An update on the podcast schedule and the Istanbul project: here
Update on the schedule and Istanbul
2 thoughts on “Update on the schedule and Istanbul”
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- Episode 225 – Belisarius in Metal (an interview with John Yelland from Judicator) March 4, 2021
- Episode 224 – The Coup of Anna Komnene with Leonora Neville February 16, 2021
- Episode 223 – Questions VIII February 16, 2021
- All Bonus Episodes are moving to Patreon February 11, 2021
- Justin, Dying – Constantinople, 527 AD October 20, 2020
- An update on the schedule of the podcast October 14, 2020
- Episode 222 – The Good Helmsman October 2, 2020
- Episode 221 – The Triptych September 24, 2020
- Episode 220 – The Crusade of 1101 September 15, 2020
- Episode 219 – A Spectacular Interruption (or Jerusalem!) September 4, 2020
- Episode 218 – The Siege of Antioch August 16, 2020
- Episode 217 – Diverging Paths July 2, 2020
- Episode 216 – The Battle of Dorylaeum June 28, 2020
- Intelligent Speech Conference – images and links June 27, 2020
- Episode 215 – The Siege of Nicaea June 19, 2020
- Episode 214 – The Prince’s Crusade June 12, 2020
- Episode 213 – The People’s Crusade June 5, 2020
- The History of Byzantium is now on Patreon May 29, 2020
- Episode 212 – Who went on Crusade and why? May 17, 2020
- Episode 211 – Why people went on Crusade with Sharyn Eastaugh May 13, 2020
- Episode 210 – What did Urban say? May 8, 2020
- Episode 209 – What about Jerusalem? May 3, 2020
- Episode 208 – The Call from the East with Peter Frankopan April 27, 2020
- Episode 207 – What did Urban want? April 24, 2020
- Episode 206 – What did Alexios want? April 22, 2020
- Episode 205 – Introducing the Crusades April 20, 2020
- Episode 204 – Komnenian Reforms March 26, 2020
- Corona Virus update March 19, 2020
- Episode 203 – The Pecheneg Wars, again March 13, 2020
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- Episode 197 – Anna Komnene with Leonora Neville January 24, 2020
- The House of War (special episodes) January 23, 2020
- Episode 196 – Cultural Revival January 17, 2020
- Byzantine Stories. Episode 8 – Cyprus: 565 – 965 AD January 14, 2020
- Backer Rewards Episode 15 – The Hagia Sophia and Imperial Coronations October 21, 2019
- On stage with Mike Duncan! September 17, 2019
- Robin interviewed on the Roads to Liberty Podcast August 12, 2019
- Episode 195 – King of the Ashes July 23, 2019
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- Episode 193 – Manzikert June 28, 2019
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- Episode 190 – The End of the Macedonian Dynasty May 12, 2019
- An interview with Barry Strauss – Author of ’10 Caesars’ and the ‘Antiquitas’ podcast May 3, 2019
- Backer Rewards Episode 14 – The City of Rome with Steve Guerra April 26, 2019
- Backer Rewards Episode 13 – The Byzantine Legacy April 7, 2019
I just listened to your very interesting podcast Why the Romans Lost (to the Arabs). Basically, they could not afford to recruit, train, and pay another army after their defeat and they could not bring an existing army from the West or the Balkans to fight the Arabs. Further, new recruits would be inexperienced and, therefore, ineffective. This raises a question that has long bothered me. Hannibal crushed army after army, yet the Romans and their Italic allies fielded new armies, developed effective tactics, and in the end defeated him. I would guess that this was accomplished with a smaller population than the Byzantium Empire had to draw from. Similarly, after the tribes from northern Europe destroyed Roman armies in several battles arround100 BC, Marius was able to recruit a new army from the common people of Rome, train them, march north and crush the invading tribes. Granted, he was lucky that they gave him time to do this rather than pouring into Italy and they split their forces, but still, the point is he found willing young men who, though never having fought anyone, were willing to follow Marius and fought well. What changed in the people? Why couldn’t or wouldn’t the people of 5th century Italy rise to the challenge and join a capable general like Aetius and defend their homeland? Why had they stopped recruiting citizens in the previous centuries and chose to rely on mercenaries? Why couldn’t the people of the Byzantine Empire do what the people of Italy did under Fabius, Scipio, and Marius? The only answer I can think of is that the basic character of the people changed. When I was 17 in 1964, my mother told me that if I refused to defend my country she would disown me. This was a common thought among the generation that fought WWII. Who would tell their son that now? We changed.
You bring up excellent questions and I haven’t studied either of the earlier eras in detail. But I think there are a couple of factors worth considering.
1) The numbers mentioned by the ancient sources are worth questioning. I don’t know how devastating Roman losses really were.
2) Hannibal had just the one army for the Romans to contend with. He didn’t lead waves of attack each summer on the same locations the way the Arabs did.
3) The city states of the Republic may have had an advantage, in terms of recruitment, because of their smaller size. This gave them better engagement with their citizens. Whereas the Empire seems to have bred in people a resentment of taxation and authority. People in 5th century Italy may have been more cynical about standing and dying for their government given how distant it seemed to them. And in turn how vast the whole Empire felt.
4) Similarly it seems like the tradition of citizen militias was much stronger in the days of the Republic. Once the Empire became dependent on professional soldiers there didn’t seem to be much political will to go back to ordinary citizens.