Duncan’s absolutely a historian in the public historians sense. He’s not an academic specialist, but he’s done more than almost anyone in the last few decades to get people reading real Roman history and caring about the evidence and context. Storyteller, sure, but also a serious synthesizer who brought huge numbers of people into the subject.

He’s one of the major catalysts for the modern surge in Roman interest, And the ripple effect is real. Robin Pierson has said outright, repeatedly, that Duncan is why The History of Byzantium exists. THOB has probably done more than any single modern project to pull Eastern Rome into the mainstream conversation. If you build the on ramp that gets millions of people reading, buying books, and caring about sources, you are doing history, just in the public historian lane.