George Amiroutzes

George Amiroutzes, who lived from about 1400 to about 1470, was a Pontic Greek scholar and philosopher of the late Byzantine period, born in Trebizond and known by the epithet the Philosopher for his expertise across theology, philosophy, natural science, medicine, rhetoric and poetry. He served as a lay advisor at the Council of Ferrara-Florence and later as protovestiarios, a high court official, and he became a controversial figure by persuading Emperor David of Trebizond to surrender the city to Mehmed II in 1461, afterward gaining influence at the Ottoman court while being denounced by fellow Greeks as a traitor. His surviving works include the Dialogus de fide, or Dialogue on Faith, a letter to Bessarion describing the fall of Trebizond, correspondence concerning Theodore Agallianos's writing on providence, and poems dedicated to Mehmed II.