Introduction to the Eastern Roman Empire

How do you turn a pagan goddess into a Christian saint? That's what we're asking in this week's episode on Saint Brigid, the boundary-breaking Irish woman who was venerated across Medieval Europe. We'll be talking about Brigid's pagan origins, as well as examining her relationship with some modern-…

This episode traces early Christianity’s theological diversity and the struggle to define orthodoxy from grassroots movements to imperial councils. It explains how emperors like Constantine and Theodosius used councils (Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon) to settle disputes over Jesus’ nature, label heres…

This episode explores the legendary and historical origins of the Merovingian dynasty, from the myth of Merovich’s sea-monster conception to Clovis’s military conquests and conversion to Christianity. It examines Frankish identity, Roman influence, the synthesis of Roman and Germanic cultures, and…

In this episode we trace the Jin Empire’s collapse in the 4th–5th centuries: pressure from nomadic invasions and disastrous internal politics and taxation under the Sima family.    Read the podcast substack at https://6thagepod.substack.com/