Not a single contemporary Byzantine source mentions the Christianization
of Ethiopia in the fifth century, the Byzantine attempts to convert
Persia at the end of the sixth, the creation of the Slavic alphabet in
the ninth, or the baptism of Rus' in the tenth. These great achievements
of Eastern Christianity left the Byzantines themselves perfectly
indifferent. Byzantium produced a number of ardent and committed
missionaries, but much more visible were the Greek intellectuals who
believed that it was easier "to whitewash and Ethiopian" than to
Christianize a barbarian. When Leo V acquainted the pagan Bulgars with
the Christian sacraments, Theophanes Continuatus castigated him for
"casting the pearls of faith before the swine". In the end, the
missionary zeal of a few enthusiasts lost out to the haughty
isolationism of Empire. "Pearls before the Swine" focuses on the
complex relationship between the Christian pledge to "teach all nations"
and Greek cultural snobbery.