A written interview with me has just gone online at Robert Horvat’s excellent blog thehistoryofthebyzantineempire.com. You can read it here
You can also see pictures of my bookshelf and recording equipment. As well as my current list of Top 5 Emperors. You can begin sending the hate mail now because Justinian isn’t on it and Heraclius is not number one.
Check out Robert’s blog while you’re there. He does an excellent job writing about Byzantium.”
The History of Byzantium 
Why Anastasius?
In the interview I wrote “I think war should be about the last resort and rarely leads to anything but misery. I understand that it is the most dramatic story in the human experience and I too love learning about it. But the Byzantine story is one of ruinous war and I sympathise greatly with Emperors who avoided it or managed it well.” I think the Byzantine wars with the Persians were largely responsible for the rise of Islam and the collapse of Rome. Of all the Emperors who dealt with the Persians in our period Anastasius handled them best. He wasn’t interested in vainglorious conquest, instead he recruited a huge army to stare them down and then went back to peace. He also managed the economy carefully and generally behaved like his job was to be a competent CEO rather than try to play Alexander. I will certainly give it a lot more thought before compiling a final list.
So the link is now broken. Which was the top 5 emperors list?
Found the interview: https://rear-view-mirror.com/2015/05/23/robin-piersons-grand-strategy-the-history-of-byzantium-podcast/amp/
Thank you so much