Byzantine Literature

BYZANTINE LITERATURE By "Byzantine literature" is generally meant the literature, written in Greek, of the so-called Byzantine period. There is no justification whatever for the inclusion of Latin works of the time of the East Roman empire. The close of the Byzantine period is clearly marked by the year 1453, at which date, with the fall of the Eastern empire, the peculiar culture and literary life of the Byzantines came to an end. It is only as regards the beginning of the Byzantine period that any doubts exist. There are no sufficient grounds for dating it from Justinian, as was formerly often done. In surveying the whole development of the political, ecclesiastical and literary life and of the general culture of the Roman empire, and particularly of its eastern portion, we arrive, on the contrary, at the conclusion that the actual date of the beginning of this new era—i.e., the Christian-Byzantine, in contradistinction to the Pagan-Greek and Pagan-Roman—falls within the reign of Con stantine the Great.

The reign of Constantine the Great undoubtedly marks the be ginning of a new period in the most important spheres of na tional life, but it is equally certain that in most of them ancient tradition long continued to exercise an influence. Sudden breaches of continuity are less common in the general culture and literary life of the world than in its political or ecclesiastical development. This is true of the transition from pagan antiquity to the Chris tian middle ages. Many centuries passed before the final victory of the new religious ideas and the new spirit in public and private intellectual and moral life. The last noteworthy remnants of paganism disappeared as late as the 6th and 7th centuries. The last great educational establishment which rested upon pagan foundations—the University of Athens—was not abolished till A.D. 529. The Hellenizing of the seat of empire and of the State, which was essential to the independent development of Byzantine literature proceeds yet more slowly. The first purely Greek em peror was Tiberius II. ; but the complete Hellenizing of the character of the State had not been accomplished until the 7th century.

In order to estimate rightly the character of Byzantine litera ture and its distinctive peculiarities, in contradistinction to an cient Greek, it is imperative to examine the great difference be tween the civilizations that produced them. The Byzantine did not possess the homogeneous, organically constructed system of the ancient civilization, but was the outcome of an amalgamation of which Hellenism formed the basis. For, although the Latin character of the empire was at first completely retained, even after its final division in 395, yet the dominant position of Greek in the Eastern empire gradually led to the Hellenizing of the State.

In spite of the dominant position of Greek in the Eastern em pire, a linguistic and national uniformity such as formed the foundation of the old Latin Imperium Romanum never existed there. It might have been expected that the Hellenizing of the political system of the Eastern empire would have likewise en tailed the Hellenizing of the non-Greek portions of the empire. Such, however, was not the case ; for all the conditions precedent to such a development were wanting. The Greeks did not possess that enormous political energy and force which enabled the Ro mans to assimilate foreign races, and moreover they were con fronted by sturdy Oriental, mostly Semitic, peoples, who were by no means so easy to subjugate as were the racially related inhabi tants of Gaul and Spain.

The influence of Greek culture then, was very slight ; how little indeed it penetrated into the Oriental mind is shown by the fact that, after the violent Arab invasion in the south-east corner of the Mediterranean, the Copts and Syrians were able to retain their language and their national characteristics, while Greek cul ture almost completely disappeared. The one great instance of assimilation of foreign nationalities by the Greeks is the Hellen izing of the Slays, who from the 6th century had migrated into central Greece and the Peloponnese. All other non-Greek tribes of any importance which came, whether for longer or for shorter periods, within the sphere of the Eastern empire and its civiliza tion—such as the Copts, Syrians, Armenians, Georgians, Ruma nians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians—one and all retained their nationality and language. The complete Latinizing of the West has accordingly no counterpart in a similar Hellenizing of the East.

Though the character of Byzantine culture is mainly Greek, and Byzantine literature is attached by countless threads to an cient Greek literature, yet the Roman element forms a very essen tial part of it. The whole political character of the Byzantine em pire is, despite its Greek form and colouring, genuinely Roman. Legislation and administration, the military and naval traditions, are old Roman work, and as such, apart from immaterial altera tions, they continued to exist and operate, even when the State in head and limbs had become Greek. Rhomaioi was the most com mon popular term for Greeks during the Turkish period, and re mains so still. The old glorious name "Hellene" was used under the empire and even during the middle ages in a contemptuous sense "Heathen"—and has only in quite modern times, on the forma tion of the kingdom of "Hellas," been artificially revived. The vast organization of the Roman political system could not but exercise in various ways a profound influence upon Byzantine civilization ; and it often seemed as if Roman political principles had educated and nerved the unpolitical people to great political enterprise. The Roman influence has left distinct traces in the Greek language; Greek of the Byzantine and modern period is rich in Latin terms for conceptions connected with the departments of justice, administration and the imperial court.

Oriental Influences.

But by far the most momentous and radical change wrought on the old Hellenism was effected by Chris tianity; and yet the transition was, in fact, by no means so abrupt as one might be led to believe by comparing the Pagan-Hellenic culture of Plato's day with the Christian-Byzantine of the time of Justinian. For the path had been most effectually prepared for the new religion by the crumbling away of the ancient belief in the gods, by the humane doctrine of the Stoics, and, finally, by the mystic intellectual tendencies of Neoplatonism. Moreover, in many respects Christianity met paganism halfway by adapting it self to popular usages and ideas and by adopting important parts of the pagan literature. The whole educational system especially, even in Christian times, was in a very remarkable manner based almost entirely on the methods and material inherited from paganism. Next to the influences of Rome and of Christianity, that of the East was of importance in developing the Byzantine civilization, and in lending Byzantine literature its distinctive character. Much that was Oriental in the Eastern empire dates back to ancient times, notably to the period of Alexander the Great and his successors. In Egypt, Palestine and Syria, in Asia Minor as far inland as Mesopotamia, Greek and Oriental char acteristics were often blended. In respect to the wealth and the long duration of its Greek intellectual life, Egypt stands supreme. It covers a period of nearly i,000 years from the foundation of Alexandria down to the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs (A.D. 643) . The soil of Egypt proved itself especially productive of Greek literature under the Cross (Origen, Athanasius, Arius, Synesius), in the same way as the soil of North Africa was pro ductive of Latin literature (Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Augustine). Monastic life, which is one of the chief characteristic elements of Christian-Byzantine civilization, had its birth in Egypt.

Syria and Palestine came under the influence of Greek civiliza tion at a later date than Egypt. In these, Greek literature and cul ture attained their highest development between the 3rd and the 8th centuries of the Christian era. Antioch rose to great influence, owing at first to its pagan school of rhetoric and later to its Chris tian school of exegesis. Gaza was renowned for its school of rhetoric ; Berytus for its academy of law. It is no mere accident that sacred poetry, aesthetically the most valuable class of Byzan tine literature, was born in Syria and Palestine. In Asia Minor, the cities of Tarsus, Caesarea, Nicaea, Smyrna, Ephesus, Nicopo lis, etc., were all influential centres of Greek culture and literature. For instance, the three great fathers of Cappadocia, Basil, Greg ory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, all belonged to Asia Minor. If all the greater Greek authors of the first eight cen turies of the Christian era, i.e., the period of the complete devel opment of Byzantine culture, be classified according to the coun tries of their birth, the significant fact becomes evident that nine-tenths come from the African and Asiatic districts, which were for the most part opened up only after Alexander the Great, and only one-tenth from European Greece. The whole literature of Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor cannot, despite its international and cosmopolitan character, disavow the influence of the Oriental soil on which it was nourished. Yet the growth of too strong a local colouring in its literature was repressed, partly by the checks imposed by ancient Greek tradition, partly by the spirit of Chris tianity which reconciled all national distinctions. Even more clearly and unmistakably is Oriental influence shown in the prov ince of Byzantine art, as Joseph Strzygowski has conclusively proved.

Language.

The greater portion of the Greek literature from the close of ancient times down to the threshold of modern history was written in a language identical in its principal features with the common literary language, the so-called Koine, which had its origin in the Alexandrian age. This is the literary form of Greek as a universal language, though a form that scintillates with many facets, from an almost Attic diction down to one that approaches the language of everyday life such as we have, for instance, in the New Testament. From what has been already said, it follows that this stable literary language cannot always have remained a lan guage of ordinary life. For, like every living tongue, the vernacular Greek continually changed in pronunciation and form, as well as in vocabulary and grammar, and thus the living language surely and gradually separated itself from the rigid written language. This progressive tendency might well have led, in the I i th and I 2th centuries, to the founding in the Greek vernacular of a new literary language similar to the promising national languages and literature which, at that period, in the Romance countries, developed out of the despised popular idiom. In the case of the Byzantines, unfortunately, such a radical change never took place. All attempts in the direction of a popular reform of the literary language, which were occasionally made in the period from the 6th to the 1 oth centuries, were in turn extinguished by the resus citation of classical studies, a movement which, begun in the 9th century by Photius and continued in the i ith by Psellus, attained its full development under the Comneni and the Palaeologi. Thus the language of the Byzantine writers of the i i th–i 5th centuries is almost Old Greek in colour ; artificially learnt by grammar, lexi con and assiduous reading, it followed Attic models more and more slavishly; to such an extent that, in determining the date of works, the paradoxical principle holds good that the more ancient the language the more recent the author.

Owing to the artificial return to ancient Greek, the contrast that had long existed with the vernacular was now for the first time fully revealed. The gulf between the two forms of language could no longer be bridged; and this fact found its expression in literature also. While the vulgarizing authors of the 6th–i oth centuries, like the Latin-writing Franks (such as Gregory of Tours), still attempted a compromise between the language of the schools and that of conversation, we meet after the 12th century with authors who freely and naturally employed the vernacular in their literary works. They accordingly form the Greek counterpart of the oldest writers in French and other Romance languages. That they could not succeed like their Roman colleagues, and always remained the pariahs of Greek literature, is due to the all-powerful philological-antiquarian ten dency which existed under the Comneni and the Palaeologi. Yet once more did the vernacular attempt to assert its literary rights, i.e., in Crete and some other islands in the 16th and 17th cen turies. Though for the time being foiled by the classical reaction of the 19th century, the vernacular seems destined to gain the upper hand at all events in literature of an imaginative character.

The whole Byzantine intellectual life, like that of the Western mediaeval period, is dominated by theological interests. Theology accordingly, in literature too, occupies the chief place, in regard to both quantity and quality. Next to it comes the writing of his tory, which the Byzantines cultivated with great conscientiousness until after the fall of the empire. All other kinds of prose writing, e.g., in geography, philosophy, rhetoric and the technical sciences, were comparatively neglected, and such works are of value for the most part only in so far as they preserve and interpret old mate rial. In poetry, again, theology takes the lead. The poetry of the Church produced works of high aesthetic merit and enduring value. In secular poetry, the writing of epigrams especially was cultivated with assiduity and often with ability. In popular litera ture poetry predominates, and many productions worthy of notice, new both in matter and in form, are met with here.

Theology.

The great classical period of Greek theological lit erature is that of the 4th century. Various factors contributed to this result—some of them positive, particularly the establishment of Christianity as the official religion and the protection accorded to it by the State; others negative, i.e., the heretical movements, especially Arianism, which at this period arose in the east of the empire and threatened the unity of the doctrine and organization of the Church. It was chiefly against these that the subtle Athan asius of Alexandria directed his attacks. The learned Eusebius founded a new department of literature, church history. In Egypt, Antonius (St. Anthony) founded the Greek monastic sys tem; Synesius of Cyrene, like his greater contemporary Augustine in the West, represents both in his life and in his writings the difficult transition from Plato to Christ. At the centre, in the fore front of the great intellectual movement of this century, stand the three great Cappadocians, Basil the Great, the subtle dogmatist, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, the philosophically trained de fender of the Christian faith, and Gregory of Nazianzus, the dis tinguished orator and poet. Closely allied to them was St. Chrysos torn, the courageous champion of ecclesiastical liberty and of moral purity. To modern readers the greater part of this litera ture appears strange and foreign ; but, in order to be appreciated rightly, it must be regarded as the outcome of the period in which it was produced, a period stirred to its depths by religious emotions.

The glorious bloom of the 4th century was followed by a perceptible decay in theological intellectual activity. Independent production was in succeeding centuries almost solely prompted by divergent dogmatical views and heresies, for the refutation of which orthodox authors were impelled to take up the pen. In the 5th and 6th centuries a more copious literature was called into existence by the Monophysites, who maintained that there was but one nature in Christ ; in the 7th century by the Monothe lites, who acknowledged but one will in Christ ; in the 8th century by the Iconoclasts and by the new teaching of Mohammed. One very eminent theologian, whose importance it has been reserved for modern times to estimate aright—Leontius of Byzantium (6th century)—was the first to introduce Aristotelian definitions into theology, and may thus be called the first scholastic. In his works he attacked the heretics of his age, particularly the Monophysites, who were also assailed by his contemporary Ana stasius of Antioch. The last great heresy, which shook the Greek Church to its very foundations, the Iconoclast movement, sum moned to the fray the last great Greek theologian, John of Damas cus (Johannes Damascenes). Yet his chief merit lies not so much in his polemical speeches against the Iconoclasts, and in his much admired but over-refined poetry, as in his great dogmatic work, The Fountain of Knowledge, which contains the first compre hensive exposition of Christian dogma.

Among theologians after John of Damascus must be mentioned: the emperor Leo VI., the Wise (886-911), who wrote numerous homilies and church hymns, and Theodorus of Studium 826), who in his numerous writings affords us instructive glimpses of monastic life. Pre-eminent stands the figure of the patriarch Photius. Yet his importance consists less in his writings, which often, to a remarkable extent, lack independence of thought and judgment, than in his activity as a prince of the Church. For he it was who carried the differences which had already repeatedly arisen between Rome and Constantinople to a point at which reconciliation was impossible, and was mainly instrumental in preparing the way for the separation of the Greek and Latin Churches accomplished in 1054 under the patriarch Michael Cerularius. All literature, including theology, experienced a con siderable revival under the Comneni. In the reign of Alexius I. Comnenus Euthymius Zigabenus wrote his great dogmatic work, the Dogmatic Panoply, which, like The Fountain of Knowledge of John of Damascus in earlier times, was partly positive, furnishing an armoury of theology, partly negative and directed against the sects. To the writings against ancient heresies were next added a flood of tracts, of all shapes and sizes, "against the Latins," i.e., against the Roman Church, and among their authors must also be enumerated an emperor, the gifted Theodore II. Lascaris (1254-58). For the greatest Byzantine "apologia" against Islamism we are indebted to another emperor, Manuel II. Palaeologus (1391-1425), who by learned discussions tried to make up for the deficiency in martial prowess shown by the Byzan tines in their struggle with the Turks. On the whole, theological literature was in the last century of the empire almost completely occupied with the struggles for and against the union with Rome. Considering the supremacy of the theological party in Byzantium, it was but natural that religious considerations should gain the day over political ; and this was the view almost universally held by the Byzantines in the later centuries of the empire ; in the words of the chronicler Ducas: "it is better to fall into the hands of the Turks than into those of the Franks." Hagiography.—Hagiography, i.e., the literature of the acts of the martyrs and the lives of the saints, forms an independent group and one comparatively unaffected by dogmatic struggles. The main interest centres here round the objects described, the personalities of the martyrs and saints themselves. The authors, on the other hand—the Acts of the Martyrs are mostly anony mous—keep more in the background than in other branches of literature. The man whose name is mainly identified with Greek hagiography, Symeon Metaphrastes, is important not as an original author, but only as an editor. Symeon revised in the loth century, according to the rhetorical and linguistic principles of his day, numerous old Acts of the Martyrs, and incorporated them in a collection consisting of several volumes, which was cir culated in innumerable copies, and thus to a great extent super seded the older original texts. These Acts of the Martyrs, in point of time, are anterior to our period ; but of the Lives of Saints the greater portion belong to Byzantine literature. From the popular Lives of Saints, which for the reading public of the middle ages formed the chief substitute for modern "belles let tres," it is easy to trace the transition to the religious novel. The most famous work of this class is the history of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT (q.v.).

Religious Poetry.

The religious poetry of the Greeks pri marily suffered from the influence of the ancient Greek form, which was fatal to original development. The oldest work of this class is the hymn, composed in anapaestic monometers and dimeters, which was handed down in the manuscripts with the Paedagogus of Clement of Alexandria (d. about 215), but was probably not his work. The next piece of this class is the famous "Maidens' Song" in the Banquet of St. Methodius (d. about 31 1), in which many striking violations of the old rules of quan tity are already apparent. More faithful to the tradition of the schools was Gregory of Nazianzus. But, owing to the fact that he generally employed antiquated versification and very erudite language, his poems failed to reach the people or to find a place in the services of the church. It became more and more patent that, with the archaic metre which was out of keeping with the character of the living language, no genuine poetry suited to the age could possibly be produced. Fortunately, an entirely new form of poetical art was discovered, which conferred upon the Greek people the blessings of an intelligible religious poetry—the rhythmic poem. This no longer depended on difference of quantity in the syllables, which had disappeared from the living language, but on the accent. Yet the transition was not affected by the sub stitution of accent for the old long syllables ; the ancient verse form was entirely abandoned, and in its stead new and variously constructed lines and strophes were formed. In the history of the rhythmic sacred poetry three periods are clearly marked— the preparatory period; that of the hymns; and that of the Canones. About the first period we know, unfortunately, com paratively little. It appears that in it church music was in the main confined to the insertion of short songs between the Psalms or other portions of Holy Writ and the acclamations of the con gregation. The oldest rhythmic songs date from Gregory of Nazianzus—his "Maidens' Song" and his "Evening Hymn." Church poetry reached its highest expression in the second period, in the grand development of the hymns, i.e., lengthy songs com prising from ao to 3o similarly constructed strophes, each con nected with the next in acrostic fashion. Hymnology, again, at tained its highest perfection in the first half of the 6th century with Romanos, who in the great number and excellence of his hymns dominated this species of poetry, as Homer did the Greek epic. From this period dates, moreover, the most famous song of the Greek Church, the so-called Acathistus, an anonymous hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary, which has sometimes, but errone ously, been attributed to the patriarch Sergius.

Church poetry entered upon a new stage, characterized by an increase in artistic finish and a falling off in poetical vigour, with the composition of the Canones, songs artfully built up out of eight or nine lyrics, all differently constructed. Andreas, arch bishop of Crete (c. 650-72o), is regarded as the inventor of this new class of song. His chief work, "the great Canon," comprises no fewer than 25o strophes. The most celebrated writers of Canones are John of Damascus and Cosmas of Jerusalem, both of whom flourished in the first half of the 8th century. Later, sacred poetry was more particularly cultivated in the monastery of the Studium at Constantinople by the abbot Theodorus and others. As regards the rhythmic church poetry, it may now be regarded as certain that its origin was in the East. Old Hebrew and Syrian models mainly stimulated it, and Romanos (q.v.) was especially influenced by the metrical homilies of the great Syrian father Ephraem (d. about 373).

History.

In profane literature the writing of history takes the first place, as regards both form and substance. In the Byzan tine period all historical accounts fall under one of two groups, entirely different, both in form and in matter, (I) historical works, the authors of which described, as did most historians of ancient times, a period of history in which they themselves had lived and moved, or one which only immediately preceded their own times; and (2) chronicles, shortly recapitulating the history of the world. This latter class has no exact counterpart in ancient literature. The most clearly marked stage in the development of a Christian-Byzantine universal history was the chronicle (un fortunately lost) written by the Hellenized Jew, Justus of Ti berias, at the beginning of the and century of the Christian era; this work began with the story of Moses.

Byzantine histories of contemporary events do not differ sub stantially from ancient historical works, except in their Christian colouring. Yet even this is often very faint and blurred owing to close adherence to ancient methods. Apart from this, neither a new style nor a new critical method nor any radically new views appreciably altered the main character of Byzantine histori ography.

The outstripping of the Latin West by the Greek East, which after the close of the 4th century was a self-evident fact, is reflected in historiography also. After Constantine the Great, the history of the empire, although its Latin character was main tained until the 6th century, was mostly written by Greeks: e.g., Eunapius (c. 400), Olympiodorus (c. 450), Priscus (c. 450), Malchus (c. 490), and Zosimus, the last pagan historian (c. zoo), all of whom, with the exception of Zosimus, are unfortunately preserved to us only in fragments. Historiography received a great impulse in the 6th century. The powerful Procopius and Agathias (q.v.), tinged with poetical rhetoric, described the stir ring and eventful times of Justinian, while Theophanes of Byzan tium, Menander Protector, Johannes of Epiphaneia and Theo phylactus of Simocatta described the second half of the 6th century. Towards the close of the 6th century also flourished the last independent ecclesiastical historian, Evagrius, who wrote the history of the church from 431 to 593. There now followed, however, a lamentable falling off in production. From the 7th to the loth century the historical side is represented by a few chronicles, and it was not until the loth century that, owing to the revival of ancient classical studies, the art of writing history showed some signs of life. Several historical works are associated with the name of the emperor Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus. To his learned circle belonged also Joseph Genesius, who at the emperor's instance compiled the history of the period from 813 to 886. A little work, interesting from the point of view of historical and ethnographical science, is the account of the taking of Thessalonica by the Cretan Corsairs (A.D. 904), which a priest, Johannes Cameniata, an eyewitness of the event, has bequeathed to posterity. There is also contained in the excellent work of Leo Diaconus (on the period from 959 to 975) a graphic account of the bloody wars of the Byzantines with the Arabs in Crete and with the Bulgarians. A continuation was undertaken by the philosopher Michael Psellus in a work covering the period from 976 to 1077. A valuable supplement to the latter (describing the period from 1034 to 1079) was supplied by the jurist Michael Attaliata. The history of the Eastern empire during the Crusades was written in four considerable works, by Nicephorus Bryennius, his learned consort Anna Comnena, the "honest Aetolian," J ohan nes Cinnamus, and finally by Nicetas Acominatus in an exhaustive work which is authoritative for the history of the 4th Crusade. The melancholy conditions and the ever increasing decay of the empire under the Palaeologi (13th-15th centuries) are described in the same lofty style, though with a still closer following of classical models. The events which took place between the tak ing of Constantinople, by the Latins and the restoration of By zantine rule (1203-61) are recounted by Georgius Acropolita, who emphasizes his own share in them. The succeeding period was written by the versatile Georgius Pachymeres, the erudite and high-principled Nicephorus Gregoras, and the emperor John VI. Cantacuzenus. Lastly, the death-struggle between the East Roman empire and the mighty rising power of the Ottomans was narrated by three historians, all differing in culture and in style, Laonicus Chalcocondyles, Ducas and Georgius Phrantzes. With them may be classed a fourth (though he lived outside the By zantine period), Critobulus, a high-born Greek of Imbros, who wrote, in the style of the age of Pericles, the history of the times of the sultan Mohammed II. (down to 1467) .

Chronieles.

The essential importance of the Byzantine chro nicles (mostly chronicles of the history of the world from the Creation) consists in the fact that they in part replace older lost works, and thus fill up many gaps in our historical survey (e.g., for the period from about 600 to Boo, of which very few records remain). They lay no claim to literary merit, but are often serviceable for the history of language. Many such chronicles were furnished with illustrations. The authors of the chronicles were mostly monks, who wished to compile handbooks of uni versal history for their brethren and for pious laymen ; and this explains the strong clerical and popular tendency of these works. And it is due to these two qualities that the chronicles obtained a circulation abroad, both in the West and also among the peoples Christianized from Byzantium, e.g., the Slays, and in all of them sowed the seeds of an indigenous historical literature. Thus the chronicles, despite the jejuneness of their style and their uncritical treatment of material, were for the general culture of the middle ages of far greater importance than the erudite contemporary histories designed only for the highly educated circles in Byzan tium. The oldest Byzantine chronicle of universal history pre served to us is that of Malalas (6th century), which is also the purest type of this class of literature. In the 7th century was completed the famous Easter or Paschal Chronicle (Chronicon Paschale). About the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century Georgius Syncellus compiled a concise chronicle, which began with the Creation and was continued down to the year 284. At the request of the author, when on his death-bed, the con tinuation of this work was undertaken by Theophanes Confessor, who brought down the account from A.D. 284 to his own times (A.D. 813) . This exceedingly valuable work of Theophanes was again continued (from 813-961) by several anonymous chro niclers. Of great influence on the age that followed was Georgius Monachus, only second in importance as chronicler of the early Byzantine period, who compiled a chronicle of the world's history (from Adam until the year 843, the end of the Iconoclast move ment), far more theological and monkish in character than the work of Theophanes. Among later chroniclers Johannes Scylitza stands out conspicuously. His work (covering the period from 811 to 10J7), as regards the range of its subject-matter, is some thing between a universal and a contemporary history. Georgius Cedrenus (c. i loo) embodied the whole of Scylitza's work, almost unaltered, in his Universal Chronicle. In the 12th century the general increase in literary production was evident also in the department of chronicles of the world. From this period dates, for instance, the most distinguished and learned work of this class, the great universal chronicle of John Zonaras. In the same century Michael Glycas compiled his chronicle of the world's history, a work written in the old popular style and designed for the widest circles of readers. Lastly, in the i 2th century, Con stantine Manasses wrote a universal chronicle in the so-called "political" verse.

Only two works dealing with geography and topography need be mentioned, viz., the 6th century Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes which contains important information as to Byzantine trade, and the Ancient History (Patric) of Con stantinople.

Philosophy.

Ancient Greek philosophy under the empire sent forth two new shoots—Neopythagoreanism and Neoplatonism. It was the latter with which moribund paganism essayed to stem the advancing tide of Christianity. The last great exponent of this philosophy was Proclus in Athens (d. 485). The dissolution, by order of Justinian, of the school of philosophy at Athens in 529 was a fatal blow to this nebulous system, which had long since outlived the conditions that made it a living force. In the succeeding period philosophical activity was of two main kinds; on the one hand, the old philosophy, e.g., that of Aristotle, was employed to systematize Christian doctrine, while, on the other, the old works were furnished with copious commentaries and paraphrases. Leontius of Byzantium had already introduced Aristotelian definitions into Christology ; but the real founder of mediaeval ecclesiastical philosophy was John of Damascus. Owing, however, to his having early attained to canonical author ity, the independent progress of ecclesiastical philosophy was arrested ; and to this it is due that in this respect the later By zantine period is far poorer than is the West. In the 11th century philosophical studies experienced a satisfactory revival, mainly owing to Michael Psellus, who brought Plato as well as Aristotle again into fashion.

Ancient rhetoric was cultivated in the Byzantine period with greater ardour than scientific philosophy, being regarded as an indispensable aid to instruction. It would be difficult to imagine anything more tedious than the numerous theoretical writings on the subject and the examples of their practical application. None the less, among the rhetorical productions of the time are to be found a few interesting pieces, such as the Philopatris, in the style of Lucian, which gives us a remarkable picture of the times of Nicephorus Phocas (loth century) . A very charming repre sentative of Byzantine rhetoric is Michael Acominatus, who, in addition to theological works, wrote numerous occasional speeches, letters and poems.

The Sciences.

In the field of scientific production, which can be accounted literature in the modern acceptation of the term only in a limited sense, Byzantium was dominated to an extravagant and even grotesque extent by the rules of what in modern times is termed "classical scholarship." The numerous works which belong to this category, such as grammars, dictionaries, corn mentaries on ancient authors, extracts from ancient literature, and metrical and musical treatises, are of little general interest, al though of great value for special branches of philological study, e.g., for tracing the influences through which the ancient works handed down to us have passed, as well as for their interpretation and emendation; for information about ancient authors now lost ; for the history of education; and for the underlying principles of intellectual life in Byzantium. The most important monurhent of Byzantine philology is, perhaps, the Library of the patriarch Photius. Photius, who in the year 85o was about 3o years of age, set himself with admirable energy to the task of making ancient literature, now for the most part dead and forgotten, known once more to his contemporaries, thus contributing to its pres ervation. He gave an account of all that he read, and in this way composed 28o essays, which were collected in what is com monly known as the Library or Myriobiblon. The character of the individual sketches is somewhat mechanical and formal; a more or less complete account of the contents is followed by critical discussion, which is nearly always confined to the linguistic form. With this work may be compared in importance the great Lexikon of Suidas, which appeared about a century later, a sort of encyclopaedia, of which the main feature was its articles on the history of literature.

The contributions of the Byzantines to jurisprudence, mathe matics and military science can merely be alluded to, as falling outside the domain of literature proper. Under Justinian the Institutes and the Digest were translated into Greek, and the Novels issued in Greek form. Under Leo the Wise and Constan tine VII. Porphyrogenitus (9th and loth centuries) came the great compilations of law known as the Basilica (Ta i3aatXtica). The Canon law was an important contribution of the Byzantines to jurisprudence. Such work as the Byzantines did in mathe matics and astronomy was mainly under Perso-Arabian influence, but their writings on military science are numerous and excellent. That on tactics, associated with the name of Leo VI., the Wise, may be specially mentioned.

Profane Poetry.

Of profane poetry—in complete contrast to sacred poetry—the general characteristic was its close imita tion of the antique in point of form. All works belonging to this category reproduce the ancient style and are framed after ancient models. The metre is, for the most part, either the Byzantine regular i 2-syllable trimeter, or the "political" verse; more rarely the heroic and Anacreontic measures.

Epic popular poetry, in the ancient sense, begins only with the vernacular Greek literature (see below) ; but among the literary works of the period there are several which can be com pared with the epics of the Alexandrine age. Nonnus (c. 400) wrote, while yet a pagan, a fantastic epic on the triumphal pro gress of the god Dionysus to India, and, as a Christian, a volumi nous commentary on the gospel of St. John. In the 7th century, Georgius Pisides sang in several lengthy iambic poems the martial deeds of the emperor Heraclius, while the deacon Theodosius (loth century) immortalized in extravagant language the victories of the brave Nicephorus Phocas.

To these may be added some voluminous poems, which in style and matter must be regarded as imitations of the ancient Greek romances. They all date from the r 2th century, a fact evidently connected with the general revival of culture which characterizes the period of the Comneni. Two of these romances are written in the duodecasyllable metre, viz., the story of Rodanthe and Dosicles by Theodorus Prodromus, and an imitation of this work, the story of Drusilla and Charicles by Nicetas Eugenianus ; one in "political" verse, the love story of Aristander and Callithea by Constantine Manasses, which has only been preserved in frag ments, and lastly one in prose, the story of Hysmine and Hys minias, by Eustathius (or Eumathius) Macrembolita, which is the most insipid of all. These Byzantine romances are of interest chiefly by way of contrast to the romances in the vernacular produced in the i3th and r4th centuries, partly under Eastern, but more particularly under Western influence. The Byzantine are artificial and repulsive ; the popular have the breath of life, and may be regarded as really heralding the rise of true Greek popular poetry.

The objective point of view which dominated the whole Byzantine period was fatal to the development of a profane lyrical poetry. At most a few poems by Johannes Geometres and Christophorus of Mytilene and others, in which personal experi ences are recorded with some show of taste, may be placed in this category. The dominant form for all subjective poetry was the epigram, which was employed in all its variations from playful trifles to long elegiac and narrative poems. Georgius Pisides (7th century) treated the most diverse themes. In the 9th century Theodorus of Studium had lighted upon the happy idea of im mortalizing monastic life in a series of epigrams. The same century produced the only poetess of the Byzantine period, Casia, from whom we have several epigrammatic productions and church hymns, all characterized by originality. Epigrammatic poetry reached its highest development in the loth and r ith centuries, in the productions of Johannes Geometres, Christophorus of Mytilene and John Mauropus. Less happy are Theodorus Pro dromus (i 2th century) and Manuel Philes (r4th century). From the beginning of the loth century also dates the most valuable collection of ancient and of Byzantine epigrammatic poems, the Antliologia Palatina (see ANTHOLOGY).

Dramatic poetry, in the strict sense of the term, was as com pletely lacking among the Byzantine Greeks as was the condition precedent to its existence, namely, public performance. Apart from some moralizing allegorical dialogues (by Theodorus Pro dromus, Manuel Philes and others), we possess only a single work of the Byzantine period that, at least in external form, resembles a drama : the Sufferings of Christ (X purras Ilaaxwv) . This work, written probably in the i 2th century, or at all events not earlier, is a cento, i.e., is in great measure composed of verses culled from ancient writers, e.g., Aeschylus, Euripides and Lyco phron ; but it was certainly not written with a view to dramatic production.

Vernacular Greek Literature.

The vernacular literature stands alone, both in form and in contents. We have here re markable originality of conception and probably also entirely new and genuinely mediaeval matter. While in the artificial literature prose is pre-eminent, in the vernacular literature, poetry, both in quantity and quality, takes the first place, as was also the case among the Latin nations, where the vulgar tongue first invaded the field of poetry and only later that of prose. Though a few pre liminary attempts were made (proverbs, acclamations addressed by the people to the emperor, etc.), the Greek vernacular was employed for larger works only from the i 2th century onwards ; at first in poems, of which the major portion were cast in "politi cal" verse, but some in the trochaic eight-syllabled line. Towards the close of the i 5th century rhyme came into use. The subjects treated in this vernacular poetry are exceedingly diverse. In the capital city a mixture of the learned and the popular language was first used in poems of admonition, praise and supplication. In this oldest class of "vulgar" works must be reckoned the Spaneas, an admonitory poem in imitation of the letter of Pseudo Isocrates addressed to Demonicus; a supplicatory poem composed in prison by the chronicler Michael Glycas, and several begging poems of Theodorus Prodromus (Ptochoprodromos). In the suc ceeding period erotic poems are met with, such as the Rhodian love songs preserved in a ms. in the British Museum (ed. W. Wagner, Leipzig, 1879), fairy-tale-like romances such as the Story of Ptocholeon, etc. Great epic poems, in which antique subjects are treated, such as the legends of Troy and of Alexander, form a separate group. To these may be added romances in verse after the manner of the works written in the artificial classical language, e.g., Callimachus and Chrysorrhoe, Belthandrus and Chrysantza, Lybistrus and Rhodamne, also romances in verse after the West ern pattern, such as Phlorius and Platziaphlora (the old French story of Flore et Blanche fleur) . Curious are also sundry legends connected with animals and plants, such as an adaptation of the famous mediaeval animal fables of the Physiologus, a history of quadrupeds, and a book of birds, both written with a satirical intention, and, lastly, a rendering of the story of Reynard the Fox. Of quite peculiar originality also are several legendary and historical poems, in which famous heroes and historical events are celebrated. There are, for instance, poems on the fall of Con stantinople, the taking of Athens and Trebizond, the devastating campaign of Timur, the plague in Rhodes in 1498, etc. In respect of importance and antiquity the great heroic epic of Digenis Akritas stands pre-eminent. It is not without reason that Die terich finds in this loth century epic the earliest germs of Greek popular poetry as contrasted with the artificial products of By zantinism. The scenes are laid in the eastern marches of the By zantine empire, and the poem has little to do with the capital. The conversion of the Emir indeed betrays Byzantine piety, and there are numerous oriental touches. But the Emir's son, Digenis Akritas, in his feeling for nature and strong family affections has much in common with the Greek pallikar of the klephtic ballads. In these respects the poem may be regarded as the forerunner of such works as the great Cretan national romance, the Eroto kritos and as forecasting much that is best in modern Greek popular poetry.

The importance of Byzantine culture and literature in the history of the world is beyond dispute. The Christians of the East Roman empire guarded for more than i ,000 years the in tellectual heritage of antiquity against the violent onslaught of the barbarians. They also called into life a peculiar mediaeval culture and literature. They communicated the treasures of the old pagan as well as of their own Christian literature to neigh bouring nations ; first to the Syrians, then to the Copts, the Ar menians, the Georgians; later, to the Arabians, the Bulgarians, the Serbs and the Russians. Through their teaching they created a new East European culture, embodied above all in the Russian empire, which, on its religious side, is included in the Orthodox Eastern Church, and from the point of view of nationality touches the two extremes of Greek and Slay. Finally the learned men of the dying Byzantine empire, fleeing from the barbarism of the Turks, transplanted the treasures of old Hellenic wisdom to the West, and thereby fertilized the Western peoples with rich germs of culture.