This podcast series is about the Battle of Manzikert. With excerpts taken from the Byzantine World War by Nick Holmes, it tries to unravel what really happened at Manzikert, a battle that changed history. In the second episode in the series, we look at the challenges that faced Byzantium in the eleventh century, as hordes of new barbarian invaders appeared on its borders and it struggled to maintain the professional army that had kept it safe in previous centuries.