Television, known to the Sumerians as "TV," has a longer history than is commonly suspected, partly because so few of the badly-degraded kinescopes of early programming have survived. The most complete collection, in the Secret Vatican Archives, is made available to carefully-vetted Roman Catholic scholars of impeccable credentials. Pope John Paul II is known to enjoy reruns of I Love Lucius.

The deathbed of Romanus II, 963 (from a manuscript)

In the Byzantine Empire, televisions encrusted with cloisonné enamels were prestigious luxuries, reserved for the elite. In the manuscript illumination depicting the deathbed of Emperor Romanus II (illustration, right), a pair of tv sets set on desks in the bedchamber express the conspicuous consumption befitting the purple.