1453: Revival of Byzantium

"There is no one who ever acts honestly in the administration of states, nor any helper who will save any one who maintains the cause of the just."

-        The Republic, Plato

"You are trying to create a perfect kingdom in the unperfect world, like the one being depicted in De Republica by Plato, aren't you?"

"I don't understand what you are talking about, your holiness."

"…The book described a concept to us a kind of philosophical… political concept that every thing in the state is being run in an orderly manner, with no exception occurring. Every citizen of this imaginary kingdom knows what they are supposed to do and what they can do, every thing is maintained with an absolute order, just and equality… Let me put it like this, you heard of the recent concept that people are talking about called 'Eutopia'?"

"… You are not trying to condemn the way I run the state, aren't you?"

"Of course not, Caesar, of course not." The Emissary hurriedly waved his hands in denial. "It is just because I find it particularly interesting in the way you govern the state, which is vastly different from how the other lords that I have came across before run their states; More precisely speaking, if you don't mind me being rude… I have seen rulers that came from a peasant's background, no matter whether they are baptised by the Pope or not, and indeed their way of running their state is often different from a noble, it is a mixture of chaos, ignorance, full of fantasies and unrealistic policies, and at the same time pushing those brothers who fought with him to the positions which they do not fit, corroding them quickly in the process…."

"While a noble tends to run his state like his personnel property, totally not giving, or giving the minimum of any concerns to the living standard and welfare of the commoners, concentrating mainly on statistically figures like how many gold can he receive through taxation, how many soldiers he can draft, how many castles he has in possessions, how many acres of hunting ground does he have… But for you, you are different, from what I see on you, you are not of the two kinds of people I just mentioned, although you do carry some traits they have."

Antonius is already getting impatient from all these words of this old man, accompanied with his slow way of speaking, low pitch, hand signs, occasional raised voices and facial expression it just seemed to him that this man is trying to criticise him in a sarcastic manner. "I don't quite understand what is the meaning in your words, your holiness, are you trying to compare me with the rulers from the other states? I know I came from a humble back ground of a pirate…"

"I am not concerned of your back ground, Caesar, I told you earlier. Even I did not come from a noble back ground, but still managed to climb to this position with the grace of God and love of the Pope. What I mean is that I find your ideology rather interesting.

"You want to achieve a communal prosperity, getting all your country men to prosperity together by robbing all the riches and aiding the poor. But you have not realised that achieving riches in the people can never be done through the simple action of robbing the rich and giving the poor, through doing this it can only achieve a short period of fake boom that gives you an illusion that every one is getting richer but in fact it is not. The growth of wealth should be focused on things like the overall domestic productivity of the people, disposable income of the commoners and the purchasing power of your citizens. Though in the process you did ensure the basic survivability and basic human rights by distributing them land and making them yeomen."

"You believe that nobility, especially landed nobility is a harm to the government structure and society, so you stripped all the lands and wealth of those traditional nobles, barring them from entering your government. But yet you never realise, or you pretend not to see the fact that those followers of yours, too, has a desire to climb the ladders of their social statues, longing to become a landed noble like those in their home town too. Since you brutally cut away all their hopes for this, there shall be one day when their inner cries make them perform a harsher action in raising their statues, such as pushing you on to a higher position giving you the ability to up rank them further, or… you know, taking the choice by themselves."

Antonius narrowed his eyes realising what this old man is trying to say, frustration started getting in to his eyes as he stared at this man in anger and disbelief. No one has ever suspected the path that he is leading his state on before this old man appears, and he firmly believes that with the bond and brotherhood he has spent with his boys, they would definitely not have such rebellious thoughts and going out of his control. And he believes that although the distance between them has became further and the time they spend together has became lesser, Antonius still believes that the brotherhood between true man shall never deteriorate.

Honestly speaking if it is not for the prestigious identity of this old man casted in a holy aura of the Pope, Antonius would have thrown him out of Thessaloniki's city gates already.

"You trust that the way to stabilise and secure your state is through giving your neighbours the impression that your army is too powerful to be condemned with and never lay a finger on you, and your people while expanding to the outside world for you and your people's so called 'Roman Dreams'. But you do not have a clear strategic planning for your expansion, ending up trying to stretch out your antennas towards every single direction, unleashing your army on all fronts, but end up meeting obstacles on every single battle field ending up having entirely no progress at all."

"You urge your people to believe in the importance of education, wishing that they can avoid a tragic path resembling yours, end the superstitions and break through the educational monopoly of the church and monasteries, liberating literate labour forces from the control of the religion and spread them in to the schools and institutes you established across the state for them to educate the future generation. But you failed to realise how much illiterate population you have, and with out a suitable education and supervision system you end up getting a bunch of unwilling teachers and forced students who blame you for wasting their time and disturbing them from helping their families in agriculture work, and at the same time almost disowning the churches in your domain."

"That is what I have been trying to say for so long, Caesar. You do have a further sight than almost all of the people that came from your back ground, you have a broad plan within yourself, but yet when it comes to specific tasking and planning, you don't seem to have any serious thoughts or sophisticated blue print, or you cannot have an abled team to help you out with it, am I right?"

"Thank you for your teachings your holiness, but no matter what is the motive of your words, I do not regret what I have done for the past years." Antonius could bear it no more and stood up from his seat. "I have heard of countries getting bankrupt for wonders, wars, gambling, but I have never heard of countries collapsing because it spent too much on education… It is already getting late, and I have more ambassadors to attend to. Apologies but I cannot spend more time with you… Please, your holiness, I believe that the Pope is still expecting your return as soon as possible."

Then, Antonius went out of the room with out ever looking back. A few seconds later, two guards came in to the room and politely 'invited' the Holy Emissary out of the guest room. They are Antonius' best guards who have accompanied their admiral since the days in Constantinople, they care nothing about what so ever Holy Emissary or ambassadors from the chantries. The other delegates and assistants of the emissary Leon Battista Alberti are already waiting for him on the outside. Upon seeing their leader getting invited out of the room, his assistant hurriedly huddled around him complaining.

"You see, your highness, I have advised you before we came that you should keep those words by yourself, you are the first Holy Emissary I have seen in my life to have spoken so many words in my fifty years of diplomatic career! You can potentially cause a diplomatic explosion for this!"

Leon Battista Alberti kept his smile while his assistant grumbled.