Professor Mark Whittow
For our 200th show I pay tribute to the scholar who has had the most influence on this podcast – Professor Mark Whittow. Sadly Professor Whittow died in 2017 and he is a huge loss to academia and Byzantine Studies in particular. I take you through three articles he wrote about political power in Byzantium to give you a taste of the kind of insights that have shaped the podcast.
For more information on Professor Whittow:
The three articles discussed in today’s episode were:
“Staying on Top in Byzantium” in Mélanges Jean-Claude Cheynet, Eds Béatrice Caseau, Vivien Prigent and Alessio Sopracasa, ACHCByz
“The Second Fall – the place of the 11th century in Roman History” in Byzantium in the 11th Century: Being in Between, Eds Marc D. Lauxtermann and Mark Whittow, Routledge
“How the east was lost: the background to the Komnenian reconquista” in Alexios Komnenos, 2nd Belfast Byzantine international colloquium, Eds Margaret Mullett and Dion Smythe
Download: A Tribute to Professor Mark Whittow
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Rest in peace Mr. Whittow. Seems like he was a valuable scholar and a good person altogether.
Robin. This is a wonderful tribute and a very special episode. The insight into the Medieval mind is refreshing and, like so much of your podcast, brings the people of Byzantium to life. It is very fluent and really enjoyable to listen to. Wonderful work! Thank you and best wishes!
🙂
So a stratigos earned 3.6 km^2 of land annually – 50 pounds of gold annually, and were 72 gold coins in a pound, and 1 hectare of land cost 10 gold coins. Very interesting episode.
Thanks so much. He is probably my favorite author on the Byzantine Empire. So succinct. Especially his cool analysis, without any favoritism towards any of the players, of the geopolitics of the region over the centuries.