had composed his Institutes, his Code, and his Pandects, in a language which he celebrates as the proper and public style of the Roman government, the consecrated idiom of the pal ace and senate of Constantinople, of the camps and tribunals of the East.97 But this foreign dialect was unknown to the people and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces, it was imperfectly understood by the greater part of the interpreters of the laws and the ministers of the state. After a short conflict, nature and habit prevailed over the obsolete institutions of human power: for the general benefit of his subjects, Justinian promulgated his novels in the two languages: the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were succes sively translated; 98 the original was forgotten, the version was studied, and the Greek, whose intrinsic merit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a legal, as well as popular establishment in the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and residence of succeeding princes estranged them from the Roman idiom: Tiberius by the Arabs,99 and Maurice by the Italians,100 are distinguished as the first of the Greek Cæsars, as the founders of a new dynasty and empire: the silent revolution was accomplished before the death of Heraclius; and the ruins of the Latin speech were darkly preserved in the 97 Consult the preface of Ducange, (ad Gloss. Græc. Medii Ævi) and the Novels of Justinian, (vii. Ixvi.) The Greek language was κοίνος, the Latin was πάτριος to himself, κυριώτατος to the πολιτείας oua, the system of government. 28 Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ Λατινική λέξις καὶ φράσις εἰσέτι τοὺς νόμους κρύπτουσα τοὺς συνείναι ταύτην μὴ δυναμένους ἰσχυρῶς ἀπετείχιζε, (Matth. Blastares, Hist. Juris, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. xii. p. 369.) The Code and Pandects (the latter by Thalelæus) were translated in the time of Justinian, (p. 358, 366.) Theophilus, one of the original triumvirs, has left an elegant, though diffuse, paraphrase of the Institutes. On the other hand, Julian, antecessor of Constantinople, (A. D. 570,) cxx. Novellas Græcas eleganti Latinitate donavit Heineccius, Hist. J. R. p. 396) for the use of Italy and Africa. 99 Abulpharagius assigns the viith Dynasty to the Franks or Romans, the viiith to the Greeks, the ixth to the Arabs. A tempore Augusti Cæsaris donec imperaret Tiberius Cæsar spatio circiter annorum 600 fuerunt Imperatores C. P. Patricii, et præcipua pars exercitus Romani: extra quod, conciliarii, scribæ et populus, omnes Græci fuerunt deinde regnum etiam Græcanicum factum est. (p. 96, vers Pocock.) The Christian and ecclesiastical studies of Abulpharagius gave him some advantage over the more ignorant Moslems. 100 Primus ex Græcorum genere in Imperio confirmatus est; 01, according to another MS. of Paulus Diaconus, (1. iii. c. 15, p. 443,) in Græcorum Imperio. terms of jurisprudence and the acclamations of the palace After the restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signification and extent; and these haughty Barbarians asserted, with some justice, their superior claim to the language and dominion of Rome. They insulted the aliens of the East who had renounced the dress and idiom of Romans; and their reasonable practice will justify the frequent appellation of Greeks. 101 But this contemptuous appellation was indignantly rejected by the prince and people to whom it was applied. Whatsoever changes had been introduced by the lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and unbroken succession from Augustus and Constantine; and, in the lowest period of degeneracy and decay, the name of ROMANS adhered to the last fragments of the empire of Constantinople.102 While the government of the East was transacted in Latin, the Greek was the language of literature and philosophy; nor could the masters of this rich and perfect idiom be tempted to envy the borrowed learning and imitative taste of their Roman disciples. After the fall of Paganism, the loss of Syria and Egypt, and the extinction of the schools of Alexandria and Athens, the studies of the Greeks insensibly retired to some regular monasteries, and above all, to the royal college of Constantinople, which was burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian.103 In the pompous style of the age, the preзi 101 Quia linguam, mores, vestesque mutâstis, putavit Sanctissimus Papa, (an audacious irony,) ita vos (vobis) displicere Romanorum nomen.* His nuncios, rogabant Nicephorum Imperatorem Græcorum, ut cum Othone Imperatore Romanorum amicitiam faceret, (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 486.) 102 By Laonicus Chalcocondyles, who survived the last siege of Constantinople, the account is thus stated, (1. i. p. 3.) Constantine transplanted his Latins of Italy to a Greek city of Thrace: they adopted the language and manners of the natives, who were con founded with them under the name of Romans. The kings of Con stantinople, says the historian, ἐπὶ τὸ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς σεμνύνεσθαι, Ρωμαίων βασιλεῖς τε καὶ αὐτοκράτορας ἀποκαλεῖν, Ελλήνων δε βασιλεῖς οὐκέτι οὐδαμὴ ἀξιοῦν 103 See Ducange, (C. P. Christiana, 1. ii. p. 150, 151,) who collects the testimonies, not of Theophanes, but at least of Zonaras, (tom. ii. Sicut et vestem. These words follow in the text of Liutprand. (apud Murat. Script. Ital. tom. ii p. 486, to which Gibbon refers.) But with some inaccuracy or confusion, which rarely occurs in Gibbon's references, the rest of the quotation, which as it stands is unintelligible, does not appear. M. den, of that foundation was named the Sun of Science: his twelve associates, the professors in the different arts and fac ulties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a library of thirtysix thousand five hundred volumes was open to their inquiries; and they could show an ancient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of parchment one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, as it was fabled, of a prodigious serpent.104 But the seventh and eighth centuries were a period of discord and darkness the library was burnt, the college was abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of antiquity; and a savage ignorance and contempt of letters has disgraced the princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties.105 In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of the restoration of science.106 After the fanaticism of the Arabs had subsided, the caliphs aspired to conquer the arts, rather than the provinces, of the empire: their liberal curiosity rekindled the emulation of the Greeks, brushed away the dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them to know and reward the philosophers, whose labors had been hitherto repaid by the pleasure of study and the pursuit of truth. The Cæsar Bardas, the uncle of Michael the Third, was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. A particle of the treasures of his nephew was sometimes diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a school was opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas excited the emulation of the masters and students. At their head was the philosopher Leo, archbishop of Thessalonica: his pro L. xv. p. 104,) Cedrenus, (p. 454,) Michael Glycas, (p. 281,) Constantine Manasses, (p. 87.) After refuting the absurd charge against the emperor, Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum, p. 99-111,) like a true advocate, proceeds to doubt or deny the reality of the fire, and almost of the library. 104 According to Malchus, (apud Zonar. 1. xiv. p. 53,) this Homer was burnt in the time of Basiliscus. The MS. might be renewed But on a serpent's skin? Most strange and incredible! 108 The yra of Zonaras, the ayora zai auabia of Cedrenus, are strong words, perhaps not ill suited to those reigns. 106 See Zonaras (1. xvi. p. 160, 161) and Cedrenus, (p. 549, 550.) Like Friar Bacon, the philosopher Leo has been transformed by ignorance into a conjurer; yet not so undeservedly, if he be the author of the oracles more commonly ascribed to the emperor of the same name. The physics of Lec in MS. are in the library of Vienna, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom vi. p. 366, tom. xii. p. 781.) Iscant! Qui found skill in astronomy and the mathematics was admired by the strangers of the East; and this occult science was magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly supposes that all knowledge superior to its own must be the effect of inspiration or magic. At the pressing entreaty of the Cæsar, his friend, the celebrated Photius,107 renounced the freedom of a secular and studious life, ascended the patriarchal throne. and was alternately excommunicated and absolved by the synods of the East and West. By the confession even of priestly hatred, no art or science, except poetry, was foreign to this universal scholar, who was deep in thought, indefatigable in reading, and eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercised the office of protospathaire, or captain of the guards, Photius was sent ambassador to the caliph of Bagdad.10 108 The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of confinement, were beguiled by the hasty composition of his Library, a living monument of erudition and criticism. Two hundred and fourscore writers, historians, orators, philosophers, theologians, are reviewed without any regular method: he abridges their narrative or doctrine, appreciates their style and character, and judges even the fathers of the church with a discreet freedom, which often breaks through the superstition of the times. The emperor Basil, who lamented the defects of his own education, intrusted to the care of Photius his son and successor, Leo the philosopher; and the reign of that prince and of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most prosperous æras of the Byzantine literature. By their munificence he treasures of antiquity were deposited in the Imperia library; by their pens, or those of their associates, they were imparted in such extracts and abridgments as might amuse the curiosity, without oppressing the indolence, of the public Besides the Basilics, or code of laws, the arts of husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying the human species, were 107 The ecclesiastical and literary character of Photius is copiously discussed by Hanckius (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 269, 396) and Fabricius. 108 Els Aoovolovs can only mean Bagdad, the seat of the caliph ; and the relation of his embassy might have been curious and instrucdve. But how did he procure his books? A library so numerous could neither be found at Bagdad, nor transported with his baggage, nor preserved in his memory. Yet the last, however incredible, seems to be affirmed by Photius himself, soas aurov i uvijun dilowte. Camu Bat (Hist. Critique des Journaux, p. 87-94) gives a good account of the Myriobiblon. propagated with equal diligence; and the history of Greeca and Rome was digested into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two only (of embassies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might contemplate the image of the past world, apply the lesson or warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter period. I shall not expatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by the assiduous study of the ancients, have deserved, in some measure, the remembrance and gratitude of the moderns. Tho scholars of the present age may still enjoy the benefit of the philosophical commonplace book of Stobæus, the grammat ical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narratives in twelve thousand verses, and the commentaries on Homer of Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his horn of plenty, has poured the names and authorities of four hundred writers. From these originals, and from the numerous tribe of scholiasts and critics,' 109 some estimate may be formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth century: Constantinople was enlightened by the genius of Homer and Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato and in the enjoyment or neglect of our present,riches, we must envy the generation that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander,110 and the odes of Alcæus and Sappho. The frequent labor of illustration attests not only 109 Of these modern Greeks, see the respective articles in the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius - - a laborious work, yet susceptible of a better method and many improvements; of Eustathius, (tom. i. p. 289 -292, 306-329,) of the Pselli, (a diatribe of Leo Allatius, ad calcem tom. v.,) of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (tom. vi. p. 486-509) of John Stobæus, (tom. viii. 665-728,) of Suidas, (tom. ix. p. 620-827,) John Tzetzes, (tom. xii. p. 245-273.) Mr. Harris, in his Philological Arrangements, opus senile, has given a sketch of this Byzantine learning, (p. 287-300.) 110 From obscure and hearsay evidence, Gerard Vossius (de Poetis Græcis, c. 6) and Le Clerc (Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. xix. p. 285) mention a commentary of Michael Psellus on twenty-four plays of Menander, still extant in MS. at Constantinople. Yet such classic studies seem incompatible with the gravity or dulness of a schoolman, who pored over the categories, (de Psellis, p. 42;) and Michael has probably been confounded with Homerus Sellius, who wrote arguments to the comedies of Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty plays, but he often transcribes the old scholiart of Aris. tophanes |