The Byzantine Statue

Abstract

Because they were in want of money . . . they covetously eyed the bronze statues and consigned these to the flames.. . . Thus great things were exchanged for small ones, those works fashioned at huge expense were converted into worthless copper coins. 1 Nicetas Choniates, Annals[There] were figures of men and of women, of horses and oxen, and camels, and bears, and lions, and many other kinds of animals, all made of copper, and all so well made and formed so naturally that there is no master workman in Heathendom or in Christendom so skillful as to be able to make figures as good as these. And formerly they used to play by enchantment, but they do not play any longer.