Byzantium & Friends

A conversation with Christian Raffensperger (Wittenberg University) -- one hundred episodes after our previous one! -- on medieval European rulership from Iberia and Scandinavia to Rus' and Constantinople. We talk about succession and co-rulership and titles in ways that don't prioritize the British, French, and German models. Christian develops this more inclusive paradigm in his recent book Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000-1200 (Routledge 2024).

A conversation with Olivier Hekster (Radboud University Nijmegen) about the position of Roman emperor, from the beginning to the sixth century. We talk a little bit about titles and mostly about the expectations that subjects had of their emperors and how the latter navigated these demands and tried, or failed, to play their roles properly. The conversation is based on Olivier's recent book Caesar Rules: The Emperor in the Changing Roman World (c. 50 BC - AD 565) (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

A conversation with Daphne Penna (University of Groningen) about Byzantine law, or (what it really was) the Greek-language phase of Roman law. We talk about the study of east Roman law, its experts (both then and now), and the interaction of Greek and Latin in legal texts. What did the law do and what do we learn from studying it? For an accessible introduction to the main sources, see the anthology edited by Daphne Penna and Roos Meijering, A Sourcebook on Byzantine Law: Illustrating Byzantine Law through the Sources (Brill 2022).

Jesse Torgerson (Wesleyan University) and I take a stab at understanding time, as it was measured, structured, and experienced in so many overlapping ways by Christian east Romans. Their days, months, and years were defined by the state tax cycle, the Church festival cycle, and nature itself, to name the most important temporal grids. Jesse's recent monograph focuses on an author (or two) who made interesting innovations in chronology: The Chronographia of George the Synkellos and Theophanes: The Ends of Time in Ninth-Century Constantinople (Brill 2022).

A conversation with Diana Mishkova (Center for Advanced Study, Sofia) about how the national historiographies of Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania cope with Byzantium -- how they try to appropriate, incorporate, circumvent, or abjure it, and so always reinvent it in the process. The conversation is based on Diana's comprehensive and lucid analysis in her recent book Rival Byzantiums: Empire and Identity in Southeastern Europe (Cambridge University Press 2023).

A conversation with Ben Anderson (Cornell University) and returning guest Mirela Ivanova (University of Sheffield) on their co-edited volume of papers on the question Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? Toward a Critical Historiography (Penn State University Press 2023). We talk about how colonial, imperialist, or exploitative practices and ideologies have marked the history of our field, whether by making it complicit in them or by colonizing it. You can access Ben and Mirela's compelling introduction to the volume here.

In this episode, Marion and I talk about our new co-authored book, The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361-630 (Cambridge University Press, 2023). For those interested in the military history of this period, this book contains a downright mutinous revision of the organization of the East Roman field armies and the changing priorities behind their deployments. We also take the opportunity to discuss revisionist scholarship in general, the kinds we like and those we would court-martial.

A conversation with Peter Heather (King's College, London) about his new book Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300 (New York: Knopf, 2023). Peter is one of the leading historians of the fall of the western Roman empire and the emergence there of the post-Roman, "barbarian" kingdoms. He now brings a revisionist approach to the emergence of the Church in (mostly western) Europe. This book covers a lot of ground, and so we focus on the early period, where his arguments affect the east too. We talk about the role of contingency, the near-miss of Homoian Christianity, the decisive role of secular rulers, and much more.

A conversation with Jennifer Westerfeld (University of Louisville) on the scripts that were used to write ancient Egyptian, especially hieroglyphs. Their last attested use was in the 390s AD, putting the end of their long history in our period. Meanwhile, Greek, Roman, and Christian observers were developing their own theories about how the script worked, often quite fantastic, and reacted to texts that were inscribed in public spaces. The conversation is based on Jennifer's fascinating book Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination (University of Pennsylvania Press 2019). For more on Coptic in this period, see episode 13.

A conversation with Timothy Miller (Salisbury University) about philanthropic institutions in Constantinople, especially hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria. Tim has done more than anyone to illuminate these remarkable places, starting with his impressive monograph The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Johns Hopkins University Press 1985, 2nd ed. 1997). His current thinking on hospitals, orphanages, leprosaria can be found in the chapter 'Philanthropic Institutions,' in S. Bassett, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Constantinople (Cambridge 2022) 245-261.

A conversation with Valentina Grasso (Bard College) on Arabia before Islam. This used to be known primarily from preserved Arabic poetry, but the picture is now filling in from inscriptions and contemporary texts. There were competing kingdoms, tribal coalitions, and foreign empires with a stake in trade routes. There were pagans, Jews, and Christians, as well as generic or "cautious" monotheists. The cultural background of the Koran has never been known in such richness and complexity. The conversation is based on Valentina's recent book, Pre-Islamic Arabia: Societies, Politics, Cults, and Identities during Late Antiquity (Cambridge 2023).

A conversation with Jeremy Swist (Brandeis University) on why some heavy metal bands write music about Roman and Byzantine history. Expect "good" and "bad" emperors to be reversed here! Jeremy has published much on this, including 'Satan's Empire: Ancient Rome's Anti-Christian Appeal in Extreme Metal,' Metal Music Studies 5 (2019) 35-51; 'Headbanging to Byzantium: The Reception of the Byzantine Empire in Metal Music,' in "What Byzantinism is this in Istanbul!" Byzantium in Popular Culture (Istanbul 2021) 200-231; and online, 'Enjoy My Flames' (Lapham's Quarterly) and 'Dawn of a Dark Age: Constantine the Great in Heavy Metal Music.'

A wide-ranging conversation with Jacques Berlinerblau (Georgetown University) on the changing nature of the academic profession, especially regarding the erosion of academic freedom through the expansion of contingent academic labor and direct attacks on it by the states. Is research becoming increasingly vulnerable to outside political pressures? The conversation is based partly on Jacques's book Campus Confidential: How College Works, or Doesn’t, for Professors, Parents, and Students (Melville House, 2017), and partly on articles that he has written for news outlets, including MSNBC and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

A conversation with Anna Sitz (Universität Heidelberg) on how Byzantines read ancient inscriptions - or modified, re-used, and defaced them. Ancient cities were full of inscribed texts, many on temple walls or referring to the gods in prominent ways. How did Christians cope with these monuments when they took over the cities of Greece and Asia Minor? We talk about a number of cases, including the massive inscription of Augustus' Res Gestae in Ankara. The conversation is based on Anna's book Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers: The Afterlives of Temples and Their Texts in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean (Oxford University Press 2023).

A conversation with Anna Henderson (ARC Humanities Press) about the world of academic publishing today, including its challenges, opportunities, and aspirations. ARC is a fairly recent venture, but has already published a number of excellent books in medieval studies (including on Byzantium). You can find out more about it here: https://www.arc-humanities.org In fact, the very first episode of this podcast was on a book published by ARC.

A conversation with Robin Fleming (Boston College) about how the lives and material circumstances of people in Roman Britain changed when the imperial state and its economy withdrew from the island in the fifth century AD. Among other topics, we talk about food, skills, recycling of materials, and adaptation. The conversation is based on Robin's recent book The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 AD (University of Pennsylvania Press 2021).

A conversation with Richard Calis (Utrecht University) about Martin Crusius (aka Kraus: 1526-1607 AD), one of the first philologist-historians who tried to reconstruct Byzantine history from the sources. We talk about his interest in the Greek language and the Ottoman empire, in using Byzantine sources to understand antiquity, and his working methods -- all in an era before there was much scholarship to guide him. The conversation is based on Richard's chapter 'Martin Crusius's Lost Byzantine Legacy,' in N. Aschenbrenner and J. Ransohoff, eds., The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2021) 105-142.

A conversation with Fotini Kondyli (University of Virginia) about our changing picture of rural communities in late Byzantium, based on her book Rural Communities in Late Byzantium: Resilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean (Cambridge University Press 2022). 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.

A conversation with Anna Kelley (University of St. Andrews) 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. The conversation is based on Anna's article 'Searching for Professional Women in the Mid to Late Roman Textile Industry,' Past and Present 258 (2023) 3-43. You can read that article at https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtac007

A conversation with Scott Bruce (Fordham University) 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? The conversation is based on Scott's recent anthology, The Penguin Book of Dragons (2021), which has a chapter on Byzantine dragons.

A conversation with Amanda Luyster (College of the Holy Cross) 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 (UK), a royal commission that evoked the Crusades with artistic allusions to Byzantium and the Islamic world. The exhibition, Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece, will run from 26 January to 6 April, 2023, at the Cantor Art Gallery in Worcester, MA, so catch it if you are in the region. There is a companion volume too, edited by Amanda, with the same title, on which our conversation is based.

A conversation with Paul Stephenson (Penn State University) 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. Paul integrates the recent science of Roman lead into his history of the empire, in New Rome: The Empire in the East (Harvard University Press 2022).

In this end-of-the-year episode, guest host Marion Kruse (University of Cincinnati) interviews me about 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? What pitfalls did I identify in writing my new history of Byzantium, and how did I try to avoid falling into them? (Apologies for the self-indulgent length of this episode. I was too busy talking and didn't keep good track of the time.)

A conversation with Jake Ransohoff (Simon Fraser University) 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? The conversation is based on Jake's dissertation (Sightless Eyes, Broken Bodies: Blinding, Punishment, and the Politics of Disability in the Byzantine World, Harvard University, 2022).

A conversation with Leslie Brubaker (University of Birmingham) 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. Where we stand now has been lucidly presented by Leslie in her Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm (Bristol Classical Press 2012).

A conversation with Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) 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? The conversation is based on Nic's just-released book The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books 2022).

A conversation with Linda Safran (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto) on the hitherto-unexplored world of Byzantine diagrams. We talk about maps, sundials, and more abstract representations of the world and even God. The conversation is based on Linda's papers in a volume she co-edited, The Diagram as Paradigm: Cross-Cultural Approaches (Dumbarton Oaks 2022), as well as "A Prolegomenon to Byzantine Diagrams,” in the edited volume The Visualization of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Brepols 2020) 361-382. Also check out her dynamic website on medieval art and architecture.

A conversation with Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan) 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. The conversation is based on Paroma's recent book Between the Pagan Past and Christian Present in Byzantine Visual Culture: Statues in Constantinople, 4th-13th Centuries CE (Cambridge University Press 2021).

A conversation with Dan Caner (Indiana University) 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? The conversation is based on Dan's recent book The Rich and the Pure: Philanthropy and the Making of Christian Society in Early Byzantium (University of California Press 2021).

A conversation with Kim Bowes (University of Pennsylvania) 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? The conversation is based on a paper on "Household Economics in the Roman Empire and Early Christianity," forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Households, and earlier publications, including The Roman Peasant Project 2009-2014: Excavating the Roman Rural Poor (Penn Museum/University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021); “Tracking Liquid Savings at Pompeii: The Coin Hoard Data," Journal of Roman Archaeology 35 (2022) 1-27; and “Tracking Consumption at Pompeii: The Graffiti Lists,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 34 (2021) 552-584.

A conversation with Sergey Ivanov (Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the University of Munich; corresponding member of the British Academy) 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 conversation is based on Sergey's recent book In Search of Constantinople: A Guidebook through Byzantine Istanbul and Its Surroundings, tr. by Sara Buzadzhi and D. Hoffman, ed. David Hendricks (Istanbul: The Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2022).

A conversation with Jonathan Hall (University of Chicago) 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? The conversation is based on Jonathan's book Reclaiming the Past: Argos and its Archaeological Heritage in the Modern Era (Cornell University Press 2021).

A conversation with Eleni Kefala (University of St. Andrews) 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? The conversation is based on Eleni's book The Conquered: Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C. 2020).

A conversation with Gabriel Radle (University of Notre Dame) on the question of why and when adolescent girls or women "bound up" their hair. Which women did so, and under what circumstances? What kind of headgear was involved? And how did the Byzantine practice compare with that in other societies, ancient and medieval? Our discussion is based on Gabriel's article 'The Veiling of Women in Byzantium: Liturgy, Hair, and Identity in a Medieval Rite of Passage,' Speculum 94 (2019) 1070-1115.

A conversation with Stratis Papaioannou (University of Crete) 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? We talk also about how much of it has survived, and how much might have been lost. The conversation was prompted by the release of Stratis' edited volume,The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature (Oxford University Press 2021).

A conversation with Siren Çelik (Marmara University) 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? The conversation is based on Siren's recent book, Manuel II Palaiologos (1350-1425): A Byzantine Emperor in a Time of Tumult (Cambridge University Press 2021).

A conversation with Alexander Olson (independent scholar, British Columbia, Canada) 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 conversation is based on Alex's fascinating book, Environment and Society in Byzantium, 650-1150: Between the Oak and the Olive (Palgrave Macmillan 2020).

A conversation with Oana-Maria Cojocaru (Tempere University, Finland) about the images of Byzantine children in our sources, and the experiences that they would have had, once they made it past infancy. Our discussion forms a nice sequel to that with Christian Laes on childbirth (episode 66), and is based on Oana's recent book Byzantine Childhood: Representations and Experiences of Children in Middle Byzantine Society (Routledge 2022).

A conversation with Filippomaria Pontani (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) 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. In addition to manuscripts, we talk about commentaries, lexika, and encyclopedias. The conversation is based on the magisterial survey that Filippomaria published recently, 'Scholarship in the Byzantine Empire (529-1453),' in the volume History of Ancient Greek Scholarship from the Beginnings to the End of the Byzantine Age, ed. F. Montanari (Brill 2020).

In a fun romp through some of the foibles, evasions, pretensions, and generally bad habits of scholarship, Tina 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? Dedicated listeners will know Tina (Ohio State University) from episodes 4 and 21; she is a veritable co-host of the show.

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. We discuss the sad fact of infant mortality, the first days of children who survived, and the difficult choices that families had to make if the mother did not survive, but the child did. What was the emotional and demographic impact of the perils of childbirth? The conversation is based on two of Christian's papers, 'Infants between Biological and Social Birth in Antiquity,' Historia 63 (2014) 364-383; and 'Motherless Infancy in the Roman and the Late Ancient World,' in the volume Missing Mothers: Maternal Absence in Antiquity (Leuven 2021) 15-41.

A conversation with Silvia Ronchey (University of Roma Tre) about the famous philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who was murdered in the early fifth century by goons working for Cyril, the bishop of the city. Who was she? What traditions gave her a position of social prominence? To what degree may she be considered a feminist icon? The conversation is based on Silvia's book Hypatia: The True Story, issued now in English translation (de Gruyter 2021). At the end we also talk a bit about the film Agora.

A conversation with Michael Grünbart (University of Münster) about the problem of imperial decision-making. Byzantine emperors are often presented to us as perfectly virtuous monarchs favored by God, but can we pull the veil away from this image and understand the difficult conditions under which they had to make decisions that could potentially cost them their throne? Whom did they consult? How and why did they delegate? Did they have experts? Data? When could they avoid making decisions? As someone in academic middle-management, these questions cut close to home!

A conversation with Jack Tannous (Princeton University) about the "simple believers" who made up the majority of the population of Byzantium (as well as the caliphate and just about any premodern monotheistic society). They probably knew little about the minutiae of theology, but what did they know about their faith, and how important was theology for their religious identity? The discussion is based on Jack's recent book The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers (Princeton University Press, 2018), which highlights the role of religious practice and interpersonal attachments.

A conversation with Jen Ball (City University of New York) and Betsy Williams (Dumbarton Oaks, also episode 47) on the study of Byzantine dress and fashion. How do we know what people wore? Was clothing gendered? Why are dress and jewelry studied separately? And can we talk about fashion in Byzantium, or was fashion, as some believe, a modern development? For an excellent introduction to these problems, see Jen's book Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Dress in Eighth- to Twelfth-Century Painting (New York: Palgrave 2005).

A conversation with Hartmut Leppin (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main) about how one could be a Roman in Syriac, focusing on the sixth-century author John of Ephesos, otherwise known as Yuhannan from Amida. If one could be Roman in Greek (which is what we call "Byzantium"), why not also in Syriac? The discussion is based on Hartmut's study of "The Roman Empire in John of Ephesus' Church History: Being Roman, Writing Syriac," in P. Van Nuffelen, ed., Historiography and Space in Late Antiquity(Cambridge University Press 2019) 113-135.

A conversation with Adam Goldwyn (North Dakota State University) about first-person narratives whose protagonists experience foreign conquest, captivity, enslavement, degradation, humiliation, and loss of rights. It is based on his recent book Witness Literature in Byzantium: Narrating Slaves, Prisoners, and Refugees (Palgrave MacMillan 2021), which uses comparisons to the literature of the Holocaust and the Atlantic slave trade to illuminate the insights of Byzantine texts that represent similar personal experiences. Can Byzantine literature speak powerfully to these transhistorical traumas? How can we activate it to do so?

A conversation with Polymnia Athanassiadi (University of Athens) about the way of life that ended in late antiquity. Scholars of Byzantium and the Middle Ages may see this as a period of new beginnings, but Polymnia doesn't want us to forget the practices and urban values that came to an end during it. The conversation touches on issues raised throughout her papers collected in Mutations of Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Variorum Ashgate 2015), as well as the concept of "monodoxy" explored in Vers la pensée unique: La montée de l'intolerance dans l'Antiquité tardive (Les Belles Lettres 2010).

A conversation with Elena Boeck (DePaul University) about her recent book The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople: The Cross-Cultural Biography of a Mediterranean Monument (Cambridge University Press 2021). Though it is often overlooked today, Justinian's column and colossal statue, which stood for a thousand years next to Hagia Sophia, defined the City almost as much as the Great Church itself. We talk about the symbolism, history, and the engineering of this monument.

A conversation with Roderick Beaton (King's College London, emeritus) on his new book The Greeks: A Global History (Basic Books 2021). We discuss different ways to define who "the Greeks" were and are (in Byzantium Graikos meant a "Greek-speaker"); the diversity of groups that make up this story; how Byzantium can be featured in a diachronic history of Greek-speakers without being overlooked in favor of the ancients and moderns (as tends often to happen); and what might tie these Greeks together in a way that doesn't quite work for, say, "the English-speaking peoples."