Episode 329 - Buying Time
Added 2025-06-06 17:07:52 +0000 UTCWith the Ottoman civil war raging Manuel II Palaiologos tries to improve the Roman position and ensure his sons succeed him.
Period: 1402-30
Pic: John VII, Manuel II and John VIII (from a 15th-century codex in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris)
Comments
Hi Robin! I’ve been listening for 8 years and wanted to join to say thanks and I’ll always remember and love this series, your voice, and Byzantium. What a ride.
Nothingburger Burgerreich
2025-07-16 00:04:21 +0000 UTCA bunch of wealthy elites putting their short term interests above that of the long term common good? A story as old as time.
RCS
2025-07-02 20:44:17 +0000 UTCIt's interesting because "Big Port with a bunch of smaller ports and islands with an elite dominated by trade" is exactly what the Venetians and Genoa leveraged to great success, but the Byzantine political apparatus/culture was just not suited for that kind of state.
William Rauschenberg
2025-06-12 21:05:58 +0000 UTCI swear, the Romans of the East really squeezed that plot armor for all it was worth. The Paleologians we're a lackluster dynasty, but I cant help but admire how the last of the Eastern Roman Emperors (except Kantakuzenous, obviously) tried until the end to save their state. Can't say the same about the last Emperors of the West. (At least the Western Roman Emperors after Majoran)
Maxwell Elkiss
2025-06-12 05:05:28 +0000 UTCYeah, it's really getting close to the end. And with reduced scope of the empire time can fly - like this episode covering essentially 1/2 of the remaining period (1400-1430)
MattS
2025-06-10 21:33:57 +0000 UTCThe cannons the Ottomans used?
Robin Pierson
2025-06-09 18:30:22 +0000 UTCPlethon seems like a fascinating character. I hope we see more of him before the end.
Christopher Burton
2025-06-07 06:24:26 +0000 UTCJust realized that we are down to the last two emperors. The podcast really took off since the black death.
Paul Astalas
2025-06-07 02:42:30 +0000 UTCWhat is this cannon, of which you speak?
Mark Simms
2025-06-07 00:28:46 +0000 UTCI think it might be the latter, but mostly just a coincidence. The last shah of Iran had cancer, and he died after an operation or something like that. Louis Phillipe was in his late 70s when he died. Couple more French examples - Charles X (died 6 years after he was dethroned, at the age of 79) and Napoleon III (died pretty soon after he was dethroned, from illness).
Alex Dubrovsky
2025-06-06 22:10:29 +0000 UTCI'd like to see a "Where are they now" episode after the narrative ends. I've heard that the last member of the imperial branch of the Kominoi died as a monk in the 17th century, or that the last of the Paleologoi imperial family was some plantation owner in the Caribbean, some Melissinos appears as a military officer in the Russian army in the 1800s and so on. Never went out of my way to research any of that but it would be fun to listen to their stories.
Kωnstantinos T.
2025-06-06 18:05:24 +0000 UTCThis is a bit of a tangent, but Bayezid dying so shortly after his defeat is an odd pattern I’ve noticed where dethroned monarchs die of seemingly natural causes shortly after being dethroned: the same happened to the last shah of Iran and Louis Phillipe of France. I wonder if they were just secretly killed, or if they fell into despair and lost the will to live
Liutprand
2025-06-06 17:55:10 +0000 UTC
