On the Spot: Bettany Hughes Ella Muir Mon, 08/07/2023 - 00:00 Interview Bettany Hughes What historical topic have I changed my mind on? I thought the sacrifice of young women in the Bronze Age was a myth. It wasn’t. History Today Volume 73 Issue 8 August 2023 What historical topic have I changed my mind on? I thought the sacrifice of young women in the Bronze Age was a myth. It wasn’t ..read more

The Normans in Byzantium Mosaic of Constantine IX Monomachos, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Agefotostock/Alamy. In 1074 the population of Constantinople looked on aghast as the town of Chrysopolis (modern Üsküdar), just across the Bosporus, was put to the torch. The Byzantine Empire had been through a great deal over the previous decade, which had seen Turkic bands carve up much of the old imperial heartlands of Asia Minor. Now it seemed as if the capital itself would fall. But the man responsible was no Turkish sultan or atabeg. It was Roussel de Bailleul, a Norman adventurer who had begun his car ..read more

The Elusive Byzantine Empire H T Thu, 03/14/2019 - 13:15 Read more about The Elusive Byzantine Empire ..read more

A Blueprint for Byzantine Power On 25 March 919 the Byzantine fleet sailed into the port of Constantinople. As the admiral of the Empire’s navy, Romanos Lekapenos was invited to the city as protector of its young ruler, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (‘born in the purple’). The admiral’s thinking was clear on how to resolve the current political crisis in the capital: he planned to seize the imperial throne from Constantine and the Macedonian dynasty. Once in the palace, he swiftly captured the levers of the Byzantine state. He had himself crowned emperor by Constantine and the Patriarch an ..read more

Justifying Slavery The Christian reconquest of Spain significantly altered the Iberian slave market. In Aragon, conquered Muslims were promised judicial autonomy as part of the surrender treaties signed with King Jaime I of Aragon. Cases that were supposed to be adjudicated by Islamic law, however, were instead arbitrated in Christian courts and Muslims in Christian Aragon were subject to the rule of the king’s deputy, the General Bailiff. He had authority over the Muslim population, who were considered to ‘belong to the king’. The General Bailiff could seize, try and ..read more

Death of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus The last iconoclast emperor was just 28 when he died of dysentery, still embroiled in the conflict with the Abbasid Caliphate that had dominated his reign. With Theophilus, so too died the strict ban on the veneration of icons that had been a feature of Byzantine society on and off for 116 years.  H T Thu, 01/19/2017 - 12:40 Rhys Griffiths January 20th marks the death of Emperor Theophilus. History Today Volume 67 Issue 1 January 2017 The Byzantine Empire's ban on the veneration of icons died with its last iconoclast emperor on January 20th ..read more

Death of Justinian I Long before Justinian’s time barbarian invasions had effectively destroyed the Roman Empire in the West, but he tried his best to restore it. He was born in about 482 in the Balkans, to a peasant family in what centuries later would be Serbia. He may have been the last Roman emperor whose native language was Latin, though it was of a rustic, uncouth sort. Highly intelligent, determined and strong-minded, he was hugely ambitious and, fortunately for him, his mother was the younger sister of a leading military figure in Constantinople called Justin, who became commander of ..read more