The Byzantine Empire has often been languishing in the shadow of the Classical phase of Roman history, which includes the Kingdom, the Republic and most importantly for us Byzantinists, the Roman Empire. However, in recent years, many historians and history lovers have been trying to wrest Byzantine history out of obscurity and into the public eye. This is truly the era to be getting into Byzantine history. This is one of the reasons that I decided to start this site. I wanted to impart my knowledge and enthusiasm about Byzantine history to others. I am not an academic, but I spend many hours learning about history, and I wish to provide important information about how to get into Byzantine history as it can be a very intimidating subject.
How does one get into Byzantine History?
Just like with any subject, it is important to keep an open mind. Byzantine History does not have the same appeal as some other eras in history, but it is an important part of understanding the Roman story from the Kingdom to the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. Roman history makes a lot more sense once you include the entirety of its phases when it was a Christian Empire.
History is the history of human culture and relations with other cultures. It encompasses many subsections that go beyond generals and conquests. Many people in this day and age have tendency to view history as a selection of important events that are not connected to their own situations in their countries.
Byzantine history, or the history of any Empire is a great way to learn about how societies were organizing themselves in the past. This is an important way in order to gain humility and to also inform we that there have been many actors on the stage of what I call humanity. We are more than biological computers. We are aware of our relationship as a species to one another and how we differ from animals. Our culture is what makes us human, which is all the reason to continue study history.
Byzantine History, in particular is an important aspect of understanding the Roman culture that came before it, giving us a better perspective on the changes in Polytheistic culture to Monotheistic culture. I have stated this multiple times on this site. I believe that learning isn’t just a great way to entertain oneself and instead is more importantly a great way to connect ourselves with people before us. Especially in this time, it is important that we are able to learn about how the Romans were before the arrival of Christianity. We learn about our history while also understanding something about ourselves.
However, the question still remains. How does one get into Byzantine History? It is maybe that you want to learn the history of what happened after the Western Empire but there are some issues that you have with it. It maybe that the stories have too much emphasis on Christian triumphalism. What I recommend is this:
- See what interests you about Byzantine History. You do not need to take the whole subject and enjoy it.
- Try to take your time. Information intakes in this day and age can be difficult to maintain considering how information on the internet is made.
- Small stories of individuals help to make the history all the more real to people.
- Seek out books that talk about Byzantine History in an approachable manner.
- Watch YouTube videos as a gateway towards more serious historical books.
- Invite colleagues to engage in your hobby. While not all may want to engage in it, having someone who know that engages in your love of history greatly enhances your experience with it.
- Try to play as the Byzantines in video games such as Civilization VI. It helps to make the history more associated with recreation than being an academic pursuit which makes it more accessible.
- While this may be out of reach for some, tourism can greatly enhance one’s appreciation of history. There are many Byzantine sites in Greece that mingle with the Mycenaean and Ancient Greek history that pervades the landscape in the Hellenic Republic. Many Byzantine sites are also located in the Republic of Turkey, which is generally speaking, the nerve center of where many Late Roman and Byzantine buildings can be seen.
Justinian is a great place to start
While I may have stated that Constantine would have been the best place start learning about Byzantine History, Justinian is the most mainstream of Christian Emperors after the Western Roman Empire.
He is the most well-known Eastern Roman Emperor to the mainstream audience and therefore, people are going to have built-in understanding that will help them to create a context about what the reading or watching about.
Unlike Constantine, Justinian’s reign is not heavily embedded with religious connotations. For such secular individuals, Justinian is a great way to study how Christianity was influencing the Roman Empire but without it having this aura of being overbearing. This will help make the topic seem interesting without putting too much information into your head all at once.
Anthony Kaldellis is an excellent introduction in Byzantine History.
While I do enjoy reading academic articles about the Byzantine Empire, these articles are very dense and impenetrable to those who may not spend all day thinking about history.
This is why I recommend reading Anthony Kaldellis, one of the premier scholars on Byzantine History today. He has many books that will ease one into the reading of this history, especially a history that was until recently, mostly something that you would see in college libraries and not talked about among the public.
Some examples of his works include:
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities
Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood
Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium
The Byzantine Republic: People and Power in New Rome
Charles Oman
Nikos D Kontogiannis
Byzantine Fortifications: Protecting the Roman Empire in the East
Special Mentions:
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
I highly recommend starting with Kaldellis’ The New Roman Empire as it is an great overall introduction to the Byzantine Empire. According to the description on Amazon, this is the most comperhensive book on the Byzantine Empire in a generation. It is an important book that comes at the right time to invigorate the academic and amateur historian sectors of this community. The other books are more specific in their context and may be intimidating to those who only have cursory understanding about Roman history and may know nothing about the Christian Empire that came after the Pagan Roman Empire.
Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood
This is a book that focuses on the Middle Byzantine Era, particularly the Macedonian era. This book explains how the Macedonian dynasty was able to bring the Byzantine Empire to era of growth only for it to be squandered by a variety of incompetent emperors who were unable to sustain its successes in the 11th Century. This is an important narrative to show in this book as it explains one of the most interesting aspects of the Byzantine Empire, its ability to adapt to trying cirumstances.
While there are other authors, Anthony Kaldellis is without question the best there is. His writing style is great for getting beginners into Byzantine history, especially in books, which tend to be less mainstream than say YouTube channels. While one can take a look at other authors, I believe that Anthony Kaldellis is the best option for someone who needs to get into Byzantine history without getting intimidation when exploring an unfamiliar and rather obscure topic.
Anthony Kaldellis also runs a podcast that is both available on audio and video. It is called, Byzantium and Friends. In his podcast, he talks about Byzantine history from multiple angles. Including angles that one is not used to seeing when talking about Byzantine history, including a discussion with a Greek man about how Modern Greeks think about the Byzantines and the culture.
The History of Byzantium Podcast by Robin Pierson
This is a classic podcast that I have had the pleasure of listening to as a way to learn about Byzantine history. It is not necessarily the most approachable for beginners in a sense, but it is probably less niche than Anthony Kaldellis, who is still an academic, and while his perspective is a lot less melodramatic than YouTubers, he can still seem rather intimidating as he tends to focus a lot on niche topics that can seem rather myopic and not particularly relevant to someone who hasn’t really been interested in history.
Robin Pierson’s podcast is based on Mike Duncan’s classic History of Rome podcast and follows a very similar theme. It tries to tell the whole story of the Byzantine Empire from its beginning to the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks.
I highly recommend it as it helps to provide context to Byzantine History and gives newbies a steppingstone so that can go into more complex topics.
YouTube Channels
YouTube is a great place to get education on the Byzantine Empire. It integrates quite well into how people generally interact with media today and is quite accessible.
Examples of great YouTube channels that focus on Byzantine History
Byzansimp:
This is channel which is run by a woman who has great insight into the lesser known aspects of Byzantine history. She uses slang and modernisms when talking about Byzantine history. However, her channel has a focus on the 13th to 15th Century Byzantine Empire or city state as this tends to be not the glorious history that people want to focus on.
Serapeum Historia:
His channel is another great YouTube channel which mostly focuses on the Middle Byzantine era.
Byzantium and Friends: As stated before, Anthony Kaldellis
Majorianius: Great YouTube who focuses on Byzantine History and culture. He does a lot of speculation, but he is very charismatic when talking about Byzantine History.
Eastern Roman History: Unlike Majorianius, Eastern Roman History tends to be more academic in his videos and does not use slang or mannerisms when talking about serious Historical topics.
It’s really up to you when it comes to History.
History is generally speaking one of those type of professions that can encompass many subsections. In order to make people enjoy history, you can get to make it tie to your land or your culture. History does not occur out of nowhere and I believe that history is the embodiment of our accomplishments as a species. That is why that teaching history is so important. We need it in order to grow and evolve as humans. Byzantine History is only one part of a greater whole of history but learning it will help provide greater perspectives on our age.
Byzantine-Empire.com 