On this day in 1453, the Roman Empire finally fell.

We usually date the “fall of Rome” to 476, when Odacer deposed Romulus Augustulus and assumed control of the city itself, but the Empire of the Romans lasted for nearly a thousand more years, controlled henceforth from Constantinople, the Eastern capital. We usually call this the Byzantine Empire, but the inhabitants never stopped referring to themselves as Romans.

There have been some truly awful events in the last couple of days that I hope to write about shortly, but right now, I’m still processing what I want to say. And unlike the current worldwide crisis, this one is entirely the fault of (in)humanity.

So I’m defaulting to history tonight, and will write more tomorrow.