Meet Anastasius the Librarian, one of the most fascinating controversialists of the ninth century. A native of Rome, scholar of Greek, and (probably) anti-pope for all of three days, he was no friend of Byzantium. He disliked and mistrusted "the Greeks" and argued that they were not Romans as they thought. His arguments have held sway in the west ever since. My guest is Réka Forrai (University of Southern Denmark), an expert on Anastasius' writings and thought; see especially her fascinating study ‘The Sacred Nectar of the Deceitful Greeks: Perceptions of Greekness in Ninth Century Rome,’ in A. Speer and P. Steinkrüger, eds., Knotenpunkt Byzanz: Wissensformen und kulturelle Wechselbeziehungen (Berlin 2012) 71-84.
16. The Parthenon mosque, with Elizabeth Key Fowden
15. When does Roman history end and Byzantine begin?, with Marion Kruse
14. Byzantine Orthodoxy and homosexuality, with Stephen Morris
13. The case for Shenute the Great and the Coptic tradition, with Sofia Torallas Tovar and David Brakke
12. Byzantine Studies in Turkey 2.0, with Siren Çelik
11. Byzantine erotic epigrams, with Steven Smith
10. A Byzantine man of affairs, with Dimitris Krallis
9. From India to Byzantium, with Paroma Chatterjee
8. Hagia Sophia rediscovered, with Bissera Pentcheva
7. The kingdom of Rus' and "medieval Europe," with Christian Raffensperger
6. Armenian art, with Christina Maranci
5. Western fantasies about Byzantium, with Elena Boeck
4. The New Environmental History, with Tina Sessa
3. The Colonial Fourth Crusade, with George Demacopoulos
2. Imagining the Moment of Death, with Ellen Muehlberger
1. Byzantine Gender, with Leonora Neville
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