Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 176, Michael Psello's with Peter

Adamson. A title which really should read with Peter Adamson from the history of philosophy

without any gaps. But that was a bit too long. Yes, today we hear an interview with Peter Adamson

and for those of you who don't know him, he is a philosophy professor and fellow history

podcaster. If you're even a tiny bit interested in philosophy, then go check out historyofphilosophy.net

and have a look at the hundreds of episodes he's produced on the history of philosophy from across

the world. Today I'm going to ask him primarily about Michael Psello's, the courtier and historian

who is our most intimate source for the narrative going forward. But Michael was also a polymath

who Peter and many others describe as the greatest intellectual Byzantium ever produced.

And so Peter will tell us about his other works and particularly his relationship with philosophy.

There are two other characters I should mention before we get started. John of Damascus comes up

a couple of times. John was one of the few Byzantine figures that we've discussed who lived in the

caliphate. He wrote during the 8th century and was heavily involved during the debate over iconoclasm

and he's also one of our witnesses to the actual behaviour and beliefs of early Muslims.

The second figure is Anna Comni-ni or Anna Comni-na as you may think of her.

The next century of narrative will be dominated by the slow collapse of Byzantium's borders

and the man who will pick up the pieces after man's occurred is Alexius Comni-nos.

Anna is his daughter and wrote the famous history, the Alexiad about his time in power.

Now here's the interview. Hello Peter, welcome to the history of Byzantium.

Hello, thanks very much for having me on. I'm a huge fan of your series, so I'm very thrilled to

be on as a guest. Well, what a great start. I am also a huge fan of the history of philosophy

without any gaps. You've got to get it all in there and I will of course be recommending people

...