George Maniakes yells at Stephen from the Madrid Skylitzes
Michael IV marries Zoe and becomes Emperor. Despite ill health he rules well with his brother John the Orphanotrophos. Their invasion of Sicily goes well initially but soon falls apart.
Period: 1034-40
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The History of Byzantium 
You did recommend this conquest podcast. I did listen to the first episodes and really, that guy leaves room for the possibility that god directly interfered in history. His only source is the bible and he dismisses egyptian sources out of hand with “yeah, but that may be hearsay while the bible can be a first-hand account”.
Did you really assume that this is on par or in the same league as what you do here?
Hi Robin,
Great episode as always. I was wondering if it would be possible to make your show avaible on Spotify? I severly lack free space on my phone and therefore I’m using this app for my podcast listening needs 🙂
Hi Jan, sorry for the inconvenience.. My understanding at this moment is that Acast and Spotify are still in negotiations over a deal. Acast are the company that run ads on the show. I await more developments.
Update! I’ve just submitted the podcast to Spotify. So if all goes well it should be in their catalogue in the next 48 hours!
Robin, Michael and his family were moneychangers. Did they just do that, or did were they bankers as well? Did they make loans? Did they charge (gasp!) interest???
We don’t know specifically about the Paphlagonians’ business practices. But money changers in Byzantium did charge interest on loans. There were laws about not ripping people off but there wasn’t the same fear about usury as in other parts of the Med.
I guess what I’m really asking is what the Byzantine attitude toward charging interest was. Did they allow it? Call it usury? Just leave it for the Jews to handle? If it was generally forbidden, how did people get loans?
Have a listen to episode 119 where I talked about this
Direct answer is that loans were possible from money changers or from rich patrons. Laws existed to prevent people from being ripped off but laws can only protect someone with the resources to bring a lawsuit before the courts.