One of my favorite podcasts, 12 Byzantine Rulers, recently ended. Each episode covered the life of a different emperor of the Roman-Byzantine empire. Why did it end? He finished his twelfth biography of course.
The podcast tells the fascinating story of the Byzantine empire. We all learned in school that the Roman empire fell around 474 A.D. The truth is much more complicated. By the 5th century, the Roman empire had 2 capital cities- Rome in the west, and Constantinople in the east. Of the two, Constantinople was the more important and prosperous. So when the barbarian hordes invaded Italy, they sacked the smaller, less important city. The Empire did not fall, merely the western regions. The people that we now call the Byzantines? Well, they called themselves Romans- and saw themselves as the Roman empire. And that empire didn’t fall until almost a thousand years later.
The podcast is interesting and easy to understand. Lars does a great job highlighting the interesting events and people and putting them into context. Great audio quality, too.
The podcast has ended, but that doesn’t stop you from going back and listening to the old episodes- it’s not like they are out of date.
Das Haus von Ruh 