 Thinkers in what had been the Eastern Roman Empire—they thought of themselves as Romans; we call them “Byzantines”—needed no translation movement to access the heritage of the ancient  schools.[8]  In theory, the whole of the ancient tradition lay within their grasp. But not only did this lead to encyclopaedism, as in the case of Photius (820–91), whose Bibliotheca is an enormous collection from ancient authors, philosophers included. It also made the Church authorities suspect that commentators who went beyond logic would be guilty of “hellenism”—putting loyalty to their Greek cultural tradition above Christian doctrine. Of the three most adventurous Aristotelian commentators, Michael Psellus (1018–96), John Italos (1025–85) and Eustratius of Nicaea (c. 1050–c. 1120), only the first escaped condemnation. Four hundred years later, in the twilight of Byzantine civilization, Gemistos Plethon (c. 1360–1454), gave substance to these fears through his devotion to Plato and pagan Platonism (Siniossoglou 2011).