Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh, where he first began to study (ancient) Greek at George Watson's College. For thirty years until his retirement in 2018 he held the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King's College London, and is now Emeritus. In 2021 he returned to his birthplace as A. G. Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek at The University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of King's College (FKC), and Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic. He is currently Chair of the British School at Athens. His most recent books are: The Greeks: A Global History (Faber, UK; Basic, USA, 2021), The Greek Revolution of 1821 and its Global Significance (Aiora, 2021), Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (Allen Lane/Penguin, 2019) and Byron's War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2013) Niels Gaul is A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies and Director of the Centre for Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently working toward the written version of the E. A. Lowe Lectures in Palaeography 2023, provisionally entitled Manuscripts of Character: Codex, Ethos and Authority in Byzantium. His most recent books are: Centre, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (co-edited, Harrassowitz, 2018) Thomas Magistros und die spätbyzantinische Sophistik (Harrassowitz, 2011)
