x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Byzantium & Friends

Byzantium & Friends

Conversations with experts in the history of Byzantium and surrounding fields, hosted by Anthony Kaldellis.

history courses

All Episodes

01:03:23

102. Byzantium and Balkan national identities, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/10/19

A conversation with Diana Mishkova (Center for Advanced Study, Sofia) about how the national historiographies of Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania cope with Byzantium -- how they try to appropriate, incorporate, circumvent, or abjure it, and so always reinvent it in the process. The conversation is based on Diana's comprehensive and lucid analysis in her recent book Rival Byzantiums: Empire and Identity in Southeastern Europe (Cambridge University Press 2023).

en-us

01:12:26

101. How to de-colonize Byzantine Studies, with Ben...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/10/05

A conversation with Ben Anderson (Cornell University) and returning guest Mirela Ivanova (University of Sheffield) on their co-edited volume of papers on the question Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? Toward a Critical Historiography (Penn State University Press 2023). We talk about how colonial, imperialist, or exploitative practices and ideologies have marked the history of our field, whether by making it complicit in them or by colonizing it. You can access Ben and Mirela's

en-us

01:01:54

100. Our new book on the armies, and on revisionism...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/09/21

In this episode, Marion and I talk about our new co-authored book, The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361-630 (Cambridge University Press, 2023). For those interested in the military history of this period, this book contains a downright mutinous revision of the organization of the East Roman field armies and the changing priorities behind their deployments. We also take the opportunity to discuss revisionist scholarship in general, the kinds we like and those we would court-martial.

en-us

01:02:16

99. A new history of medieval Christianity, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/09/07

A conversation with Peter Heather (King's College, London) about his new book Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300 (New York: Knopf, 2023). Peter is one of the leading historians of the fall of the western Roman empire and the emergence there of the post-Roman, "barbarian" kingdoms. He now brings a revisionist approach to the emergence of the Church in (mostly western) Europe. This book covers a lot of ground, and so we focus on the early period, where his arguments affect the east

en-us

01:03:16

98. Egyptian hieroglyphs in late antiquity, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/07/13

A conversation with Jennifer Westerfeld (University of Louisville) on the scripts that were used to write ancient Egyptian, especially hieroglyphs. Their last attested use was in the 390s AD, putting the end of their long history in our period. Meanwhile, Greek, Roman, and Christian observers were developing their own theories about how the script worked, often quite fantastic, and reacted to texts that were inscribed in public spaces. The conversation is based on Jennifer's fascinating

en-us

01:01:35

97. The remarkable world of hospitals, orphanages,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/06/29

A conversation with Timothy Miller (Salisbury University) about philanthropic institutions in Constantinople, especially hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria. Tim has done more than anyone to illuminate these remarkable places, starting with his impressive monograph The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Johns Hopkins University Press 1985, 2nd ed. 1997). His current thinking on hospitals, orphanages, leprosaria can be found in the chapter 'Philanthropic Institutions,' in S. Bassett,

en-us

01:00:30

96. Pre-Islamic Arabia, with Valentina Grasso

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/06/15

A conversation with Valentina Grasso (Bard College) on Arabia before Islam. This used to be known primarily from preserved Arabic poetry, but the picture is now filling in from inscriptions and contemporary texts. There were competing kingdoms, tribal coalitions, and foreign empires with a stake in trade routes. There were pagans, Jews, and Christians, as well as generic or "cautious" monotheists. The cultural background of the Koran has never been known in such richness and complexity. The

en-us

01:06:23

95. Rome and Byzantium in Heavy Metal music, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/06/01

A conversation with Jeremy Swist (Brandeis University) on why some heavy metal bands write music about Roman and Byzantine history. Expect "good" and "bad" emperors to be reversed here! Jeremy has published much on this, including 'Satan's Empire: Ancient Rome's Anti-Christian Appeal in Extreme Metal,' Metal Music Studies 5 (2019) 35-51; 'Headbanging to Byzantium: The Reception of the Byzantine Empire in Metal Music,' in "What Byzantinism is this in Istanbul!" Byzantium in Popular Culture (Istanbul

en-us

01:05:09

94. What academic tenure does for you (yes, you!),...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/05/18

A wide-ranging conversation with Jacques Berlinerblau (Georgetown University) on the changing nature of the academic profession, especially regarding the erosion of academic freedom through the expansion of contingent academic labor and direct attacks on it by the states. Is research becoming increasingly vulnerable to outside political pressures? The conversation is based partly on Jacques's book Campus Confidential: How College Works, or Doesn’t, for Professors, Parents, and Students (Melville

en-us

01:04:37

93. The afterlife of pagan inscriptions in Byzantium,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/05/04

A conversation with Anna Sitz (Universität Heidelberg) on how Byzantines read ancient inscriptions - or modified, re-used, and defaced them. Ancient cities were full of inscribed texts, many on temple walls or referring to the gods in prominent ways. How did Christians cope with these monuments when they took over the cities of Greece and Asia Minor? We talk about a number of cases, including the massive inscription of Augustus' Res Gestae in Ankara. The conversation is based on Anna's book Pagan

en-us

01:00:05

92. An insider’s guide to academic publishing, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/04/20

A conversation with Anna Henderson (ARC Humanities Press) about the world of academic publishing today, including its challenges, opportunities, and aspirations. ARC is a fairly recent venture, but has already published a number of excellent books in medieval studies (including on Byzantium). You can find out more about it here: https://www.arc-humanities.org In fact, the very first episode of this podcast was on a book published by ARC.

en-us

56:55

91. Scavenging in the ruins of empire, with Robin...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/04/06

A conversation with Robin Fleming (Boston College) about how the lives and material circumstances of people in Roman Britain changed when the imperial state and its economy withdrew from the island in the fifth century AD. Among other topics, we talk about food, skills, recycling of materials, and adaptation. The conversation is based on Robin's recent book The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 AD (University of Pennsylvania Press 2021).

en-us

53:54

90. At the dawn of Byzantine Studies: Martin Crusius...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/03/23

A conversation with Richard Calis (Utrecht University) about Martin Crusius (aka Kraus: 1526-1607 AD), one of the first philologist-historians who tried to reconstruct Byzantine history from the sources. We talk about his interest in the Greek language and the Ottoman empire, in using Byzantine sources to understand antiquity, and his working methods -- all in an era before there was much scholarship to guide him. The conversation is based on Richard's chapter 'Martin Crusius's Lost Byzantine

en-us

01:06:20

89. The resilience and agency of rural communities,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/03/09

A conversation with Fotini Kondyli (University of Virginia) about our changing picture of rural communities in late Byzantium, based on her book Rural Communities in Late Byzantium: Resilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean (Cambridge University Press 2022). We talk about resilience in times of crisis -- the fourteenth century was not an easy one! -- and about how we can reimagine and restore the power and agency of these rural non-elites. We also talk about survey archaeology, one of our

en-us

01:02:36

88. Women’s labor, with Anna Kelley

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/02/23

A conversation with Anna Kelley (University of St. Andrews) about women's labor and occupations in the Roman and later Roman empire. It turns out that they may have engaged in more types of business and workshop production, especially in textile manufacture and marketing, than contemporary gender norms suggest. The conversation is based on Anna's article 'Searching for Professional Women in the Mid to Late Roman Textile Industry,' Past and Present 258 (2023) 3-43. You can read that article at

en-us

57:39

87. Dragons! with Scott Bruce

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/02/09

A conversation with Scott Bruce (Fordham University) about dragons, ancient, medieval, and early modern, from around the world. Where did our "canonical" image of the dragon come from? What other kinds of dragons existed? What did dragons mean in different cultures? The conversation is based on Scott's recent anthology, The Penguin Book of Dragons (2021), which has a chapter on Byzantine dragons.

en-us

01:01:14

86. How to organize a museum exhibition – and bring...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/01/26

A conversation with Amanda Luyster (College of the Holy Cross) on how to organize a museum exhibition, from conception and design to securing the objects and planning events around it. We also talk about the famous tiles of Chertsey Abbey (UK), a royal commission that evoked the Crusades with artistic allusions to Byzantium and the Islamic world. The exhibition, Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece, will run from 26 January to 6

en-us

55:23

85. Lead mining and lead pollution in the Roman...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2023/01/12

A conversation with Paul Stephenson (Penn State University) about the impact of lead mining and smelting on the miners themselves, the communities around them, and on plants, animals, and human beings across the Roman empire. This is part of a broader and ongoing project on metallurgy and environmental violence. Paul integrates the recent science of Roman lead into his history of the empire, in New Rome: The Empire in the East (Harvard University Press 2022).

en-us

01:28:50

84. On writing narrative history, with guest-host...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2022/12/29

In this end-of-the-year episode, guest host Marion Kruse (University of Cincinnati) interviews me about writing narrative history. Why and how should we write narrative histories? What do they accomplish in the overall economy of the scholarly production of knowledge? What pitfalls did I identify in writing my new history of Byzantium, and how did I try to avoid falling into them? (Apologies for the self-indulgent length of this episode. I was too busy talking and didn't keep good track of the

en-us

01:06:14

83. Blinding as punishment and enforced disability,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2022/12/15

A conversation with Jake Ransohoff (Simon Fraser University) on the practice of blinding in Byzantium. Why and how was it done? Why was it more prominent in some periods rather than in others? And how did its victims cope with this disability that the state had imposed on them for (usually) crimes of treason? The conversation is based on Jake's dissertation (Sightless Eyes, Broken Bodies: Blinding, Punishment, and the Politics of Disability in the Byzantine World, Harvard University, 2022).

en-us

142 results

Similar Podcasts

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Variety Hour

Mechanical Music Radio

Historias de Terror PR

HISTORIAS DE TERROR PR

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai