A Byzantine man of affairs, with Dimitris Krallis
Could one rise from a provincial town to a position of power and wealth in the capital without having a military career?
Is it time to abandon the rubric “Byzantium”?, with Leonora Neville
A conversation with Leonora Neville on whether the scholarly rubric “Byzantium” does more harm than good. How did it come into being? What biases and ideologies, especially in the domain of gender, does it encode? What blind-spots and distortions does it create?
From India to Byzantium, with Paroma Chatterjee
A conversation with Paroma Chatterjee on Indian perspectives and approaches to Byzantium.
Ravenna, capital of empire between east and west, with Judith Herrin
A conversation with Judith Herrin about the fascinating history of Ravenna between 400 and 800 AD.
Byzantine tales of horror and the macabre
An anthology of Byzantine tales of horror. Learn about foul murders, demonic visitations, the undead, and the criminally insane; also, the Byzantine science of demonology and the spirit world.
The monastic experience, with Alice-Mary Talbot
A conversation with Alice-Mary Talbot on the experience of communal monastic life in Byzantium, ranging from its organization and rules to its religious goals, engagement with society, and differences between monasteries for men and women.
Hagia Sophia rediscovered, with Bissera Pentcheva
A conversation with Bissera Pentcheva about the sensory and spiritual experience of Hagia Sophia, where architecture, sound, and light met theology and prayer, based on her book Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium.
Manuscripts, databases, and the joys of Byzantine literature, with Dave Jenkins
A conversation with Dave Jenkins about how we read (and how to enjoy) Byzantine literature, from digitized manuscripts and online databases to the pleasures of Byzantine prose.
The study of Byzantine skeletons, with Chryssa Bourbou
A conversation with Chryssa Bourbou on what we learn from health and society in Byzantium from the study of skeletal remains.
Online workshop: Storyworlds in Collections. Toward a Theory of the Ancient and Byzantine Tale
The University of Cyprus is hosting an online workshop next month. Storyworlds in Collections: Toward a Theory of the Ancient and Byzantine Tale (2nd – 7th c. CE) will run on Zoom on December 4th and 5th.
Slavery in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with Noel Lenski
A conversation with Noel Lenski on “slave societies” and how the institution of slavery changed in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Were tasks performed by slaves in antiquity carried out by free people in Late Antiquity? What were the experiences of Byzantines who were themselves captured in raids and taken outside the empire?
The Fourth Crusade, as told by Robert de Clari
The Fourth Crusade is best known for being the campaign that attacked the Byzantine Empire in 1204. In this episode of The Medieval Podcast, Danièle is joined by Peter Konieczny to talk about Robert de Clari, who wrote one of the accounts of this unusual crusade. What did this French knight say about how the crusaders went from wanting to attack the Holy Land to conquering Constantinople?
Theophano: A Byzantine Tale, with Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel
A conversation with Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel, artists and creators of a graphic novel about a tenth-century Byzantine empress, Theophano: A Byzantine Tale.
Byzantium in Eastern Europe
Alice Isabella Sullivan and Maria Alessia Rossi preview their new book Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages
New Medieval Books: Theophano: A Byzantine Tale
A graphic novel by Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel
Western Fantasies about Byzantium, with Elena Boeck
A conversation about western fantasies, orientalism, and the making of Byzantium, with Elena Boeck
The Political Opposition to Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118)
Byzantium in the 11th century was marked by the struggle between the bureaucracy and the military landed aristocracy. The seizure of power by Alexios I was, therefore, the final victory of the latter.
The study of ethnic identities in Byzantium and beyond, with Brian Swain
This episode tackles listeners’ questions about Byzantine ethnic identities. How do groups within the Byzantine Empire change their identities? How are new identities born and old ones lost? How did the ancient Greeks become Romans and when did that become an ethnic identity? Where does genealogy and biology fit into all this? What happened to the Romans of the west? What did the Byzantines call their state and language? What does modern Romania have to do with Byzantine Romanía?
Environmental History and the Fall of Rome, with Kristina Sessa
Kristina Sessa discusses non-human causes of change – like climate and disease – that are being emphasized more than ever in the history of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium.
Anastasius the Librarian, the greatest enemy of Byzantium you probably haven’t heard of, with Réka Forrai
Meet Anastasius the Librarian, one of the most fascinating controversialists of the ninth century. A native of Rome, scholar of Greek, and (probably) anti-pope for all of three days, he was no friend of Byzantium. He disliked and mistrusted “the Greeks” and argued that they were not Romans as they thought. His arguments have held sway in the west ever since.
The Colonial Fourth Crusade, with George Demacopoulos
Was the Fourth Crusade an act of colonialism? This episode of Byzantium & Friends features an interview with George Demacopoulos, author of Colonizing Christianity: Greek and Latin Religious Identity in the Era of the Fourth Crusade.
The Vikings in the eyes of a Byzantine Emperor
De Administrando Imperio is one of the first Byzantine accounts of contact between their empire and the Vikings.
Ethnicity and empire in China and Byzantium, with Shao-yun Yang and Ying Zhang
How do imperial societies talk about barbarian or ethnic groups?
Byzantium in Modern Greek Life, with Dimitris Krallis
Where and how does one experience Byzantium in modern Greece today?