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The Battle Of The Milvian Bridge

The first major battle in which Christianity played a part, the Milvian Bridge saw the triumph of Roman Emperor Flavius Valerius Constantinus, better known as Constantine the Great, over his rival Maxentius.The war initially had little to do with religion, since both commanders adhered to the traditional Roman gods. But on October 27, the night before the battle, Constantine apparently had a dream in which the Christian God appeared to him and instructed him to inscribe a Christian symbol (either a cross or the lesser-known Chi-Rho symbol) on his soldiers’ shields. The story of the dream was recorded separately by the contemporary historians Lactantius and Eusebius.Following the vision, Constantine marched south to the outskirts of Rome and paused, apparently waiting to see if Maxentius would march out to meet him or try to force a prolonged siege. His rival chose the former and decided to hold Constantine’s army at the Milvian Bridge.However, Maxentius disposed his men with their backs too close to the River Tiber, leaving them little room to regroup before retreating across the bridge. Constantine’s horsemen broke the enemy cavalry, clearing the way for his infantry to attack. Realizing the situation was deteriorating, Maxentius ordered a full retreat back across the bridge, taking heavy casualties in the process. But as his army crossed, the bridge collapsed, stranding those still on the northern bank. Maxentius drowned and Constantine entered Rome a conquering hero, establishing Christianity as a state-supported religion in gratitude.

The Battle Of Tours

By A.D. 732, the Umayyad Caliphate was led by Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, who reigned over the the fifth largest empire ever to exist. His forces had already conquered Spain, and now his eye turned to France. The total force for the invasion may have numbered 80,000, although probably only around 10,000–30,000 were involved at Tours. The Franks were led by Charles Martel, Latin for “the Hammer.” He was able to muster an army of 15,000–20,000, although other estimates reach as high as 80,000. In any case, it’s likely that neither force significantly outnumbered the other. However, the Frankish army was almost entirely infantry, whereas the Umayyad forces were largely heavy cavalry. Ordinarily, cavalry should have won such a contest by flanking, but Charles was able to choose the perfect battlefield: a hilltop surrounded for miles by dense woods. The Umayyads could not charge through the forests and going around was out of the question because the Franks blocked the only road into Tours. The Muslim leader, Abd Al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, decided to risk a battle on the unfavorable ground, ordering a charge into Charles’s infantry. The fighting took place over a single day in October. By nightfall, the Umayyad army was completely broken, with thousands dead. Abd Al-Rahman tried to rally his forces but was surrounded and cut down. At least once, a small group of enemy cavalry are said to have broken through the Frankish lines and assaulted Charles himself, but his bodyguards surrounded him. The battle secured Christian domination of Western Europe, a legacy bloodily secured by Charles’s grandson: Charlemagne.

The First Arab Siege Of Constantinople

Istanbul was Constantinople, and (speaking historically) that was everyone’s business. In 674, the Umayyads raised a large army (the exact numbers are unknown) for the purpose of conquering the Byzantine capital. Most of our information about the siege comes from Saint Theophanes the Confessor, who wrote about events a century later. According to Theophanes, the Arab fleet landed in Thrace in April and immediately engaged the Christian garrison outside the Golden Gate. The armies fought every day from morning to night until September, when the Arabs sailed south to Cyzicus and settled in for the winter.

The Arabs subsequently renewed the siege each spring for the next three years, before Constantine IV decided to meet them in open battle in 678. Unbeknownst to the besiegers, Constantine had an ace up his sleeve—Greek fire. We still have little idea of how to make it, but by all accounts it was a napalm-like solution that could be projected ship-to-ship through long hoses and bellows. Its chemical makeup enabled it to burn even when it came into contact with water.

This was the first time Greek fire was used in combat, and the Arabs had no defense—their fleet was completely routed. Simultaneously, a Muslim land army was defeated in Turkey, suffering as many as 30,000 casualties. This prompted the Umayyad Caliphate to abandon its plans for conquering Constantinople.

The Battle Of Vienna

The breaking of the siege of Vienna in 1683 effectively halted the Ottoman advance into Western Europe for good and marked the peak of the Ottoman-Habsburg War, which lasted from about 1526 to 1791. The Turks fielded as many as 138,000 troops, although only a fraction participated in the siege proper. Meanwhile, the Viennese garrison consisted of around 12,000 effective soldiers and volunteers. Because of this, the Ottomans decided that an assault would prove too costly. Instead, they ordered extensive tunneling under the walls to plant black powder.

The siege began on July 14 and lasted until September 11. The Turks nearly starved the city into surrender and succeeded in blowing up large areas of the outer fortifications. But on September 11, a relief force led by the Polish King Jan Sobieski arrived. With around 60,000 men at his command, Sobieski had intended to attack on September 13, but the Turks were so close to the walls that he decided to launch an assault the next morning.

By the early afternoon, the Turks had been pushed off the high ground. Sobieski personally led one of the largest cavalry charges in recorded history, shattering the Turkish lines. The Viennese garrison exited the city and joined the battle. ==By nightfall, the battle was over and Sobieski was standing in the Turkish Vizier’s empty headquarters, where he paraphrased Julius Caesar: “We came. We saw. God conquered.”==