Posted by Powee Celdran
Welcome back to the Byzantium Blogger! As the first post for this year 2025, I will do another interview with fellow content creators, on historical topics, not specifically Byzantine history this time. Last year, I have done an article like this wherein I interviewed 4 content creators on their passion for Byzantine history and how they aim to promote it through social media. Of course, every year there are always new content creators who come about, thus for this reason I decided to follow-up last year’s article of the same topic but this time interviewing a new set of content creators who have just risen in the past year or who I had just come across recently. Through these new content creators, we will hopefully get new insights about content creating for history- not just specifically Byzantine history- and how to promote history through social media. In the case of this article, I chose new content creators who I have recently come across in order to gain new insights in content creating. I also chose creators who don’t just specialize in Byzantine history but in other periods of history as well in order to compare my strategies of promoting Byzantine history to theirs’s in their own historical periods. The questions that I will be asking the creators for this article will be very much like the ones I did for the same topic last year but with a few modifications. The questions here will include on what got the said creators into their specific timeline in history and why they decided to create content on it, how they can popularize history as a content creator, their tips and strategies in promoting history, and if they think that one does not need to be a scholar or academic to know so much and share about history. Overall, the aim of this article and the interviews with these creators is really to show how history can be promoted and shared these days to everyday people through content creators on social media and not just something made only by and for scholars and historians who specialize in the field.
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Other Interview Articles from the Byzantium Blogger:
The Legacy of the Byzantine Empire,Featuring an Interview with 3 Byzantine History Enthusiasts
Byzantine History for Everyday People- 5 People React to Byzantine History Quotes
Marketing Byzantine History Part I- 3 Content Creators on Popularizing Byzantine History
Marketing Byzantine History Part II- 5 Content Creators on Popularizing Byzantine History
Interviews with Content Creators on Further Popularizing Byzantine History
Insights from 4 Content Creators on Popularizing Byzantine History
Interviews with the 3 Content Creators
First, I shall introduce the 3 different creators that will be interviewed for this article, and though they may have different points of views when it comes to history, they all have a common passion for history and thus choose to create content for it. The first of the creators that will be interviewed here goes by the name Cloud Winchester on Instagram (follow him on Instagram @serarthurpendragon) who I have recently had the pleasure to know and follow. His posts are mostly related to Byzantine history but more so on travel locations usually around the Byzantine world and his insights on them.
The second of the creators that will be interviewed here is Dr. Anne Maltempi of the Sicilian School (follow her on Instagram @the_sicilian_school) who although a historian and writer with a Ph.D. creates interesting content on the rich and fascinating history of Sicily. Her content ranges from unknown facts and stories from Sicilian history and several series of topics particularly about Sicilian history.
Last but not least for the creators that will be interviewed here is Anastasia or Sia (follow her on Instagram @history.anastasia) who is a new history content creator I just had the pleasure of getting to know recently! Despite being relatively new in the world of history content creating, she has a varied body of work on her Instagram page mostly focused on Byzantine history whether they are travel locations or history facts about Byzantium. The most fascinating part about her is that although she is a medical student, she has a strong passion for Byzantine history.
Now, as for how the interviews will work, I will post each question that I came up with separately and below them will be each of the interviewee’s own responses to the respective 4 questions.
The Questions
What got you interested in your specific period of history and why did you choose to create content on it?
Cloud: I have always been passionate about history thanks to my father who took me around Rome on his free days to discover hidden places (I still remember that we had lunch inside the Colosseum which at the time was not as well kept as it is today) and my mother who bought me piles and piles of books, but my relationship with Byzantium has always been special:
As I was saying, my family is from Rome and my uncle had a laboratory for the creation and importation of religious icons, he traveled a lot in the East and chose the most beautiful subjects and materials to offer to his customers in the Vatican, so I grew up among mosaic tiles and gold leaf because many members of my family worked in that laboratory. In that laboratory I saw Orthodox icons for the first time and they left a deep impression on me, among them was the famous mosaic of Justinian in Ravenna which followed me like a shadow throughout my classical studies.
When my uncle passed away, everything that had been part of my life at home vanished, no more pieces, no more icons, no art. This loss weighed heavily one me and I decided to delve deeper into that part of history that had been with me so much but that I took for granted and never explored.
So, I left for a few days of vacation with my wife, first to Athens and then to Istanbul and from there I understood why he was always there, a wonderful world, full of different cultures that coexist and that the Byzantine Empire contributed in large to give birth to, and now it seems that I can never get enough of delving into the history of these wonderful places and characters.
I started creating content about it to raise awareness about the Middle East, Western media are unable to tell these places in an effective and above all real way and people do not have access to a lot of information about it.
Anne: I’ve always loved the Renaissance and what initially drew me to the period was the art and poetry. As the daughter of Sicilian immigrants, I wondered what was happening in Sicily during the Renaissance and realized there wasn’t much written on the period. So, I figured I would try it myself. I also thought if I was interested surely there were other people that might be, so I started my IG page.
Sia: As a child, I always loved history. Growing up in a Christian family, I had more knowledge about the ancient Christian Eastern Roman Empire. I always felt this invisible connection through Orthodoxy and the Church. As I became older, I consciously started immersing myself in studying this topic. It was like love at first sight. Mysticism surrounds Byzantium from its founding to this day. Humanity still cannot figure out its relationship with the “Second Rome”. The myth of Byzantium has proven to be immortal. But if Byzantium had not existed, it would have had to be invented.
Do you think that you can popularize history through your work as a content creator?
Cloud: Passively yes, even if my main goal is to find passionate people like me with whom to share information and ideas, I am a very introverted person and I prefer to let my shots speak in which I try to pour the feeling I feel in that precise moment in which I am there.
Anne: I can try! I think content creation helps people see how history is relatable even if events happened long ago, humans are humans. Content creation is a great way to show that.
Sia: I want to show the real Byzantine Empire, with all its rises and falls. I can do this as a content creator. I have access to all the available tools to share information with my audience. I also gain new knowledge myself. It’s a great global exchange of history. We can use social media for good.
What are your tips and strategies in promoting history?
Cloud: I’m certainly no one to teach people this activity, but if you pour your passion into every post even if a topic is boring, you will always find someone who stops to take a look. On Instagram in particular (I only use this social network) a good shot attracts attention followed by an easy and short description. Creating content in collaboration is very important to me, it allows you to compare yourself with other enthusiasts and understand where to do better or perhaps discover further information to improve the content. My subjective opinion is on the use of AI to create historical images, I understand that many use it to give an idea of the story you want to tell but for me it is misleading because even though people know that it is created by AI they will always have that unreal image in their mind, so I advise against using it for this kind of topic.
Anne: Be authentic and show your enthusiasm for the topic and others will see that and be more willing to engage.
Sia: My main advice is to never stop and keep moving forward. Study history, share content daily. Even if the numbers of followers is small at first, you will always find your audience. It is quality, not quantity that counts.
Do you agree that you do not need to be a scholar or historian to know so much about your subject matter and share it?
Cloud: It depends on how deep you go into a topic; you always have to keep your feet on the ground and get it into your head that often (not always). Those who have studied or do it for work have a broader and more complete vision of the topic and therefore have respect for it and take advantage of it to learn as much as possible from them. It is not necessary to have a degree to share a passion for something, but you must necessarily use reliable sources and verified information, otherwise you risk doing the opposite and sending misleading and incorrect messages (on a delicate topic like the Middle East then it takes a spark to ignite religious hatred). History is not a collection of opinions but facts, facts that must be studied and shared to remind people who we were and how we got to where we are today.
Anne: Yes, what matters are good sources and thorough research.
Sia: I am absolutely certain that history is something we can study on our own. History is something you can feel. This love and desire to understand the world of the past and future can be more than just having a degree from a history university.
Conclusion
Once again through the answers of these 3 content creators in this interview article, I had learned so much more not just about history but in the world of content creating and particularly in content creating for history. Based on the responses of these 3 creators, there is still definitely a potential for very specific topics in history such as Byzantium and Sicilian history to be presented as a popular subject-matter for everyday people. It may not be easy to popularize history through content creating in social media but content creating as suggested by the 3 creators interviewed here is still the best way to reach out to a wider audience. All it takes is a lot of enthusiasm, collaboration and interaction with other creators, and of course patience and to keep going forward in order to actually popularize history through social media as content creators. Nowadays, one does not need to be a historian or academic in order to share and spread history with the wider world or to be interested in it due to the rise of the internet and history content creators, which is thus why history content creators do deserve their break. People too nowadays can learn about history and be fascinated by it not only through the highly scholarly works of historians and academics but through engaging posts made by content creators whether they are videos, reels, or basic posts with images, and thus for this reason new content creators rise every year. However, as both Cloud and Anne mentioned here, although it is a good thing that history should not only be limited to scholars to share it with the world, careful research and sources are still needed so that it does not lead to further trouble, especially for content creators. However, as Sia mentioned, history should still not be something only learned from university but on our own through everyday experiences. At the end, as discussed in this article, people like these 3 creators interviewed do not get into history because of studying it in school but through everyday experiences since childhood whether it is due to family traditions or personal experiences such as visiting historical sites. I would say these are more powerful means of getting yourself fascinated with history rather than plainly studying it as something academic.
Now, based on the responses of these creators, I surely agree with everything they said especially when it comes to getting into history and sharing content on it online. In my case, I did not get interested in Byzantine history because I studied it as a course, rather it was because of personal experiences with books and traveling to locations related to it and I chose to create content on it not just to share my passion for it with others but to show that you do not need to be an academic to share your passion about history. For me, I believe that it is our job as content creators to reach out to everyday people and share rather obscure historical topics such as Byzantine history with them when scholars and historians do not do so. Of course, to further popularize topics such as Byzantine history, it takes more than just social media posts but actual works such as films or books. In my case, as I had already mentioned before, I will be releasing my own book on Byzantine history with my own insights on it to both further popularize the rather obscure history of Byzantium and to represent content creators like me who are not historians in a work that can be accessible to all. Before finishing off, I would like to thank the 3 creators interviewed here being Cloud Winchester, Anne Maltempi, and Anastasia for giving some of their time and effort to answer these said questions which are valuable in inspiring other content creators to create content on history and show that history can be for everyone. Once again, this is Powee Celdran, the Byzantine Time Traveller… Thank you for reading this article!
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