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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ancient coin hunter, post: 4286899, member: 87200&quot;]I finally started watching the Ottomans on Netflix last night. Got up to the point where they fired the first cannon shot - pretty cool. I also liked the description of the jannisaries - young boys from Christian homes taken by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devshirme" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devshirme" rel="nofollow">Devshirme</a> and trained as warriors after converting to Islam. Byzantium was probably a bit too sumptuous given that it had been ransacked by the Crusaders in 1204 and everything not nailed down was taken down or melted. Constantine was ruling a tottering city of perhaps half the population that Constantinople once had, which would only muster 7,000 troops to oppose the Ottomans and man the Theodosian walls. Anybody else start watching it?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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