The History of Byzantium

As soon as news reached the West that Jerusalem had fallen a new Crusade was called. The German, French and English Kings all led armies East but only Frederick Barbarossa went by land. He led a large army across the Balkans towards Constantinople and Isaac Angelos had to decided whether to treat him as friend or foe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I speak to author Ben Duval, author of the book: "Saladin the Strategist: How the Crusaders Lost the Holy Land."We go through Saladin's career starting with how he captured Egypt. Then how he built the coalition which defeated the Crusaders. Finally we watch on as he traps them at Hattin and then sweeps across the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Buy the book here, follow Ben on twitter @byzantinemporia and find out more about his work here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Isaac Angelos begins his reign by defeating the Normans and making as many alliances as he can to secure his position. Unfortunately he rejects an offer from two Vlach Chieftains Peter and Asen. They turn on the Romans and found the Second Bulgarian Empire north of the Haemus Mountains. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andronikos continues to terrorise his relatives. Many leave Byzantium seeking help from foreign courts. One arrives in Sicily and calls on the Normans to help him. They launch an invasion and sack the city of Thessalonica. Period: 1184-85 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Manuel Komnenos died he left an 11 year old son as his heir. The Regency Council set up to protect him fails. Manuel's cousin Andronikos seizes the throne instead and begins a reign of terror.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk about why the Romans didn't have more success in fighting the Turks. Was there a better way to fight the nomads? Or was it not really about tactics but strategy?Period: 1070-1180 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We look around the Roman provinces in Anatolia to review their defensive situation and the lifestyle of its people. We also briefly talk about Turkic people who lived in Byzantium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We take a look around the parts of Anatolia which were controlled by Turkic peoples between 1080 and 1180 AD. We don’t have a huge amount of written sources to draw on but hopefully there’s enough information available to give you a better picture of what’s been happening there. We also discuss the two different groups of Turkic peoples in Anatolia - the settled and the nomads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On my last update I told you that because of my forthcoming fatherhood – I would be switching to a season by season format from now on. Where there are periods of silence followed by a run of episodes altogether. That is still the case. But I am making an exception for 3 episodes which I’m going to release now.This triptych of episodes covers life in Anatolia during the Komnenian century. What was life like for Romans living under Turkic rule? What was life like in Imperial territory and an analysis of the military situation.These episodes are really more connected to the reign of Manuel than they are to the narrative which follows. So I thought I’d release these now while the Komnenian century is still fresh in your memory. Then the feed will go quiet for a while till the narrative returns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone, as you may remember our last episode was an interview with author Gordon Doherty. Gordon generously offered to give away a copy of his book – Strategos: Born in the Borderlands to one of you. We set a competition and a winner has been chosen. I will leave it to Gordon to tell you about the best entries he read and to announce the winner. I will just remind you all to check out https://www.gordondoherty.co.uk/ to learn more about his work.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.