Staff profile

Profile

I am Assistant Professor of Late Antique and Early Medieval History. In my research I focus on political decision making and political communication, especially in the East Roman monarchy of the 6th and 7th centuries. Furthermore I am interested in sacred space and religious connectivity in the Late Antique Mediterranean.

I studied Ancient History, Classical Archaeology and Byzantine Archaeology at Heidelberg University, and completed my PhD at Konstanz University in 2020. Before coming to Durham in September 2021, I held the positions of Visiting Assistant Professor at Heidelberg and was a research fellow at the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. 

My first monograph (Herakleios, der schwitzende Kaiser. Die oströmische Monarchie in der ausgehenden Spätantike, Berlin/Boston 2020) is a structural analysis of the reign of the emperor Heraclius, focussing on how internal instability and external pressures affected the political hierarchy and led to transformations in the political system of the East Roman monarchy.

In my current research I further explore my interest in the late roman monarchy. Together with Phil Booth, I am editing a Brill’s Companion to the Age of Heraclius; together with Johannes Wienand, I am editing a volume on Reading the Late Roman Monarchy that will be published in the Studies in Ancient Monarchies Series by Franz Steiner Verlag; together with Christian Rollinger I am editing a volume on Empresses-in-waiting. Power, Performance, and the ‘Female Court’ of Late Antiquity for Liverpool University Press.

Simultaneously I work on a project that looks at the phenomenon of ‘relics in translation’ in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. This project analyses the creation of a specifically Christian sacred topography for Constantinople and the role that the translation of relics played in this process. The project seeks to connect traditional historical analysis with digital methods like GIS mapping. In conjunction with that and in collaboration with Katinka Sewing, I have established a research network on the Cult of Relics in the Late Antique and Early Medieval Mediterranean. A first workshop on the topic took place in March 2023 in Heidelberg. 

Research Supervision

I am happy to supervise students with interests in political and religious history of the Mediterranean World, especially the East, in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

• Political communication
• Political decision making
• Sacred Space
• Structural History
• Urbanism

Authored book

• Viermann, N. (2021). Herakleios, der schwitzende Kaiser. Die oströmische Monarchie in der ausgehenden Spätantike. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110711356

Chapter in book

• Viermann, N. Dynasty, Endogamy and Civil Strife. Martina Augusta and the Role of Imperial Women in the Early Seventh Century. In C. Rollinger, & N. Viermann (Eds.), Empresses-in-waiting: Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court. Liverpool University Press
• Viermann, N. Holy Objects on the Move. Relics in Constantinople between City Centre and Urban Periphery. In R. Sweetman, & C. Machado (Eds.), Lived Spaces in Late Antiquity. Routledge
• Viermann, N. (2022). Surpassing Solomon: Church-building and Political Discourse in Late Antique Constantinople. In K. Klein, & J. Wienand (Eds.), City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity (217-241). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110718447-009
• Viermann, N. (2021). Transformation erzählen. Oströmische Monarchie im frühen 7. Jahrhundert und das Problem der Epochengrenze. In C. Bachmann, J. Leithoff, & K. Waldner (Eds.), Liminalisierung: Konfigurationen des Übergangs in antiken Kulturen. Franz Steiner Verlag
• Viermann, N. (2020). Die Inschriften-Neufunde der Kampagne 2010. In F. Schlimbach (Ed.), Neue Forschungen in al-Andarīn: Das Ensemble der Hauptkirche von Androna. Propylaeum. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.626

Journal Article

• Viermann, N. (2022). Reliquientranslationen und die Konstruktion einer christlichen Sakraltopographie für Konstantinopel, 4. bis 7. Jahrhundert. https://doi.org/10.34780/e3c3-9e93
• Viermann, N. (2021). The Battle of Yarmouk, a Bridge of Boats, and Heraclius’ Alleged Fear of Water: Assessing the Consequences of Roman Military Defeat. Studies in Late Antiquity, 5(2), 241-266. https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.241
• Viermann, N. (2020). Merging Supreme Commander and Holy Man: George of Pisidia’s Poetic Response to Heraclius’ Military Campaigns. Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 70,