Nicaea, the site of the First Ecumenical Council (325) and the capital of the Byzantine Empire in exile during the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204 - 1261) following the Fourth Crusade has an important, albeit neglected, role in ecclesiastical and political history. With the book, Professor Clive Foss, a meticulous historian, takes a significant step in rectifying that neglect. As he tells us, his initial objective was to provide a comprehensible English translation of the two thirteenth-century encomia delivered by Theodora Laskaris and Theodore Metochites. The intent was to make these important sources accessible to the contemporary reader, and in this, he has succeeded notably. But, in addition, there is a major bonus. The initial objective blossomed into a history of Nicaea from the third to the fourteenth centuries, which will interest general readers of history and the specialist as well.