The History of Byzantium

A final reflection on why Byzantium quietly shaped the modern world. Topics include its fusion of Christianity with Roman bureaucracy and Greek thought. Discussion covers Byzantium's role in Islam's formation, the rise of jihad, and Justinian's lasting legal code. Also explored: how Byzantium enabled Western maritime expansion, preserved texts for the Renaissance, and forged identities across Orthodox, Greek, Turkish, and Russian histories.

A final Q&A covers a playful acrostic of eleven Constantines and brisk mini-bios for each. Favourite and least favourite rulers get quick takes. He picks historical figures he'd dine with, casts a Monty Python style Fourth Crusade, and names fly-on-the-wall moments he'd witness. Production lessons, personal memories tied to research, and thoughts on legitimacy, violence, and Byzantium on screen round out the conversation.

Anthony Kaldellis, a University of Chicago scholar of Byzantine history, explains how Eastern Romans long called themselves Romans and how Greek-speaking identities evolved. He discusses legal versus ethnic labels, Ottoman-era Roman communities, the 18th–19th century Hellenic turn among elites, and how revolution, state-building, and modern nationalism shifted identities.

Nicholas Morton, Associate Professor and author of The Crusader Storm, uses individual stories to reveal the Crusades' complexity. He discusses demography and army composition, everyday cultural mixing and Levantinization, women ruling on the frontier, the military orders’ purpose and effectiveness, and cross-cultural innovation from ships to medicine.

A lively rundown of ten Byzantine rulers judged remarkably harmful to the state. Topics include massacres and political collapse, betrayal by alliances with foreign forces, and how appeals to Crusaders led to extortion and the sack of the capital. Listeners hear about military neglect, flight from danger, dynastic shortsightedness, blinding and other brutal power plays.

A lively Q&A covering Byzantine sources of gold like trade, mines and tribute. Discussion of why Greek never split into Romance languages and how Romanian Latin survived north of the Danube. Exploration of Byzantine polo as a dangerous elite sport with Persian roots. Brief looks at how emperors knew their predecessors and why nomads’ herds were rarely targeted.

Questions about the Secret History and why Procopius might have written it. A dive into iconoclasm as an elite movement and debates over Macedonian origins. Tales of palace murder and how naming politics kept the Ducas name alive. The decline of eunuchs after 1204 and the mystery of thorn relics and Byzantine coronation regalia.

A deep dive into Trebizond under the Grand Komnenoi from 1297 to 1453. Covers shifting trade pressure from Genoese and Venetian rivals and ties with Crimean ports. Traces dynastic turmoil, coups, and plague-driven upheaval. Follows diplomacy with Georgia, Constantinople, and Turco-Mongol powers leading to final Ottoman confrontation and the fate of the Komnenoi.

A lively tour of Trebizond’s rise under the Komnenoi from 1204 to 1297. Listeners hear how geography and fortifications made the city nearly impregnable. The narrative follows shifting alliances with Seljuks, Mongols, Georgians, and Byzantium. Trade, multicultural marketplaces, coinage booms, and Italian merchant rivalries shape the port’s golden but precarious prosperity.

A rapid tour of counterfactuals that ask how different choices might have altered Byzantine fate. Major turning points are weighed from Justinian's Nika crisis to Manzikert and the Fourth Crusade. Alternate histories explore missed recoveries after 1204, Komnenian chances, Ottoman emergence, and vivid what-if scenarios like holding Antioch or avoiding the fleet loss.