The timing, manner and mood of a private assault on a new town are a serious matter.

The timing, manner and mood of a private assault on a new town are a serious matter. If the town should be one of the world's wonders, it is crucial. To arrive at Constantinople by air, for instance, and reach the city by the airport bus is to be swallowed b the saddest and most squalid of Balkan slums. It must be attacked from the sea and the haggish but indestructible splendour, crckling with all the atmospherics of its long history, allowed to loo slowly across the shining Propontis.

P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 301

The Christian Church was the last great creative achievement of classical Greek culture

The evolution of Christianity into a logical system which could weather the shocks of millennia, was a Greek thing. The Christian Church was the last great creative achievement of classical Greek culture. 

P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 214

Why, Kyriakos Mavromichalis of course, his brother. Who else?

 The conversation drifted inevitably to politics. Like most of the Maniots, he was a firm royalist. I pointed to the poster of M. Petro Mavromichalis and asked if he had voted for him.

'Yes,' he said, 'but I think we should change our deputy....'

...

I asked him who he would prefer to represent the constituency: it was sad to contemplate this uprooting of traditional allegiances. He looked surprised. 'Who? Why, Kyriakos Mavromichalis of course, his brother. Who else?'

P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 161

A Vlach is a plain-dweller

A Vlach is a plain-dweller, a descendant of of rayahs, a vile bourgeois, and Maniots who leave the peninsula to live like them are said, with accents of scorn, to have 'gone Vlach'.

P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 70

I couldn’t say whether with good intentions or otherwise, the band had struck up the Spanish Republican anthem

The cost of restoring the cathedral bell towers, destroyed by the earthquake of 1950, had been met by General Franco’s government, and as a gesture of gratitude the band was ordered to play the Spanish national anthem. As the first chords sounded, the bishop’s red headdress locked itself into position as he moved his arms about like a puppet. “Stop, stop, there’s been a mistake,” he whispered, while the indignant voice of a Spaniard could be heard, “Two years’ work, and they play this!” I couldn’t say whether with good intentions or otherwise, the band had struck up the Spanish Republican anthem.

E. Guevara, The motorcycle diaries (1967), tr. A. March (2003), 91

The paintings in the Pantassa at Mistra formed the last important monument of the medieval free Greek world

There is a great charm about it all; but it is the art of a civilization that has outlived its political basis, and art of wistful nostalgia for which there was not future. The paintings in the Pantassa at Mistra formed the last important monument of the medieval free Greek world. 

 S. Runciman, Lost capital of Byzantium (1980), 95-6 

The epithet fits Andronicus II better than Andronicus III, who was not very pious

All we know of him [Andrew, governor of the Peloponnese] is that he was appointed by 'the pious Emperor Andronicus' - the epithet fits Andronicus II better than Andronicus III, who was not very pious, but it was often given formally to emperors, regardless of their characters - and that he was the father of a saint, Leontius of Achaea, who was noted for his good works later in the century.

S. Runciman, Lost capital of Byzantium (1980), 48