Greece After Constantinople's Fall: Fact and Fear

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 sent shockwaves through Christian Europe. Pope Pius II saw it as a second death for Homer and Plato. Concerns arose about destroyed or converted churches, and the potential eradication of Christian life under Ottoman rule. However, as the Ottomans expanded into Greece, capturing Athens in 1456 and most of the Peloponnese shortly after, knowledge in Latin Europe about the post-Byzantine fate of Greece remained scant. Speculation and fear of oppression under Muslim rule dominated over attempts to understand the reality of the situation.