In today’s episode, I’d like to switch from the Abbasid Caliphate to the Byzantine Empire. The fortunes of both were of course connected and the Caliphate’s decline during the ninth century created an opportunity for Byzantium. But it wasn’t an easy path for the Byzantines and there were some serious setbacks in the first half of the ninth-century. Nevertheless, ultimately Byzantium would emerge once again as the strongest power in western Eurasia, which was a truly remarkable achievement.

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Many historians call the Abbasid caliphate ‘the Golden Age of Islam’ but in this episode I want to analyse the contradiction in this description since, at a time when Islam underwent an undisputed cultural flowering, it also collapsed politically.

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First, let me wish you a Happy New Year and I hope you had a good break if you took time off. This episode tells the story of one of the greatest empires in history – the Umayyad Caliphate. Its territories stretched from Samarkand to the Atlantic. Like the Roman Empire, it straddled three continents – Asia, Europe and Africa. But appearances can be deceptive, and to most contemporaries the Umayyad Caliphate seemed much more fragile than it does to us today with the benefit of 1,400 years of hindsight. Find out why in this episode!

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In this episode, we’ll hear about one of the most chilling rulers of Byzantium – the empress Eirene. She was Byzantium’s only empress to take on the reins of government in a sole capacity. Her reign is controversial because she took sole power only after she’d killed the reigning emperor by gouging out his eyes. And the emperor in question was her own son. Even by the shocking standards of the Dark Ages, this stands out as pretty extreme parenting. And yet despite that, today she is a saint in the Greek Orthodox church since she restored icon worship, overthrowing the iconoclasts we talked about in the last episode. 

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In the first half of the eighth century, Byzantium stemmed the Arab advance into Europe. Critical to this achievement were two emperors: Leo III and Constantine V. In this episode, I explain why I think these two men were heroes of the Dark Ages who changed history. And their lack of visibility is explained by a conspiracy  against them which echoes the cancel culture of our own times. 

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In this episode we turn east to consider Byzantium. We last spoke about the eastern Romans, or the Byzantines, in episode 113 when I described the emperor Leo III’s victory in the winter of 717/718 over an immense Umayyad army and navy intent on taking Constantinople. This was a pivotal moment in history. Few people at the time would have expected Byzantium to survive. But it did. And the Umayyad Caliphate’s advance into Europe was blocked. 

But before we move on to the rest of Leo’s reign, the question I want to ask in this episode, is how did Byzantium do it? How was it able to fend off Islam, by far the greatest power of its age? 

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The final political legacy of the Roman Empire in western Europe was the Holy Roman Empire. 

Amazingly, this curious political institution lasted until Napoleon abolished it in 1806. In the eighteenth century, the French political philosopher Voltaire famously described it as neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. He may have been right in his own age, but it was originally born with the dream of restoring Charlemagne's empire, itself a restoration of the once mighty Roman Empire. It was a dream that would last a thousand years.

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The Vikings transformed European history, impacted the worlds of both Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate, and even, some 500 years before Christopher Columbus, discovered North America. 

In this episode, I want to look at how and why the Viking diaspora first began, before moving to their initial impact on the world outside Scandinavia, especially on the Carolingians and the establishment of the Viking-Frankish state of Normandy.

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Charlemagne created the largest empire in western Europe since the Romans. But it didn’t last. Within only a few decades of his death, it had broken up and one half of it was fighting for its survival against a new and terrifying enemy from the north: the Vikings. In this episode, I want to ask why did that happen? 

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In this and the next episode, I want to look beyond the legend of Charlemagne to find the real man and his achievements and failings. His legend has made him into a symbol of power and authority as well as a figurehead for the cause of European integration. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that after his death, his empire quickly broke up and his accomplishments were shown to be hollow. So, what is the truth about him? Let’s find out.

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For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com