Justinian catches a big break after a certain textile secret gets out, while Belisarius' reputation undergoes a brief revamp. A succession competition heats up and another great love story emerges, as…
Designed to be an experimental compliment to the Trailer, as the podcast series nears its finale, I wanted to collect the mnemonic tags, parodies, sound effects, foley and quotes (most but not all)…
Eunuchs were prominent figures in T&J era Byzantium, and the most notable by far was the general, Narses. But for those whose only touchstone for eunuch representation has been the character, Varys,…
In a total antique PR disaster, the Justinianic Plague a.k.a. the bubonic plague a.k.a. the world's very first pandemic reduces the Roman Empire's population by about half and reverses some pretty…
A huge swath of the world goes dim for a year and a half after a mysterious haze covers Eurasia's skies. The abrupt dip in climate creates some pretty ideal conditions for the bubonic plague.…
The Nika Riots leave Constantinople a tabula rasa for Justinian's masterpiece cathedral, the Hagia Sophia. Although, not without petty rivalries, starchitects and a shrewd Hebrew king's influence…
To move forward, we must first look back ... to the early days of T&J's being crowned empress and emperor, where a confluence of unfortunate policies — plus, a flawed hanging — cause the couple to…
Bonus episode courtesy of my new South African and Articles of Interest fans! What was the Birkin bag of the T&J era? Could someone tell the difference between a Roman and a Persian based on dress…
T&J themselves owned enslaved human beings, and they were far from alone. Enslavement in the Roman Empire was the practice of both prostitutes and priests, even rabbis. Justinian hires some VIP…
One thing we can definitively say is that the Goths weren’t dressing in all-black and ornamenting their buildings with gargoyles. So how did the name of a single barbarian people make it to the 21st…
