Episodes page 1 of 4
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161. The politics of ignorance between theology and imperial power, with Lea Niccolai
A conversation with Lea Niccolai (University of Cambridge) on the challenge faced by emperors and theologians who claimed authority on the basis of their religious positions while simultaneously admitting that the…
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160. Symeon the New Theologian: Queer desire in devotional poetry, with Derek Krueger
A conversation with Derek Krueger (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) on homoerotic language and imagery in the works of Symeon the New Theologian (eleventh century). These passages are unusual enough that…
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159. The art of the empire of Nicaea, with Naomi Pitamber
A conversation with Naomi Pitamber (Clark University) about the art and architecture of the empire of Nicaea (Nikaia), the convention name of the Roman state that emerged in Asia Minor after the disaster of 1204. This…
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158. The Book of Daniel, the Four Kingdoms, and imperial eschatology, with Chris Bonura
A conversation with Christopher Bonura (Mount St. Mary's University) about the apocalyptic tradition of identifying the Four Kingdoms prophesied in the Book of Daniel. Which one was the Roman empire? The fourth,…
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157. Julian Augustus and the dream of a Platonic Roman empire, with Jeremy Swist
A conversation with Jeremy Swist (Michigan State University) on the emperor Julian (361-363 AD) and how he tried to combine his love of philosophy with ruling the Roman empire. We talk about why Julian continues to…
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156. The Menologion of Basil II, with Charlie Kuper
A conversation with Charlie Kuper (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) about the Menologion of Basil II, a lavishly illustrated manuscript pairing brief notices about the saints with images of them and their ordeals,…
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155. The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, with Nicole Eddy
A conversation with Nicole Eddy (Dumbarton Oaks) about the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, one of the most important publishing ventures of recent times when it comes to medieval texts and literature. DOML (as we call…
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154. How and why we teach Roman history, with Beth Digeser
A conversation with Beth Digeser (University of California, Santa Barbara) about pedagogy, specifically about what we are hoping to accomplish by teaching Roman history. We talk about the limits of "influence" as a…
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153. Three heresiologists of the twelfth century: Zigabenos, Kamateros, and Choniates, with Alessandra Buccosi, Niccolò Zorzi, Marco Fanelli, and Ottavia Mazzon
A conversation with Alessandra Bucossi (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) and Niccolò Zorzi (University of Padua) on three heresiological texts of the twelfth century, the challenges of publishing and studying them,…
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152. Heresiology in the twelfth century, with Alessandra Bucossi
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…
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151. East Roman archaeology: goals and challenges, with Marica Cassis
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?…
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150. Why were pseudo-Arabic inscriptions placed on churches in Greece?, with Alicia Walker
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…
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149. The Classical Near East, with Kevin van Bladel
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,…
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148. The survival of esoteric academic fields, with Jana Matuszak and Petra Goedegebuure
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…
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147. How the ninety percent experienced the Roman economy, with Kim Bowes
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…
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146. Ezana of Aksum, the first Christian king in Africa, with Aaron Butts
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…
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145. Seeing into the minds of others, with Ellen Muehlberger
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…
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144. The two millennia of Roman history, with Ed Watts
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…
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143. Coping with earthquakes in the churches of Constantinople, with Mark Roosien
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…
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142. The decline of animal sacrifice in the late Roman world, with James Rives
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…
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141. The Renaissance and Byzantium are characters in the same play, with Ada Palmer
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…
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140. A newly identified portrait of Konstantinos XI Palaiologos (1448-1453), with Anastasia Koumousi
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,…
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139. Captivity and enslavement in the late medieval Aegean, with Alasdair Grant
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…
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138. Romeyka, a parallel branch of Greek surviving in northeastern Turkey, with Ioanna Sitaridou
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…
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137. Conspiracy theories and the deep state, now and then, with Winston Berg
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…
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136. The federal assault on American research universities, with Clifford Ando
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…
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135. Latin literature in late antiquity, with Gavin Kelly
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…
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134. Peer-review: the good, the bad, and the amusing, with Tina Sessa and Marion Kruse
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.…
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133. Taste, meals, and food culture, with Adam Morin
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…
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132. Who was Allah before Islam?, with Ahmad Al-Jallad
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…
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131. To Miklagarðr and back again: Varangians return from Constantinople, with Sverrir Jakobsson
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,…
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130. A conversation with Johanna Hanink on Greek literature, on publishing in a new field, and on podcasting
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…
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129: Labor organizations and collective action, with Sarah Bond
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…
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128. Constantinople as seen by its inhabitants, with Paul Magdalino
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…
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127. The genetic history of Rome, with Hannah Moots
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…
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126. Can scholars and clerics be manly?, with Maroula Perisanidi
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…
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125. Souvenirs and city branding in the experience of the Roman world, with Maggie Popkin
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…
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124. Shadow empires, with Thomas Barfield
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).…
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123. The fall of Constantinople, pope Pius II, and the birth of Europe, with Nancy Bisaha
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…
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122. Latin words in ancient and Byzantine Greek, with Eleanor Dickey
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…
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121. Ali Pasha of Ioannina, antiquities and archaeology between empire and the nation-state, with Emily Neumeier
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…
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120. Dioskouros of Alexandria, Or the making of a Church villain, with Volker Menze
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…
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119. Byzantium in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with Przemysław Marciniak
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…
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118. Pathogen paleogenetics and late antique disease: A cross-discipline discussion
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…
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117. Human paleogenetics and late antique migration: a cross-discipline discussion
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…
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116. Africa and Byzantium, with Andrea Myers Achi
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…
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115. Imaginary Byzantiums in modern Russia, with Eugene Smelyansky
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…
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114. Byzantium and the early Rus’, with Monica White
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…
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113. The emperor’s clothing and public appearances, with Maria Parani
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,…
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112. Crisis and resilience in late antique Rome, with Michele Salzman
A conversation with Michele Salzman (University of California, Riverside) about the resilience shown by the city of Rome and its ability to recover from crisis during the fifth-seventh centuries. These recoveries were…
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