A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities
Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire
Anthony Kaldellis
Reviews and Awards
"If the Holy Spirit was not ashamed to tell this story, how much less should we place it under a shadow." --John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew
"I rarely ever finish, or even read, books, but I finished this one!" --Anonymous
"Pray for the author, pray for him, for he is wretched and unworthy." (ms. colophon)
"If I had to burn all other books, I would keep Plato's Timaeus and this one." --Proklos, from Marinos' Life of Proklos
"Not even the most philosophic, the most piercing, the most curious intellect has, or can ever have, a more exalted object." --Gregory of Nazianzos, patriarch of Constantinople and saint, Oration on Saint Athanasios of Alexandria
"All the wasteful expenses of mortals and their luxurious fare are poured out here without any of their previous charm. Too late a man realizes that he has spent gold on what was nothing but dust." --Agathias, Epigram on the public latrines
"This book is crammed full of childish and implausible things, it is badly written, false, and idiotic. He tells absurd and infantile stories about the resurrection of dead men and cows. His tales are, moreover, contradictory to each other, impious, and irreligious. If you were to call it the source and mother of all heresy, you would not be far from the truth." --Photios, Ten Thousand Books