over the world, and profoundly influenced the development of the art of the early Church. Alexandrine decoration, with its landscapes, idyllic scenes, mythological themes, still life, and realistic portraits, came to life again in the iconoclastic period; a school of secular artists, who worked for the Emperors and the Court, arose ; and the spirit of their work, with its antique inspiration, did not fail to awaken religious painters from their torpor. For the second great period of her art, which coincided with the Macedonian dynasty, Byzantium was chiefly indebted to the iconoclastic sovrans." Or rather we should say that art revived under the Amorians, religious art under their successors.

Wealth was a condition of this artistic revival, of which a chief characteristic was rich and costly decoration. In the work of the age of Justinian the richness of the material had been conspicuous; in the subsequent period, when all the resources of the State were strained in a life and death struggle with formidable enemies, there were no funds for the luxuries of art. By the ninth century the financial prosperity of the Empire had revived; the Imperial coffers were well filled; and the Emperors could indulge their taste or their pride in artistic magnificence. In the flourishing condition of the minor arts of the jeweller and the enameller, from the ninth to the twelfth century, we may also see an indication of the wealth of Constantinople. Here, too, we may probably suspect oriental influence. The jewellers did not abandon repoussé work, but they devoted themselves more and more to the colour ellects of enamel decoration; the richest altar's and chalices, crosses and the caskets which contained crosses or relics, the gold and silver cups and vessels in the houses of the rich, golul embroidered robes, the bindings of books, all shone with cloisonné enamels. The cloisonzé technique was invented in the East, probably in Persia, and though it seems to have been known at Byzantium in the sixth century,' we may ascribe its domestication and the definite abandonment of the old champlevé method to the oriental influences of the ninth. Portable objects with enamel designs, as well as embroidered fabrics,

easily travelled, and were frequently offered by the Emperors to foreign poteulites; they must have performed an appreciablo purt in diffusing in Western Europe the influence of the motives and styles of Byzantine art."

§ 2. Eduation and Learning Among the traditions which the Empire inherited from antiquity, one of the most conspicuous, but not perhaps duly estimated in its importance as a social frict, was higher education. The children of the well-to-do class, from which the superior administrative officials of the State were mainly drawn, were taught ancient Greek, and gained some acquaintance at least with some of the works of the great classical writers. Illiterateness was it reproach among reputable people; and the possession of literary education by laymen generally and women was a deep-reaching distinction between Byzantine civilisation and the barbarons West, where the field of letters was monopolized by icclesiastics. It constituted one of the most indisputable claims of Byzantium to superiority, and it had an important social result. In the West the cleavage between the ecclesiastical and lay classes was widened and deepened by the fact that the distinction between them coincided with the distinction between learned ind ignorant. In the East there were as many learned laymen as learned monks and priests; and even in divinity the layman was not helplessly at the merey of the priest, for his clucation included some smuttering of theology. The Patriarchs Tarasius and Nicephorus must bave incquired, before they were suddenly moved into the spiritual order, no contemptible knowlulye of theology; and Photius, its at laymil, was a theological expert. Thus lnyman and cleric of the better classes met on common ground; thero was no pregnant significance in the world clerk; and ecclesiastics never obtained the influence, or played the part, in administra

The !

tion and politics which their virtually exclusive possession of letters procured for them in Western Europe.

The circumstance, however it may be expluined, thut the period from the Saracen invasion in the reign of Heraclius to the beginning of the ninth century is sterile in literary productions, must not be suffered to obscure the fact that the truditions of literary education were not interrupted. There rose no men of eminent secular learning; the Emperors did not encourage it; but Homer did not cease to be read. The ninth century witnessed a remarkable revival of learning and philosophy, and it is highly probable that at Constantinople this intellectual movement stimulated general education, improvel its standards, and heightened its value in public opinion. It is to be noticed that our oldest Byzantine manuscripts of classical writers date from this century, the age of Photius, who stands ont, not only above all his contemporaries, but above all the Greeks of the Middle Ages, as it scholar of encyclopaedic erudition.

It is, however, in the field of philosophy and science, more definitely than in that of literature and rhetoric, that we can speak of a revival of learning at this period.' During the reign of Michael III, there were three eminent teachers of philosophy at Constantinoplo-Photius himself, Constantine who became the apostle of the Slavs, and Leo the mathematician. Both Leo and Constantine were official professors, endowed by the State, and the interest taken by the Court in science and learning is perhaps the greatest title of the Amorian dynasty to importance in the history of Byzantine civilisation. Since the age of Theophilus and Bardns, although some generations were not as fruitful as others, there was no interruption, no dark periou, in the literary activity of the Grecks, till the final fall of Constantinople.

Theophilus was a man of culture, and is said to have been taught by John, whom he afterwards raised to the patriarchal throne, and who possessed considerable attainments in science and philosophy. His intimacy with the learned Methodius is also a sign of his interest in speculation. Ho seems to have realized what had not occurred to his pre

decessors, that it beloved a proud centre of civilisation like Byzantium to dissert and maintain pre-eminence in the intellectual as well as in other spheres. Hitherto it had been taken for granted that all the learning of the world was contained within the boundaries of the Empire, and that the Greeks and Romans alone possessed the vessel of knowledge. Nobody thought of asking, Have we any great savants among ns, or is learning on the decline? But the strenuous cultivation of scientific studies at Baghdad under the auspices of Harun and Maimun, and the repute which the Caliphs were winning ils patrons of learning and literature, awakened a feeling at the Byzantine court that the Greeks must not surrender their pre-eminence in intellectual culture, the more so as it was from the old Greek masters that in many branches of science the Saracens were learning. If the reports of the mignificance of the places of Baghdad stimulated Theophilus to the construction of wonderful buildings int il new style int Constantinople, we may believe that Mumun's example bronght home to liim the ideil thut it was a ruler's duty to foster learning. We need not acept the story of the career of Leo, the philosopher and mathematician, iis literally exact in all its details, but it probably omboilies, in the form of an anecdote, the truth that the intuence of suggestion was exercised by the court of Baghdad upon that of Byzantium.

Lao wais il cousin of John the l'atriarch. He had studied grammar and poetry at Constantinople, but it was in the island of Andros that he discovered in learned teacher who imado him proficient in philosophy and mathematics.'

Juving visited many mona hic libraries, for the purpose of consulting and purchasing boks, he returned to Constantinople, where he lived poorly in it cheap lodging, supporting himself by teaching lis pupils were generally muccessful. One, to whom he had taught geometry, was employed as a secretary lwy it strictagos, whom he accompanied in a campaign in the Eust. lle was taken prisoner and became the slave of 1 Surncen, who must have been a man of some importance at Baghdad and treated him well. One day his master's conversation turned

on the Caliph, and he mentioned Mamuu's interest in geometry. · I should like," said the Greek youth, “to hear him and his masters discourse on the subject." The presence in Bayhdud

” of a Greek slave who professed to understand geometry came to the ears of Mamua, who eagerly summoned him to the Palace. He was confronted with the Saracen geometers. They described squares and triangles ; they displayed a most accurate acquaintance with the nomenclature of Euclid; but they showed no comprehension of geometrical reasoning. At their request, he gave them a demonstration, and they inquired

, in amazement how many suvants of such a quality Constanti. nople possessed Many disciples like myself” was the reply, “ but not masters." “ Is your master still alive ?" they asked. “ Yes, but he lives in poverty and obscurity.” Then Mamun wrote a letter to Leo, inviting him to come to Baghdad, offering him rich rewarıls, ilud promising that the Sur.cens would bow their hands to his lourning. The youth, to whom gifts and honours and permission to return to his country were promised if he succeeded in his mission, was dispatched as ambassudor to Leo. The philosopher discreetly showed the Calipli's letter to Theoktistos, the Logothete of the Course, who cominunicated tho matter to the Emperor. Ry this means Leo was discovered, and his value was appreciated. Theophilus gave him a salary and established him as a public teacher, at the Church of the Forty Martyrs, betweon the Augusteon and the Forum of Constantine.'

Mamun is snid to have afterwards corresponded with Leo, submitting to him a number of geonietrical and ustronomical problems. The solutions which he received rendered the Caliph moro illixious than ever to welcome the eminent mathematician at his court, and he wrote to Theophilus bogging him to send Leo to Baghdad for a short time, ils an act of friendship, and offering in return eternal penco and 2000 pounds of gold (£86,400). But the Emperor, trenting science as if it were il secret to be guarded like the manufacture of Greek tire, and deeming it bad policy to enlighten

I In the Middle St. near the Forum of Constantine (op. Theoph. 267, and Putrin, 2334). Acc. to Simeon (litel. Geory. 806), Theophilus established him in the place of Magmula ; but Cont.

Th. 189 lins evidently more preciso information. In the following reign, Leo did tuach in the Maynura; see below.