This retrospective, which examines the political-social, artistic, and spiritual manifestations of modern Hellenism, is naturally placed within the framework of the political and military history of the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire.

Only the last dramatic events are narrated somewhat extensively, particularly those related to Constantine XI Palaiologos, because that figure is closely linked to the memory and, generally, to the ideological world of the new Greek nation; he is the link that unites medieval with modern Hellenism.

Constantine consciously aims at the recreation of the state, embodying the idea of modern Hellenism as conceived by the Neoplatonic philosopher George Gemistos and especially his student Bessarion, as well as others undoubtedly from their circle. For this reason, I highlight and promote the figures of all these precursors.

The period of the beginnings of modern Greek history is very tumultuous. Its great and dramatic tableau is composed on one side by the ideas of an old world, which are setting, dragging the remnants of the Byzantine Empire to their fall, and on the other side by the desperate cries and the political-social proclamations for its salvation, which are drowned amidst the confusion and the uproar of the ruins, as well as the new artistic and spiritual trends that herald the dawn of a new hopeful world.

[Excerpt from the introductory text of the edition]