Most academics trace the origins of Byzantine Akritic chivalric romance to the oral epic poetry of the ninth and tenth centuries . Greek scholar Sokrátes Kuyás ( ) dates the earliest reference to oral epics of the tenth century to a speech given by bishop Arethas of Caesarea condemning the local αγύρται ( '' ayirte '' , the Greek counterpart of troubadours ) of Paphlagonia for glorifying violent acts instead of the saints and God . Kougeas aptly observed that Arethas suggests a tradition developed at that time exactly in central Anatolia , which was the cradle of Acritic literature . The preservation of such important oral songs in Asia Minor up to 1922 , when the entire region was depopulated of Greeks , proves that Kougeas 's assumption is valid
depopulated of Greeks
Greek genocide
Acritic songs