Today we talk to the man whose research has guided our last few podcasts Dr Maximilian Lau.
Dr Lau is Adjunct Professor of Economic History at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, and also a Research Associate in History at St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford. He has been studying 12th century Byzantine history for many years now and the fruits of that labour can be found in his forthcoming book “Rebuilding New Rome. The Foreign Policy of John II Komnenos.”
The book is written and will be out next year and Dr Lau very generously shared it with me in advance. It’s been incredibly helpful in part because of its quality but also because it follows a format similar to our narrative episodes. It is a chronological account of John’s military and political activity with a discussion of the sources as each incident unfolds. As Dr Lau explains in the interview – John’s reign often gets short shrift in popular Byzantine books because our Roman sources cover him fairly briefly. But there are plenty of other sources to work with and Dr Lau has synthesised them to create a new history of John’s reign.
Period: 1118-1143
Stream: John Komnenos with Dr Maximilian Lau
Download: John Komnenos with Dr Maximilian Lau
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The History of Byzantium 
Really good, is there a way to pre-order the book?
Not that I’m aware of but I will announce it on the show when it’s published
I like this guy.
>Roman Emperor
>One of the best military commanders in Roman history
>Know to posterity as ‘the good’
>Sources don’t elaborate
>Dies
Writing in September 2022, I am sad to report that Dr. Lau’s book, which sounds fascinating from your description, does not appear to have been published yet. Do you have any information about this?
Academic publishing moves very slowly 🙂 I will announce when it is available
I too am eager to lay my paws on this magnificent scholar’s work of art. I am eagerly catching up to the current episode of the narrative and am finding the history of the Roman Empire in this period very relatable. Mainly as I am a Roman, and my family has been Coptic Roman forever. It is no longer a history of some forgotten empire, but the history of our country.