On this spot...
Added 2025-05-11 13:06:06 +0000 UTCWhen I take listeners around the Hagia Sophia its really cool to be able to show them the exact spot where Emperors were crowned. If you could visit one spot where something from Byzantine history happened what it would be?
Comments
Same! I’ve been hoping there are guided tours/hikes of the mountains in Turkey that would be near some of these areas.
RCS
2025-07-02 23:58:39 +0000 UTCLate to the party, but would love to see and/or hike some of the mountain passes that proved so dangerous to the Romans and to their enemies.
Eric Cook
2025-06-06 19:05:57 +0000 UTCI recall you describing a knight jumping from a Venetian ship onto the sea-walls. I get spooked enough going from a ladder onto my roof - imagine how dicey it would have felt transferring from a ship onto a defended wall in armor. I want a slow-mo replay of it
Eric Juhos
2025-05-19 05:35:55 +0000 UTCI would have loved to see the Roman army under John Tzimiskes or Leo the Second leaving Constantinople for a campaign in the Balkans. To see the Emperor ride out from the city on campaign would have been a rather large and pompous event, and I can only imagine what a well equipped Roman force would have looked like parading down the streets and beyond the Theodosian walls in Imperial splendor.
Boris K
2025-05-14 14:27:39 +0000 UTCI would love to visit Antioch. Fascinating history, but it’s ruins are supposed to be almost totally destroyed or buried under deposits of the Orontes
Noah Vasilakes
2025-05-13 17:32:07 +0000 UTCAlthough little remains of these sites or nothing at all, it would be very cool to see the Blachernae and Boukoleon Palaces, the administrative buildings, the Senate House, and other structures where the emperors and their officials once lived and worked. What is probably more realistic and still fascinating is to walk in the areas of what used to be known as Jewish, Venetian, and Genoese quarters, and visit some smaller churches that still remain.
Robert Gluzman
2025-05-12 22:23:02 +0000 UTCHi Robin, Byzantium's history is closely linked to the Cruzades. So far you have discussed First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Cruzades. But there were more after. For example, there's the Sixth Cruzade of 1228-1229, the Baron's Crusade of 1239-1242, the Seventh Cruzade of 1248-1254. There's also the Eighth Crusade against Tunis, and the Ninth Crusade of 1271-1272. In between, there's the Mamluk takeover of Egypt and the Middle East and their victory over the Mongols at Ain Jalut. All these events surely had a effect on Constantinople. Hence we would love it if you could have special paying episodes of these other crusades and events and their importance in the larger picture of the Middle East, Europe & Byzantium. Thank you.
Luis A. Melendez Albizu
2025-05-12 17:35:42 +0000 UTCThat one is very achievable :-)
Robin Pierson
2025-05-12 12:01:27 +0000 UTCGoing through Cappadocia's strange rock formations to find places of battles, tracks or traps from the battles of the 11th centuries or other. Doing the path of the religious procession with the Virgin Mary's icon during the Ottoman invasion that miraculously saved the city (it's just an excuse to go through the city and the walls). See where the last Emperor died (we're told he died in battle on the walls?). Enter the city like venitian would do (by sea, go to the former venitian districts). See the weird machines that were built, like the throne on hydraulics.
Victor
2025-05-12 09:39:28 +0000 UTCThe one that comes to mind is the Theodosian Land Walls, looking down from those mighty walls that kept Constantinople unconquered for almost a thousand years and imagining what it must’ve been like to look down at an approaching army coming to storm the city.
Luke Alexander Williams
2025-05-12 00:23:15 +0000 UTCRavenna would be nice to visit on a tour. Robin does such a great job painting a picture while in a location that I imagine discussing the conquest and subsequent development by Byzantines, including the famous mosaics, would make the city come alive in a new way. That, or Hagia Sophia again. And again. And again. But Robin knew that would be my answer.
Daniel Schondra
2025-05-11 21:38:14 +0000 UTCIn Rome for my stag do this weekend. I'd like to come in the time when Phocas' column was dedicated in the forum. The Roman Empire and world we knew really was changing, with end of Ostrogothic Italy, the rise of Islam on the horizon. Wonder what it would have been like. Or during the visit of Constans II
Nathan Lawson
2025-05-11 19:09:13 +0000 UTC
