If you have any interest at all in Byzantium or in the Roman Empire generally I think you should really enjoy this episode. Professor Kaldellis is one of the leading scholars on Byzantium (East Rome?) and his book The New Roman Empire - A History of Byzantium takes you all the way from the founding of Constantinople to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century, more than a thousand years later. The book is a tour de force and despite the scale of the story it is extremely readable and I enjoyed the dry wit throughout. And he made an absolutely fascinating guest. So if you love stories of the Roman Empire do give it a listen. We couldn't cover everything but we covered a lot!
We recorded it in one go but we reached a natural break point so I have split it into two parts.
Clive of India with Dr Zareer Masani
Laurence Bergreen on Magellan
With one leap he was free! - stories from Peter Henderson's life
A history of astronomy - from the Babylonians to Galileo
Clocks, Civilization, Power . . . all About Time with David Rooney
Talking movies with Freddie deBoer and Abe Callard (Mad Max, OUTIH, Ghostbusters etc)
Julian Sancton on the ill fated voyage of the Belgica to the Antarctic in 1898
When the Shogun's Sumo met Commodore Perry's minstrel show
Amazon the behemoth
Memories of wartime Japan and reflections on the kamikaze
Conquerors - how Portugal built its empire in India
Mike Dash on Batavia's Graveyard
Abulafia and Devereaux - the ancient Mediterranean
Peter Pomerantsev has stories to tell (and they are all true)
Bean on battleships (and much else besides)
David Goodhart on Head, Hand and Heart and the Road to Somewhere
The Siege of Gondor - Bret Devereaux rates the Witch King - A Bad Man, a Good General
The Knights of St John against the Turks (and the sheer bloody horror of Lepanto)
Bret Devereaux cancels Saruman. (Helms Deep as ancient military history)
Tom Holland scores 300
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