Byzantium & Friends

A conversation with Alessandra Bucossi (Ca' Foscari University) on the preoccupation with heresy in the twelfth century, which resulted in the production of a number of massive anti-heretical treatises. We discuss the historical context of their production, the empire's increasing engagement with the Latins and Armenians, whose Churches deviated from that of Constantinople in certain points, and the function of these works. The conversation is based on a team project on this topic that Alessandra headed up, which we will discuss in more detail in the sequel episode.

A conversation with Marica Cassis (University of Calgary) about the archaeological study of the east Roman world and how it interfaces with traditional, text-based historiography. What can archaeology see and what not? What challenges has it faced to emerge as a field and what are the prospects that it faces today? The conversation was inspired by Marica's introduction to Medieval Archaeology in the East Roman World (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2024).

A conversation with Alicia Walker (Bryn Mawr College) on the pseudo-Arabic inscriptions (or pseudo-kufic) that appear on a number of tenth- and eleventh-century churches in Greece, most notably at the monastery of Hosios Loukas. What did the Arabic script signify in Orthodox culture at the time if not tension with Islam? The conversation is based on Alicia's essay 'Letters from the Edge: Mapping Pseudo-Arabic between Byzantium and the Near East,' in E. Bolman et al., eds., Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East (Cambridge University Press 2024). Alicia also prepared a video version of...

A conversation with Kevin van Bladel (Yale University) on his proposal regarding "The Classical Near East," a constellation of fields defined by the classical literary traditions of medieval Near Eastern cultures, including Byzantium. We talk about languages, fields, classical traditions, translations, and more. The conversation is based on Kevin's chapter 'The Classical Near East' in E. S. Bolman et al., eds., Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East (Cambridge 2024) 79-97.

A conversation with Jana Matuszak, a Sumerologist, and Petra Goedegebuure, a Hittitologist (both University of Chicago) about the prospects for the survival of smaller academic disciplines that require specialized language skills. What critical mass of experts is needed? How can these fields be combined with others? Byzantine Studies is still larger than Sumerology and Hittitology, but the numbers of our full-time faculty is shrinking. How can our fields navigate an uncertain future?

A conversation with Kim Bowes (University of Pennsylvania) about her recent book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent (Princeton University Press 2025), which presents a brilliant new model of the Roman imperial economy, specifically for how the majority of the population experienced it. We talk about the skeletal evidence, monetization, affluence and precariousness, and levels of consumption. This is only a taste of the many exciting new arguments made in the book, which all of you should go read.

A conversation with Aaron Butts (University of Hamburg) on the conversion to Christianity of Ezana, the fourth-century king of Aksum (in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea). "Conversion" is a conventional term, but what Ezana's inscriptions and coins reveals is a complicated process of appealing to different groups and the coexistence of religions in his realm and the royal monuments. The conversation is based on Aaron's forthcoming paper 'Ezana of Aksum: The First Christian African King,' Aethiopica 28 (2025).

A conversation with Ellen Muehlberger (University of Michigan) about how some people in late antiquity tried to model, confirm, or interpret what they thought was going on in the minds of others. We briefly talk about the genre of the lecture book, and then about classroom exercises in impersonation (were they exercises in empathy or not?) and breaking into houses to see what people had in their private quarters. The conversation is based on Ellen's recent book Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World (University of California Press 2025).

A conversation with Ed Watts (University of California, San Diego) about his recent book, The Romans: A 2,000 Year History (Basic Books 2025), which covers two millennia of Roman history, down to 1204 AD. We talk about questions of scale in writing history, of continuity and discontinuity in the Roman experience, and what enabled this polity to last for so long. What insights does studying its second millennium (at Constantinople) cast on its first (at Rome), and vice versa?

A conversation with Mark Roosien (Yale University) about the earthquakes that struck Constantinople in late antiquity and about how emperors and the people of the City reacted to them in the moment. We focus on the church liturgies that commemorated and tried to make sense of them. The conversation is based on Mark's book Ritual and Earthquakes in Constantinople: Liturgy, Ecology, and Empire (Cambridge University Press 2024).

A conversation with James Rives (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) on the history of ancient animal sacrifice in the Roman world. We focus on its decline and eventual demise in the third and fourth centuries. Animal sacrifice was caught up in the conflicts between the Roman emperors and the Christian Church, which endowed it with an importance it had not had before. The conversation is based on James' recent book Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE): Power, Communication, and Cultural Transformation (Oxford University Press 2024).

A conversation with Ada Palmer (University of Chicago) about the invention of the idea of the Italian Renaissance and the functions that it serves in the western historical imagination. "Byzantium" is a similarly invented category that often works in tandem with "the Renaissance" to mark good and bad moments in the history of culture. The conversation is based on Ada's recent book, Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age (University of Chicago Press, 2025). She is also an award-winning science-fiction author and one of the most successful and popular teachers at the University of Chicago, featured in the...

A conversation with Anastasia Koumousi (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaea, Greek Ministry of Culture) about the recently identified portrait of the last emperor of the Romans in Constantinople, Konstantinos XI Palaiologos, in a monastery church in the northern Peloponnese. The discussion is based on her article ‘Παλαιά Μονή Ταξιαρχών Αιγιαλείας: η αναχρονολόγηση της ίδρυσης στους μεσοβυζαντινούς χρόνους και η προσωπογραφία του τελευταίου βυζαντινού αυτοκράτορα,’ in M. Xanthopoulou et al., eds., Το αρχαιολογικό έργο στην Πελοπόννησο 3 (Kalamata 2024) 747-759. Images of this portrait can be found online here and here and here.

A conversation with Alasdair Grant (University of Hamburg) about the captivity and enslavement that many Greeks (Romaioi) experienced in the late medieval period, a period of state collapse during which they were subject to Italian and Turkish raids and attacks. We talk about the differences between captivity and enslavement, the prospects for being ransomed, and the religious basis of one's legal status. The conversation is based on Alasdair's book, Greek Captives and Mediterranean Slavery, 1260-1460 (University of Edinburgh Press 2024), which is freely available online here.

A conversation with Ioanna Sitaridou (University of Cambridge) about a Greek language (Romeyka) still spoken in northwestern Turkey, though now endangered, whose grammar retains interesting archaic features. The ancestors of its current speakers were not exchanged in 1923 because they were Muslim; the primary language in their communities today is Turkish. We talk about Romeyka itself, why it was not impacted by the standardization of modern Greek, and the ethical and political care that field-work must take. See here for the Romeyka Project. For Ioanna's study of its grammar, see her article 'The Romeyka Infinitive: Continuity, Contact and Change in...

Winston Berg is a political scientist (University of Chicago) who studies modern American conspiracy theories about politics and the deep state; his dissertation studied the movement known as QAnon. Given our political moment, I thought it would be interesting to discuss with him the different contours and valences that conspiracy theories and deep state notions took in the east Roman polity and in the United States. Check out Winston's recent article 'Origins of the “Deep State” Trope,' Critical Review 35:4 (2023) 281-318.

A conversation with Cliff Ando (University of Chicago) about the revenue models of American research universities and the dangers to advanced research posed by the freezes recently placed on federal funding. While the biggest cuts are to scientific and medical research, the humanities will also be significantly impacted. Cliff has published a number of op-ed articles on what is happening and how universities should respond; see, for example, here.

A conversation with Gavin Kelly (University of Edinburgh) about the corpus of Latin literature from antiquity down to the present, where we discuss the reasons why most scholars focus on the period before 200 AD, why late antiquity is overlooked (despite having some first rate authors), and what can be done about that. Similar issues, we find, emerge from the study of Greek literature too. The conversation is based on Gavin's recent study of 'Periodisations' in R. K. Gibson and C. L. Whitton, eds., The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature (Cambridge 2024) 97-157.

A conversation with Tina Sessa (The Ohio State University) and Marion Kruse (University of Cincinnati) on the process of peer-review in the humanities: what it's for, how it can be done well, and where it can go awry. The conversation is based on many decades of collective experience of peer-review, on all sides of the process.

A conversation with Adam Morin (University of Ioannina) about categories of taste, the meal structure, and the food and ingredients that east Romans ate. What foods were prized and what looked down upon? How do we know what they ate? What do we know about individual preferences? The conversation is based on Adam's dissertation, Food and Food Culture in the Byzantine Empire, Seventh to Fifteenth Centuries (Queen's University, 2024). 

A conversation with Ahmad Al-Jallad (The Ohio State University) about the languages and inscriptions of pre-Islamic Arabia, our main contemporary source for life, death, and worship before the time of the Prophet Muhammad. We talk about field surveys in search of inscriptions and what they tell us about Allah and other Arabian deities in the early centuries of the first millennium. You can find his work on academia.edu (here) and some of his lectures are posted online. The article on which this conversation is based has not yet been published (its provisional title is "Ancient Allah: An Epigraphic...

A conversation with Sverrir Jakobsson (University of Iceland) about the experiences of Northmen -- especially Varangians -- who traveled to Constantinople and the south and returned home with stories, swords, riches, and prestige. The conversation is based on Sverrir's book The Varangians: In God’s Holy Fire (Palgrave 2020). Instead of my usual intro, Sverrir and I discuss some odd parallels in the histories of Greece and Iceland.

A conversation with Johanna Hanink (Brown University) on Greek literature (ancient, modern, and in-between), on publishing outside one's main area of academic expertise, and on podcasting. Johanna is a classics professor who has also written on modern Greek culture and literature, and is the host of the new academic podcast Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas. She recently translated Andreas Karkavitsas' The Archaeologist and Select Sea Stories (Penguin Books 2021). Her personal website is here, where you can find links to her many projects and interests.

A conversation with Sarah Bond (University of Iowa) about organized labor groups in the Roman empire. Ancient occupational groups often formed associations (sometimes called collegia) which are often regarded as little more than dining, cult, and burial societies. In her new book, Strike: Labor Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire (Yale University Press 2025), Sarah Bond argues that they sometimes engaged in collective action and bargaining. These continued in existence into late antiquity and possibly beyond. Also, check out Sarah's blog History from Below and her contributions to Hyperallergic.

A conversation with Paul Magdalino (St. Andrews and Koç University) about the literary traditions and genres that Constantinopolitans developed to talk about the origins, history, cosmic importance, and superlative beauty of their city -- the City. The conversation touches on themes in Paul's recent book, Roman Constantinople in Byzantine Perspective: The Memorial and Aesthetic Rediscovery of Constantine's Beautiful City, from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance (Brill 2024). Like the book, our discussion culminates with the majestic oration Byzantios by Theodoros Metochites.

A conversation with Hannah Moots (Center for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm) about paleogenetic research, its goals, methods, and conclusions. What does it mean to study ancient DNA, and what does it tell us about human history? The conversation is based on an article co-authored by Hannah and many other collaborators entitled "Ancient Rome: A Genetic Crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean," Science 366 (2019) 708-714.

A conversation with Maroula Perisanidi (University of Leeds) about the distinctive kind of masculinity that was fashioned by scholars and priests in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the challenges and deficits that it faced, and the masculine capital that men in those occupations tried to amass and then spend. The conversation is based on Maroula's just published book Masculinity in Byzantium, c. 1000-1200: Scholars, Clerics and Violence (Cambridge University Press 2024).

A conversation with Maggie Popkin (Case Western Reserve University) about souvenirs in the Roman world, how they tie in with city identities and city branding, and the experience of travel. These portable objects shaped how people thought of places and the Roman world as a whole, from its attractions and experiences to its religious cults. The conversation is based on Maggie's book Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press 2022).

A conversation with Thomas Barfield (Boston University) about a distinctive category of empires that he has proposed in a new book, Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History (Princeton University Press 2023). These are empire that derive a significant part of their revenues or symbolic capital not from lands that they rule directly but by extorting them from other empires, from control over trade routes, or from the ruins of previous states. During its long history, Romanía dealt with a number of these "exogenous" empires, including the Huns, Venetians, and Rus'.

A conversation with Nancy Bisaha (Vassar College) about the origins of the idea of "Europe" as a place of identity and not just geography. One of its first theorists was the Italian humanist Aeneas Piccolomini (later pope Pius II), who was in part reacting to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. The problem of whom to include and exclude as Europeans was there from the start. We talk about Aeneas himself and the siege of the City. The conversation is based on Nancy's recent book, From Christians to Europeans: Pope Pius II and the Concept of the...

A conversation with Eleanor Dickey (University of Reading) on Latin words in ancient and Byzantine Greek. Eleanor has tracked them down and compiled them in a specialized dictionary, where she also offers new arguments about when, how, and why they were borrowed by Greek-speakers. It reaches down to 600 AD, but many of them survived later too, even into modern spoken Greek. The conversation is based on that publication: Latin Loanwords in Ancient Greek: A Lexicon and Analysis (Cambridge University Press 2023).

A conversation with Emily Neumeier (Temple University) about Ali Pasha of Ioannina (d. 1822), a powerful Ottoman governor of Albanian origin who created a quasi-independent realm at a time when the Ottoman empire was feared to be collapsing. We talk about how he crated his own brand-image, in part by forging closer relations with his Christian Greek subjects and also through archaeological work and use of antiquities. His was an almost post-imperial world, but the nation-state had not yet arrived. We also talk about the concept of the "post-Byzantine," which is used, especially in art history, for works of this...

A conversation with Volker Menze (Central European University) about the fifth-century patriarch Dioskouros of Alexandria, what we really know about him, and why he was demonized in the western traditions. A close reading of the Council Acts suggests a different picture: a bishop who thought he was doing right by the established creed and following the directives of the emperor suddenly found himself in the hot seat. The conversation is based on Volker's book Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria: The Last Pharaoh and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford University Press 2023).

A conversation with Przemysław Marciniak (University of Silesia) about books of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and alternative history that are either set in Byzantium or have a Byzantine ambiance. We talk about the features that signal a Byzantine setting and what the latter is good. Basically, we chat about books that we liked (or did not like). The conversation is based on Przemek's chapter 'Fantastic(al) Byzantium: The Image of Byzantium in Speculative Fiction,' in M. Kulhánková and P. Marciniak, eds., Byzantium in the Popular Imagination: The Modern Reception of the Byzantine Empire (I.B. Tauris 2023) 249-26...

A roundtable discussion of how the study of ancient pathogen DNA intersects with the study of disease in late antiquity. Can laboratory scientists and cultural historians find ways to interface given their different methods, data, concepts, and conclusions?

The discussion was organized by Tina Sessa (The Ohio State University) and Tim Newfield (Georgetown University), and moderated by Dionysios Stathakopoulos (University of Cyprus). In addition to Tina and Tim, participants include Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma), Marcel Keller (University of Basel and University of Tartu), and Maria Spyrou (University of Tübingen). A transcript of the discussion will a...

A roundtable discussion of how the study of ancient human DNA intersects with the study of migration in late antiquity. Can laboratory scientists and primarily textual historians find ways to interface given their different methods, data, concepts, and conclusions? The discussion was organized by Tina Sessa (The Ohio State University) and Tim Newfield (Georgetown University), and moderated by Anthony Kaldellis (University of Chicago). Participants include Patrick Geary (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, emeritus), Janet Kay (Princeton University), István Koncz (Eötvös Loránd University), Hannah Moots (University of Chicago), Brian Swain (Kennesaw State University), and Krishna Veeramah (Stony...

A conversation with Andrea Myers Achi (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) about the enduring connections between Byzantium and a number of African cultures, beginning in late antiquity (e.g., Aksum) and continuing into medieval and modern times (e.g., Nubia and Ethiopia). Andrea organized a exhibition at the Met to illustrate these connections (including also manuscripts, textiles, icons, and inscriptions), and it has now moved to the Cleveland Museum of Art. If you can't visit it there, definitely check out the exhibition volume that she edited, Africa and Byzantium (New York: The Met 2023).

A conversation with Eugene Smelyansky (Washington State University) on the invention of ideologically useful versions of Byzantium in modern Russia. We talk about the much more limited engagement with Byzantium in imperial Russia and the reasons behind some of the current obsessions with it. The conversation is based on Eugene's just-published book on Medievalisms in Russia: The Contest for Imaginary Pasts (Arc Humanities Press 2024), which looks also at the current re-imagining of Russia's own medieval past and that of western Europe.

A conversation with Monica White (University of Nottingham) about the earliest contacts between Constantinople and the first Rus'-Varangian raiders, traders, and mercenaries to cross the Black Sea. Who were these people, what did they want, and how did contact with east Roman culture change them? The conversation is based on a number of Monica's recent publications, including 'Early Rus: The Nexus of Empires'; 'The Byzantine "Charm Defensive" and the Rus''; and 'Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Strategic Thinking about the Rus'' (for full references, see her CV on academia).

A conversation with Maria Parani (University of Cyprus) on the emperor's clothing and the staging of his public appearances. We talk about his most formal garments, what he wore on the battlefield, his military banner, how he changed, and much more. Maria has published many studies of this topic, which you can find on her Academia.edu page, including "Clothes maketh the emperor? Embodying and Performing Imperial Ideology in Byzantium through Dress"; "Cultural Identity and Dress: The Case of Late Byzantine Ceremonial Costume"; and "‘Rise like the sun, the God-inspired kingship’: Light-symbolism and the Uses of Light in Middle and...