Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood

#498 – Anthony Kaldellis: Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Rise & Fall of Empires

Lex Fridman Podcast, 30 June 2026. The author is the guest. The book comes up at 3 hr 14 min in.

Anthony Kaldellis discusses his own narrative history covering Byzantium from 955 AD to the First Crusade. He explains he wrote it to test himself in narrative writing after working only analytically, and describes its focus on the empire's sudden return to conquest in Cilicia, northern Syria, Cyprus, and the Caucasus, followed by the triple-threat crisis of Seljuk Turks, Pechenegs, and Normans that buckled the expansionist state.

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