The Byzantine Empire in 780 from A History of the Byzantine State and Society by Warren Treadgold
Land use and resources in the Byzantine Empire from The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History by John Haldon
Cities in the Empire c780 from A History of the Byzantine State and Society by Warren Treadgold
We explore the remaining provinces of the Roman Empire from Sicily to Cilicia. Ok Cilicia is no longer a part of the Empire but its on the border and I liked the alliteration.
Period: 695-802
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The History of Byzantium 
Hello Robin,
I would like to say that I really appreciate what you have done as far as continuing the rest of the Roman Empire story until the fall of Constantinople. Since listening to both The History of Rome and The History of Byzantium (two of the my three favorite podcasts, the other is Life of Caesar podcast). I do have a question and I don’t know if you have answered this question yet? How did the Byzantines preceived their ancestors (Romans from the Western half)?
I think I’ve discussed this before. Like in the episode on the Franks. If people in the west behaved like Byzantines then they might be recognised as “true Romans.” But increasingly I think the average people in France/Spain were not thought about much at all.
There Was No Byzantine Empire, Charles Collins, http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/lhr/2-1/CharlesCollins.html
Its a myth to hide historical fact of Turks continuation of political heritage of Rome( Constantinople).
Rome of Italy appeared long after Normans replaced Muslims in Sicily and in Italian Imarats.
I was surprised to see such a high population estimate for Thessalonica: more than 50,000, and thus almost the size of Constantinople. Am I right in thinking your promised to say something about Thessalonica in a future podcast? It’s hard to see why it would flourish during this period. Was it an entrepôt for trade routes into the Balkans (and from there up to the Baltic region and Scandinavia)? I suppose the Slavs, Balts, and Scandinavians needed to trade with someone.
15,000 not 50
Thank you for these episodes that give us a picture of what is going on apart from the military and politics. It is nice to get more of a sense of the people and life in and around the empire. I find them very enjoyable.
I’m a new listener so this is a 2022 question posted in a comment to a 2015 episode to this podcast. Hopefully someone knows the answer. Its very unclear to me about the fates and treatment of people in conquered lands under Arab occupation. Consistently, many Islamists point to the egalitarian treatment of conquered people by Arab forces, often bragging about how people were allowed to continue worshiping as they pleased and the tolerance of Islam for existing religion. However at the same time there was clearly a practice of enslavement and booty during Arab conquests and the imposition of the Jizya. Was the Jizya like an income tax (varies based on income) or a flat fee (same for all)? Who determined what was the appropriate Jizya or did it vary by region or set by Islamic law? Was the jizya so high that basically non-wealthy people were expected to convert or be enslaved?
Hey, as far as I know the jizya was a fixed per head tax that all non Muslims paid. And therefore there wasn’t much incentive to convert large non Muslim population since that would cost money. The bragging about tolerance is a bit hollow. The Arabs had conquered huge territories whose people vastly outnumbered them. They had no choice but to be tolerant. Usually this is said to contrast with the treatment of Jews and other minorities under Christian rule. But all states persecute minorities when they are under threat or strain. We’d need to look at the record of Muslim states under similar levels of stress. The taking of slaves was common to all states at the time but yeah also undermines most attempts to portray medieval states as tolerant in a modern sense.