  Plethon’s pamphlet purported to show how inferior Aristotle was to Plato, in spite of being more admired especially in the Latin West. Like Metochites before him, Plethon seems to have drawn on the Middle Platonist Atticus for his criticisms, which cover every part of Aristotle’s philosophy and end with a refutation of Aristotle’s objections to the Theory of Forms. Aristotle was duly assisted by George (Gennadios) Scholarios (c. 1405–after 1472), whose Contra Plethonem bears testimony to a philosophical education that was clearly more Latin than Greek. Of paramount concern to Gennadios was the repudiation of Plethon’s claim that Aristotle’s God is not creator of the world. This is achieved inter alia by recourse to the time-honored hypothesis of eternal creation. As his sobriquet suggests, Gennadios was an extremely erudite man, who prided himself on being a better Aristotelian commentator than his Byzantine forerunners precisely on account of his vast knowledge of the Latin literature, including translations of Avicenna and Averroes. His commentaries on Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories and De interpretatione are the most extensive Byzantine ones on these works, and owe a great deal, with respect to their content and form, to earlier and contemporary works in Latin. Especially strong is the influence of Thomas Aquinas, many of whose works Gennadios also translated, thus continuing the efforts of Demetrios (c. 1323/26–c. 1397/98) and Prochoros (c. 1333/34–c. 1370/71) Kydones in the preceding century.