Coping with pandemics in Byzantium, with Tina Sessa and Kyle Harper
This episode looks at Byzantine reactions to pandemics. What was the threshold of social visibility for a pandemic anyway? What could the government do to help? What imaginative and social resources were activated in times of pandemic?
The grain supply of the Byzantine empire revisited: history, archaeology, palynology
We’re going to talk about in this paper the way the production of cereal, such as wheat, barley, millet and so forth, developed and was managed across the Byzantine period.
Carolingian and Byzantine practices of empire compared, with Jennifer Davis
A conversation with Jennifer Davis on the study of empire in a medieval context, contrasting the different ways in which Charlemagne and the Byzantine emperors ran theirs. What do we mean by empire after all?
Byzantine soft power in an age of decline, with Cecily Hilsdale
A conversation with Cecily Hilsdale about the coping strategies that late Byzantium used to counter, ameliorate, and reverse its imperial decline.
Treasure hoard of sixth-century coins discovered in Russia
Russian archaeologists have discovered a cache of coins dating back to the sixth century, at Phanagoria along the Black Sea. The 80 coins, known as copper staters, were found in a layer of rubble from a fire that destroyed much of that city.
The Medieval Travel Guide of Cristoforo Buondelmonti
Cristoforo Boundelmonti’s 15th-century guide to the islands and lands around the Aegean Sea is a traveller’s delight.
Crowd behavior in imperial Rome and Constantinople, with Daniëlle Slootjes
As our own political world is increasingly revolving around mass protests, it is time to revisit what we know about the dynamics of crowds in imperial Roman cities, whether they acted for or against the regime of the day.
Life on the Byzantine-Arab Frontier
A look at the long-lasting conflict between the Byzantine and Abbasid empires.
When does Roman history end and Byzantine begin? with Marion Kruse
By what standards can anyone say that Roman history ends at some point and Byzantine history begins? Or is Byzantine history rather a phase of Roman history?
Byzantine poetry on its own terms, with Marc Lauxtermann
We talk about how modern Romantic notions of poetry as well as the ancient meters of classical Greek have distorted the expectations that we place on Byzantine poetry, and then discuss the specific contexts that gave rise to poetry in Byzantine society. Who were the poets? How did poems accompany objects and events?
‘We knew not whether we were in Heaven or on Earth’: Justinian’s Hagia Sophia
Completed nearly 1,500 years ago, the Hagia Sophia is both an architectural masterpiece and a cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization
Reappraising the Silk Road: Byzantium and Ancient China
In this talk, as a Chinese byzantinist, I will present the recent focuses on Byzantium and ancient China along the Silk Road, based on which, to reappraise the significance of the Silk Road in the historical context.
How a Byzantine aqueduct in Constantinople was maintained for 700 years
One of the great technological accomplishments of the ancient Romans was the aqueducts they built to bring water long distances. New research has revealed that an aqueduct built in fourth-century Constantinople would remain in operation for over 700 years.
The story of a Byzantine military manual: Syrianos magistros and his compendium ‘Anonymus Byzantinus’
Who was Syrianos, and how did he come to be identified as the author of a collection of works of military nature that so deeply influenced the Byzantine literary genre of the military manuals in the 10th century?
What did Byzantine music sound like? (The answer is more political than you’d expect), with Alexander Lingas
A conversation with Alexander Lingas on the debates surrounding the reconstruction of Byzantine music. We discuss the common origins of western and eastern Christian traditions, when they parted ways, and how both traditions passed through phases of reinvention. Why does the modern performance of Gregorian Chant sound so different from Byzantine chant?
The double-headed eagle as a symbol in the Byzantine Empire: myths and realities
After the Holy Cross, perhaps no other symbol has been associated more closely with the history and fate of the Byzantine Empire than the double-headed eagle motif
Byzantine Orthodoxy and homosexuality, with Stephen Morris
A conversation with Stephen Morris about the attitudes toward male homosexuality in different sites of Byzantine culture and the prospects for an orthodox recognition…
The materiality of Byzantine objects, with Elizabeth Dospěl Williams
A conversation with Elizabeth Dospěl Williams on how people in Byzantium experienced the materiality of the objects they used, especially jewelry and textiles. We look at some of those objects together, discuss their qualities, and situate our engagement with material culture in broader discussions of historical theory.
Ravenna and Constantinople in the 6th-8th centuries
Judith Herrin addresses the status of Ravenna as the Byzantine Empire’s outpost in the West
The case for Shenute the Great and the Coptic tradition, with Sofia Torallas Tovar and David Brakke
A conversation with Sofia Torallas Tovar and David Brakke about Coptic Egypt, the life and works of Shenute the Great, and how Coptic and Byzantine Studies can talk more with each other, just as the people they study talked to each other in the fourth-seventh centuries.
Raiders, marauders, ravagers, and pirates: their impact on Byzantine life, with Alexander Sarantis
Who were these raiders? What did they want? How did provincials and the empire as a whole respond to them? A fear of marauders probably doesn’t keep you up at night today, but this was a major anxiety in Byzantine life.
Byzantine Studies in Turkey 2.0, with Siren Çelik
A conversation with Siren Çelik about the new generation of Turkish Byzantine scholars, and the paths by which one might come to study Byzantium in Turkey and beyond.
The Siege of Constantinople, 717-718 AD – The Use of Naval Power
The Byzantine Empire’s skilled use of naval power can be seen during the Umayyad attempt to capture Constantinople in 717-718.
Byzantine erotic epigrams, with Steven Smith
A conversation with Steven Smith about worldly and sinful epigrams from the sixth century that talk about love, sex, food, and other pleasures.