Matthews opened with a reading from the book's epilogue, reflecting on his family's roots on the island of Oinousses. Through his great-grandfather's changing nationality on ship manifests—from Ottoman subject to Greek citizen—he illustrated how the collapse of empires reshaped identities. Greece, he argued, has long occupied a frontier between East and West, and that dividing line is becoming increasingly blurred. He noted that older travel writers readily situated Greece within the wider Near East and recalled that the United States treated Greece as part of its Near East portfolio until 1974.
He outlined three reasons why Greece matters beyond its borders: it was the first nation-state to emerge from the Ottoman Empire, the first site of sustained Western intervention in the region, and a key marker of the decline of the cosmopolitan order inherited from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. The book's title, he explained, reflects the continuity between those empires and the hybrid cultural space they created.
Anastasakis challenged Matthews on Greece's enduring self-image as a Western and European nation. Matthews argued that this orientation strengthened with European integration but has weakened since the financial crisis, as economic stagnation and an increasingly multipolar international order have encouraged Greece to deepen ties with regional powers such as Israel, Egypt and the Gulf states.
The discussion also examined Greece's growing role as a regional hub. Matthews described rising investment from the Middle East, the impact of regional conflicts on the shipping industry, and Athens' emergence as a destination for foreign capital, while acknowledging the pressures this has placed on housing and younger generations. He also reflected on Greek communities across the former Ottoman world, arguing that language and the Orthodox Church remain important anchors of identity.
Questions from the audience addressed Greece's relationship with the European Union, the country's economic prospects, the boundaries of the "Near East", and the role of diaspora communities. Matthews argued that EU membership remains central to Greek political identity, while highlighting sectors such as medical tourism, technology and specialised agriculture as areas of potential growth.
The seminar concluded by returning to the book's central themes. Matthews argued that Greece offers a window onto an increasingly multipolar world in which regional networks of trade, family and culture are regaining importance. Rather than viewing Greece as Europe's south-eastern periphery, The New Byzantines invites readers to see it as a regional crossroads where Western and Near Eastern histories continue to intersect.
By Yangyang Zhao (ESC Seminar Assistant)
