John Lydus: On the Months

the case, as Kaldellis implicitly admits in a more recent characterization of John as holding to "an antiquarian and occult form of Neoplatonism, syncretistic except that Christianity seems to have played a small role in it."⁴⁹ Kaldellis does admit that John claimed to be a Christian;⁵⁰ in a still more recent contribution, he describes John's religion as "possibly" an inclusive Neoplatonism that embraced some aspects of Christianity.⁵¹ His argument insists, however, that John's Christianity was feigned rather than real—that his true sympathies rested with pagan thought. Kaldellis makes much of John's sympathy and friendship with Phocas, the Praetorian prefect for a part of 532, who was overtly accused of paganism and is said to have committed suicide to avoid