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W.

W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me, Empire with me Anita Arnan

and me William Deremple.

Now this is the very first of a brand new series and we thought we'd take a look at the Ottomans

but then we thought actually let's not get ahead of ourselves because to understand the

Ottomans you have to start looking at the world that they took over and the world that

they transformed and that you can only do by looking at the great empire of Byzantine

whose capital Constantinople they took as their own.

It's a subject I think of huge fascination and the subject, I think, a huge fascination.

And the full story, I think of both empires,

are really very little known outside a fairly small world of specialists.

But the Byzantine's are an incredible story in themselves, and we're going to start with them

because they were repositories of all that had been salvaged from the fall of classical civilization.

The new Rome of Constantine, defended by the greatest city walls ever built,

the Theodosian land walls,

kept the city safe for a thousand years of attack against Persians, Arabs, Avars, Vikings and many others,

preserving the languages and the libraries of the Western classical world after the fall of Rome.

And we're lucky to have with us today to talk about it, one of the great historians of our time

and also a good friend of both Anita and I, the great Peter Francapan. Yay, now listen, Peter Frankapan.

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