Robin Pierson
patreon
Zoom Calls for Patrons - Sunday 15th February
🕑 Added 2026-01-23 20:15:06 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
I'm going to host two more Zoom calls for Patrons on Sunday 15th February. I'm happy to just do a Q&A but I'm also open to other suggestions. If people would like to discuss favourite Emperors or Counter factuals or anything else please comment below.
There will be calls at 6pm and 10pm UK time. I don't want to leave out Australian and Kiwi listeners. So please post below if you'd like to join in and I'll see if I can add a morning call as well.
Each call will last an hour and you can join as many as you like.
We have one more interview episode next week. Then I will take you through what happened inside Constantinople once the Ottomans broke through the walls.
I look forward to speaking to you soon,
Robin
Comments
Zach
Won’t be able to attend but I really enjoyed the last few I was able to attend. Thanks for hosting these and I hope for many more :)
Robin Pierson
Mike did talk about this during the crisis of the 3rd century. With the Empire dealing with problems on multiple fronts for a long period of time it transitioned to a cavalry-dominated army. The infantry became less professional as there was less expectation of them determining battles. The need to deal with raids, with steppe riders, with Persian heavy cavalry meant the army fundamentally changed. By the Byzantine period there was no real complex structure to the infantry. They absorbed pressure and held positions while the cavalry provided the decisive manoeuvres.
Robin Pierson
This has been the most common question I've had since 1453
Robin Pierson
I think this leads to the what if Islam never happened question which is so big it's hard to fathom :-)
Robin Pierson
What time would suit you?
Joseph Little
Hi, I’m interested in when the Roman army stopped using its ‘phalanx with hinges’ approach. Such military strategies are talked about in the History of Rome podcast but (if I remember correctly) at some point no longer get mentioned in the History of Byzantium. I’m aware that when they started fighting steppes warriors there’s a swing towards cavalry, but when does the classic Roman infantry structure fall away & what was it replaced with?
Thomas Polk
Sounds great, i’m good to go.
Oisin McCarthy
A morning call for Aussies would be very welcome!
Diarmuid Angland
A counterfactual - Justinian stopped the reconquest after North Africa, and left the Ostrogoths in Italy as a semi official client kingdom. How would the empire’s resilience economically/man-power wise have dealt with the next 50/100 years, plague / Sassanians etc
Alex Dubrovsky
Counterfactuals can be fun. Here's one - let's assume the post-reconquest empire (post-1261) doesn't end up in a constant death spiral of pointless civil wars and other assorted bad decisions, do you think the empire would've survived at least in some capacity longer than it did in reality, or was it always doomed to disappear either because of the Turkic advances in Anatolia and beyond or the pressure from the Latin powers?
