Georgius Gemistus Pletho was a Byzantine scholar and intellectual from the late 14th till early 15th century who appears to have had an influence on the "neoclassical" elements of the Renaissance.
In the 1410's, Pletho proposed a bill of reforms to the Byzantine emperor and aristocracy, in which numerous policies inspired by the ancient Greek city-states would be implemented, and what remained of the Byzantine Empire would abandon its now tenuous pan-Orthodoxist pretenses, instead adopting a new "neo-Hellenistic" outlook.
On a cursory glance, these proposals might seem idealistic, but they were actually quite ahead of their time in regards to political structure.
Pletho's "Peloponnesian Reforms" were rejected by the Byzantine government, but what if not? Say, if Tamerlane fails to crush the Ottoman Empire at Ankara, and the latter conquers Constantinople fifty years earlier than IOTL, while leaving the portion of the empire in Morea undigested, with some political refugees. Could the Byzantine aristocracy now see the writing on the wall and decide to give ears to Gemistus Pletho?
How does this affect the Renaissance in particular?
In the 1410's, Pletho proposed a bill of reforms to the Byzantine emperor and aristocracy, in which numerous policies inspired by the ancient Greek city-states would be implemented, and what remained of the Byzantine Empire would abandon its now tenuous pan-Orthodoxist pretenses, instead adopting a new "neo-Hellenistic" outlook.
On a cursory glance, these proposals might seem idealistic, but they were actually quite ahead of their time in regards to political structure.
Pletho's "Peloponnesian Reforms" were rejected by the Byzantine government, but what if not? Say, if Tamerlane fails to crush the Ottoman Empire at Ankara, and the latter conquers Constantinople fifty years earlier than IOTL, while leaving the portion of the empire in Morea undigested, with some political refugees. Could the Byzantine aristocracy now see the writing on the wall and decide to give ears to Gemistus Pletho?
How does this affect the Renaissance in particular?
Last edited: