Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/100

 yS CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. received a new impulse from the unity of the government of the new — that is, the Byzantine — Roman Empire over the whole civilized world. Then came Christianity, which bor- rowed from Hellenism its language, and also contributed to spread the influence of Greek letters and Greek culture beyond the limits which geography would have assigned. In the end the Greek language was spoken as far as the Danube on the north and Armenia and the Eu- phratus on the east; and all these Greek-speak- ing countries gradually united into a sort of a mixed world, which constituted the Byzantine Empire. Until recently the Byzantine era was the least known and the most obscure in the field of his- torical study. When the Greeks, by a heroic struggle lasting seven years (from 1821 to 1828), had regained their independence from Turkish bondage they received the full and enthusiastic sympathy of the civilized world. Nevertheless, the history of the Byzantines, of their Greek and Christian state of over a thousand years of existence, was still treated with great injustice, exaggerated severity, and contempt. To the popular imagination the Byzantine