The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 129 "Byzantium: The Slow Road to Recovery"

About this episode

This episode discusses the recovery of the Byzantine Empire following the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate during the ninth century.

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. Fo...

People in this episode

Host: Nick Holmes

Topics covered

• Byzantine Empire
• Abbasid Caliphate
• ninth century
• historical recovery
• power dynamics
• Eurasia

Keywords

• Byzantium
• Abbasid Caliphate
• ninth century
• recovery
• Eurasia
• historical setbacks
• power

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantine Empire

Places: western Eurasia

More episodes of The Fall Of The Roman Empire

• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 130 "The Rise and Fall of Byzantium" · February 14, 2026 · 31 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 128 "The Abbasids: Golden Age or Age of Collapse?" · January 17, 2026 · 25 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 127 "The Rise and Fall of the Umayyads" · January 3, 2026 · 24 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 126 "Eirene: The Monstrous Empress of Byzantium?" · December 20, 2025 · 25 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 125 "The Forgotten Heroes of Byzantium" · December 6, 2025 · 24 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 124 "Byzantium: The Empire That Refused To Die" · November 22, 2025 · 22 min