- ... that the Arab-born eunuch slave Samonas rose to become the parakoimomenos of Byzantine emperor Leo the Wise, and was even made godfather to his son, Constantine VII?
- ... that the Byzantine court title of protospatharios had such high prestige that an aged cleric once purchased it for over 19 kilograms of gold?
- ...that Saint Mary of the Mongols is the only Byzantine church in Constantinople to have remained Eastern Orthodox to this day?
