Every once in a while, I come across a story that I think is interesting or funny or just worth telling but that doesn’t fit into my main post. I’ll tell these stories in episodes of From the Cutting Room Floor, available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for supporting the Manly Saints Project.
You might be wondering what Nicephorus Phocas, the doomed friend of Saint Athanasius the Athonite, looked like. The historical record provides an answer, but it might be the most angry, spiteful assessment of anyone’s appearance ever written down.
It’s also one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
It comes from an ambassador named Liudprand of Cremona, who was sent by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I on a mission to Constantinople.
Nicephorus Phocas II was Emperor, so he received the embassy. And to understand why Nicephorus Phocas managed to enrage Liudprand of Cremona, you need to know some background.