The History of Byzantium

A rapid tour of counterfactuals that ask how different choices might have altered Byzantine fate. Major turning points are weighed from Justinian's Nika crisis to Manzikert and the Fourth Crusade. Alternate histories explore missed recoveries after 1204, Komnenian chances, Ottoman emergence, and vivid what-if scenarios like holding Antioch or avoiding the fleet loss.

Did you hear that Constantine XI didn't die? That he was taken below ground by an angel and will one day return. We explore all the myths which attached themselves to the final Roman Emperor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A forensic-style investigation into the last day of Emperor Constantine XI. Multiple witness accounts and Ottoman reports are compared. Five possible fates are laid out and weighed against contemporary narratives. The podcast reconstructs a likely timeline of the breach and debates how myth and moralizing stories reshaped the record.

News of Constantinople's fall ripples through Venice, Rome, and Russia with tense diplomacy and Aegean skirmishes. Papal calls for a new crusade falter and organized crusading loses momentum. Russia embraces Byzantine symbols, marriage ties, and the 'Third Rome' claim. Legends of Constantine XI and disputed Palaiologos descendants shape emerging Russian identity.

A conference reminder with details on participation and panels. Short teasers of counterfactual scenarios about Justinian, Belisarius, Alexius, and Bohemond. A discussion of Anatolia and the role of landscape in history. Announcements about other speakers, a keynote, and a board game prize draw.

After Constantinople's fall, people faced mass enslavement, ransom campaigns, and desperate family searches. Some adapted and rose in Ottoman administration or prospered as merchants. Others fled west and helped preserve Greek manuscripts and printing in cities like Venice. The city was reshaped by resettlement into a multicultural Ottoman capital.

A deep dive into why Constantinople was not immediately adopted as the Ottoman capital and the political, practical and psychological obstacles to doing so. Discussion of Mehmet's strategic choices, appointments and religious tensions around occupying a great Christian city. Coverage of urban transformations, new monuments and how imperial identity and administration were reshaped after the conquest.

A lively Q and A about the 1453 siege and the wider Palaiologan age. Discussions cover Timur’s fractured realm and why Eastern aid was unrealistic. Detailed debate over bombardment’s psychological and physical roles. Examinations of internal divisions, Genoese collapse, and why surrender was unlikely. Conversations on aristocratic power, family feuds, and whether 1204 or 1453 was the graver loss.

We follow events after the Ottomans broke through the walls of Constantinople. Taking the story up to the Sultans triumphant return to Edirne.To win the game Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged email me thehistoryofbyzantium at gmail.com before February 28th. See an interview with the creator here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leonora Neville, a historian of 9th–12th century Eastern Roman history and author on historiography and gender, argues we should abandon the term Byzantium. She traces the term's origins, exposes its ties to racialized and nationalistic narratives, and urges new, precise language like East Roman or long Roman Empire. She explains why words shape how we study continuity, identity, and global medieval connections.