Oh right, there was that one also. Somehow completely forgot about Medieval 2 (was more of a Rome player).

But my knowledge of their existence comes more from the fact that I was dumb enough to take Latin in school. We had to translate letters by the German ambassador (Busbecq) to the Ottoman Empire from when he was sent to Byzantium Constantinople Kostantiniyye Istanbul (the wiki-article about the names of the city alone is fascinating).