The Dark Ages Podcast

02/09/2025

The results are in for the next subject to appear on the show!

Last week I asked what we should do next on the Dark Ages Podcasts, with voting happening across four platforms. No clear mandate emerged, but at least a winner did, narrowly. On the next episode o…

02/01/2025

4000 BCE to c. 700 CE The Western Pyrenees are home to the Basques, a mysterious community who speaks a unique language, and who have been there … for as long as anyone can tell. In this episode we’ll explore their history up through the seventh century, and their relationship to the people who have come and gone around them....

4000 BCE to c. 700 CE The Western Pyrenees are home to the Basques, a mysterious community who speaks a unique language, and who have been there … for as long as anyone can tell. In this episode we…

01/14/2025

Reccared takes the throne and makes a momentous change. The Visigothic kingdom becomes unified under one religion and climbs to a new level of stability and security....

Reccared takes the throne and makes a momentous change. The Visigothic kingdom becomes unified under one religion and climbs to a new level of stability and security.

12/30/2024

Religious differences lead to rebellion and murder, as a Visigothic prince becomes a martyr for Catholicism… or does he?...

Religious differences lead to rebellion and murder, as a Visigothic prince becomes a martyr for Catholicism… or does he?

12/16/2024

The Dark Ages Podcast's Episode 51 discusses Liuvigild's reign and his efforts to unify the Visigoths amidst dynastic struggles following Athanagild's death. It highlights Liuvigild's military campaigns, founding of cities, legal reforms, and inadequate integration of the Gothic and Hispano-Roman populations, showcasing the challenges of religious and cultural harmony....

The Dark Ages Podcast’s Episode 51 discusses Liuvigild’s reign and his efforts to unify the Visigoths amidst dynastic struggles following Athanagild’s death. It highlights Liuvigi…

09/16/2024

Belisarius’ great early success.

07/23/2024

Today is a day for getting a move on, putting on the afterburners, and getting the lead out. I left you all on a down note last time, as Gesalec was murdered after a failed attempt to undo his deposition by Theodoric the Great. Today is about the next fifty years or so of high politics in the Visigothic kingdom, and by high politics I mostly mean war....

Today is a day for getting a move on, putting on the afterburners, and getting the lead out.  I left you all on a down note last time, as Gesalec was murdered after a failed attempt to undo hi…

07/04/2024

The Visigoths had to scramble for a king after the Franks killed theirs, and start paying attention to territory south of the Pyrenees for once.

After beating up on the Suevi it was the Visigoths’ turn to be beaten up by the Franks. After years of expansion, the Visigoths are forced to realign themselves south, under a new, unlucky king.

06/27/2024

Pazyryk Carpet is the oldest known carpet on earth woven 2500 years ago (5th Century B.C.). It was discovered in the tomb of a Scythian prince in the Pazyryk Valley of Siberia by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko in the late 1940s.

Blog: https://historyandartifacts.com/most-valuable-artifacts-from-around-the-world

06/18/2024

The Suevi have been hanging out in the northwest of Spain since very early in our podcast history, and today they finally get their very own episode.

C.418 to 470 The Suevi have been the unloved stepchildren of the Dark Ages Podcast for far too long, and finally get their own episode! They’re going to have to be happy with it because I don’t see…

06/10/2024

We're back, and moving the focus westward for some background information on the territories of Hispania, as we get ready to shift over to talk about the Visigothic Kingdom

406 to 452 Welcome back everyone. I’m sorry about the interruption in service. There have been a lot of things happening IRL that have made it difficult to focus on putting out Podcast episodes. An…

05/22/2024

Attention listeners! The Dark Ages Podcast will be returning on June 10. That is all.

04/09/2024

I'm going away for a while

Hello everyone. I’m posting this today to let you all know that the Dark Ages Podcast is going on hiatus. This probably comes as no surprise, since the release schedule has been irregular in the ex…

03/04/2024

I'm back to wrap up the first Gothic War, everyone. Sorry about the delay.

The Gothic War grew in intensity after the siege of Rome, and Belisarius had to deal with threats both from without and from within his own army as he fought to bring it to a successful conclusion.…

02/02/2024

Bonus episode!

What happens when I wander off topic into the wilds of Magical Practice in Byzantine Egypt? You get a bonus episode, that’s what!

02/02/2024

I'm once again late posting the webpages for new episodes, but here we go.

Why did a Belisarius have problems with his command? And why did a Harvard professor claim that Belisarius was working in the Worst Year in Human History?

01/09/2024

November 536 to March 538 Belisarius continues moving up the Italian Peninsula, to bring his army to attack the greatest prize: Rome itself. Belisarius was worried. Sure, he had just taken the City of Naples after a three week siege. Yes, he had just marched up the southern third of Italy and brought it back to the Empire, hardly breaking a sweat....

November 536 to March 538 Belisarius continues moving up the Italian Peninsula, to bring his army to attack the greatest prize: Rome itself. Belisarius was worried.  Sure, he had just taken th…

01/04/2024

Sorry about the delayed episode everyone. Immediately after the holidays I came down with a vicious chest cold that has made the idea of talking for half an hour pretty daunting. The episode will be out as soon as humanly possible.