On September 17, 2026, Fordham University’s Center for Orthodox Christian Studies was pleased to welcome Dr. Anthony Kaldellis, Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, to the Lincoln Center Campus. Dr. Kaldellis gave a lecture on the widespread conception of the Byzantine Empire, titled “How the West Invented Byzantium,” a presentation based on research done while writing his new book, Phantom Byzantium.
Dr. Anthony Kaldellis lectures to Fordham students at the Lincoln Center on Byzantine and medieval western relations.
In his lecture, Dr. Kaldellis discussed the West’s complicated relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire from Late Antiquity to the end of World War II. He posited that the collapse of Western Roman imperial authority set Byzantium and Latin Christendom on separate trajectories that eventually gave rise to cultural misunderstandings and, eventually, hostilities. Western Christendom, argued Kaldellis, purposefully delegitimized inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire by portraying them as heretical, effeminate, and degenerate in order to justify western appropriations of eastern imperial practices, religious practices, and Ancient Greek culture. But, in stripping the Eastern Roman Empire of its defining characteristics, Kaldellis asked the audience to consider what the western imagination had left “Byzantium” and how that might affect Byzantine studies. After all, the founders of this study had adopted this conception of “Byzantium” in their own research, potentially compromising the field at its outset.
A crowded room listens to Dr. Kaldellis’s presentation.
Dr. Kaldellis spoke to a large and enthusiastic audience, which had filled nearly every seat in the room. Once the lecture had concluded, audience and lecturer settled into a lively Q&A period. In particular, many people were curious to know how the Byzantine tradition was received in Russia. Overall, attendants were edified by the lecture and Q&A period, showing that enthusiasm for Byzantine and Orthodox Christian studies is alive and well at Fordham University. Dr. Kaldellis’ new book, Phantom Byzantium, is available through University of Chicago Press.
Dr. Kaldellis talks to students during the following Q&A period.
