THE BYZANTINES, NEO-PERSIANS, AND SCYTHIANS.
The life of the Byzantines was a reflection of that of Rome. For, though the Eastern division of the Roman empire survived by a thousand years the overthrow of the Western, it can hardly be said to have developed a special or distinctive culture. The newly-founded empire of Constantine possesses the undeniable merit of having restrained the hordes of Asia, which were eagerly pushing forward, until the West had grown strong enough to defend itself. But that is a fact which belongs to history proper, and not to the History of Culture. It possessed, indeed, sufficient vitality to furnish to the Slavonic states which gradually sprang up in its vicinity a form of national development not undeserving of the name of culture, but one that has had no influence upon the great march of human civilization. The Byzantines, indeed, preserved many traditions of classic antiquity which had become extinct in Rome itself, and imparted them to Western Europe when the latter had ripened into capacity to utilize them, and so served the purpose of an important medi atorship; but it added little of its own to them. And what it did impart was, as we shall note, not so valuable as men have been inclined to esteem it.
Decline of the removal of the capital from Rome to Con stantinople was perhaps justifiable as a political measure, but it gave a death-blow to all that was essentially Roman in character. Asiatic influ ence, which had already made itself felt, became predominant. The Semitic life stifled the Indo-Germanic, and to this process Christianity lent only its name. The introduction of Christianity, which had existed in its true form in the Catacombs, was, in fact, but the popularization of the old schools of philosophy, in which, instead of the Neo-Platonic and other doctrines, so-called " Christian dogmas" were taught. The subject alone was changed; the mode of treatment remained one-sided and ration alistic as before.
Paganism, which had not been wholly expelled from the popular mind, enjoyed once more, before its final extirpation, the triumph of looking clown with pity and scorn upon the new religion of the state.
The combats of gladiators and of wild beasts were indeed abolished, but the taste for them remained. The partisans of the Circus and the Church butchered one another as ferociously as had the former gladiators, so that the pagan Ammianus could say with truth that the Christians had never been attacked by wild beasts as fiercely as by their fellow-Christians.
The priesthood established by Constantine began almost from the moment of its creation to struggle for supremacy in the state; and if the contest which was then brought about was less significant than the cor responding one in the West, it was because in the East interests alone were at stake, and principles were no longer concerned.
The ensuing decline was not at once perceptible. The Byzantines continued yet to develop a special style of architecture, though it was almost entirely confined to their own country, and their plastic art and painting only gradually lost their noble Greek forms in that stiffness which we specifically term " the Byzantine style." Noteworthy phe nomena present themselves also in other fields of intellectual achieve ment, but, on the whole, active and creative life was extinct.
costume must have undergone many changes during the long period of a thousand years. A glance at it will suffice us, so that we may learn the final stage of development of the Roman dress. Plate 34 exhibits the court-attire of the sixth century A. D. The cloak fastened on the right shoulder predominates. On the emperor (fig. 1) and the chief courtiers (fig. 2) it resembles a long gown. The under garment is a girded tunic with long, closely-fitting sleeves. The guards (fig. 3) wear tight trousers which extend to the feet and are sewed to soles that cover the heels and toes. For greater freedom of movement they wear a short-sleeved upper-garment like the tunic, except that it is not girded. The cloaks of the officials are marked with the clavus, a square piece of purple cloth which served as a mark of rank.