In 2005 I took a trip to Jordan and as a side trip I visited the little town of Madaba. There in the apse of the little church of St. George is a mosaic map made of several million tesserae. Composed in the 6th century roughly during the time of Justinian, it’s the oldest known [...]
Archive for the ‘history’ Category
A Peek into a Lost City
Thursday, Mar 18th, 2010 by lars | 2 Comments
Filed under: Byzantine, Current Events, history, new discovery
Filed under: Byzantine, Current Events, history, new discovery
The Mystery of the Great Palace
Tuesday, Jan 26th, 2010 by lars | 5 Comments
Filed under: Byzantine, Current Events, history, new discovery, Uncategorized
Filed under: Byzantine, Current Events, history, new discovery, Uncategorized
On a Saturday evening in 1997 a man rushed into the offices of Alpay Pasinli- the director of Istanbul’s Museum of Archeology- and breathlessly announced that he had made a discovery. He had been charged with excavating an old Ottoman prison that stood between the Hagia Sophia and the gates to the Topkapi Palace, but [...]
Why You’re Wrong About the Crusades
Lars has a guest post on http://debatethisbook.com/ entitled Why You’re Wrong About the Crusades.
Lost to the West
Tuesday, Sep 15th, 2009 by lars | 3 Comments
Filed under: book, Byzantine, Current Events, history, lost to the west, Uncategorized
Filed under: book, Byzantine, Current Events, history, lost to the west, Uncategorized
Today my book Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization goes on sale. I like to think of it (with apologies to Procopius) as a ‘secret’ history- the 1200 years of the Roman Empire that you weren’t taught about in school. Sure, we’ve all heard of Julius Caesar crossing the [...]
Unlikely Survivor
Its often been said that history is written by the victors, and if this is indeed true than it applies to the vanquished civilization’s physical remains as well. The records of the past are littered with references to vanished wonders, from the Colossus of Rhodes (broken up and sold for scrap in the 7th century) [...]
The 42 Martyrs of Amorium
Tuesday, Jul 21st, 2009 by lars | 2 Comments
Filed under: Byzantine, history, Milestones, This day in history
Filed under: Byzantine, history, Milestones, This day in history
The little village of Hisarköy in Turkey isn’t much to look at today, but then again, the centuries haven’t exactly been kind to it. Just over a thousand years ago it was much more impressive. Back then it was a thriving metropolis known as Amorium, the second largest city in the Byzantine Empire and arguably [...]
Black Tuesday
Five hundred and fifty-six years ago today the Roman Empire came to an end. Its final dénouement was not- as is commonly believed- the abdication of a sad little boy emperor, but an epic struggle beneath the walls of a city that had once ruled the world. On the morning of May 29, 1453, Constantinople, [...]
Running into Byzantium
For a lost empire, it’s amazing how omnipresent Byzantium is. You are liable to run into it at any moment- with little or no warning. That fork you use so nonchalantly was introduced to the west by a Byzantine noblewoman in the 11th Century. That hospital you hope to avoid and those female doctors who [...]