such wall been helpful in defending the Empire from invaders or would have it been useless?

It would have been useless. The Turks would have shot a hole big enough into the wall, for an army to march through it, quite easily.

[Osweo]

Anatolia was trouble enough by itself. It's no coincidence that Islam got pretty well established there among some elements.

ANd a wall would have to have been built in the Mediterranean and Black Seas too....

[poiuytrewq0987]

Anatolia was trouble enough by itself. It's no coincidence that Islam got pretty well established there among some elements.

ANd a wall would have to have been built in the Mediterranean and Black Seas too....

What are you talking about? Anatolia back then was thoroughly Hellenized and Greek in character before the Turks invaded and took control of Anatolia which led to the eventual demise of the Byzantine Empire. After the Empire had lost Egypt, and the Levant; Anatolia was in essence its last frontier and line of defense against Easterners, specifically, Arabs and Turks. One can say Anatolia was Greek from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the fall of the Byzantine Empire (with a brief pause during the climax of Roman rule).

[Osweo]

What are you talking about? Anatolia back then was thoroughly Hellenized and Greek in character before the Turks invaded and took control of Anatolia which led to the eventual demise of the Byzantine Empire. After the Empire had lost Egypt, and the Levant; Anatolia was in essence its last frontier and line of defense against Easterners, specifically, Arabs and Turks. One can say Anatolia was Greek from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the fall of the Byzantine Empire (with a brief pause during the climax of Roman rule).

One can say lots of things, but one can also be wrong.

Anatolia spoke Greek, but then again, so do the Irish speak English. If you look carefully at the history of the later Empire, you'll find a lot of troublesome religious currents in the region, opposing the Orthodoxy of Constantinopolis. Anatolia was often disturbed by 'heresy'. Lots of rather self-interested nobles and even Emperors came from the east too, and didn't exactly do the Empire many favours.

Armenians were never Hellenised much anyway, and there were plenty of them in the Empire. St Jerome records that the Galatians were still speaking Celtic in his day. There were and are Lazes, too (look up the Lazic Wars).

Even those who had lost their languages might still have preserved enough of a notion of 'otherness' to have led them to not oppose the Turk as hard as they might.

[The Journeyman]

What are you talking about? Anatolia back then was thoroughly Hellenized and Greek in character before the Turks invaded and took control of Anatolia which led to the eventual demise of the Byzantine Empire. After the Empire had lost Egypt, and the Levant; Anatolia was in essence its last frontier and line of defense against Easterners, specifically, Arabs and Turks. One can say Anatolia was Greek from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the fall of the Byzantine Empire (with a brief pause during the climax of Roman rule).

I don't think history is not so black and white. In a region where so many empires ruled and so much trade took place, it's hard to imagine a purely Greek people dominating the Anatolian region. There were still the ancient inhabitants living in the regions such as the Armenians (there were even Armenian emperors), Lydians and the descendants of the Hittites etc.

[Vasconcelos]

Only chance to save the Byzantines would be other European countries, but we all chickened out like pussies, with exception of a few Italians. Had we be real men and fought back the turks with the Byzantines, the history of Europe could have been much different.

[Юbermensch]

The Byzatines did build a wall to protect Constantinople from the Bulgarians' attacks, but it did not really help them. Only the walls of Constantinople itself helped them.
The wall is called Anastasius' wall (bulid by Anastasius I) and is located from the town of Derkos on the Black Sea to Silivri on the Sea of Marmara.

[Turkophagos]

Had they built a wall of such magnitude meant for defense against invaders from the east. Somewhere on the very edge of Anatolia from Trapezus to Antioch. Would have such wall been helpful in defending the Empire from invaders or would have it been useless?

The empire fell from its west, not from its east.

[Guapo]

The empire fell from its west, not from its east.

That's what happens when you let in immigrants, especially Slavs.