The resilience and agency of rural communities, with Fotini Kondyli
A conversation with Fotini Kondyli about our changing picture of rural communities in late Byzantium. 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 main tools for accessing these communities.
Women’s labor, with Anna Kelley
A conversation with Anna Kelley 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.
Dragons! with Scott Bruce
A conversation with Scott Bruce 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?
How to organize a museum exhibition – and bring the Holy Land home, with Amanda Luyster
A conversation with Amanda Luyster 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, a royal commission that evoked the Crusades with artistic allusions to Byzantium and the Islamic world.
Lead mining and lead pollution in the Roman world, with Paul Stephenson
A conversation with Paul Stephenson 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.
On 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?
Blinding as punishment and enforced disability, with Jake Ransohoff
A conversation with Jake Ransohoff 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?
What was First Iconoclasm about?, with Leslie Brubaker
A conversation with Leslie Brubaker on the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm (ca. 730 to 787 AD). What was the problem with religious icons? What did the “Isaurian” emperors Leon III and Konstantinos V try to do about it, and why? A great deal of what we used to know, largely by following pro-icon sources, has come undone in the latest research.
Surviving the Mongol Storm, with Nicholas Morton
A conversation with Nicholas Morton about the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century, the terror that they inspired, and the strategies by which its targets tried to survive them. What did the Mongols think they were doing and how did the Byzantines use diplomacy to deflect the danger and even use it to their advantage?
Diagrams: from sundials to the schematics of the Trinity, with Linda Safran
A conversation with Linda Safran on the hitherto-unexplored world of Byzantine diagrams. We talk about maps, sundials, and more abstract representations of the world and even God.
The enduring power of ancient statues in Constantinople, with Paroma Chatterjee
A conversation with Paroma Chatterjee on the power that ancient statues still had in Orthodox Constantinople. In many contexts, they were more prominent than icons. We talk about some of their functions, but also why Byzantine art history is so focused on icons, which were secluded objects, in comparison.
How to be philanthropic in early Byzantine Christianity, with Dan Caner
A conversation with Dan Caner about the different kinds of charitable giving in early Byzantium. We talk about the pre-Christian background, the role of institutions, and views about wealth. Was giving primarily good for the soul of the giver, and under what conditions, or for the material assistance of the needy? How could one give to ascetics, who had renounced such needs?
How did most people in the Roman empire get by? with Kim Bowes
A conversation with Kim Bowes about production and consumption in the Roman world, especially by the 90% of the population who are less represented in our literary sources. How did they get by from day to day? What alternatives does the evidence suggest to the “subsistence” model that many ancient historians have used?
Exploring the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, with Sergey Ivanov
A conversation with Sergey Ivanov on the monuments, buildings, and ruins of the Byzantine phase of the City’s history. We talk about how to explore them, how to access their history, and even get a feel for the lingering presence of the events that took place in them. We ponder what has been lost and what might yet be found.
The politics of archaeological heritage and reclamation, with Jonathan Hall
A conversation with Jonathan Hall about how the archaeological past of the city of Argos was reclaimed in the long nineteenth century. What institutions and political debates took shape around the heritage of the past? What role did the ancient travel writer Pausanias play in defining what the past was? What was the interplay between local, national, international, and imperial interests?
Laments for the Fall: Constantinople and Tenochtitlan in counterpoint, with Eleni Kefala
A conversation with Eleni Kefala on the fall of two empires, the Byzantine and the Aztec. What role did these momentous events play in the emerging identity of western Europe? And how were they experienced by the Romaioi and the native Mexica, especially through the laments that they wrote and sang about these events?
When did women “bind up” their hair, and why?, with Gabriel Radle
Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. You can follow him on his personal website.
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What do we mean by “Byzantine literature”?, with Stratis Papaioannou
A conversation with Stratis Papaioannou about the mismatch between modern ideas of literature (on the one hand) and the texts, conventions, and goals of Byzantine authors (on the other). In what sense are those texts “literature”? Should they be compared to classical texts, modern literature, neither, or both?
Manuel II Palaiologos (1350-1425) had a lot to say, with Siren Çelik
A conversation with Siren Çelik about the many personas that the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos crafted for himself in his surviving works. In fact, we have more writings from him — in many genres, and many of a personal nature — than from any prior Roman emperor. What was he hoping to accomplish and why is he worth reading?
Trees have histories too, with Alexander Olson
A conversation with Alexander Olson about the secret lives of olive trees and oak trees in Byzantium. Contrary to what you may think, these were not cultivated consistently in the Mediterranean ecosystem of the Middle Ages; their uses to the human population fluctuated over time, giving the trees a history of their own, albeit one shaped by that of the people around them (and vice versa).
The experiences of Byzantine children, with Oana-Maria Cojocaru
A conversation with Oana-Maria Cojocaru about the images of Byzantine children in our sources, and the experiences that they would have had once they made it past infancy.
Classical scholarship and philology in Byzantium, with Filippomaria Pontani
A conversation with Filippomaria Pontani on the ways that Byzantine scholars engaged with classical texts, and their place in the transmission and study of classical literature from antiquity to the present.
Wherein Tina and I take bad scholarly habits to task, with Tina Sessa
In a fun romp through some of the foibles, evasions, pretensions, and generally bad habits of scholarship, Tina Sessa and I take our fields to task for practices that make our eyes roll. Sure, we’ve probably been guilty of most of these too! But what better place to vent a bit than a podcast?
The perils of childbirth, with Christian Laes
A conversation with Christian Laes about one of the most joyous, dangerous, and often tragic, moments of life in antiquity and the Middle Ages: childbirth.