True Tolkien aficionados and art historians will find much to be annoyed about. But Στέλιος Καρέλλας on FB had AI render scenes from Lord the Rings as Byzantine mosaics, and I think it's glorious.
1. Gandalf VS Balrog
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1. I taught Byzantine History for 7 years. A subject very dear to me. But just like its actual history, the literature can be incredibly tricky to navigate. What I offer here is definitely not a list "you must read to become an expert", but rather something to get you started.
2. For general surveys, Gregory's History of Byzantium is the most balanced. He covers all the era's and various domains (politics, economy etc). That said, even in the 2nd edition there are still a series of minor errors. But other surveys also have their virtues and vices.
3. Treadgold's survey is a veritable tome. He writes incredibly well, but can be quite polemic. He's also a maximalist when it comes down to the empire's institutions and forces, and what you can derive from the sources to reconstruct these. Still, an absolute classic.
1. This caused much more of a ruckus than I'd anticipated. So some thoughts and alternatives. Firstly, there's nothing wrong with giving people interested in Roman history suggestions on where to start! The suggested list, however, is at risk of being two-dimensional at best.
2. What we have here are a collection of some hardcore translations (Loeb, sometimes a century old). Some very old novels/fiction (Yourcenar & Graves) which might give an incredibly skewered view. A tradebook (Holland) + two scholars (Beard and Straus). But that's not everything
1. What people call 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' - more on that soon - has been part of my core research for an awful long time. So let's take a closer look at a deeply deceiving take on one of our most intriguing sources for this period.
2. First: what do we mean with 'The Fall of the Roman Empire'? These days it's shorthand for the end of the Empire in its western provinces during the fifth century. After all, the Roman East continued for another millennium (wrongly and anachronistically called 'Byzantine')
3. The Roman West and East were not separate states. Even when there were multiple emperors with each their own court, staff, armies etc, constitutionally there was only a single empire. So we cannot even speak of 'the Fall of the Western Roman Empire' in the fifth century.
1. Now that even high profile media like The Guardian are jumping on the bandwagon of comparing the Wagner mutiny with Roman History, allow me to weigh in with some expertise on Warlordism. Here's an outline of how the latter contributed to the end of Rome's Empire in the West.
2. Ancient/Modern comparisons almost never work, even though they're fun to play and think with. Especially the 'fall of Rome' (more on that soon) has proven highly popular to explain major problems of our time. I've written about this in Dutch here:
3. Yet now and then Ancient Historians do look at concepts and theory of social sciences to see whether they can clarify our understanding of much earlier history. 'Warlordism' is a very good example of that, because it a significant area of study in Political Sciences.
1. On this day tomorrow in 408, the imperial commander Stilicho was executed. He's one of the most fascinating individuals of the Late Roman world, who de facto controlled the western court and government c. 395-408. A pivotal period in the so-called 'Fall of Rome' story. Thread.
2. First things first: plenty of textbooks and studies still refer to him as the 'Vandal', 'Half-Vandal', or - horresco referens - 'German' Stilicho. These labels are incorrect/partially correct/rubbish. Often unmentioned, but most important label of all: he's a Roman. Why?
3. It is true that his father was a 'Vandal', who had served as a cavalry officer under the Eastern Roman emperor Valens. But his mother was a Roman. Most importantly: he was born in the Empire, and spent his entire life and career there. No ties whatsoever to 'Barbaricum'.
1. If you're suffering from the heat today, please take a moment to remember Valens' soldiers at Adrianople on this day in 378. The eastern Roman army commanded by the emperor Valens suffered a terrible defeat against Gothic groups who'd 2 years earlier requested asylum. Thread.
2. We don't know exactly what drove tribes of Greutungi and Tervingi to request crossing the Danube in 376. A combination of inter-tribal wars and the first tidings of the Huns in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, may have motivated their leaders to request reallocation.
3. It has to be firmly emphasized, however, that this not meant the mass migration of all Goths, and some tribes continued living in their home territories for generations to come. Indeed, the Gothic language was still attested in the Crimea well into the Early Modern era.