As a tribute to the Byzantine compilers he so clearly admires, Kaldellis has produced an entertaining florilegium filled with intriguing and sometimes downright strange information drawn from a thousand years of Byzantine history. His primary purpose is to entertain the reader, but he also hopes to provide scholars lecturing on Byzantium with "a handy reservoir of tales and anecdotes that amusingly illustrate a range of contexts and situations." (p. xi). The book is successful on both counts.

Anthony Kaldellis. A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR). Review by Scott G. Bruce, University of Colorado at Boulder