The Bottom Line
This personality driven history series covers a fascinating but often ignored subject with clarity and warmth.
Pros
- Excellent summaries of each ruler.
- Clear speech, good sound quality.
- Broken into user friendly lengths.
- Audio footnotes on website.
Cons
- Relatively slow schedule.
Description
- A series of mp3 lectures about the Byzantine rulers.
- Suitable for iPods and all other players.
- Currently ongoing.
- Also available on iTunes.
- RSS feed link.
Guide Review - 12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire Podcast
As the Byzantine Empire lasted for over a thousand years, finishing as something unrecognisable to its creators, Lars Brownworth's decision to hang his swift journey through Byzantium on just twelve notable rulers is highly ambitious. A welcome return to personality driven history – more easily accessible than most – Brownworth focuses on each of the twelve in turn while adding plenty of context. The lectures vary from 17 to 25 minutes in length with some rulers split over several podcasts; Justinian has three totalling 67 minutes. Mr. Brownworth has clear speech, good diction and provides solid sound quality with no background distractions. He gives a concise summary of each ruler, but the gem is his introduction, a marvellous discussion of the transformation of 'Rome' into Byzantium suitable for all schools teaching the era. Equally as impressively, keen listeners can visit the podcasts website and listen to numerous recorded 'footnotes' dealing with small asides.
The only downside to '12 Byzantine Rulers' is the relatively slow release schedule, especially as he's only covered five in nine podcasts. That aside, this is an excellent series which provides a great introduction to Byzantium and the personalities involved.
