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Anthony Kaldellis

Professor of Classics, University Of Chicago

Search every verified Anthony Kaldellis interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Anthony Kaldellis, a historian of the Roman Empire and professor of classics at the University of Chicago, has been active in public discourse through podcast appearances and lectures. He has argued that the Byzantine Empire was a direct continuation of the Roman Empire, stating that its subjects considered themselves Romans and that the term "Byzantine" is a modern invention tied to historical prejudices. He has also discussed the empire's longevity, attributing its resilience to factors such as its tax system, bureaucracy, and the loyalty of local communities, while identifying the early 14th century as the point of no return for its decline. Kaldellis has also shared his views on specific historical debates, expressing skepticism about claims that the Justinianic plague killed half the empire's population, and has discussed the role of religion, eunuchs, and imperial succession in Roman governance. He has promoted his book "The New Roman Empire" and has participated in interviews about the fall of Constantinople in 1453, describing the event's immediate aftermath, including the enslavement and dispersal of the city's population. He has also commented on the future of human civilization, suggesting that humanity is in a third historical phase defined by industrial and technological development.

Recent appearances

  • Persian Empire vs Roman Empire: The war that destroyed both empires | Anthony Kaldellis

    July 07, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv989... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Did the plague kill half the Roman Empire? | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 07, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv989... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Future of human civilization - historian explains | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 07, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv990... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Why the Roman Empire collapsed in the East | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 07, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv989... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Is religion good or bad for human civilization? | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 05, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv988... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Why the Roman Empire collapsed (in the West) | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 05, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv988... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire: 2,200 years of the Roman State | Anthony Kaldellis

    July 04, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv986... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • The revolutionary idea that changed the Roman Empire | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 03, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv987... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Murder of Roman Emperors - The crisis that almost destroyed the Roman Empire | Anthony Kaldellis

    July 03, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv987... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Read the verified transcript → Watch on YouTube ↗

  • The biggest naming lie in history: The Byzantine Empire - historian explains | Anthony Kaldellis

    July 03, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv986... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Was Constantine actually a Christian? | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 03, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv987... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

  • How eunuchs secretly ran the Roman Empire | Anthony Kaldellis and Lex Fridman

    July 02, 2026 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and ...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv988... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of "The New Roman Empire", a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - j…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“In my research, I did not find, uh, popular interest in this matter. Yeah. I don't... So, this is an overblown. Yes. Yes. Socially completely overblown. I could not find there were like a few emperors and there's some bishops and abbots and monks like I don't know maybe a 100 200 people are like seriously invested in this and they're going at it but these are the people who write the texts but they never mention for ”

“So the war was costly initially only for the Romans. The eastern provinces were conquered by Persia. That means Syria, Palestine, Egypt. So that's a loss. You lose all that revenue. And then they start raiding into Asia Minor. By the way, this is exactly what the Arabs would do, you know, just a couple decades later. They would conquer Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and they would start raiding into Asia Minor. So almost l”

“The crux of the matter is that barbarian armies, so armies from outside the empire, put increasing pressure on it during the 5th century. And for whatever reason, when the Roman state failed to sort of suppress one of them and say settled them here or allowed them to have here or couldn't stop them and they took over a province like the Vandals did in North Africa, this created this kind of vicious cycle because then”

“So, Diocletian creates these larger bureaucratic structures and these are the ones that define the society that I study. So as a specialist, I focus on the period after him mostly. Um but he implemented those to solve a lot of these problems. He was mostly successful. So in terms of generating revenue from a much more troubled and kind of precarious situation um in may sustaining large armies and putting down these r”

“So the way to think about it is that up until now our data center business has been almost entirely GPUs. Vera is our CPU, and you know what's really exciting is that Vera opens a brand new 200 billion TAM for NVIDIA, a market we have never addressed before, and every major hyperscaler is partnering with us to get it deployed, and that's huge for the company because for the first time we have a second engine of that ”

“The city was emptied out of all inhabitants by the end of that day. Remember, the Sultan's army is larger than the population of the city. So it's not difficult at all. And most people or many assembled at Hagia Sophia as a kind of last refuge place where they were just all sort of summarily enslaved. They were removed from the city, so they were taken to the camps outside in the fields or to the ships in the harbor.”

Other executives at University Of Chicago

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