[Agrippa]

Originally Posted by Endovelicus

In my opinion, Macedonia is as much Greek as Sparta. The catastrophe of 1453 (The Fall of Constatinople) is something that we, as Europeans, should be ashamed of. Were it not for it, this question would not exist.

I take on the occasion to add some facts and lores about the sad event. The Sultan Mehmed II triumphed only for two reasons:
1. The Europeans built him a super-cannon.
2. The Byzantine (Greeks) generals were involved in discussing the sex of the angels.

This latter gave origin to the know expression 'to discuss the sex of the angels', well known today, and that means "to discuss about useless and futile things, while the importance of the world flows past you"

Where do you have the "angel story" from?

Urban of Hungary, who seems to have learned his trade in France. Urban designed and cast 70 great cannon. The largest piece, named "Basilica", was of cast iron reinforced with hoops, weighing in excess of 19 tons and firing a ball of some 800 pounds. The gun was something of a white elephant; it required 42 days for a team of 60 oxen to drag the thing 120 miles, despite the fact that the barrel was made in two pieces which screwed together, thereby making it theoretically easier to move. Morover, it took hours to load and its maximum rate of fire was no more than three shots a day.

http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Cannon_a.htm


After this and other sources it was a forgotten gate which made the victory easy finally...
http://www.zeit.de/2003/23/A-T_9frken
A good source in German.