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  • 307_Healing_the_Divisions.mp3
  • 307_Healing_the_Divisions.mp3

Missing 1 full-res photo, 2 files.

Content

The Union of Lyons had unleashed bitter division within Byzantium. We follow Michael and his son Andronikos as they try to make peace with the various factions that had opposed them.

Period: 1281-1310

Pic: Andronikos II Palaiologos from the manuscript of George Pachymeres' 'Historia'

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Comments

Guillem N

It took 486 episodes for the Romans to find their butchers. Not a bad run.

Vincent Verzumo

Better to reign in hell than serve heaven was the unfortunate motto of the “orthodox.”

Robert Gluzman

What if Michael would have focused all his diplomatic energies on reuniting with Epirus and Trebizond, instead of pleasing the Papacy? I wonder under what conditions those kingdoms would have agree to be reabsorbed by Constantinople.

Dominic Guye

I feel like they thought it was the opposite. They put God over Empire.

Dominic Guye

Even in the 1450s, with the empire greatly reduced, when Constantine XI proposed church union, I think the people literally rioted. There is something beautiful about their being willing to submit to foreign domination if it meant they got to stay true to what they saw as true doctrine. It seems like most Romans would rather be Eastern Orthodox slaves than Roman Catholic magnates.

Adam Gerencser

This episode made me realise once again how our relationship to history (and Byzantine history in particular) is shaped by the role faith plays in our daily life. As a practicing Catholic with a keen interest in Orthodoxy, it took the narrative's occasional nod to the secular present to remind me that the East Roman preoccupation with theology may not come naturally to most contemporary listeners 😅

RCS

I remember reading Roger Crowley’s “1453” and being struck by the fact that, as thousands of Ottomans were preparing to destroy them and their city, there was still bitter fighting over religion between Catholics and the Orthodox. My secular mind definitely has a hard time processing that. But this episode gave some context to that later era. Great job Robin!