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 New York Times for the mock papal elections through which she teaches students about the inner workings of Renaissance politics.
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 the Hellenic Varieties of Pontus,' Diachronica 31:1 (2014) 23-73.
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 Reconstruction"). You can access the Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA) here.
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 Modern Western Identity (Routledge 2023).
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).
Nick Kontodimos
Excellent podcast. Professor Kaldellis is a rock star of Byzantine history. He is an entertaining host, who really enjoys his field and wants to make it accessible and relevant to all. This is not an introductory podcast on medieval Eastern Roman history, but it’s not hard to follow either. It covers diverse aspects. From coptic monks to the Rus and from the disabled to the way the Turks portray Byzantium in their movies. Real fun.