2. The Battle of Blackwater Bay, an iconic moment in the War of the Five Kings, is a thinly disguised and compressed fantasy regurgitation of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople
The largest battle in the War of the Five Kings, the Battle of Blackwater Bay was an attempt by the forces of Stannis Baratheon to capture the capital city of King’s Landing. Combining a large naval assault, followed by an amphibious landing, the attack was rebuffed by soldiers under the command of Tyrion Lannister. Although reinforcements led by Twin Lannister earned the glory, the victory was due, in no small part, to the use of wildfire by the king’s forces to decimate the Baratheon fleet. Although compressing the events into a single night, the famed battle depicted in Game of Thrones is actually a retelling of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople.
Lasting for more than a year, from 717 to 718, the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate sought to breach the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. Protected by the massive Theodosian Walls, the attacking forces were unable to penetrate the city and instead opted to encircle and blockade the city into submission. However, their naval blockade was breached by Byzantine ships wielding the aforementioned “Greek fire” and permitted the capital to be resupplied by sea. Attacked by Christian reinforcements from the rear, the Arabs were forced to retreat, suffering the near-total destruction of their fleet and loss of approximately 100,000 men.