seangabb
Published 5 Feb 2021The Crusades are the defining event of the Middle Ages. They brought the very different civilisations of Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam into an extended period of both conflict and peaceful co-existence. Between January and March 2021, Sean Gabb explored this long encounter with his students. Here is one of his lectures. All student contributions have been removed.
(more…)
May 3, 2022
The Crusades: Part 2 – The First Crusade
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April 26, 2022
The Crusades: Part 1 – The Long Prehistory
seangabb
Published 23 Jan 2021The Crusades are the defining event of the Middle Ages. They brought the very different civilisations of Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam into an extended period of both conflict and peaceful co-existence. Between January and March 2021, Sean Gabb explored this long encounter with his students. Here is one of his lectures. All student contributions have been removed.
(more…)
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March 19, 2022
Belisarius: War & Plague
Epic History TV
Published 18 Mar 2022Download Endel here, first 100 downloads get 1 week of free audio experiences!
https://app.adjust.com/b8wxub6?campai…Big thanks to Legendarian for Total War: Attila gameplay footage, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOI2…
Big thanks also to our series consultant Professor David Parnell of Indiana University Northwest, who you can follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/byzantineprof
Total War: Attila gameplay footage used with kind permission of Creative Assembly – buy the game here: https://geni.us/qDreR
Support Epic History TV on Patreon from $1 per video, and get perks including ad-free early access & votes on future topics https://www.patreon.com/EpicHistoryTV
π¨ Original artwork by MiΕek Jakubiec https://www.artstation.com/milek
π Recommended reading (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):
π Procopius, History of the Wars https://geni.us/L3Pgc
π The Wars of Justinian by Michael Whitby https://geni.us/Xxrd3
π Rome Resurgent by Peter Heather https://geni.us/ZFoU1
π The Armies of Ancient Persia: the Sassanians by Kaveh Farrokh https://geni.us/jMQo3z
π Late Roman Cavalryman AD 236β565 (Osprey) by Simon MacDowall https://geni.us/XMGlπ Buy EHTV t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and stickers here! teespring.com/en-GB/stores/epic-histo…
πΆMusic from Filmstro: https://filmstro.com/?ref=7765
Get 20% off an annual license with this exclusive code:EPICHISTORYTV_ANN“Rites” by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song…
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license#EpicHistoryTV #RomanEmpire #EasternRomanEmpire #Justinian #Belisarius #ByzantineEmpire #Romans #Ostrogoths
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March 11, 2022
New Rome by Paul Stephenson
In The Critic, Daisy Dunn reviews a new history of the Eastern Roman Empire (called the Byzantine Empire by later scholars) that sounds quite interesting:
[Paul] Stephenson, a prolific scholar of Byzantium, has a wonderfully sharp eye for data and detail. His book examines the journey by which the Roman Empire progressed from being ruled from several different cities in the fifth century, among them Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome itself, to just Constantinople, home to Procopius, and the “New Rome” of the book’s title.
I sat down expecting a narrative history of the fall of Rome, but was pleasantly surprised to find a portrait of the changing empire populated by statistics and technical hypotheses of a kind one would usually encounter in a copy of the Economist. The first ten pages alone contain references to cosmogenic radionuclides, the Maunder Minimum and the Early Anthropocene. I confess I needed a dictionary.
It is hard to think of another historian who applies such a scientific approach to ancient history, except perhaps the Stanford professor Josiah Ober, who has applied political theory and modern economic modelling to information garnered from classical sources to equally eye-opening effect. The terminology is not off-putting because Stephenson proves able to weave it succinctly and fluidly into his account of how the Late Empire functioned.
Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, was the principal base of the emperors from Theodosius I (“The Great”) in the final quarter of the fourth century onwards. The city was beautified with a wide variety of art and architecture, including the famous Egyptian obelisk, the arrival of which in the late fourth century is seemingly as mysterious as the appearance of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[…]
Attempts to answer the time-old question of why Rome fell have been characterised in recent years by a new awareness of the role that factors including pollution and climate change played. Anyone who has shrugged at the suggestion that the weather had anything to do with the demise of such a mighty empire will, I think, come away from this book persuaded that climate change and natural disasters provide an important part of the answer. Far from being moralistic and attempting to apply the examples of the past as a warning, Stephenson lays down the evidence unemotionally, and lets it speak for itself.
The causes of change were not purely driven by human behaviour, though smelting and, even more so, heavy warfare in the era of invading Huns and Vandals, had a significant environmental impact. Pollen records reveal a dramatic decline in the growing of cereals in Greece by about 600AD and, from the seventh century, pollination was happening predominantly through nature rather than agriculture.
The root cause of this was the destruction of arable land following invasions and the decline in human settlements. Add to this diminishing sunlight β measurements of “deposited radionuclides” indicate a significant reduction of light between the midfourth and late seventh centuries β and we are looking at a radically different landscape in this period from that of the High Empire.
Natural disasters (or were they?) also played a part. The later fifth and early sixth centuries witnessed a number of major volcanic eruptions. Vesuvius, which famously buried Pompeii when it awoke from seven centuries of dormancy in 79AD, erupted in 472 and 512, bookending, as Stephenson notes, the overthrow of the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus.
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February 7, 2022
Justinian I, 527-565: Wars
Thersites the Historian
Published 21 Sep 2017In this video, I look at the wars of conquest waged by the Emperor Justinian and explore whether or not these conflicts advanced the long-term interests of the Byzantine state.
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January 22, 2022
Belisarius: The General & The Eunuch
Epic History TV
Published 21 Jan 2022Download Fishing Clash for FREE and play today! https://fishingclash.onelink.me/dkOM/…
Big thanks to Legendarian for Total War: Attila gameplay footage, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOI2…
Big thanks also to our series consultant Professor David Parnell of Indiana University Northwest, who you can follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/byzantineprof
Total War: Attila gameplay footage used with kind permission of Creative Assembly – buy the game here: https://geni.us/qDreR
Support Epic History TV on Patreon from $1 per video, and get perks including ad-free early access & votes on future topics https://www.patreon.com/EpicHistoryTV
π¨ Original artwork by MiΕek Jakubiec https://www.artstation.com/milek
π Recommended reading (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):
π Procopius, History of the Wars https://geni.us/L3Pgc
π The Wars of Justinian by Michael Whitby https://geni.us/Xxrd3
π Rome Resurgent by Peter Heather https://geni.us/ZFoU1
π The Armies of Ancient Persia: the Sassanians by Kaveh Farrokh https://geni.us/jMQo3z
π Late Roman Cavalryman AD 236β565 (Osprey) by Simon MacDowall https://geni.us/XMGlπ Buy EHTV t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and stickers here! teespring.com/en-GB/stores/epic-histo…
πΆ Music from Filmstro: https://filmstro.com/?ref=7765
Get 20% off an annual license with this exclusive code:EPICHISTORYTV_ANN#EpicHistoryTV #RomanEmpire #EasternRomanEmpire #Justinian #Belisarius #ByzantineEmpire #Romans #Ostrogoths
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January 15, 2022
Constantinople: The Capital of Eastern Rome
Thersites the Historian
Published 13 May 2020In this video, we look at the new capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire built by Constantine. We start out by briefly exploring the history of the Megarian colony of Byzantion and also how the city was patronized by the emperor Septimius Severus before looking at the late antique origins and medieval history of Constantinople.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/thersites
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December 11, 2021
Belisarius: The Battle of Rome
Epic History TV
Published 10 Dec 2021Thank you to our sponsor Private Internet Access.
Get the Epic History TV special offer using this link: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com…Big thanks to Legendarian for Total War: Attila gameplay footage, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOI2…
Thanks also to our series consultant Professor David Parnell of Indiana University Northwest, who you can follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/byzantineprof
Total War: Attila gameplay footage used with kind permission of Creative Assembly — buy the game here: https://geni.us/qDreR
Support Epic History TV on Patreon from $1 per video, and get perks including ad-free early access & votes on future topics https://www.patreon.com/EpicHistoryTV
π¨ Original artwork by MiΕek Jakubiec https://www.artstation.com/milek
πRecommended reading (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):
π Procopius, History of the Wars https://geni.us/L3Pgc
π The Wars of Justinian by Michael Whitby https://geni.us/Xxrd3
π Rome Resurgent by Peter Heather https://geni.us/ZFoU1
π The Armies of Ancient Persia: the Sassanians by Kaveh Farrokh https://geni.us/jMQo3z
π Late Roman Cavalryman AD 236β565 (Osprey) by Simon MacDowall https://geni.us/XMGlπ Buy EHTV t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and stickers here! teespring.com/en-GB/stores/epic-histo…
πΆMusic from Filmstro: https://filmstro.com/?ref=7765
Get 20% off an annual license with this exclusive code:EPICHISTORYTV_ANN#EpicHistoryTV #RomanEmpire #EasternRomanEmpire #Justinian #Belisarius #ByzantineEmpire #Romans
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December 7, 2021
The Byzantine Army, Dark To Golden Age
Epimetheus
Published 22 Mar 2019The Byzantine army, Dark to Golden age
This video was sponsored by Skillshare
Sources
Romano-Byzantine armies 4th-9th Centuries (David Nicolle)
Larousse Encyclopedia of Ancient and Medieval History (Marcel Dunan)
The Late Roman Infantryman (Simon MacDowall)
Byzantium Beyond the Golden Gate
Fall of the West (John Lambshead)
The Late Roman Cavalryman (Simon MacDowall)Tags:
Byzantine history, Byzantine, Byzantine documentary, Eastern Roman, Byzantine army, ancient history, Byzantine Cataphract, Byzantine Roman, history, Bulgaria Byzantium, Byzantine military, Byzantine legion, Byzantine empire, fall Byzantine, ancient, Rome, Constantinople, Byzantine empire documentary, crash course Byzantine empire, Byzantium, Byzantine army structure, Byzantine vs Roman, theme system, theme Byzantine, Roman tactics, Byzantine tactics, eastern Roman empire
From the comments:
Epimetheus
2 years ago (edited)
Notes/additional info:1. Should the empire be called Byzantine, Roman or Greek? I see people arguing for each of these in the comments and there is merit to each of these; but it is important to note that they called themselves Roman, they were majority Greek in population and language spoken, and the term Byzantine is useful in differentiating the time period and has been colloquially used for a long time (although not during the empire) Being a reference to the earlier name of Byzantium for the city of Constantinople.
2. When I refer to “native troops” this includes many other ethnic groups living within the empire, notably the Armenians who lived in Anatolia for hundreds of years and had assimilated in many ways but maintained different views on aspects of the Christian faith which was the most striking differentiating factor between them and the rest of the population of the empire.
3. The Strategos and Domestikos label should be switched on the captions at 6 mins 17 secs in. A Strategos led a Thema(ta) and a Domestikos led a Tagma(ta). Unfortunately I switched those by accident and stared at the screen for a while and did not notice that … sorry guys ;(
4. The Varangian Guard was a personal bodyguard unit to the emperor which are pretty cool, they were mostly comprised of Norsemen (Scandinavians), Rus and Saxons. They are the unit I refer to when I mention a Scandinavian unit.
5. The coolest unit (in my opinion) that I did not mention was the Akritai which were kinda like the Cossacks in that they were a loosely controlled border guard on the eastern side of the empire; and were the subject of much folklore and poems and such.
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November 29, 2021
A Historical Tour of Hagia Sophia
toldinstone
Published 28 Nov 2020Youβve heard about Hagia Sophia‘s famous dome. But what about the miraculous column, the Viking graffiti, and the portrait of Byzantium’s worst emperor?
For more on Roman art and architecture, check out my book Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statues-…
If you’re so inclined, you can follow me elsewhere on the web:
https://www.patreon.com/toldinstone
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorian…
https://www.instagram.com/toldinstone/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show…Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:49 Justinian and his church
2:55 Construction of Hagia Sophia
4:11 Exterior
4:49 Exonarthex
5:14 Narthex
5:51 Vestibule of the Warriors
6:36 Imperial Gate
7:53 The Nave and Dome
10:37 Omphalos
11:12 Apse Mosaics
12:00 Column capitals
12:25 Weeping Column
13:07 Galleries
13:42 Gates of Heaven and Hell
14:01 DeΓ«sis mosaic
14:29 Tomb of Dandolo
15:14 Imperial mosaics of the South Gallery
17:28 Nordic runes
17:50 Alexander mosaic
18:26 ConclusionThanks for watching!
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November 25, 2021
History of Venice: Rise to Glory
Epic History TV
Published 14 Dec 2018Listen to or download the music HERE: smarturl.it/epichistoryvenice
Music by https://www.musicdesigngroup.comThanks to Elias Tsiantas for the 3D Venetian galley footage
Thanks to MiΕek Jakubiec for the Battle of Marignano imageSupport the channel & get exclusive previews at Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/epichistorytvWant to learn more? We recommend A History of Venice by the late John Julius Norwich, a great popular historian on all things Mediterranean (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases): http://geni.us/7q71zx
#EpicHistoryTV #HistoryofVenice
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November 22, 2021
Geiseric & The Kingdom of The Vandals
History Time
Published 5 Sep 2017A brief look at Geiseric and the Vandals
Further reading:-
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Walter Goffart, Barbarian & Romans
Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire
Andrew Merrills, The VandalsMusic:-
Morning Light – “Deep Thoughts” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tXOL…
Peter Gundry – “VΓΓ°blΓ‘inn” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnCML…
Kevin MacLeod – “Ossuary 2: Turn” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6jZS…If you liked this video and have as little as a dollar to spare then please consider supporting me on Patreon for more and better content in the future:-
http://www.patreon.com/historytimeUKAre you a budding artist, illustrator, cartographer, or music producer? Send me a message! No matter how professional you are or even if youβre just starting out, I can always use new music and images in my videos. Get in touch! Iβd love to hear from you.
I’ve also compiled a reading list of my favourite history books via the Amazon influencer program. If you do choose to purchase any of these incredible sources of information, many of which form the basis of my videos, then Amazon will send me a tiny fraction of the earnings (as long as you do it through the link) (this means more and better content in the future) I’ll keep adding to and updating the list as time goes on — https://www.amazon.com/shop/historytime
I try to use copyright-free images at all times. However if I have used any of your artwork or maps then please don’t hesitate to contact me and Iβll be more than happy to give the appropriate credit.
βJoin the History Time community on social media:-
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A new study may show that “Justinian’s plague” reached Britain before Constantinople
Instapundit linked to a news release on a recent Cambridge study on the plague which devastated the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Justinian I, but which may have come through an as-yet undiscovered northern European path that reached the British Isles well before appearing within the Eastern Roman territories:
Illustration of the Hagia Sophia from European History: An outline of its development by George Burton Adams, 1899.
Wikimedia Commons
“Plague sceptics” are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6thβ8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries.
The same study suggests that bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia.
The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment in its historical development, when the Emperor Justinian was trying to restore Roman imperial power.
For decades, historians have argued about the lethality of the disease; its social and economic impact; and the routes by which it spread. In 2019-20, several studies, widely publicised in the media, argued that historians had massively exaggerated the impact of the Justinianic Plague and described it as an “inconsequential pandemic”. In a subsequent piece of journalism, written just before COVID-19 took hold in the West, two researchers suggested that the Justinianic Plague was “not unlike our flu outbreaks”.
In a new study, published in Past & Present, Cambridge historian Professor Peter Sarris argues that these studies ignored or downplayed new genetic findings, offered misleading statistical analysis and misrepresented the evidence provided by ancient texts.
Sarris says: “Some historians remain deeply hostile to regarding external factors such as disease as having a major impact on the development of human society, and ‘plague scepticism’ has had a lot of attention in recent years.”
Sarris, a Fellow of Trinity College, is critical of the way that some studies have used search engines to calculate that only a small percentage of ancient literature discusses the plague and then crudely argue that this proves the disease was considered insignificant at the time.
Sarris says: “Witnessing the plague first-hand obliged the contemporary historian Procopius to break away from his vast military narrative to write a harrowing account of the arrival of the plague in Constantinople that would leave a deep impression on subsequent generations of Byzantine readers. That is far more telling than the number of plague-related words he wrote. Different authors, writing different types of text, concentrated on different themes, and their works must be read accordingly.”
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November 6, 2021
Belisarius Part 2: The Empire Strikes Back
Epic History TV
Published 5 Nov 2021Play Epic War: Thrones and enjoy the real war game experience!
Download here: http://bitly.ws/j86c
Use Gift Code ‘WAR777‘ to receive 200 beads and 200 skill points.
Real War, Real EpicBig thanks to Legendarian for Total War: Attila gameplay footage, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOI2…
Thanks also to our Series Consultant Professor David Parnell of Indiana University Northwest, who you can follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/byzantineprof
Total War: Attila gameplay footage used with kind permission of Creative Assembly — buy the game here: https://geni.us/qDreR
Thanks also to the Vandalic War mod crew for modding support, find out more about their mod here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile…
π¨ Original artwork by MiΕek Jakubiec https://www.artstation.com/milek
πRecommended reading (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):
π Procopius, History of the Wars https://geni.us/L3Pgc
π The Wars of Justinian by Michael Whitby https://geni.us/Xxrd3
π Rome Resurgent by Peter Heather https://geni.us/ZFoU1
π The Armies of Ancient Persia: the Sassanians by Kaveh Farrokh https://geni.us/jMQo3z
π Late Roman Cavalryman AD 236β565 (Osprey) by Simon MacDowall https://geni.us/XMGlSupport Epic History TV on Patreon from $1 per video, and get perks including ad-free early access & votes on future topics https://www.patreon.com/EpicHistoryTV
π Buy EHTV t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and stickers here! teespring.com/en-GB/stores/epic-histo…
πΆMusic from Filmstro: https://filmstro.com/?ref=7765
Get 20% off an annual license with this exclusive code:EPICHISTORYTV_ANN#EpicHistoryTV #RomanEmpire #EasternRomanEmpire #Justinian #Belisarius #ByzantineEmpire
#EpicWar:Thrones #Strategy #ThreeKingdoms #WarGame #RealCivilizationWar
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October 18, 2021
Strategikon – Army Manual of the Eastern Roman Empire
Kings and Generals
Published 30 Mar 2021The Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the evolution of the Roman Army continues with the second episode of the series on the Army of the Eastern Roman Empire – the Byzantine Empire. In this episode, we’ll focus on Strategikon of Maurice – the army manual that defined the structure, training and tactics of the Byzantine army.
Support us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/KingsandGenerals or Paypal: http://paypal.me/kingsandgeneral
We are grateful to our patrons and sponsors, who made this video possible: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o…
The video was made by Arb Paninken http://bit.ly/2Ow3oC8, while the script was developed by Matt Hollis. This video was narrated by Officially Devin (https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficiallyDevin)
β Merch store βΊ https://teespring.com/stores/kingsand…
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#Documentary #Byzantines #Romans
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