Episode 308 - The Fall of Anatolia

How do you explain your strange interest in Byzantium to your friends and family? I argue that you can't understand the modern world without Byzantium.This is the last episode of the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 

I answer the final batch of questions which came in after 1453. They are mostly fun speculation or about me and the podcast. Our Constantine Acrostic Christianized the Roman state,Oldest offspring of the Great.Nearly reigned one hundred days,Saved the city, so they say.Theophanes ...  Show more

The Crusades are well-known but only part of the complex history of the medieval Near East. During the same era, the region was completely remade by the Mongol invasions.  In a single generation, the Mongols upended the region’s geopolitics. 

In this e ...

May 1453 saw the siege that would lead to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. It was the culmination of an age-long struggle between Christianity and Islam for control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman leader Mehmed II had dreamed of possessing the city since he ...

The Crusades are well-known but only part of the complex history of the medieval Near East. During the same era, the region was completely remade by the Mongol invasions.  In a single generation, the Mongols upended the region’s geopolitics.  

In this ...

The Mongols were an unstoppable force through the 12th and 13th centuries, with an empire that stretched across huge swathes of land, from China to Europe. But its territory also included much of the Near East, where one aggressive power – the Mamluks – finally put a halt to thei ...  Show more