Timothy S. Miller
Professor of History

Department of History
Fulton School of Liberal Arts
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland 21801

I first decided to study the Byzantine Empire when I was twelve years old. During an illness, my father gave me a Landmark book on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. I found that book so exciting that I continued to read up on Byzantine history and also chose to study Greek in high school. That gave me a jump ahead of most of my fellow students when I entered college in 1963. After graduating from college, I spent a year in graduate school, but then had an opportunity to spend a year in Turkey with the Peace Corps. That year has given me first-hand knowledge of the climate and geography of the former Byzantine provinces.

Since I took a position at SU, I have also begun to do research on medieval Italy, the peninsula which linked the Byzantine world to Western Europe. I have also been doing some work on Christopher Columbus. It is a well-known fact among specialists (although not widely known among the public) that Christopher Columbus' epic voyage across the Atlantic was in reaction to the fall of Constantinople and Genoa's subsequent loss of open ports in the Middle East. Without its colonies in Constantinople and the Black Sea coast, Genoa needed a new route to the East. Why not try sailing West?

Positions Held

• Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies (1978-79)
• Department of History, University of Washington (1979-82)
• National Humanities Center (1982-83)
• Department of History, SU (1983 to present)

• Haverford College, BA 1967
• University of Michigan, MA in History, 1968
• Catholic University of America, Ph.D. in History, 1975

Dissertation: The History of John Contacuzenus (Book IV), Text, Translation, and Commentary

Areas of Interest

• Byzantine History
• Medieval and Renaissance Italy
• Ancient Greece and Rome
• Early Christianity
• Meteorology (hurricanes***)
• Golf