Anthony Kaldellis
University of Chicago, Classics, Faculty Member
- For all my publications, see here: http://kaldellispublications.weebly.com
For a Byzantine podcast, see here: https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.comedit
Quasity is the name given here to the ability of a society to treat something (a city, person, object, relation) as if it were something else, while knowing that it technically isn't that thing. It was an important aspect of the Roman... more
Quasity is the name given here to the ability of a society to treat something (a city, person, object, relation) as if it were something else, while knowing that it technically isn't that thing. It was an important aspect of the Roman social order and a matrix of Byzantine history and thought.
Anthony Kaldellis and Scott Kennedy, ‘Thucydides in Byzantium,’ in P. Low, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Thucydides (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023) 249-264
‘Byzantine Borders were State Artifacts, not ‘Fluid Zones of Interaction’,’ in D. G. Tor and A. D. Beihammer, eds., The Islamic-Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades (Edinburgh: Edinburgh... more
‘Byzantine Borders were State Artifacts, not ‘Fluid Zones of Interaction’,’ in D. G. Tor and A. D. Beihammer, eds., The Islamic-Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023) 100-124.
Keynote lecture at the 7th International Symposium “Days of Justinian I,” Skopje, 15-16 November, 2019.
Pubilshed in Γ. Ν. Δελιγιαννάκης, Τί είναι ύστερη αρχαιότητα; Συναγωγή μελετών για τον υστερορωμαϊκό κόσμο (Αθήνα: Ηρόδοτος 2020) 467-506.
Translation by N. Tagoulis and I. Tripoula in V. Syros and G. Steiris, ed., Η αρχή δεν είναι το ήμισυ του παντός: Ο αριστοτελικός πολιτικός στοχασμός στις μεσαιωνικές αραβικές, συριακές, βυζαντινές και εβραϊκές παραδόσεις (Athens:... more
Translation by N. Tagoulis and I. Tripoula in V. Syros and G. Steiris, ed., Η αρχή δεν είναι το ήμισυ του παντός: Ο αριστοτελικός πολιτικός στοχασμός στις μεσαιωνικές αραβικές, συριακές, βυζαντινές και εβραϊκές παραδόσεις (Athens: Kardamitsa 2021) 153-161.
Scholars often assume that historians in late antiquity ended their narratives with the previous regime because it was too dangerous for them to write candidly about the current imperial reign. While this was generally true, there are... more
Scholars often assume that historians in late antiquity ended their narratives with the previous regime because it was too dangerous for them to write candidly about the current imperial reign. While this was generally true, there are some notable exceptions to the pattern which, when studied together, show that this rule was not iron-clad and cannot safely be relied on to date the composition of texts and the scope of their coverage (in the case of lost works). Both the rule and the exceptions illuminate the nuanced play of " truth " and " power " in late antiquity. In assessing our evidence we must often read between the lines, but not all historians were as timid as we might assume. The Roman em-pire's " secret history " could sometimes be aired.
‘The Manufacture of History in the Later Tenth and Eleventh Centuries: Rhetorical Templates and Narrative Ontologies,’ Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies (Belgrade, 22–27 August 2016): Plenary Papers (Belgrade: The Serbian National Committee of AIEB 2016) 293-306.more
Research Interests:
THE CASE FOR EAST ROMAN STUDIES THE CASE FOR EAST ROMAN STUDIES Byzantine Studies has reached a tipping point: a growing number of historians have realized that the terms "Byzantium" and "the Byzantines" distort the reality and identity... more
THE CASE FOR EAST ROMAN STUDIES THE CASE FOR EAST ROMAN STUDIES Byzantine Studies has reached a tipping point: a growing number of historians have realized that the terms "Byzantium" and "the Byzantines" distort the reality and identity of the society that we study, and encode a series of prejudices that were embedded in western perceptions. The aim of these terms was to exclude the eastern empire from important discussions and historical developments. It is time to end this exercise in orientalist fiction, but what are the alternatives? In this book, Anthony Kaldellis surveys the pros and cons of a range of possible options and examines the implications of a fi eld name-change also for art history, philology, and the study of Eastern Orthodoxy. The new name he proposes will carry the field into the next phase of its history, renegotiate its relationships with its peers and respect the testimony of our sources.
This book presents a new history of the leadership, organization, and disposition of the field armies of the east Roman empire between Julian (361–363) and Herakleios (610–641). To date, scholars studying this topic have privileged a... more
This book presents a new history of the leadership, organization,
and disposition of the field armies of the east Roman empire between
Julian (361–363) and Herakleios (610–641). To date, scholars studying
this topic have privileged a poorly understood document, the Notitia
dignitatum, and imposed it on the entire period from 395 to 630. This study,
by contrast, gathers all of the available narrative, legal, papyrological,
and epigraphic evidence to demonstrate empirically that the Notitia system
emerged only in the 440s and that it was already mutating by the late fifth
century before being fundamentally reformed during Justinian’s wars of
reconquest. This realization calls for a new, revised history of the eastern
armies. Every facet of military policy must be reassessed, often with broad
implications for the period. The volume provides a new military narrative
for the period 361–630 and appendices revising the prosopography of
high-ranking generals and arguing for a later Notitia.
and disposition of the field armies of the east Roman empire between
Julian (361–363) and Herakleios (610–641). To date, scholars studying
this topic have privileged a poorly understood document, the Notitia
dignitatum, and imposed it on the entire period from 395 to 630. This study,
by contrast, gathers all of the available narrative, legal, papyrological,
and epigraphic evidence to demonstrate empirically that the Notitia system
emerged only in the 440s and that it was already mutating by the late fifth
century before being fundamentally reformed during Justinian’s wars of
reconquest. This realization calls for a new, revised history of the eastern
armies. Every facet of military policy must be reassessed, often with broad
implications for the period. The volume provides a new military narrative
for the period 361–630 and appendices revising the prosopography of
high-ranking generals and arguing for a later Notitia.
Translation by Andrei Iur’evich Vinogradov for the series Istoriia i nauka runeta. Stradaiushchee srednevekov’e, ed. Sergei Ivanov).
A thought-experiment in a hundred small pages: What if Byzantium did not have to play by the rules set by other fields (classics, medieval studies, late antiquity, "western" history), but could set its own terms and paradigms?
A lot is happening in Byzantine Studies these days, and a new generation of more diverse scholars is redefining the field. This podcast aims to make their work more accessible to a wider audience: to the general public that wants to hear... more
A lot is happening in Byzantine Studies these days, and a new generation of more diverse scholars is redefining the field. This podcast aims to make their work more accessible to a wider audience: to the general public that wants to hear the experts themselves explain their ideas; to students, who have learned to learn through new media; to experts, who don’t always have time to keep up with developments outside the sub-subdiscipline of their subfield; and to instructors, who can use these conversations as a basis for classroom discussion. Each episode focuses on an important theme in the life of Byzantium and its neighbors. In sum, I’ve found a new way to have fun, and hope that you enjoy these conversations too.