Anthony Kaldellis, “Streams of Gold, Rivers o...

In the Greco-Roman world, gods were known to tame soundscapes, or acoustic landscapes. Zeus, Apollo, Orpheus, and other Classical deities demonstrated their power by bringing order to chaotic sound worlds, replacing cacophony with harmony. In late antiquity, Christians took up th ...  Show more

Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa, War and Community in Late Antiquity (Cambridge UP, 2026) Late Antiquity (ca. 250–600 CE) was a world at war: barbarian migrations, civil wars, raids, and increasingly porous frontiers affected millions of its inhabitants. While military and politic ...  Show more

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked the end of the Roman Empire after more than 2,000 years and the rise of the Ottomans as a dominant global power. Dr. Roy explores the centuries of turmoil that led to this moment: Mongol invasions, the Black Death, fractured kingdoms, ...

In this episode, we explore the fragile balance of power during the later years of the Umayyad Caliphate under Caliph Hisham ibn Abdul Malik. Between 112–114 AH (731–733 CE), the empire faced crushing defeats on nearly every frontier. Yet Hisham refused to abandon his policy of c ...  Show more

So, we’re starting the final season in this podcast which is on the Dark Ages. But just how dark were they? One of the main themes of this new season will be to show the striking diversity of experience within western Eurasia and North Africa during the period from AD 700 to 1 ...

From the taking of the holy city of Jerusalem in the 7th century AD by Caliph Umar, to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War I, Christian popes, emperors and kings, and Muslim caliphs and sultans were locked in a 1300-year battle for political, militar ...  Show more