Link to album on Apple Music:
music.apple.com/au/album/t-j...

Link to album on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/3spjXW...

I think the songs on the album would be great introductory material for students, either assigned to be listened to in advance or played in class at the beginning of a lecture. You can stream the album on Spotify or Apple Music. I recommend it.

My personal favorites are "The Hall of the 19 Couches," about a reception room in the Great Palace, and "Wulfila Put the Arian in Barbarian," which is a great pun but also a major ear worm.

If you ever wondered whether a song might mention the great sixth-century charioteer Porphyrius ("Blues and Whites, Greens and Reds") or architectural terms for a basilica church like nave, colonnade, transept, apse ("The Devil's in the Details"), the answer is yes.

This song is just one of many on Christine's new album, "T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story (Original Soundtrack)" which contains 12 original and creative tracks about the sixth-century world of Justinian and Theodora. The song styles range from metal to doo-wop.

This creative interpretation by talented podcaster and musician Christine Laskowski brilliantly contrasts Theodora's imperial garments with her memories of ill treatment in her previous life as an actress/prostitute: "free to exercise my malice toward the very men who once made my life hell."

I would nope out of that so fast.

Sure, but it also seems relevant that the Ostrogoths razed Milan to the ground in 539, or that they depopulated Rome in 547. These actions materially contributed to the demographic and economic destruction of Italy and it's not clear they were necessary for the war effort.

Also, the gut reaction to focus on the middle and end of the Ostrogothic War rather than the first few years is exactly one of the things I will be talking about. I think it's important to not let the ending of an event obscure our view of opinions toward the event in its beginning.

Personally, I would modify that statement in this way: "Justinian's war (including the deliberately destructive Ostrogothic resistance), the effects of climate disaster and the plague, and then the heavy-handed taxation completely ruined Italy."

Adding it to my schedule for the day!

Thank you 😀

Preorder from Oxford University Press here:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...