"Do not think that the nation of the Greeks is small and unmoving. It has been under siege for many years during which it lost territories and came under stress. Yet it has not been totally worn out. The Lord protects it to a great extent." When the Byzantine embassy has reached Basel-Switzerland in early 1430's the Greek Metropolite of Kiev, Isidoros had some things to clarify to the Western delegates: "Recently the divine and the holy have illuminated our souls; you came together. You have considered all that is best and virtuous for the Church of Christ; you decided to join the pieces torn asunder through wisdom, through the science of sacred theology, and through the experience of the sacred canons and laws; in one word, you decided to bring back the state of the ancient Church to peace and harmony through sacred canons and laws. So you dispatched ambassadors to the emperor of the Romans (Romaion-John VIII Palaiologos) and called upon the sacred Church of the Greeks (Graikon), thinking nothing of the toils that your ambassadors faced on this long and difficult journey. They came often and announced their mission, but somehow they failed to accomplish their goal. Do not think that the nation of the Greeks (Graikoi) is small and unmoving. It has been under siege for many years during which it lost territories and came under stress. Yet it has not been totally worn out. The Lord protects it to a great extent. All of the Peloponnese is included in the empire of the Romans; so are Lemnos, Imbros, and the greatest part of Thrace in the vicinity of the city of Constantine [Constantinople]. In addition to other areas under tribute, there is all of Corfu, Kephalonia, Zacynthos, Leukas, all of Epeiros, Illyria, Achaea, Phocis, Boeotia, Attica, Hellas, Macedonia, Thrace, Upper and Lower Mysia, Euboea, the Cycladic islands, Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, Chios, and Lesbos. All these areas are inhabited by Greeks. All territories in Asia under the barbarians [Turks] are mostly inhabited by Greeks. They are also [inhabited by] a great number of Syrians. There are many other kingdoms, which do not speak Greek, but are under the Greek Church. The great kingdom of Iberia [Georgia], the kingdom of the Lazians [Lazikans], the regions of Zicchi (Chechens?), Alans, Circasians, and Goths, not to mention Moldowallachia, Great Wallachia, and the area of the Triballians [Serbs]. In addition, there is the land of the Albanians and to the extreme north the most extensive democracy of the Rus’ (along the Ungrates) and the so-called king of Great Rus’, along with other kings in the area, as well as lower Rus’ with its upper and neighboring kings. All these are under Constantinople's. These neighboring nations surpass in number your neighbors." Original text in Greek and sources: "...κατὰ νοῦν ἐθήκατε τὰ πάλαι διερρωγότα συνάψαι τμήματα καὶ εἰς εἰρήνην καὶ ὁμόνοιαν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἐπαναγαγεῖν καὶ μίαν ὥσπερ τὸ πρότερον ἀποκαταστῆσαι πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα Ῥωμαίων καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν τῶν Γραικῶν πρέσβεις πέμψαντες ἐκκλησίαν ἀνακαλεῖσθε, οὐκ ὀλίγον τὸν πόνον τῆς τοσαύτης τῶν σταλέντων ὑπομεινάντων ὁδοῦ, μακρᾶς πάνυ καὶ δυσχεροῦς τυγχανούσης, κἀκείνων πολλάκις ὑπὲρ τούτου πρεσβευσάντων, οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅπως δὲ τῶν πρέσβεων ἐπανελθόντων παρ’ ἐκείνων πρὸς οὓς ἐπρέσβευον ἀπράκτων. Καὶ μηδὲν οἴεσθε μικρὸν καὶ ἀδρανὲς τὸ Γραικῶν εἶναι γένος. Αὐτὸ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως καθ’ ἑαυτό, χρόνους ἤδη συχνοὺς πολιορκηθέν, ὠλιγώθη τε καὶ ἐκακώθη, ἀλλ’ οὐκ εἰς τέλος ἐξετρίβη· φυλάττει γὰρ ἐκ μέρους αὐτὸ Κύριος. Πελοπόννησός τε γὰρ ὅλη τῇ βασιλείᾳ Ῥωμαίων ὑπείκει καὶ Λῆμνος καὶ Ἴμβρος καὶ περὶ τὴν Κωνσταντίνου τὸ πλεῖστον τῆς Θρᾴκης μέρος· ἔτι δ’ αὖ πλὴν τῶν ἀρχῶν καί τινων τῶν ἐν τέλει Κέρκυρα πᾶσα, Κεφαλληνία, Ζάκυνθος, Ἰθάκη, Λευκάς, Ἤπειρος πᾶσα, Ἰλλυρικόν, Ἀχαΐα, Φωκίς, Βοιωτία, Ἀττική, Ἑλλάς, Μακεδονία, Θρᾴκη, Μυσία ἡ ἄνω, Μυσία ἡ κάτω, Εὔβοια, Κυκλάδες νῆσοι, Κρήτη, Ῥόδος, Κύπρος, Χίος, Λέσβος, ταῦτα πάντα Γραικῶν οἴκησίς ἐστιν. Καὶ πᾶσα δὲ ἡ περὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν ἀρχὴ πάντων βαρβάρων τὰ πλεῖστα Γραικοῖς ᾤκισται. Εἰσὶ δ’ αὖ καὶ Σύρων ἄθροισμα πλεῖστον· ἀλλὰ καὶ βασιλεῖαι παμπληθεῖς καὶ κατὰ γλῶτταν διάφοροι τῇ Γραικῶν ὑπείκουσιν ἐκκλησίᾳ. Ἥ τε γὰρ Ἰβήρων μεγίστη βασιλεία καὶ ἡ Λαζῶν καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἡ Ζηκχῶν ἐπαρχία καὶ ἡ Ἀλανῶν ἥ τε Τζαρκασῶν καὶ ἡ τῶν Γότθων ἥ τε Μολδοβλαχία καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἡ καλουμένη Βλαχία μεγάλη καὶ ἡ τῶν Τριβαλλῶν· οὐ μὴν καὶ ἡ τῶν Ἀλβανιτῶν ἀρχὴ καὶ περὶ τὰ ὑπερβόρεια ἡ τῶν Ῥῶς μεγίστη κατὰ τὸν Οὐγγράτην δημοκρατία καὶ ὁ τῆς μεγάλης Ῥωσίας μέγας καλούμενος ῥὴξ ἕτεροί τε ῥῆγες ἐν ἐκείνῃ καὶ ἡ κάτω πᾶσα Ῥωσία τῶν ῥηγῶν ἄνω καί τινων περὶ ἐκείνους ἅπαντας τὸ ὑπήκοον ὑπείκει τῷ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. Τοσαῦτά εἰσι καὶ πλείω μᾶλλον τὰ προσοικειωθησόμενα ὑμῖν." Cardinal Isidore, c. 1390–1462, A Late Byzantine Scholar, Warlord, and Prelate, Marios Philippides and Walter K. Hanak, Routledge, 2018, p.54 S. P. Lampros, Παλαιολόγεια καὶ Πελοποννησιακά, Α, Athens: B.N. Gregoriades, 1912/23: 333.

@noah_nonsense Thanks!!! It makes it more interesting that it was written 16 years before the Fall.

@byzantinemporia There were similar complaints and accusations during the Ottoman era for Greek metropolitans of Syria, Palestine, etc...they were accused that were hardly visiting their flocks.

7/7 "A large part of Calabria is also inhabited by Greeks, who consecrate bread with leaven and receive communion in both kinds following the Greek tradition. However, they are otherwise united with the Roman Church, and because of this unity, their form of consecration and communion is permitted." "These are the matters concerning the faith, the people, and the dominion of the Greeks. Additionally, in unity with them, three other patriarchates remain, following ancient tradition: Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. These patriarchs also consecrate archbishops, and their archbishops in turn consecrate bishops. There remains a significant Christian population in these territories, but their patriarchs and archbishops struggle to maintain their churches due to great distance from other Christian rulers. They are more severely oppressed and afflicted by the infidels, so much so that if the Holy Sepulcher of Our Lord Jesus Christ were not there, even these Christians would not be allowed to survive."

@1Demgrec Spotted some Franks...😄

@Cognosco_Team

@petetoth Bodleian

Interesting maps from medieval Trebizond and Trebizond-Matzouka area, with its known towns/villages, fortifications, monasteries and routes. Below also an excerpt from Bessarion's Encomium to Trebizond, referring very accurately (according to Bryer & Winfield) to the city's monuments and landmarks: The dwelling of the emperors is set up in the present acropolis and is itself no less than an acropolis, surpassing as it does all other buildings by the strength of its walls and the variety, size and beauty of its construction. Its west wall is common to the acropolis and the palace, and serves the same purpose to both up to a height of two storeys; from there upwards, it extends for the sake of the palace alone and towers above the wall of the acropolis by almost the same measure that the latter rises above the ground. The walls facing in other directions, being adequate in point of height, thickness and other respects, extend all the way down and, while they take away more than half the acropolis, they add this area to the palace, and are by themselves sufficient to resist the oncoming enemy and to guard safely those that may be inside. They afford entrance by means of two gates and one postern, and for the rest are securely constructed so as to exclude and ward off attackers. On either side is left an open space for rooms and the quartering of the emperor's servants, while the palace rises in the middle and has one entrance provided with a staircase of steps, so that the entrance is also a way up. As one enters, one straightway encounters on one side splendid vestibules and halls of sufficient beauty and size, capable of containing a great number of people, the halls being surrounded with balconies facing in all directions and exposed to all the breezes. On the other side is stretched out a very long and beautiful building, its floor entirely paved with white marble, while its ceiling shines with the blooms of painting, with gold and various colours. The entire hollow [of the ceiling] gleams with shining stars in imitation of the heavens and exhibits excellence and delicacy of painting. All round, on the walls, is painted the choir of the emperors, both those who have ruled our land and their ancestors; also painted there are the dangers our city has undergone and those who in attacking it have done so to their own detriment." High up, at the end of the building, there appears a covered imperial dais having a pyramidal roof supported on four columns. This too, is screened all round with white marble, roof and all, and it separates the emperors from their subjects as with a barrier. It is there in particular that the emperor makes his appearance, that he conducts business with his ministers, converses with ambassadors, speaks and is spoken to. Farther on is another imperial hall of outstanding height and width, covered with a roof and having columns all round. In this building, which is decorated with paintings, is a flight of steps so as to raise the emperor aloft, and it is here that he is wont to give splendid banquets for his ministers and other subjects. On the left side one encounters a suite of many rooms, including one that differs from the rest: this is fenced by four equal sides, like a frame, and contains memorials of the Creation of the world and of the origin and history of man. On the righthand side are many halls, vestibules, terraces, chambers and rooms separated by colonnades, running athwart one another, all of a measure that cannot be surpassed, each bigger than the next and all constructed with unutterable beauty and due harmony. There too, is set up a church decorated with beautiful paintings and adorned with sacred offerings which, if not very numerous, are of outstanding beauty. What the church lacks in size it makes up in comeliness. Source/Translation/Maps: THE BYZANTINE MONUMENTS AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PONTOS ANTHONY BRYER and DAVID WINFIELD, With Maps and Plans by RICHARD ANDERSON and Drawings by JUNE WINFIELD Bessarion, ed. Lambros, NE, 13 (1916), 188-89; trans. Cyril Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453 (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1972), 252-53.

Byzantine Zodiac map...

The Norman hordes and their wine connoisseur skills (...the lack of it...) "...have no acquaintance with anything good, because the vulgarity of their own society has left them without any experience of any kind of beauty, and they have destroyed every good thing in our city.... They took no account of our well aged wine because of its lack of sweetness, treating it as if it was an evil-tasting medicine..." When the Normans from the Kingdom of Sicily sacked and occupied Thessalonike for a period of around three months, they showed their brutality, savage background and limited understanding of civilization. Apart from the recorded butchery, the metropolitan of Thessalonike Eustathios, who witnessed the Sack and occupation of the Macedonian city doesn't omit to record the level of ignorance of anything that is characteristic for a civilized society, and above all their lack of appreciation of good old wine... "They are the most utterly unpleasing men whom anyone could imagine and, to express it in another way, have no acquaintance with anything good, because the vulgarity of their own society has left them without any experience of any kind of beauty, and they have destroyed every good thing in our city. Nor is it surprising that they were the cause of so many men dying, when apart from these, their rage extended even against dumb animals in their fury against us, and their violence led them to break jars and flasks and oil bottles and anything that they could lay their hands upon, however worthless. So lacking in civilized ways were they in fact, that they seemed to be unable to perceive with their eyes what were the objects of greater value. At all events, they struggled to collect many fine and valuable objects which were stored in wrappings or bags or cloths of linen, and when they opened the mouths of containers they threw away the contents and trampled upon them, while they stuffed the useless containers themselves into their bosoms, most of them worth no more than an obol. Such at any rate was the behaviour of the majority of those who were present when the looting was at its peak. But those who followed on after them, and those who arrived still later, began to load themselves with what had been scattered around, and managed to amass a great deal of wealth. But even these were rough fellows of no breeding, with no education or refinement. So they bartered away things that are precious in life with those who came their way seeking to do trade, accepting a meagre recompense whether the others were able to buy sparingly or in bulk. And it is possible to learn of many occasions when gold was given up for no more than twice as much, and silver even exchanged on the same terms, as valueless bronze coins. Books again, the loss of which would cause one's spirit to be vexed for the rest of one's life, cloths of the kind in which the Seres[Chinese] delight above all others, and other works of the loom which a spider's web might vie with - none of these presented any attractions to these men who knew nothing of what was good, but they were thrown away for a trifling sum. They took no account of our well aged wine because of its lack of sweetness, treating it as if it was an evil-tasting medicine. Wine of this kind was in fact very much needed, particularly for those who had received wounds, so the fair liquid was poured out as if in rivers. As a result there was in the end no wine left at all, and no ointment to follow it, nor was it possible to provide any subsequent dressing for their wounds. So not only were there corpses lying in a circle around the walls, with no one to bury them in the whole of that area, but the wounded also began to be added to the population of Hades, and to provide trouble for those who had the task of burying them. How many houses these wounded men left empty when they passed away in such great numbers! So the old wine passed away, dying like those whose lives were put in danger for lack of it. The new wine, on the other hand, was leaping in the air as it boiled and bubbled, and this bubbling was to those who accepted its invitation like a shout of warning, threatening them with a withdrawal from life. Those who took their fill from it drank from the cup of Lethe and death was the cupbearer, not for those on our side only but most particularly for the Latins (what joy it gives to utter these words!). They considered the new wine to be a very fine thing, and as soon as they squeezed the grapes in their hands they greedily gulped down the newly pressed juice, so as not to leave for the wine jars the privilege of receiving it first. And we owe our thanks to this fermenting wine, because it allied itself with death against the Latins; and the flesh of swine excited death into attacking them also, since they stuffed their bellies so full with it..." Source: Eustathios of Thessaloniki: Capture of Thessaloniki, A translation with introduction and commentary by John R. Melville Jones

A 12th-century medallion with Gorgon's head and protective/prophylactic inscription on the reverse. The medallion is made of a thin copper plate covered with cloisonné enamel on both sides. On one side, against an emerald green background adorned with stylized flowering branches, there is a Gorgon's head with a flesh-colored face and blue hair. Seven blue serpents with speckled bodies, green heads, and red tongues emerge from the Gorgon's head. A Greek inscription runs around the edge, giving the beginning of the Tsigarion. Άγιος, άγιος, άγιος, Κύριος Σαββαώθ, πλήρης ο ουρανός [και η γη της δόξης αυτού] Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heav'n [and earth are full of Your glory] On the reverse, the decoration consists of the letters of a prophylactic inscription, enameled in white on a blue background, intelligible are the the words for uterus, blackened, snake, dragon and hiss. The artifact was found in Syria, while it is believed that is was manufactured somewhere in Minor Asia. Source: Musée du Louvre/ Daniel OA 6276, Département des Objets d'art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes

Yes it was published in Boethius, De topicis differentiis Καὶ οἱ βυζαντινὲς μεταφράσεις τῶν Μανουὴλ Ὁλοβώλου καὶ Προχόρου Κυδώνη. [Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini 5. Athens, Paris, Brussels 1990]: 95-145. D.Z. Nikitas,  The translation of the preface excerpt is from Kaldellis in the quoted above source.