- ... that in 941, the Byzantine chamberlain Theophanes, commanding only 15 old ships armed with Greek fire, defeated a Rus' fleet of 1,000 ships?
- ... that when the usurper John Komnenos the Fat tried to sit on the imperial throne, it collapsed under his weight?
- ... that the title of Despot was the highest dignity in the Byzantine court hierarchy during the last centuries of the Empire, and spread to other courts throughout the Balkans?
