Mosaic from the Hagia Sophia. John II Komnenos, Mary and Christ, Empress Irene
John II Komnenos takes charge of the Empire and campaigns immediately in Anatolia. But he is soon beset by the complications of the new position Byzantium finds itself in. Serbians, Steppe tribes, Hungarians and Venetians all demand his attention. Enemies and allies are crowding the chess board and John must make each move very carefully.
Period: 1118-1127
Stream: A Crowded Chessboard
Download: A Crowded Chessboard
RSS Feed: The History of Byzantium
Picture of John and Irene by Antoine Helbert (www.antoine-helbert.com)
If you want to send in feedback to the podcast:
– Either comment on this post.
– Or on the facebook page.
– Leave a review on Itunes.
The History of Byzantium 
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Back in the saddle again, Robin!
(I think I’m going to like this John II Komnenos character.)
LESS GO
Thank god! Robin, I thought we’d lost you for good: Here I was, rapidly trying to digest Anthony Kaldellis’ and Oman’s books on the 12th and 13th century in Byzantium, scratching together some basic skills in podcasting thinking that maybe, just maybe I could limp us through to 1204 on 5 or 10 half-arsed, half-researched episodes of “Bootleg Byzantium”, forever consigning myself to be called pseudopierson. But now you are back! What a relief!
Ha ha. I wish you had done that now. Then in 2000 years people would debate whether ‘Pseudopierson’ was a different person or me doing an accent for some unknown reason 🙂
From the Journal of Byzantine Reception Studies 3721 edition: “….with the exception of “Byzantine Curiosities” much of Kaldellis’ works has sadly been lost. The sole source for both Kaldellis’ “Streams…” and Whittow’s monumental “Making…” is from that most 21st century of chroniclers – a podcaster. This is of course Pierson the Critic, whose “History of Byzantium” is transmitted to us from a German translation retrieved in the 3670’s from archaeological excavations at the ruins of the British Library, forms the basis of most studies into 20th century Reception of Byzantine Culture… ”
Haha. You’ve definitely studied Byzantium before. That’s exactly what it would be like.