This book is not so much to be read through as thought through. Németh's principal concerns are the Excerpta Constantiniana (hereafter EC),1 the motives behind and processes involved in their production, their place within and influence on what Németh views as a distinctive and calculated "appropriation of the past" sponsored by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Basil Lecapenus, and evidenced not only by the EC but also by the De Thematibus, the De Administrando Imperio, and the De Ceremoniis; by a biographical turn in Byzantine historiography; and by the effects of what Németh argues were the innovative information gathering and retrieval techniques employed in the conceptualization and production of the EC on lexicography, particularly on the Suda.

András Németh. The 'Excerpta Constantiniana' and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Review by Thomas M. Banchich, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY