The History of Byzantium

Manuel's Italian campaign begins brightly but ends in failure. Meanwhile his cousin Andronikos tries to kill him and more bad news arrives from Antioch.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Normans raid the cities of Greece during the passage of the Second Crusade. Manuel sees this as such a worrying development that he makes the decision to prioritise the recovery of Apulia over Antioch. This sets off a series of conflicts in the Balkans and a series of missed opportunities in Syria. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We follow the Emperor Conrad and King Louis as they both attempt to cross Anatolia. Period: 1147-1148 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 'Second' Crusade is called in response to the fall of Edessa in 1144. The French and German monarchs sign up leaving the Byzantines with multiple headaches to deal with. Period: 1144-1147 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John II Komnenos' youngest son Manuel takes charge of the Empire. After securing the capital and punishing Raymond of Antioch the new Emperor goes on campaign against the Turks. After chasing the Sultan of Iconium to his capital Manuel realises that fighting on the plateau is no easy business. Meanwhile the Crusader city of Edessa falls and the Byzantines don't appreciate the significance of this event.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robin discusses 'Byzantium and Italy' with Marco Capelli. Marco is the brilliant host of Storia d'Italia - a podcast telling the story of the History of Italy - in Italian. This interview is in English. Please do tell any Italian speakers you know about Storia d'Italia (italiastoria.com). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Family Update Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we talk to the man whose research has guided our last few podcasts Dr Maximilian Lau.Dr Lau is Adjunct Professor of Economic History at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, and also a Research Associate in History at St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford. He has been studying 12th century Byzantine history for many years now and the fruits of that labour can be found in his forthcoming book “Rebuilding New Rome. The Foreign Policy of John II Komnenos.”The book is written and will be out next year and Dr Lau very generously shared it with me in advance. It’s been incredibly helpful in part because of its quality but also because it follows a format similar to our narrative episodes. It is a chronological account of John’s military and political activity with a discussion of the sources as each incident unfolds. As Dr Lau explains in the interview – John’s reign often gets short shrift in popular Byzantine books because our Roman sources cover him fairly briefly. But there are plenty of other sources to work with and Dr Lau has synthesised them to create a new history of John's reign.Period: 1118-1143 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time we watched as John Komnenos attempted to untangle the Gordian knot which Anatolia had become. After campaigning against the Danishmends – John moved on to Cilicia and Antioch. The Emperor attempted to enforce his rights without angering the Latins. A trick which he failed to pull off. Today John will be forced to go through the whole process all over again. But when he reaches the gates of Antioch this time he won’t take no for an answer.Period: 1138-1143 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John II Komnenos is finally free to campaign in Anatolia. If he can keep the Turks quiet then he can make it to Antioch where his real goal lies. But once there will he risk outraging Latin opinion by assaulting the city or will he negotiate a deal to bring the city back into the Empire?Period: 1127-1138 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.