🇬🇷Greekchud🇪🇺

400 years before Otto by the way: "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."