Well, I must say that Minas Tirith WAS (to my memory) quite a mixed bag of cultures, certainly more so than any of the other cities. Perhaps Eriador had more of a mix, but elf cities, dwarf dwellings, Rohan and Mirkwood kept to themselves mostly, whereas MT had all of the coastal regions coming and going, and many peoples seeking refuge there.
I think the Byzantine Empire's decline during the Dark Ages is the most similar to Gondor's decline than any other historical event, also the fact that they remained the most sophisticated and advanced than other cultures in many ways even when in decline. Their population suffered like Gondor's mainly because of plague, civil war and foreign mass invasions (say, the Wainriders).
I also find it interesting that in Middle Earth's First Age, evil came from the North, which correlates to Germanic invasions of Rome... likewise in the Second Age it was decay of society in Westernesse, like the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and in the Third Age it came from the East, which is where the Byzantine Empire was conquered from.
**Great Turkish Bombard = Grond**
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Also, the main difference is that Vienna just like MT withstood the assault, while Constantinople did not.
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Well, fair enough.
