I like to use a variety of games, from strategy to role playing, when I teach. The good folks at IU wrote up a little article about this teaching method. I share here for all who might be interested:
connectedprof.iu.edu/articles/202...
Today on Ancient Office Hours, Dr. @byzantineprof.bsky.social , a professor of history at Indiana University Northwest, discusses the challenges in academic offerings in late antiquity, his work on Belisarius & Antonia, and the impact of digital records on future historical studies.
I am at beautiful High Point University, to give 3 talks in 3 days:
1. The Destruction of Italy in Late Antiquity: How, Why, and Who?
2. The Practice and Challenge of Researching Ancient and Medieval History.
3. Byzantium and the First Crusade: Opportunities Realized and Lost.
I think the songs on the album would be great introductory material for students, either assigned to be listened to in advance or played in class at the beginning of a lecture. You can stream the album on Spotify or Apple Music. I recommend it.
My personal favorites are "The Hall of the 19 Couches," about a reception room in the Great Palace, and "Wulfila Put the Arian in Barbarian," which is a great pun but also a major ear worm.
If you ever wondered whether a song might mention the great sixth-century charioteer Porphyrius ("Blues and Whites, Greens and Reds") or architectural terms for a basilica church like nave, colonnade, transept, apse ("The Devil's in the Details"), the answer is yes.
This song is just one of many on Christine's new album, "T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story (Original Soundtrack)" which contains 12 original and creative tracks about the sixth-century world of Justinian and Theodora. The song styles range from metal to doo-wop.
This creative interpretation by talented podcaster and musician Christine Laskowski brilliantly contrasts Theodora's imperial garments with her memories of ill treatment in her previous life as an actress/prostitute: "free to exercise my malice toward the very men who once made my life hell."
"I understand we are surrounded, by both Blues and Greens we're hounded, oh the tumult from inside the Hippodrome!
This purple shroud is mine to lose, but dear, it's also the color, I'll wear no other, it's also the color of a bruise."
Lyrics from new, original music about Theodora. 👀
I would nope out of that so fast.
The AHR is doing a special issue on pre-modern history. Worth flagging up because so many of us are frustrated that AHR in particular and AHA in general have become so focused on modern history. I hope some of my very clever colleagues will submit for this.
www.historians.org/news-publica...
Belisarius & Antonina: Love and War in the Age of Justinian. By David Alan Parnell. New York: Oxford University Press. 2023. 260 pp. £19.99. ISBN 9780197574706. - Kennedy - 2025 - Early Medieval Europe - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Sure, but it also seems relevant that the Ostrogoths razed Milan to the ground in 539, or that they depopulated Rome in 547. These actions materially contributed to the demographic and economic destruction of Italy and it's not clear they were necessary for the war effort.
Also, the gut reaction to focus on the middle and end of the Ostrogothic War rather than the first few years is exactly one of the things I will be talking about. I think it's important to not let the ending of an event obscure our view of opinions toward the event in its beginning.
Personally, I would modify that statement in this way: "Justinian's war (including the deliberately destructive Ostrogothic resistance), the effects of climate disaster and the plague, and then the heavy-handed taxation completely ruined Italy."
I am making the pilgrimage to Leeds next week to speak about a topic to which I have given a lot of thought lately: that at least some in formerly Roman North Africa and Italy *wanted* Justinian's restoration, and that modern scholars too often ignore them. I expect debate!
Adding it to my schedule for the day!
Colleagues, the inimitable Leonora Neville has written a short book on the name of the "Byzantine Empire" with the evocative title "Sailing Away from Byzantium toward East Roman History." Currently open access and free to download!
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Thank you 😀
Unboxing the paperback of Belisarius & Antonina! On sale now. Particularly proud of this one because it's my first book ever to come out as a paperback. 🥹
When I get this kind of email from Quality Matters, of all organizations, I know the end is nigh for us. Kind of speechless, actually. Use AI to generate our course content, QM? Really?
Preorder from Oxford University Press here:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Belisarius & Antonina is getting a paperback edition! Release date is May 15th. Priced at $19.99. Here's a sneak peak of the new back cover with some praise for the book.
Selfie of the two of us in leather vests and jackets.
Wouldn’t be LEGIONS of Metal without a couple (late) Roman Empire experts rocking out & talking shop. @byzantineprof.bsky.social
This Friday the inimitable Florin Curta will be speaking on Zoom. Title is "Imperial borderlands to the north and to the west of the Black Sea, 6th to early 7th centuries." Michael Decker and yours truly will offer comments. Join us!
JOB ALERT! My department at Indiana University Northwest is hiring a tenure-track, Assistant Professor of American History. I realize most of my mutuals here are medievalists and classicists, but please pass the news on to any Americanist colleagues you have.
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37789466...
