Picture this.
It is the last speech of the last Roman emperor on the last day of the Roman Empire.
Constantinople, which is now essentially a ghost town, is surrounded on all sides and is under siege by the Ottoman Turks. The Theodosian walls which have repelled assaults for over a thousand years are being blasted by a gigantic cannon that had been sold to the Turks by a Hungarian engineer. The Turks would later overrun the Balkans and conquer Hungary due to this unbelievable act of treachery.
Constantine XI calls the Turks dumb savages and reminds his beleagured forces who know they are doomed that they are the descendants of the Greeks and the Romans:
“For these reasons, my fellow soldiers, prepare yourselves, be firm, and remain valiant, for the pity of God. Take your example from the few elephants of the Carthaginians and how they dispersed the numerous cavalry of the Romans with their noise and appearance. If one dumb beast put another to flight, we, the masters of horses and animals, can surely even do better against our advancing enemies, since they are dumb animals, worse even than pigs. Present your shield, swords, arrows, and spears to them, imagining that you are a hunting party after wild boars, so that the impious may learn that they are dealing not with dumb animals but with their lords and masters, the descendants of the Greeks and the Romans.”
The Byzantines lost with dignity.
Sure, the Byzantine crown jewels had been pawned to the Venetians, but that was due to the dismal state of the empire in its last two centuries. It is not like they erected a statue of Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square or melted down a statue of Robert E. Lee or threw open the gates of Constantinople and ushered the Turks into Europe because of White guilt. They weren’t eager to be replaced.
On the contrary, they fought to the end to preserve what was theirs and to save their people.
Today we have a different situation, a replacement and leftists that are allowing it.