Funeral Oration for Bessarion

This brief funeral oration was composed by the Greek monk Michael Apostolius, also known as Apostolius Paroemiographus. He laments the passing of Cardinal Bessarion, who was the last remaining line of connection between the exiled Greek community and the late Eastern Roman Empire. In this work he compares Bessarion to the Greek orators of the ancient world, in his skill and style, and laments the diminishment of Classical civilization with the conquests of the Turkish Empire in his lifetime.