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 justification for it and the various ways that Rome is continually reinvented and made to speak to present concerns, from "Global Rome" to the special challenges posed by the world of late antiquity. Beth's research focuses on the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine and so she looks ...
Apr 09, 2026•1 hr 4 min
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, and how their main concerns can be presented in a museum exhibition. Our discussion is followed by dedicated presentations on each of the three authors by Marco Fanelli (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) on Zigabenos, Alessandra herself on Kamateros, and Ottavia Mazzon (University of...
Mar 26, 2026•1 hr 35 min
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 historical context of their production, the empire's increasing engagement with the Latins and Armenians, whose Churches deviated from that of Constantinople in certain points, and the function of these works. The conversation is based on a team project on this topic that Alessandr...
Mar 12, 2026•56 min
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? What challenges has it faced to emerge as a field and what are the prospects that it faces today? The conversation was inspired by Marica's introduction to Medieval Archaeology in the East Roman World (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2024).
Feb 26, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 46
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 Hosios Loukas. What did the Arabic script signify in Orthodox culture at the time if not tension with Islam? The conversation is based on Alicia's essay 'Letters from the Edge: Mapping Pseudo-Arabic between Byzantium and the Near East,' in E. Bolman et al., eds., Worlds of Byzantium: R...
Feb 12, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 46
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, including Byzantium. We talk about languages, fields, classical traditions, translations, and more. The conversation is based on Kevin's chapter 'The Classical Near East' in E. S. Bolman et al., eds., Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East (Cambrid...
Jan 29, 2026•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 46
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 language skills. What critical mass of experts is needed? How can these fields be combined with others? Byzantine Studies is still larger than Sumerology and Hittitology, but the numbers of our full-time faculty is shrinking. How can our fields navigate an uncertain future?
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 19 min
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 Roman imperial economy, specifically for how the majority of the population experienced it. We talk about the skeletal evidence, monetization, affluence and precariousness, and levels of consumption. This is only a taste of the many exciting new arguments made in the book, which al...
Jan 01, 2026•59 min
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 Ezana's inscriptions and coins reveals is a complicated process of appealing to different groups and the coexistence of religions in his realm and the royal monuments. The conversation is based on Aaron's forthcoming paper 'Ezana of Aksum: The First Christian African King,' Aethiopica 2...
Dec 18, 2025•1 hr 1 min
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 the genre of the lecture book, and then about classroom exercises in impersonation (were they exercises in empathy or not?) and breaking into houses to see what people had in their private quarters. The conversation is based on Ellen's recent book Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence,...
Dec 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
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 questions of scale in writing history, of continuity and discontinuity in the Roman experience, and what enabled this polity to last for so long. What insights does studying its second millennium (at Constantinople) cast on its first (at Rome), and vice versa?
Nov 20, 2025•1 hr 8 min
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 church liturgies that commemorated and tried to make sense of them. The conversation is based on Mark's book Ritual and Earthquakes in Constantinople: Liturgy, Ecology, and Empire (Cambridge University Press 2024).
Nov 06, 2025•57 min
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 centuries. Animal sacrifice was caught up in the conflicts between the Roman emperors and the Christian Church, which endowed it with an importance it had not had before. The conversation is based on James' recent book Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE): Power, Communicati...
Oct 24, 2025•1 hr 2 min
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-winni...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 19 min
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. Xanthopoulo...
Jul 10, 2025•55 min
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, 126...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 46
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-w...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr 2 min
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,' Critica...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 16 min
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 ....
May 15, 2025•1 hr 4 min
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, ed...
May 01, 2025•55 min
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.
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 13 min
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).
Apr 03, 2025•56 min
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 thi...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 14 min
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.
Mar 06, 2025•57 min
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 ,...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 12 min
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 antiquit...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 di...
Jan 23, 2025•50 min
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.
Jan 09, 2025•1 hr 5 min
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).
Dec 26, 2024•1 hr 8 min
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).
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr
