Tag: A short history of Byzantium
Empress Pulcheria: A woman truly ahead of her time.
One might wonder what the early fifth century Byzantine world would have been like if Aelia Pulcheria was not around […]
Portrait of an Emperor: John VIII Palaiologos.
An Italian Renaissance painter from Florence, by the name of Benozzo Gozzoli, was commissioned to paint a three-walled cycle of […]
A conversation with Byzantine luminary Averil Cameron.
Averil Cameron is one of the leading English-speaking scholars of late antiquity and Byzantium. She has made Byzantium, in particular, […]
A short history of Byzantium: No. 23 Do not forsake us Emperor Jovian: The shameful peace of the year 363 AD.
We first fleetingly hear of Jovian, in Ammianus Marcellinus narrative in the year 361AD just after Constantius’ death. He was […]
A short history of Byzantium: No. 22 The Last Pagan Emperor
Julian is such an interesting character that it is impossible to ignore him, even though some tend to treat him […]
A short history of Byzantium: No. 21 They raised him on their shields in a moment of great happiness and triumph!
The astounding success of Julian’s rise in five short years, from a bookworm to Caesar, was genuinely celebrated by his […]
The Peacock, in all its splendour and glory.
The peacock has a long history of being worshipped as a pagan deity or used as a symbol by royalty […]
Byzantium and Europe: Croatia, between a rock and a hard place.
For centuries Byzantium’s influence over the Croats waxed and waned, first beginning in the early seventh century. Heraclius was the […]
My Five Favourite Byzantine Emperors
Imagine yourself sitting in a lecture hall with a small body of students studying Roman history and as a whole […]
Robin Pierson’s Grand Strategy: The history of Byzantium podcast.
About three years ago, when Mike Duncan stopped producing his ‘History of Rome’ podcast, thousands of podcast listeners mourned in […]
