Lars Brownworth - Latest Comments

Re: Did the Armenians control Byzantium?

Arman Nichan — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 10:45:55 -0000

So true Armenians instead of defending great historical Armenia against turcic turanian invasions.. defended used all their military skills for the defence of Byzantine empire wich betrayed Armenians by stabbing them on the back..by dividing Armenia .in long run Byzantine's shamefull shortsighted stupid Policy turned against itself. several centuries later with the fall of Constantinople.......

Re: What was Byzantine Athens like?

J. C. Smith — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:36:31 -0000

Thanks for an interesting response to a great question.

Re: Is the Bayeux Tapestry reliable?

Brooke — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 10:19:27 -0000

OMG!!! Same for me!!! :D <3

Re: What did Byzantine music sound like?

Nikos Tsiapos — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 01:32:19 -0000

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: What happened to the Bulgar Slayer’s novel?

Vincent O'Reilly — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:14:41 -0000

You missed my two novels: Count No Man Happy, A Byzantine Fantasy about the unhappy life and blinding by his mom of Constantine VI, and Antonina, A Byzantine Slut which is actually a fictionalized defense of the much maligned wife of Belisarius. There is also an English translation of Penelope Delta's In The Heroic Age of Basil II.
Vincent O'Reilly, aka Paul Kastenellos

Re: From Raiders to Kings

Abel Kyle — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:44:27 -0000

Hi Lars! Invaluable analysis ! I Appreciate the analysis - Does someone know if my assistant might be able to obtain a fillable NJ CN 10483 form to type on ?

Re: What happened to the Bulgar Slayer’s novel?

J. C. Smith — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:17:23 -0000

There are a couple good authors you missed: Gordon Doherty and Achilleas Mavrellis both write Byzantine historical fiction and do it well! Doherty has two series of books on the subject ("Legionary" is late Roman, in the eastern half of the Empire and "Strategos" in pure Byzantine. I highly recommend both. They have both, like you, been recognized by Byzantium Novum for their authorship.

Re: The most interesting Viking

J. C. Smith — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:10:24 -0000

Ragnar should be VERY well-known. He was portrayed by Ernest Borgnine in the excellent movie "The Vikings" c. 1960, also starring Kirk Douglas (as Ragnar's son) and Tony Curtis (a slave).

Re: Why did Justinian close the Platonic Academy?

Michael Talase — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 09:33:07 -0000

Justinian closed the *neo*platonic academy, which then shifted to Persia, where it was given sanctuary from persecution. It *is* anti-intellectual to drive scholars into exile. Setting up another academy elsewhere is no excuse. Why didn't the scholars from Athens move to Justinian's university? They were obviously not welcome there.

Re: Was Leo III’s reign good or bad for Byzantium?

José Luís Pinto Fernandes — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 12:06:32 -0000

Leo III didn't crush icons nor was an iconoclast of any kind, being neither a fanatic nor a moderate one. That's historical myths fomented by 9th century sources written by iconodules intent on staining the memory of the Isaurians. In fact, patriarch Germanus mentioned him in the 730's as a lover of icons!

Tthere was no iconoclasm since there's no actual case where it's clear icons were destroyed due to imperial policy. At best there were a few cases where icons were destroyed for dubious reasons, but the most likely cause was frequently artistic renovation of a building and not religious fanatism.

That's why the term "iconomachy", whose position as the official religious policy of the Roman Empire started around 750, is preferrable. Lars Brownworth might be interested in "Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era" by Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon, a reference on this period.

Re: The most interesting Viking

GuyFlaneur — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 03:57:13 -0000

Had Harald Hardrada not been killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge 25 September 1066, the Battle of Hastings a few weeks later (14 October) would have meant a very different England. Unfortunately.

Re: Did the Armenians control Byzantium?

Charles L. D. Charles — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 08:32:25 -0000

There was no Byzantine Empire or Armenian Empire... but simply the Roman Empire that incorporated a lot of ethnic groups within it. Unfortunately historians created a empty term "Byzantine" that managed to confuse a lot of people.

Re: What happened to the Bulgar Slayer’s novel?

Alk — Wed, 27 May 2015 05:34:57 -0000

More than a decade ago I remember reading a novel centered on the life of Theophano(aka Anastasia) the angelically beautiful yet devilishly ambitious daughter of a lowly Spartan innkeeper, who gets picked by the emperor's son(Romanos I think?) to become his wife and future Augusta(queen). After betraying every man who ever loved her(including Nikephoros Phokas) she is eventually betrayed by the only man she ever truly fell in love with(John Tsimiskes with whom she had conspired to dispose Nikephoros).

Nikephoros is of course a major character and John also has a prominent role in the novel while baby Basil and his brother are also mentioned in some scenes with their mother if I remember correctly. The siege of Chandax(Crete) features prominently as do some other events of Nikephoros campaigns against the Saracens in the eastern Mediterranean.

It's been a very long time since I read it but I remember it being quite interesting and immersive full with muslim bad-guys, atmospheric siege warfare, prisoners of war/slaves, palace guards, court eunuchs, army officers, secret lovers and of course a super-manipulative femme fatale who ends up being a rather sympathetic anti-heroine despite murdering her father-in-law and a couple of her husbands as she does whatever she thinks necessary to keep her children safe. The novel was in Greek however. I don't think it very likely that an English translation might exist. Nevertheless I've also found that there's an English-language book revolving around the same events by Frederic Harrison but I haven't had the chance to read that one.

Re: How much influence did the Pope have in Byzantium?

RELee — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 19:41:52 -0000

Even though Pope John Paul II made overtures to heal the break between Rome and the Orthodox Church, for some reason he refused to stop the canonization process of the Croatian Cardinal Stepinac who as Archbishop during WWII, has been accused of giving his blessing to the Croatian Nazi Ustasha, for murder of approx. 1 million Serbs. This was a program led by the Ustasha which forced Serbs to either convert to the Roman Catholic Church or be exterminated. Croatia at this time was a Nazi ally. Serbian Patriarch Pavle of Blessed Memory even contacted the pope when he beatified Stepinac in 1998. Here's a good article

http://theorthodoxchurch.in...

Re: Who were the Varangians?

william — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 23:15:23 -0000

could i get a translation please?

Re: The Game of Names

Paul Lim — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:14:26 -0000

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliantly explained. thank you. I have been looking for this for ages!

Re: What are the ‘must-see’ sites in Istanbul?

Eumenes — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 12:17:26 -0000

Actually what is referred to as "Alexander the Great tomb" is the larnax from the tomb of Abdalonymus, an Phoenician noble, made king of Sidon, by Alexander! The larnax is elaborately decorated with Alexander
and his nude Macedonians, like a contemporary Achilles and his Myrmidons!

It was found at the Sidon Necropolis in 1887, by two
Ottoman officials, a Muslim Greek, Osman Hamdi Bey, and an Armenian,Yervant Voskan, just a few years before the Hamidian Genocide (1894-96), that spelt the demise of any notion of solidarity towards the
Ottoman Empire..
.

Re: Did the Armenians control Byzantium?

Jason Callahan — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 20:34:55 -0000

Professor Peter Charanis clearly stated and wrote widely about the Byzantine Empire, even suggesting that it be called a joint "Graeco-Armenian" empire. Having said that, "if" Armenians reserved all their troops, cavalry and personal properties for themselves, they would have had a strong no nonsense country, which would have easily repelled Turkic invasions and could have escaped the relatively recent Genocide(s).
Good brave people indeed Armenians are.

Re: Who were the Varangians?

Bootle boy — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 21:54:05 -0000

The DNA results for Tsar Nicholas 11 show DYS390 at 24 a indigenous WAMH Briton

Re: Who were the Varangians?

Bootle boy — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 19:53:46 -0000

Actually they were mainly english in the end having their own church and some of them settled in the Crimea and Romania

Re: Why isn’t Greece Islamic today?

Antonio Minato — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 14:15:31 -0000

I believe this explanation partially, a lot of Greeks converted, but they were killed/deported after the independence. They were killed or deported through more than 150 years from Greece after independence. This is very rarely mentioned or explained in many sources but the truth is the truth.

Re: From Raiders to Kings

Clara — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 17:39:27 -0000

Hi there Mr. Brownworth. I was wondering why and what your objective was to writing your book LOST TO THE WEST? I absolutely loved the book and now I am writing a book report on it. Any information would be helpful. Thank you.
~Clara

Re: What’s under the Blue Mosque?

Eumenes — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 10:37:48 -0000

Actually what is referred to as "Alexander the Great tomb" is the larnax from the tomb of Abdalonymus, an Phoenician noble, made king of Sidon, by Alexander! The larnax is elaborately decorated with Alexander and his nude Macedonians, like a contemporary Achilles and his Myrmidons!

It was found at the Sidon Necropolis in 1887, by two Ottoman officials, a Muslim Greek, Osman Hamdi Bey, and an Armenian,Yervant Voskan, just a few years before the Hamidian Genocide (1894-96), that spelt the demise of any notion of solidarity towards the Ottoman Empire..

Re: Why did the Caliphate fear Justinian II?

Eumenes — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 10:24:27 -0000

The Greeks of Antiquity are to blame for this:

--> Western "Iberia" derives from the river Iber, modern river Ebro.

--> Eastern "Iberia" derives from the name of an actual nation, the Kartveli.. Even in our days caucasian Georgia is referred to as "Sa Kartvelo", that is the "Land of the Kartvelians".

I remember a similar double naming from the Herodotus' geography. He mentions a river "Araxes", referring to both the river Aras/Arran in Media Minor (modern Azerbaijan), and river Jaxartes (modern river Syr Darya)!
.

Re: Was the recipe for Greek Fire ever stolen?

Nikolay — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 15:06:00 -0000

I'd like to post a question regarding Greek Fire, its substance and names. Now, we all know that the Byzantines themselves didn't actually call it "Greek Fire" and instead we see many other names in the sources - Medean Fire, Liquid Fire, Naval Fire, Battle Fire etc. We also know it was being used through siphon-flamethrowers, usually on special ships, but occasionally also on land and even hand-held flamethrowers. However, we also have reports of it being used in grenades (spherical cones). Not only that, but we also have reports of such grenades of Medean Fire being used by the Arabs, Bulgarians and others. In regards to the Bulgarians, we also have one occasion when Khan Krum is reported to have captured "36 copper siphons and not a little of the liquid fire used with them" after the siege of Mesembria in 812. There are reports of various kinds of liquid fire, unburned sulphur etc., being used even centuries before Callinicus by the Persians, and centuries later even by nomadic peoples like the Cumans.
So I wonder - if "Greek Fire" really remained such an undisclosed secret, would that mean that "Greek Fire" was simply the best recipe (or the best mechanism for its exploitation - namely, the flamethrower) among a number of other recipes for inferior liquid fire, used by the other nations?
I've also read a suggestion that there were two types of "Greek/Medean Fire" - one was the Naval or Liquid Fire, which was obviously liquid and used in flamethrowers, while the other would have been the Battle Fire, which would have been of a powder substance and used in the fore-mentioned grenades. If that is so, would the "true" Greek Fire rather be the liquid form or would that term encompass both the liquid and the eventual powder?