I lived in Istanbul for some years and am fascinated by the ancient characters of its history, in particular Theodora. I found this book interesting, if a bit long-winded, and while there is much historical detail, a great deal of what is actually written about Theodora is speculative. This is understandable, as there is so little information available. I admire the author's work though as he has clearly done a tremendous amount of research, and I learned a lot about life in Byzantine Constantinople. I did hope for more illustrations and think the book would benefit from this.
Many thanks to the publisher for a digital review copy.